Great song and glad you got around to doing this one. Before you listen to Cygnus X-II, you need to listen to Cygnus X-I first from A Farwell To Kings since it's the first part of this piece. Also, Very happy the shirts fit and was worried they might shrink up on you after wash. Check out some more stuff off of AFTK first. Peace!

So enjoyed this reaction, people must have been wondering why I was smiling when driving to work this morning! Back in 1982 when I was in high school, we had an assignment in English class to share a song that used personification. The Trees was perfect, plus the teacher and most of the kids in class didn't know who Rush was. The unexpected resolution at the end of the song really surprised my teacher. One of the few A+ grades I received in my messy high school experience!

Please please please you guys! I'm a huge Rush fan from Canada! Saw the band 6 times! Go back many years to listen to The Necromancer!

😷No one can turn a phrase like Neil, NO ONE.❤️🤘🖖✌️🥁🎸🎤🎹😢RIP Professor 1952-2020.

Who else can write a song about trees and have it sound great! RUSH!!

Thank you for preventing him from pausing!! 😂

Cygnus X1 Book II on this album is part 2 of the final song on the previous album. If you’re going to listen to Book II, you need to listen to Book I from A Farewell to Kings first.

Xanadu (Exit stage left version)Between the wheels,Analog kid,Digitlal man and Middletown dreams

You are both looking resplendent in your Rush t-shirts. Welcome to the family! The Trees is weird, strangely moving on an emotional level and ultimately magnificent, standing up to many repeated listens. Of course it is, it's Rush! The middle section and how it builds to the solo is wondrous. Alex's guitar intro and solo are passages of otherworldly beauty. Oh how I love this band...

Don't react to Cygnus X-1 book II until you first react to book I

😚 This my "squealing in delight" face! 😊 I seriously am probably going to enjoy this as much as you guys! 🌲🌳 #LetsBattle #TheTrees 🍿🐰

We played this song in front of 4000 Special Olympic athletes back in 1987 at my college. The most rabid RUSH fans I've ever seen! Too cool for words.

Can’t wait for Cygnus X-1 Book II to finish this album. That song is epitome of Rush and Prog rock. I think it’s better than 2112! Be sure to have the lyrics for it. Great reaction guys! Good luck studying Lex.

Watch it live from Exit stage Left.... While you're at it, review the whole show. (1981) It's followed by the best live performance you'll ever see!!! The song is called Xanadu.... That's a 12 minute journey you're not likely to forget.

Knew you'd love it! I can't walk through the woods without thinking of this song.

Neil Peart used wood blocks during the keyboard interlude in the middle of the song. Definitely a very unique instrument for a rock band for sure.

They’re temple blocks. 😀 Neil was a master.

Awesome reaction! Thank you guys! One of my favorite songs from their 167 song catalog. All these songs you are experiencing from their studio albums are just perfection when you hear them live. Wait until you hear Xanadu from their Exit Stage Left in 1981!

I can't wait for the day you listen (and hopefully watch) the live version of Xanadu from "Exit Stage Left" .....Please.... It is an absolute master-class. Maybe you could record your reaction of this live version, then watch the video afterwards on KZfaq to see their performance, then add your comments having seen the video on the same reaction recording? Hope that makes sense.. Keep up the good work, Rob

Leave it to RUSH to make a rocking song about trees! Can't wait for you to listen to all this great music live! Keep Rocking amigos!!! ✌🏻🤘🏻👍🏻

Know every single word still!! Loved this song back in the day.

Another great reaction. So glad to see you enjoying Rush. Think about Xanadu next. People will tell you to watch the concert video, but I think the album version has its charms too. After the album, defiantly go check out the live version.

Love The Trees. Such a great track....So you like the wood tapping sounds in the middle ? - Then I only got one word to say to you - "Xanadu"

React to Xanadu by Rush! I swear to god you’re gonna love it! Their best song everrr

My only regret is that I have but one "like" button to push. Keep up the great work, Nick N Lex!

Love your shirts. I wear a RUSH shirt everyday......no matter what!!

Glad you"re aboard!!!!Thanks for posting a truly important and relative I think...Human song..

oh Book Ii is absolutely incredible. Hemispheres is amazing!

