Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)

"Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" is a song by The Beatles which first appeared on the 1965 album Rubber Soul. Credited to Lennon/McCartney (as were all songs by either of the duo), it was primarily written by John Lennon, though Paul McCartney contributed to the middle eight section. It is notable as one of the first Western pop songs with an Indian musical instrument — John Lennon's guitar is accompanied by George Harrison on the sitar. The song is a lilting acoustic ballad featuring Lennon's lead vocal and signature Beatle harmonies in the middle eight.

Eastern influence

It was Harrison, who would later be strongly influenced by transcendental meditation and eventually become a life-long Hindu, who decided on using a sitar when the Beatles recorded the song on October 12 and 21, 1965. As he recounted later: "We were waiting to shoot the restaurant scene ... where the guy gets thrown in the soup and there were a few Indian musicians playing in the background. I remember picking up the sitar and trying to hold it and thinking, 'This is a funny sound.' It was an incidental thing, but somewhere down the line I began to hear Ravi Shankar's name. The third time I heard it, I thought, 'This is an odd coincidence.' So I went and bought a Ravi record; put it on and it hit a certain spot in me that I can't explain, but it seemed very familiar to me. It just called on me ... I bought a cheap sitar from a shop called India Craft in London. I hadn't really figured out what to do with it. But when we were working on 'Norwegian Wood' it just needed something. It was quite spontaneous ... I just picked it up and found the notes and just played it. We miked it up and put it on and it just seemed to hit the spot."

Related Topics:
Transcendental meditation - Hindu - October 12 - 21 - 1965 - Help! - Ravi Shankar - London

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