‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’ was a landmark recording for The Beatles, being one of the first Western pop songs to feature the sitar, an Indian instrument.
John Lennon had the idea for the song while on a skiing holiday with his wife Cynthia, in St Moritz in the Swiss Alps. They were joined by George Martin, who injured himself early on in the holiday, and his future wife Judy Lockhart-Smith.
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’.
‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’ demonstrated the continuing influence of Bob Dylan upon The Beatles’ music. Dylan himself responded with ‘4th Time Around’ on 1966’s Blonde On Blonde album, which shares a similar melody and lyrical theme.
The Beatles’ song was about an extra-marital relationship Lennon was having at the time. His friend Pete Shotton later suggested that the woman in question was a journalist – possibly Maureen Cleave, a close friend to Lennon.
‘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, 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.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
Although begun in Switzerland, ‘Norwegian Wood’ was completed as a collaboration between Lennon and Paul McCartney. Talking to Rolling Stone in 1970, Lennon attributed the middle section to McCartney, although in a 1980 interview with Playboy he called it “my song completely”.
I came in and he had this first stanza, which was brilliant: ‘I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me.’ That was all he had, no title, no nothing. I said, ‘Oh yes, well, ha, we’re there.’ And it wrote itself. Once you’ve got the great idea, they do tend to write themselves, providing you know how to write songs. So I picked it up at the second verse, it’s a story. It’s him trying to pull a bird, it was about an affair. 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…So she makes him sleep in the bath and then finally in the last verse I had this idea to set the Norwegian wood on fire as revenge, so we did it very tongue in cheek. She led him on, then said, ‘You’d better sleep in the bath’. In our world the guy had to have some sort of revenge. It could have meant I lit a fire to keep myself warm, and wasn’t the decor of her house wonderful? But it didn’t, it meant I burned the f*****g place down as an act of revenge, and then we left it there and went into the instrumental.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
The sitar
In February 1965 The Yardbirds recorded a single, ‘Heart Full Of Soul’, with a sitar player. Although the part was later re-recorded on a guitar by Jeff Beck, it is possible that The Beatles – who appeared on a bill with The Yardbirds in June, the month ‘Heart Full Of Soul’ was released – would have been aware of the burgeoning influence of Indian music upon the group’s sound.
In April The Kinks recorded ‘See My Friends’, which featured a pseudo-Indian drone and an approximation of a sitar played by Dave Davies on a guitar. His brother Ray Davies, who wrote the song, had become interested in Indian music since visiting the country on a tour stopover in December 1964.
By the time ‘See My Friends’ was released, George Harrison had begun listening to Indian music. He had first encountered a sitar during the filming of Help!, in a restaurant scene filmed at Twickenham Studios on 5 and 6 April 1965.
I went and bought a sitar from a little shop at the top of Oxford Street called Indiacraft – it stocked little carvings, and incense. It was a real crummy-quality one, actually, but I bought it and mucked about with it a bit. Anyway, we were at the point where we’d recorded the ‘Norwegian Wood’ backing track and it needed something. We would usually start looking through the cupboard to see if we could come up with something, a new sound, and I picked the sitar up – it was just lying around; I hadn’t really figured out what to do with it. It was quite spontaneous: I found the notes that played the lick. It fitted and it worked.
Anthology
Interestingly, ‘Norwegian Wood’ wasn’t the first Beatles release to feature a sitar. The North American version of the Help! album featured an instrumental, called ‘Another Hard Day’s Night’; a medley of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, and ‘I Should Have Known Better’, performed on a sitar, tablas, flute and finger cymbals.
‘Another Hard Day’s Night’ was the recording which soundtracked the film’s restaurant scene. Although The Beatles didn’t perform on it, the US Help! album was issued in August 1965, four months prior to Rubber Soul.
In the studio
The Beatles began recording ‘Norwegian Wood’ in the evening of 12 October 1965, under the working title ‘This Bird Has Flown’. They spent much of the session rehearsing and arranging the song, eventually taping just one track and a series of overdubs.
George had just got the sitar and I said, ‘Could you play this piece?’ We went through many different sort of versions of the song, it was never right and I was getting very angry about it, it wasn’t coming out like I said. They said, ‘Just do it how you want to do it,’ and I said, ‘I just want to do it like this.’ They let me go and I did the guitar very loudly into the mike and sang it at the same time, and then George had the sitar and I asked him could he play the piece that I’d written, dee diddley dee diddley dee, that bit – and he was not sure whether he could play it yet because he hadn’t done much on the sitar but he was willing to have a go, as is his wont, and he learnt the bit and dubbed it on after. I think we did it in sections.
The original version went unreleased until Anthology 2 in 1996, and The Beatles remade the song in three takes on 21 October. The first of these – numbered take two – featured a heavy sitar introduction and no bass. Take three was mainly acoustic with no sitar, and take four was the final version, which featured the sitar part overdubbed once the rhythm track was complete.
