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.

Inspiration from infidelity

The song was apparently inspired by Lennon's extra-marital flings. Ironically, he wrote it while he was on a holiday with his wife, Cynthia, in the Alps. They were joined by the Beatles' producer George Martin, who had injured himself early in the holiday, and his wife. Martin recalled: "It was during this time that John was writing songs for Rubber Soul, and one of the songs he composed in the hotel bedroom, while we were all gathered around, nursing my broken foot, was a little ditty he would play to me on his acoustic guitar. The song was 'Norwegian Wood'." http://www.beatles-discography.com/1966.html

Related Topics:
Cynthia - Alps - George Martin

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Lennon said of the song: "I was trying to write about an affair, so it was very gobbledegooky. I was trying to write about an affair without letting my wife know I was having one. I was sort of writing from my experiences ... girl's flats, things like that." He also said: "'Norwegian Wood' is my song completely. It was about an affair I was having. I was very careful and paranoid because I didn't want my wife, Cyn, to know that there really was something going on outside of the household. I'd always had some kind of affairs going on, so I was trying to be sophisticated in writing about an affair ... but in such a smoke-screen way that you couldn't tell. But I can't remember any specific woman it had to do with." Lennon's friend, Pete Shotton, speculated that the woman in question was a journalist of their acquaintance, although it is equally likely that the woman was one of the numerous groupies or fans constantly following the Beatles.

Related Topics:
Pete Shotton - Journalist - Groupie

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McCartney was apparently the inspiration for the singer's revenge on his partner in the end of the song. As he explained: "Peter Asher, brother of McCartney's then-girlfriend, Jane Asher had just done his room out in wood, and a lot of people were decorating their places in wood. Norwegian wood. It was pine, really, just cheap pine. But it's not as good a title, is it, 'Cheap Pine'? It was a little parody, really, on those kind of girls who, when you'd get back to their flat, there would be a lot of Norwegian wood. It was completely imaginary from my point of view, but not from John's. It was based on an affair he had. She made him sleep in the bath and then, finally, in the last verse, I had this idea to set the Norwegian wood on fire as a revenge. She led him on and said, 'You'd better sleep in the bath.' And in our world, that meant the guy having some sort of revenge, so it meant burning the place down ..."

Related Topics:
Jane Asher - Pine

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Lennon acknowledged being strongly influenced by Bob Dylan during this time period, as evidenced by songs such as "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" and "I'm A Loser", and the rather opaque lyrics of the song reflected this. Dylan may have felt he was being mocked and responded to the song with a similar tune, "4th Time Around", which has a similar melody and a similar subject and is sometimes considered a parody of "Norwegian Wood".

Related Topics:
Bob Dylan - 4th Time Around - Parody

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On the recordings for The "Beatles Anthology part two disc 1"; the lyrics for that version of "Norwegian Wood" sound almost slurred, which has inspired an interpretation of the phrase "norwegian wood" itself to be a coy way of saying, "knowing she would". Such vulgar lyrics were often not permitted for broadcast at that time; for example, lyrics to The Rolling Stones song "Let's Spend The Night Together" were modified to "let's spend some time together" for television performance.

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