Loved your reaction as Rush is my Favorite. I CAN"T WAIT TILL YOU DO LIVE RUSH. XANADU, OFF EXIT STAGE LEFT '81 WILL BLOW YOUR MIND. AND YOU WILL GET TO SEE ALL THE MAGIC THAT IS RUSH. I CAN'T WAIT. 😁😁😁💗🤘

Thanks for another great reaction! I think The Trees is probably my favourite of Rush's shorter songs (although Closer to the Heart gives it a run for its money), because so much is packed into a song that's less than 5 minutes long and the central section which builds wonderfully is divine. When you get round to the title track from Hemispheres, you're in for a real treat, as it's my favourite of all Rush songs! Last but not least - just to wish Lex all the best with the remainder of your studies. Given that it's gone on so long, you'll probably be over the moon once you reach the end of it! :)

Wait until you hear The Necromancer from the Caress Of Steel album. It is epic, that's all I'll say.

I loved the message in this song. Substitute people for the trees and you have todays ills and gains. All done in the elective process and without war.

Hey Nick N Lex. Glad you finally got to this song. This is one of my many, many favorite Rush songs. Glad you both enjoyed it and nice shirts. Keep up the good work.

can't wait for Cygnus X-1 Book 2, but you should really react to Book-1 from A Farewell to Kings first as it is a prequel to Book-2

What can I say? Love Rush, love you guys! I could suggest so many, many songs to react to but you'll find your own way my young Padawans.

I know you all are doing Rush originals, but you got to see their live versions! Simply amazing!

Omg I love Trees..... My daycare kids loved it. We would Dance around. I used it to tell the kids we need to save the trees. They are getting killed by hatchet axe and saw!!!!

Hi, Nick & Lex !! This, of course, is what distinguishes RUSH from any other band on the planet; there are few who can emulate such diversity in progression, tempo, or orchestration - especially in such a short piece. The song (as I am sure you've guessed) refers to egalitarianism, where no, one individual has superior right over another - in any endeavour of life; the engineering alone on this track is sublime....& those very exacting strikes by Peart are upon wood blocks - more rigidly held in place than a xylophone scale, so that the intonation is short-lived - almost staccato. So pleased this arrived in my recommendation box....excellent shirts, both (& Mr Mojo) - consummate taste all round....take it easy, Andrew 😉

RUSH is THE PERFECT EXAMPLE of the fluidity of MASTERING TIME SIGNATURES! I play drums and there are a few things that you need to know about Neil Peart’s ( pronounced PEER-T) character: First he writes the lyrics so he knows in advance what TYPE of song it’s meant to be ie ballad, driver, etc. Second he COMPOSES on the drums… like a carpenter who looks at a set of blueprints before building the object. Neil lays out a SKETCH in his mind of the VOICES of the drumset and builds the song from there. He is also a great LISTENER knowing when NOT to step over Geddy’s singing or Alex’s solos! Finally, he had perfect timing and fluidity of time changes. He said himself that it’s not about COUNTING the time signatures as much as fluid motion to change the tempo without counting: in other words it should FLOW! He hates repeating the same drum patterns in the same song meaning if he plays a fill one way the first time around he will play it differently the second time around. IE. Rolls down the toms the first time around and triplets or quads (all four limbs) the second time around. In short there will NEVER be another like him on planet earth 🌍 🌏 🌎! REST IN PEACE PROFESSOR! With heart felt admiration and sincerity! Gary

Please react to Battlescar. It is on the last album that The great Canadian band Max Webster released before they broke up in 1981. It includes all the members of Rush. I saw Rush many times and they where always amazing. Max Webster is the greatest concert I ever saw when I saw their 96 reunion tour

Love the T's, you guys look great, yes I'm jealous. I think I have about 10 T's from their concerts but not those ones. Rush songs never disappoint :) Can't wait to get your reaction on the rest of the album.

Rush was actually the first Concert I ever attended and I was a fan long before I was able to see them in concert. Keep up the great work I love watching you

This is a little bit tongue in cheek from Neil Peart about the Commonwealth. The Oaks are the British and the Maples obviously Canadian. Clever lyrics and wonderful playing