Oh, I guess that this song was quite a tribute to a girl named Sonny, a german woman who liked to say that she was born in Norway. Actually, it seems that she and her husband lived in the first floor of the house where John and Cyn lived until 1964 or 65 in London. Her apartment was almost entirely wooden decorated. Later, Mr George Martin has partially confirmed this story.
George Martin didn’t know a thing about what was going on outside of the studio (including the source of lyrics). The band considered him an authority/paternal figure, and it’s totally unlikely that John would have had this conversation at all, let alone with Martin.
You were there and KNOW all this? Amazing how you were so “in their circle” and we never heard of you before. Do tell us more!
Martin is well known to have socialized with them and at various times, “holiday-ed” with one or more of them. And he and his wife were close friends of Brian Epstein and socialized with him frequently.
You have no idea what he knew and what conversations he had with each of the Beatles.
Not according to John Lennon and Paul. xo
The sitar was played on the first two takes but beginning with Take 3 it is not heard on the basic tracks and they decided to overdub it. This overdubs were made onto Take 4 which became the final master.
For the recording of the basic tracks, George switched to guitar, playing the 12-string acoustic.
The backing recording was laid onto two tracks:
1) John’s acoustic guitar, Ringo’s bass drum and tambourine(right channel)
2) Paul’s bass, George’s 12-string (left channel)
The two overdubbed tracks:
3) George’s sitar (left)
4) Lennon’s lead vocal, McCartney’s harmony vocal (right)
Note: maracas and finger cymbals were only played in earlier takes not in the final master take.
1. Is there a bass drum for sure?
2. I think John played both the 6 12-string acoustics.
3. The sitar was manually double-tracked.
He couldn’t play both on the basic track, so if the basic track did have two acoustic guitars, bass and percussion, logically, George would’ve played one acoustic guitar while John, who wrote the song, played the other one.
Lol. I like how you think you can question the recording logs that Martin and EMI were meticulous about.keeping.
You can question Martin’s relationship with the Beatles, so what’s the difference?
I am surprised that neither Lennon or McCartney ever gave up the “true” meaning of the phrase Norwegian Wood! This song came out when I was 12 years old and my English teacher recited it in class as poetry! When he did.. it became obvious to me that Norwegian Wood was a little secret code by Lennon that really meant “knowing she would”! Listen to the song again and see how well that phrase fits. And Lennon has admitted he was trying to hide the true meaning of the lyrics to hide his infidelity. I think it is obvious what he meant!
“Knowing she would”, that sounds kinda erotic lol, but I like it. However, what John, Paul and George Martin said could explain the phrase”Norwegian wood” very well, so maybe we don’t need this type of rumour.
By the way, is it really suitable for 12-year-old kids to learn something like “knowing she would” in the class? Hahaha
i went to catholic school in NY. massive coronary for the nuns when jagger used “pregnant” in i can’t get no satisfaction.” lmao! I’m 67. love i.
HAH. Our generation had very, very liberal adults in school who proffered mature themes. We were exposed to so much, whether sexual, drug related, or mobster violence in the news with extremely graphic and gorry photos. We knew the score and its interpretations. Kids today cannot even fathom what we saw and know.
I always thought the lady with which Lennon had an affair was Norwegian, and that the phrase was, uh, a bit more pedestrian than that. Wink, wink. 😉
The U.S. mono edition of this song on “Rubber Soul” is riddled with recording errors. George’s cough can be heard during the song, and also there’s someone saying “Sounds good!” right after the sitar solo.
Yes! Someone else heard the cough! I love the original version with the cough and hate that it was later taken out.
I’ve always viewed Norwegian Wood as a sarcastic commentary on a disappointing night with a cold woman. The lyric, ” Isn’t it good, Norwegian wood” seems to be a play on words: Isn Tit good, Norwegian wood.
The statement suggests, in typical Lennon style, that he got no “tit” because the woman was a cold, hard, teaser only, like wood….possibly she was Norwegian??
This quote from Paul bears repeating:
“It could have meant I lit a fire to keep myself warm, and wasn’t the decor of her house wonderful? But it didn’t, it meant I burned the f*****g place down as an act of revenge”
Too funny! I always did picture a fire being lit in a fireplace, never arson!
LOL, I aways figured he burned the place down!
Maybe John was just saying that he lit up a joint?
That is what I have always thought
I also thought about a fireplace. It never occurred to me it could be a crime. Now I know that was the idea I feel very disappointed. Somehow I think Paul, again, is telling a lie because he doesn’t want people to know the truth. I hope so. Because it ruined the song for me.
Hm, I always imagined either a fireplace or a joint being lit! But that lyric is definitely pretty ambiguous.
I think you’re right about a joint being lit up.
