Series 1, Episode 40: Trees are Falling

A psychedelic experience with a tree and a perplexing new song title dreamed up by Jenny Burton, recording artist of over three and a half decades, got me to become a dedicated advocate for the preservation of forests and the trees of Planet Earth. It didn’t hurt one bit that this previous year wife, Julia, and I planted 26 new trees in our home soil. A new song, sung by both Jenny and me and a fabulous video treatment by brilliant WFM Graphics designer, Skye Malone

rounds out Episode #40 with a wondrous offering that we’re all very proud of. Wanna take part in saving the Forests of Planet Earth? Start with listening and then watching Trees Are Falling,

Watch HERE 

Theater of the Imagination is Brough to you by Watchfire Music watchfiremusic.com

Transcript

Peter Link 0:08

Welcome to Scattershot Symphony, the music of Peter Link. It's me. Hey y'all, this week being the 40th episode of this podcast, I prefer to let the music do the talking. However, if you need to know more about me, please visit Wikipedia.com, Peter Link. This episode is entitled Trees Are Falling. I've been a composer and record producer for vocal recording artist Jenny Burton for over three and a half decades. She has a couple of gold records on the wall and has topped the charts numerous times. We've done dance music, RB, gospel music, literally hundreds of industrial songs, and of course, pop and cabaret with the Jenny Burton experience. Our music has been performed by Jenny in multifarious venues, including Top 40 radio, film and television, and major concert attractions and, of course, podcasts. I write them and she sings them. She also, over the years, has taken a real delight in coming up with song titles. She keeps a book of them, and periodically I get a call from her saying, I got another one for you. About four months ago, she did it again. Actually, at the time, she had three or four of them. After listening patiently and writing a couple of them down, she then said, And I got one more. It's kind of weird, but for some reason, I really like it. How about the trees are falling? I asked her, uh, what does that mean? And she said, I don't know, I just like it. But for some reason, I wrote it down. Over the next week, it sat on my desk, and occasionally I would look at it and think, what does that mean? And why would that be a song? But for some reason I began to like it too. And finally, one day, I sat down and gave it some real thought. Once, many decades ago, I had a psychedelic experience with a tree. I was wandering through a forest alone. I stopped in awe, looking at the biggest tree in the forest. I was so awestruck by this amazing creature that I sat down at its roots and lay back in the grass, looking up through its branches at its amazing beauty and incredible majesty. And then I began to cry. I, a living being on many levels, was no different than the living being of this tree. I remember lying there for what seemed to be three or four hours, connecting with this tree. I'll go out on a limb now and venture telling you that I fell in love with this other beautiful living being, this king or queen of the forest. I felt its life under me, over me, and all around me. Finally, the ants discovered me, and I got up and moved on, saying my sad goodbyes to my newfound friend. I think this is why I kept coming back to Jenny's title. Trees are falling. It also helped that wife Julia and I, this last year, planted 26 new trees in our yard and have watered them and watched them grow on a daily level. Three of them, our three favorites, we have named Rosie, Flash, and Aunt Myrtle. We just love our trees. They certainly deserve a good song. So, I Googled trees and forests for a couple of days, learning so much more about these amazing beings. Through all this, I personally have become a devoted advocate for the trees on planet Earth. My opening verse in the song, consequently, goes like this. Trees used to be six trillion trees. Now there are three trillion, and the man just laughs and cuts another one down. Trees trees are falling. Quicker than a man can grow more. In my imagination, I saw the future. I had learned in my explorations much about how trees communicate with each other, so it's only natural that as an artist I wrap a story around my newfound discoveries. Please now listen as both Jenny and I put a phantasmagorical spin on what lies ahead in the world of trees. Trees are falling. Trees used to be six trillion. Trees, now they're three trillion. Where do the birds go? What do we do when the sun comes out? And we can't stand in the shade How do we know when the seasons change? A walk in the woods will never be the same. The image of trillions of trees pulling up roots and leaping into space on their way to finding another planet that would take better care of them haunted me. The song painted a good picture, but I wanted to see it happen. I wanted to see them organize their journey and collectively take control of their future. I wanted to say to people, beware. Treat these beings that we share this earth with as our fellow partners with a greater respect. For if we do not, one day we may turn around and find that they are gone. Sky Malone, recent college graduate, started off working for Watchfire Music as a lowly intern, and over the past couple of years has moved quickly up through the ranks to become our much beloved and gifted director and creator of graphic visual arts. Most excited, I decided to approach Skye and see what visuals he might be able to bring to our latest endeavor. I played him the song, and he immediately said, Let's do it. I quickly gave him a few images stored away in my little brain, and he said, I get it. Then he went to work. A week or so later he told me, I've only managed to get the first half done in rough form, but I'd like to show it to you. Of course, I was excited to see what he had accomplished, so we watched it together. It was a jaw-dropping experience for me. And even in its rough form, I jumped out of my chair, raising my hands to the heavens and screamed, Yes! He had nailed it. What Skye had done went beyond my imagination. It was a thrilling moment for me. And in the next weeks, the second half of the video got even better. We're very proud of this work. We hope that with it we can make a dent on the confusion surrounding our world's environment. We think that we can bring truth with a smile to one of our world's greatest problems. We are so enjoying joining up and taking part in raising consciousness with a musical and visual approach. We will share this work with the world, sometimes freely, and for some usages, sometimes through licensing. If you, our listener, know of organizations that might be interested in both this and our future work on the subject of forest and trees, please let us know, so that we can enable this message to become viral. Lastly, you may not leave today without experiencing the full wonder and beauty of trees are falling. Before you go on about your life, please take the final five minutes and follow this link to the video. Don't miss the video. Don't miss the video. Please don't miss the video. And watch it full screen. Well, there you have it. Episode 40. Trees are falling. Here's a link to the video. Vimeo.com forward slash watchfire music forward slash trees. I'll say it again. Vimeo dot com forward slash watchfire music forward slash trees. Vimeo is spelled V I M E O