FYI....about the lyrics...straight from the mouth of Neil Peart himself. In an April/May 1980 Modern Drummer magazine article, lyricist and drummer Neil Peart was asked if the song has a deeper meaning. “No.” he said, “It was just a flash. I was working on an entirely different thing when I saw a cartoon picture of these trees carrying on like fools. I thought, ‘What if trees acted like people?’ So I saw it as a cartoon really, and wrote it that way. I think that’s the image that it conjures up to a listener or a reader. A very simple statement.” As food for thought, many have thought there was a deeper meaning to the lyrics...as Peart was a fan of Ayn Rand ...and The Trees certainly reads as an Ayn Rand-ian like message of the evils of collectivism / socialism. Some have hypothesized it could be a metaphoric tale about how people of lesser ability and power ( the Maples) band together and take down those who have it (the Oaks). I could definitely see Neil subtly avoiding the politics in his answer above....even if there was another message for all of us within The Trees. And the trees are all kept equal By hatchet, axe, and saw

I cant wait until you've run the RUSH gauntlet, and can watch the R40 box set over video. It's Euphonious...🤟

K fly by night, or freewill Cheers u 2! Great study vibes sent Lex👩‍🎓

Greatest Rush song ever...

Great reaction as always!! You only have about 40 more years worth of Rush to listen to. 😉

It's called Prog-Rock and it is at its finest

Please react to "Take a Pebble" from Emerson Lake & Palmer's first album. It's a lovely romantic piano master piece.

This was the first Rock album I bought, it blew my mind, this is my favorite short song by them, and such fun to play. In the interlude they rock out in 5/4 time, the picking Alex Lifeson does is so hard to keep on time.

Loved anticipating your “eye pop” reactions...knowing what is coming in this Rush classic!! ❤️😃👍👍🇨🇦🌳‼️

Oh - and you will lose nothing if you listen to the "Exit Stage Left" live version of "Xanadu". You will gain seeing them actually play it all live flawlessly.

Rush was so into Science: Astronomy, Biology ... and Literature and Mythology. Symbolic and so smart. Thanks! 🤪

Hey guys! Loved watching your reaction to this masterpiece! When you said this is so Hemispheres I was like oh just you wait! Buckle up baby in the Rocinante for Cygnus X-1 Book 2! I absolutely cannot wait for that reaction! Please hurry!!!🤣🤣🤣

The shirts look great. I count this one as the first music video I ever saw. In the early days of HBO, they used to play a performance video of "The Trees" between movies. It was my introduction to this great band.

You're amazing in your Rush shirts! Another thing that amaze me is your ability (as for Nick at least) to reproduce the song one the first listening! What's next? A long shot here: " Countdown" :)

Fun reaction, you are in for a treat with Cygnus X1.

Cygnus X-1 Book 2 is their best song imo, it's an incredible epic song

Used to play this in a cover band. Me=drums. Love the 5/4 jam section in the middle and the syncopated snare hits.

Both of you appear to know music theory. Have you checked out Rick Beato's channel? I don't know much about theory, but I enjoy his channel a lot.

I've been waiting for this one. Yes, Rush is like a box of chocolates. Great reaction folks!

Another Rush classic, Thank you so much guys! I LOVE your channel it is one of the 3 that I subscribe to. YES, CLOSE to the Edge! It may be one of the top prog rock songs ever recorded! I promise you both you will love every minute of it!

The trio seems to be showing off as the decade was coming to close. I hadn't heard the TREES in probably a decade. The drumming the lyrics the changes are brilliant . It comes flooding back like a warm wave

Those shirts look GREAT!!! Thanks to Mr. Mojo and the beautiful models! Love Rush ... we ALL win! Thanks so much. 🤪

Hemispheres is a masterpiece.

na na a boo boo I have all the concert shirts from seeing the actual shows (just kidding) your still promotin though !! thanks for doing this song for me guys.

Rush is ******AWESOME******

Awesome guys, another great song by Rush. Now we just need a little more UFO (Rock Bottom Live) & Robin Trower (Bridge of Sighs). Keep on Rocking!

An ode to the Canadian forests..... Thanks Neil...... Memories of Algonquin Park on an August morning in a canoe approaching a portage......

Great reaction y’all!! Love this song!! Some say it’s all about government and Canada vs England and stuff, but Neil once said he saw a cartoon about Trees and thought “ how would trees act if they were like people... I like to think it was that simple... but you know Neil! Good luck on your finals, Lex!! Make sure you do “Cygnus X1 Book 1” ( the last song off “Farewell to Kings” first. Then “Hemispheres” which is Book II! Be well and God Bless... from Texas!

Love how the classic guitar and notes sound like a minstrel is singing this tale !

