This acoustic ballad was written and sung by guitarist Tim Lopez. The song describes a dysfunctional give-and-take relationship and references Shel Silverstein's children's book of the same title, which Lopez recalls being read to him as a kid.
Frontman Tom Higgenson commented to Radio.com of the tune's bare production: "A song like 'The Giving Tree' that Tim wrote, it just felt so good with his finger-picking thing. It felt like that's the way the song should stay." "Sometimes adding to a song like that just takes away. What you really want to do is suck the listener in to only hear the story and the vocal," Lopez added. "So, you keep piling stuff on it and it starts to deteriorate the song. Tracks like that you leave small."
See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.
Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.