The Beatles Bible - Topic: The story in "Norwegian Wood" http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/ Simple:Press Version 5.2.6 DrBeatle on The story in "Norwegian Wood" http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/page-2/#p64074 The songs http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/page-2/#p64074

Linde said

Egroeg Evoli said
I always thought that the first time he says "Isn't it good Norwegian wood," he was referring to the paneling, and just commenting on the girl's house, and then the next time he says it, it's sorta sarcastic, like "Oh yeah, isn't it good Norwegian wood that I burned down?"

That's also a thing I thought.

 

Same here

]]> Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:30:49 +0000 Linde on The story in "Norwegian Wood" http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/page-2/#p64073 The songs http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/page-2/#p64073

Egroeg Evoli said
I always thought that the first time he says "Isn't it good Norwegian wood," he was referring to the paneling, and just commenting on the girl's house, and then the next time he says it, it's sorta sarcastic, like "Oh yeah, isn't it good Norwegian wood that I burned down?"

That's also a thing I thought.

]]> Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:30:01 +0000 Funny Paper on The story in "Norwegian Wood" http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p64056 The songs http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p64056 Well, I'm sticking to my story.  Sometimes a strange thing occurs -- the artist may be wrong about his own work!  I think Paul and John missed out on a wonderfully subtle interpretation to this song.  But it doesn't matter: the song speaks for itself with a marvelous ambiguity; and the Pauline/Johannine exegesis has to be read into it: it's not just plainly indisputably there.

 

]]> Fri, 25 Jan 2013 09:05:35 +0000 frankdialogue on The story in "Norwegian Wood" http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p64051 The songs http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p64051 The Beatles put a lot of little twists in their songs, and this song has a few.

Paul talks about how the song was written in his biography; John had the basic chords, basic melody and the first lines: 'I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me'.

That was it, and they finished it together...Paul might have put in the bridge, and he wrote some of the words, especially the last verse, which he described as 'the guy getting his revenge by burning her place down'.

So, the exact relationship between the protagonist and the girl was left ...]]> Fri, 25 Jan 2013 06:18:56 +0000 Egroeg Evoli on The story in "Norwegian Wood" http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p64046 The songs http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p64046 I always thought that the first time he says "Isn't it good Norwegian wood," he was referring to the paneling, and just commenting on the girl's house, and then the next time he says it, it's sorta sarcastic, like "Oh yeah, isn't it good Norwegian wood that I burned down?"

]]> Fri, 25 Jan 2013 05:08:33 +0000 Linde on The story in "Norwegian Wood" http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p64016 The songs http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p64016 I thought one of them actually said the ''I lit a fire'' part was about burning the house down as some kind of revenge?

DrBeatle pretty much described what I thought the song was about.

]]> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 22:31:24 +0000 vonbontee on The story in "Norwegian Wood" http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p63887 The songs http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p63887 Exactly! It doesn't say where he lit a fire - I always either assumed it was either in the fireplace or a hash pipe.

]]> Wed, 23 Jan 2013 17:15:59 +0000 DrBeatle on The story in "Norwegian Wood" http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p63884 The songs http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p63884 I've always taken that last line as purposely ambiguous on John's part...he could be just lighting a fire, or he could burn the place down (either literally or metaphorically). The reason I always took it as arson is because of the popularity (at that time in the 60s) of Norwegian wood paneling in many homes. *shrug* That's the beauty of the lyrics, they can be interpreted in oh so many ways...

]]> Wed, 23 Jan 2013 17:01:32 +0000 vonbontee on The story in "Norwegian Wood" http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p63883 The songs http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p63883 My initial interpretation was: They sleep together (that instrumental break again being the soundtrack); afterward, she wants to talk or be "intimate"; he doesn't, and abandons her for the bathtub. Next morning, finding himself alone, he either lights a nice fire in the fireplace, or maybe smokes a contemplative joint. But I first heard the song when I was a typical sex-obsessed teen, which affected my interpretation: It seemed inconceivable to me, at the time, that a woman could ply a man with drinks until 2am, then say "It's time for bed" and NOT mean sex! (As opposed to "I'm ...]]> Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:45:10 +0000 Zig on The story in "Norwegian Wood" http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p63882 The songs http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p63882

DrBeatle said

Zig said
My interpretation says they never bumped uglies.two-virgins

 

Mine, too (see above).

Yeah, your interpretation matches mine except for the 'he gets revenge by torching the place' part.

But don't think I had not considered that as a possibility, DrB.

]]> Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:40:18 +0000 sky090909 on The story in "Norwegian Wood" http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p63877 The songs http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p63877

CremeTangerine13 said
My interpretation was that he was unsure if he wanted to sleep with her or not, or him wanting to end the affair. 

For example, the line "she told me to sit anywhere, so I looked around and noticed there wasn't a chair", I always imagined there was maybe just a bed in the the room, so instead of sitting on the bed and inviting a sexual encounter, he sits on the rug.  

Then he's biding his time by talking, then when she says she has to work in the morning, she's kind of saying "are you coming ...]]> Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:10:40 +0000 DrBeatle on The story in "Norwegian Wood" http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p63876 The songs http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p63876

Zig said
My interpretation says they never bumped uglies.two-virgins

 

Mine, too (see above). Although interestingly enough, it's almost certainly about Robert Freeman's wife (who John and Cynthia lived above in London before they moved to Kenwood), and they most certainly *did* bump uglies! (as noted in both Cynthia's book and Philip Norman's Lennon bio).

]]> Wed, 23 Jan 2013 15:02:30 +0000 Funny Paper on The story in "Norwegian Wood" http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p63867 The songs http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p63867

parlance said
Note that the song doesn't state whether the guy was told to sleep in the tub or he volunteered. I would think if she liked the guy, she'd let him sleep somewhere comfortable.

The lyrics imply -- in I think a clever subtle way -- that her "pad" was so spartan she literally didn't have a place for him to sleep ("I noticed there wasn't a chair") -- and given the newness of their relationship (and apparently the chemistry wasn't quite clicking enough for her -- you know how "women are", got to have everything right, lol), ...]]> Wed, 23 Jan 2013 05:15:43 +0000 parlance on The story in "Norwegian Wood" http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p63859 The songs http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p63859 Note that the song doesn't state whether the guy was told to sleep in the tub or he volunteered. I would think if she liked the guy, she'd let him sleep somewhere comfortable.

Depending on the mood I'm in, I can go with the contemplative Lennon as he sits in the tub or stares at the fire image. Right now I feel feisty, so I'm more into the idea the woman was like, "cripes, just leave already." ;->

parlance

]]> Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:47:03 +0000 Funny Paper on The story in "Norwegian Wood" http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p63851 The songs http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/the-songs/the-story-in-norwegian-wood/#p63851 This came up in another post a while ago.

I disagreed with the "Pauline" exegesis:

http://www.beatlesbible.com/fo.....-2/#p61323

Another commenter, Ben Ramon, agreed with me:

http://www.beatlesbible.com/fo.....-2/#p61372

And I added another afterthought:

http://www.beatlesbible.com/fo.....-2/#p61396

 

 

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