Yes: Austrian Pine (Pinus nigra) with too many branches cut off. Young conifers are pretty much always more attractive with branches coming to the ground - think of a Christmas Tree.

yet on the other hand.. if its going to irritate the beegeebees out of you.. get rid of it... you can always plant another ...

lifes to short to be irritated by plants in your yard ...

ken

...except you'll be losing 6-7 years of growth if you choose replace it. That, for something it will grow out of in the same number of years. Both approaches have pros & cons.

as Embothrium said, pruning the lower branches off young pine tree is almost always going to look like hell.

I am almost leaning toward taking it out. Ken, it is irritating the 'beegeebees' out of me. It looks grotesque! Thanks, everyone.

get rid of the top.. cut the trunk flush to the ground.. its dead ... it will not resprout from the base ...

anyone else wonder if it was a failed graft ... ken

Burl like part where elbow starts does look like a shrubby growth habit was present there previously, with what are now branch stubs of similar diameter to one another being dispersed throughout.

It would really clean up the look of the tree by just removing those ugly branch stubs flush with the trunk, it's an otherwise healthy tree that in just a few years will be be looking a heck of a lot better, even that bottom kink thing will be much lessened.

That's what I would do. Clean up the trunk and leave it alone.

The tree looks beautiful to me, especially the trunk.