Movement II · Old Growth Records
Equal Light
The centerpiece and the argument. Side two is a single twenty-two-minute suite scored like a committee meeting. The band declined every request to explain it. A prog quarterly called it "the most beautiful thing ever written about a zoning dispute," which the band allowed.
- 01The Convening6:20
The date is specific and has never been connected to anything. Roth has said the band chose it because a vaguer date would have sounded invented.
The words
It was called for the fourteenth of April Notice given the usual way Through the water in the deepest roots Which is how such things are said The convening Every standing thing was there The convening And the ones who could not come sent word Point of order from the western slope A question on who counts as grown Ruled that any tree above the snow line Speaks and votes and holds its own It ran eleven hours by the shadow Which is longer than they'd planned And at the end of it the forest Had a body and a hand Nobody in the wood that evening Could have told you what it cost They only knew that something started And that nothing had been lost
- 02The Warmth of the Canopy7:50
The words
Come in under, come in close Where the tallest shelters most No more scramble, no more climb No more standing on your own time Wouldn't it be kinder, wouldn't it be fair If none reached higher, if all could share The warmth of the canopy One green roof for you and me No cold, no shadow, no alone Lay your branches down, come home Every winter that you fought Every drought you weathered — what it cost Let it go, we'll hold you now Every tree beneath one vow Wouldn't it be gentle, wouldn't it be warm One canopy to break the storm The warmth of the canopy One green roof for you and me No cold, no shadow, no alone Lay your branches down, come home And no one said, that afternoon, what warmth would cost by June
- 03Equal Light6:40
Teller has said the bridge is sincere and has been irritated by every interviewer who assumed otherwise.
The words
The motion as adopted reads as follows: That the light be shared alike That no crown shall take a portion Greater than another's height Equal light It is a beautiful idea Equal light And it carried, loud and clear There was a question from the birches About what the tall ones do Ruled: a tree may keep its stature. It may simply not grow new. And the oaks, who had the most to lose, Were the first ones to agree Which the minutes record faithfully And do not explain It is a beautiful idea. I want that in the record too. It is the most beautiful idea That anybody ever had up here.
- 04Reading the Bylaws5:30
The one word in article eleven has never been printed. Reave has said the band knows it. Teller has said the band does not.
The words
Article one, section four, paragraph two: A tree is a thing with a root and a crown Article one, section four, paragraph three: A stump is a tree that has been put down Reading the bylaws Somebody has to Reading the bylaws Nobody wants to, but somebody has to Article nine covers grievance procedure Article ten covers who may be heard Article eleven was added in April And article eleven has one word There is a clause about the axe And it is shorter than you'd think It says: the axe is not a member. It does not say another thing. I have read this document through twice now I do not think that it will hold But it is the only thing we've written And I am the one who reads it out
- 05Your Neighbor's Sun6:00
The only Trees song that concerns two individual trees rather than the wood. Roth has called it the smallest thing on the record and the one he would keep.
The words
I have a west side and he has an east And between us there is one long hour Where the light is his and then it's mine And neither of us has the power Your neighbor's sun It is the same sun Your neighbor's sun And you will never see it as the same Under the motion I am owed a portion Under the motion so is he The trouble is the sun does not attend And the sun has not agreed We have filed. We are waiting. There's a hearing in the fall. By the fall the leaves are down And the light is fine for all. So it will be settled By the season, not the vote Which is how most things get settled And is not what anybody wrote
- 06The Vote4:10
The vote totals are consistent across every version of the song the band performed, including the 1984 live recording, where Teller corrects himself mid-line and returns to the same figure.
The words
Show of branches. Count them twice. The clerk is a birch and she does not miss. Two hundred and six in favour And a hundred and ninety against The vote It carried The vote By sixteen Sixteen trees. You could stand among them. You could walk the sixteen in an afternoon. That is the width of the whole thing. That is what it turned upon. The vote It carried The vote By sixteen Nobody asked which sixteen And the clerk did not record it And by winter it did not matter And by spring it was the law
- 07Hatchet, Axe, and Saw8:20
The title is also the phrase carried beneath the band's wordmark on every shirt printed since 1979, which predates the song by three years. Reave has said the song was written to explain the shirt.
The words
They came up the fire road Tuesday morning Three of them, and none of them said much Hatchet, axe, and saw And a paper from the county in a clutch Hatchet, axe, and saw Hatchet, axe, and saw They are not in the bylaws They are not in the law There was no vote about it There was nothing to be heard The convening had a body and a hand And the body had no word And the ones that had agreed to equal light And the ones that had objected Went down in the same direction At the same rate. Unaffected. There is a clause about the axe. It is shorter than you'd think. It says the axe is not a member. It does not say another thing. Hatchet, axe, and saw Hatchet, axe, and saw They are not in the bylaws They are not in the law
- 08The Understory22:00
Occupies the whole of side two. Performed complete on eleven occasions. On the twelfth, in 1984, the band stopped after the third movement and left the stage — which Roth has described as an equipment failure and Teller has not. Bass clarinet and strings by session players, uncredited at Reave's insistence.
The words
Down here it is always evening Down here it always has been We do not get a vote up top We are not seen The understory Everything that grows in shade The understory Nobody has ever surveyed The motion did not mention us The bylaws do not either We do not meet the definition We are moss and fern and briar And when the tall ones argued light We were already living without We have ninety million years of practice At the thing that they were arguing about Patience is not a virtue down here Patience is the only tool We are not waiting for a ruling We are waiting for the fall And when it came, it came for all of them Equal light at last, and wide And the floor of the wood that first summer Was the greenest thing alive The understory Everything that grows in shade The understory Nobody has ever surveyed We did not do this. We would like that understood. We only did what we have always done. We stood.