#30 “Norwegian Wood” from Rubber Soul
John Lennon wrote “Norwegian Wood,” whose working title for a while was “This Bird Has Flown,” while on a ski trip in Switzerland. The middle section – including the eventual title — was attributed to Paul McCartney. In the book Many Years from Now McCartney said:
John told Playboy that he hadn’t the faintest idea where the title came from but I do. Peter Asher had his room done out in wood, a lot of people were decorating their places in wood. Norwegian wood. It was pine really, cheap pine. But it’s not as good a title, “Cheap Pine,”baby….
Bob Dylan
The song, the brief story of an affair, is a nod to Bob Dylan’s influence on John Lennon’s songwriting; and Dylan returned the favor with his own song “4th Time Around” from his 1966 album “Blonde on Blonde.”
This was an acoustic song, including George Harrison’s acoustic 12-string. Most notably, however, this was one of the first songs to feature a sitar, which Harrison overdubbed after some consternation in the studio that the arrangement just wasn’t working. His riffs got immediate approval from the group when they worked nicely in the song.
The Yardbirds
George had gotten interested in Indian music around this time, and bought an inexpensive sitar of his own to experiment with (this preceded his more serious lessons on the sitar with Ravi Shankar). And it’s possible that one of the influences on George’s growing interest came from the Yardbirds. The Beatles shared a gig with them in June of 1965, and earlier that year the Yardbirds had made their hit “Heart Full of Soul” with a sitar part. Ultimately the sitar was replaced with a guitar solo by Jeff Beck, but who knows. Everyone was listening to everyone else’s music around this time.
Everyone was exploring. And in a way, everything was derivative. The Beatles, Dylan, the Yardbirds, even the Kinks including some sitar-like licks in one of their songs. And Rubber Soul was the first of the Beatles’ “exploratory” albums complete with a sitar along with the traditional rock band instruments.
Something wasn’t working in the studio for the Beatles, and they explored new possibilities. During hard times, although the initial impulse typically is to rely on the tried and true, it may be necessary to improvise, to explore new ways to cope.
What is your experience with this?
Discover more from Tim Hatfield’s fascinating book:
When We Find Ourselves in Times of Trouble: The Beatles: All Their Songs with Encouraging Words for Challenging Times
KINDLE (OR DOWNLOAD THE FREE APP TO READ ON YOUR LAPTOP)
This book addresses all the songs of the Beatles, from their earliest demos to Abbey Road, in a conversational, accessible format. Special attention is devoted to the band’s creative process and its influence on and synergistic relationship with the culture at large. The book’s genesis was the author’s hope that a daily Beatles song could provide a brief respite from the significant stress and uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and beyond that, from the challenges of any personally difficult time – our times of trouble.
