Types of Trees in Song Titles

A local college recently sponsored a tree-planting event to commemorate the coming of spring. I was one of the 200 or so volunteers who showed up that Saturday morning on the campus of Northern Kentucky University, where the trees were distributed. We were divided into groups and sent through different areas around the campus.

The members of my group decided to try to name as many different types of trees that we could think of. My most impressive contribution was gingko, a rare evergreen I had learned about in a high school botany class. After we filled in the dirt around our last sapling, I began to think of songs titles that featured different types of trees. By the time I had returned from the campus, I had come up with this list.

10. "Pussy Willow" by Jethro Tull: Though not one of the band's best-known songs, this track from The Broadsword and the Beast exemplifies how powerful is Ian Anderson's British baritone. His lyrics are strong as well, though alluringly mysterious, such as his observation that "She longs for the east and a pale dress flowing or to die for a cause somewhere."

9. "Son of Hickory Holler's Tramp" by Merle Haggard: The father left his wife and fourteen children and ran off with another woman, which is not an unusual theme for a classic country song. The most touching part of the song is the son's pride in his mom, who entertains her male guests only to provide food for her brood.

8. "24 Sycamore" by Gene Pitney: This country classic has a man pining for the girl he left behind. Pitney not only has pity in his voice, but it's in his name as well.

7. "Hickory Wind" by The Byrds: This track is considered the best work of Gram Parsons, who created controversy when he sang it at the Grand Ole Opry. It is one of the many highlights of the band's Sweetheart of the Rodeo album.

6. "Sugar Magnolia" by The Grateful Dead: Some of the Dead's songs aren't radio-friendly, but this one certainly is. There is a catchy country rhythm and a chorus that's easy to sing along with.

5. "Cypress Trees" by John Gorka: The After Yesterday CD is sitting in my computer as I write this. When the song popped into my head, I ran straight home, got the cd off the shelf and inserted it into the cd drive. The lyrics describe the excitement and apprehension of a man whose wife is expecting their first child. As with most of the folk singer's writing, Gorka manages to sprinkle in a little humor.

4. "Knotty Pine" by Gordon Lightfoot: Here is a typical Lightfoot track, complete with his gruffly soothing voice and lyrics enamored with the beauty of nature. I have always cherished the line, "She's knotty but nice."

3. "Oak Grove Church" by Dry Branch Fire Squad: The bluegrass music is perfect for a down-home song about an old church, where the man recalls hearing "the old hymn Nearer My God to Thee."

2. "Ashes to Ashes" by David Bowie: The Major Tom who lost touch with ground control a decade earlier resurfaces in this track from Scary Monsters and Super Creeps. As if anyone had a doubt in the first place, the song admits that "Major Tom's a junkie." The song itself is great, and the strange video somehow makes it even more memorable, with Bowie dressed in an eerie clown costume while people dance and some guy drowns.

1. "Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues" by Bob Dylan: The song is one of the most appealing in Dylan's extensive library, filled with humor and seemingly unrelated observations about a picnic on Bear Mountain.