Always great to see you guys react to Rush! I’ve heard these songs so many times, but watching you appreciate it for the first time makes me feel like I’m rediscovering it also! ¡Mil gracias! I know I sound like a broken record, but please do something from the “Power Windows” album. Grand Designs, Marathon, Territories, or Middletown Dreams. ¡Esperando con ansia!

So good! So good! I love your videos, and I'm partial to Rush, since they raised me throughout my youth and my life. So great watching you enjoy all these great pieces! Thanks for your enjoyment, honesty and your production. Great audio too! Cheers! 👍🎸🥁🎹🤘🏍

You two are just adorable. I love the excitement you show, takes me back 40-something..quit counting..years ago, remembering my first reactions.

Lov'n the tee's guys! Great reaction. I used this song for a television production psa in college. Brings back great memories and is from one of my fav Rush albums. Rock On!

You both are so full of enthusiasm and clearly tell you really enjoyed it, thanks for sharing 👍

Hello! So, right off I have to tell you that I've been a huge Rush fan since I started college and I'm now 65 years old so rhat should give you an idea how long I've enjoyed this band. I find very few people that I meet who even knows about rush so I get my kicks out of rush reaction videos. I've watched many but when I came across you guys reacting to these rush songs, oh my God, you are so enjoyable to watch. You nail everything I love about this band and you do it in a way that makes me smile. I don't even surf for any other reactions anymore. So, thank you for your channel. BTW, its also not lost on me how beautiful alexi is (you're a lucky man Nick) and the way she/you look into the camera and smile just melts my heart. Thank you again.

Love your reactions to Rush! Great to see people discovering this great band!

When you can , this is one of those songs to watch live. Exit Stage Left version is the classic but others are great too...look forward to Hemispheres book 2 the song also!

Great Tshirt!! You should witness the live versions of these terrific jams.. amazing seeing The hard work with live versions!! Great job as always ☺️

Another great pick.. Hope they don't take this one down but some songs are just worth a listen all the way through uninterrupted.

I read the lyrics to this song to my kids as a children's story and we drew pictures to the story complete with signs saying "Lawyers Suck" when the maples formed a union and lumberjacks with chainsaws chasing the trees to keep them all equal

I forgot to mention in my comment that in the instrumental part mid way in the song the trees ,Neil is playing wood blocks in a series( I guess a scale ?)

You guys are so cute in your Rush tee shirts! Lessons where the lyrics were written by Alex Lifeson. Also, I think I am going bald. It has a strange title but it is deeper than you think 😉 Cheers 🇨🇦✌

Love you both! Years ago when I started mountain hiking "The Trees" was one of my favorite hiking songs. If you can't tell already, my username comes from one of my other favorite RUSH songs "The Necromancer". I adopted the username after drummer Neil Peart passed. I wanted to honor the band and Peart's legacy. Would love to see you react to that song as well. It is on the album "Caress of Steel".

Only Rush could make this timeless classic!!

The high pitched percussion notes I believe are wood blocks, although cowbell can sometimes sound similar. I'm sure Neil Peart has a rack of different pitched woodblocks somewhere on his drum kit.

You should definitely react to Xanadu by Rush next! An 11 minute masterpiece

😍 Love the Rush Shirts! 😁 Cool Beans! 🍿🐰

The live version of The Trees from Exit Stage Left will blow you away!! Listen to Broon’s Bane first and it goes right into The Trees…. Just wow…. It’s incredible!

Hey guy's Rick here! Finally had time to see your reaction to Trees. As always great to see that true reaction to a great piece of art. Now you can add it to your personal rotation and enjoy for years to come. Yes, please heed the warnings below about listening to Cygnus X-1 from A Farewell to Kings before listening to Cygnus X-1 book II. You guys are awesome keep it up!

Digging the shirts! Rush on!

I've watched this before, but I had to come back and watch again. I love this song. Hope you're having a great time in Mexico!

This song captured so much of what makes Rush great. In such a short song. Wish i would have kept going. But its a great track! Thanks for another Rush reaction!

I can't wait for you guys to get around to "Xanadu".

I have always wondered if Alex loops his guitar sound around the 6:46 point

Yes!! I was waiting for you guys to do this one :) Love the shirts ;)

The "small drums" sound are temple blocks, check out the Xanadu video from Exit Stage Left for a visual (also probably one of their [or anybody's for that matter] most epic performances).

Beautiful. Thank you!