The first comment about Sonny is found in the Philip Norman book “John Lennon – The Life.” Sonny is actually Sonny Freeman, the wife of Robert Freeman, photographer of the Beatles during the early years (including the “Rubber Soul” album cover). They lived it the same complex that the Lennon’s lived and were pretty close friends. Supposedly, John and Sonny carried on an affair in the Freeman’s wood panelled home. She was known to speak of herself as “Norwegian.”
None of this has been confirmed except for Philip Norman’s book; his facts can be off at times (as is his older book “Shout!”) but he makes it sound legit.
Sonny Drane (sometimes erroneously referred to as “Sonny Freeman Drane”) was born in 1939 as Sonnhild Spielhagen. Her father Dr. Wolfgang Spielhagen became the deputy mayor of Breslau – now the Polish city of Wroclaw – in 1942. When Gauleiter Karl Hanke declared Breslau a fortress in January, 1945 and forbid its citizens to flee the Red Army’s advance, Spielhagen, wanting to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, opposed the decision and recommended capitulation instead. At almost the same time, he obtained the permission of the mayor, his direct superior, to take his wife and two childres (Gisela and our Sonny) to Berlin, where he thought they’d be safer. Eager not to be taken for a deserter, he quickly returned to Breslau, where Gauleiter Hanke ordered his arrest on the following day and his execution on the day after that (January 28), after which his corpse was thrown into the Oder river.
Heard this story/theory at another great blog : HeyDullblog. I really love this idea, think it has a good deal of truth to it that it may actually be the real deal.
This song is about John’s affairs, we know that. But it’s about a certain kind of affair, or woman: the easy score, the guaranteed lay as it were. In other words, John, ‘Knowing She Would’, enjoyed these types of no-effort liaisons. He eventually changed ‘Knowing She Would’ into “Norweigan Wood”.
Sounds like something John would do, knowing his love and mastery of wordplay. One of the great things about this song is that we don’t know and probably never will, who it was about. But this theory is my favorite.
Very interesting idea. Using the working title “Knowing she wood” would have been John’s equivalent of Paul’s famous “Scrambled Eggs” for “Yesterday” only much cleverer.
Yes, but the lyric is the title of the song. You could babble for days about what if he meant one phrase of many that might sound like what he actually said, but you would be wasting your time. What the song says is “Norwegian Wood.” Anything other than that is irrelevant and most likely completely untrue. Luke Skywalker may have looked like your uncle Joe, but Star Wars is not about your uncle Joe. The same principle applies here.
“Luke Skywalker may have looked like your uncle Joe, but Star Wars is not about your uncle Joe. The same principle applies here.”
Oh, now that is good! I’ll take that with me, if you don’t mind.
Actually, it was know during its composition mostly as “This Bird Had Flown.”
Here’s another one where the extent of Paul’s contribution to a Lennon-identified song is hard to pin down(despite Paul’s claim that there were only two they disagreed on, “In My Life” and “Eleanor Rigby”). Contributing the middle presumably meant both words and melody? Or could it have been just lyrics (as in Paul’s posthumous contribution of lyrics to a middle melody John already had on “Free as a Bird”)?
Paul is obviously wrong. ‘Ticket To Ride’, anyone? ‘This Boy’?
I agree. It’s tricky.
First John attributes the middle eight to Paul, which I have always assumed meant the music rather than the words — probably because of Paul’s harmony vocal(Yes, it’s the E minor, A, F# minor, B7 bit);
a year or two later, Paul is given lyrical credit only, while he ends up being relegated to a mere spectator in John’s last major interview.
Maybe John, in 1980, psychologically, simply wanted to take full responsibility for being unfaithful?
Anything Paul said after John’s death (and once Paul’s “Reclamation Of His Beatle Legacy” tour began) must be taken with several truckloads of salt.
I think the timing of Lennon’s comments is telling. In 1970, when he obviously felt acrimonious toward McCartney, he gave Paul partial credit. Ten years later, when they were said to be on “good terms’ again, he says it was his song completely. I believe the first comment because of the rift and thinking he would give Paul the least credit at that time. I think the 1980 comment is a result of his poor memory or perhaps wanting to claim more credit for one of his songs he actually felt good about. I think Paul’s claim of such a significant contribution is apocryphal.
This song sure is about smoking marijuana. Everyone who smoked for a while knows how well the lyrics fit that. Think about it: why else would he sleep in the bath? And in the end: “this bird has flown… so I lit a fire, isn’t it good norwegian wood” meaning “this high is over, so I lit another joint, isn’t it good marijuana”. It just doesn’t make sense that it’s about a girl: why would she leave him alone at her place? And if she did, why would he view this as rejection (“this bird has flown”)?
you’re wrong.
Why couldn’t it mean both? The bed and the dope? As well as the woman’s purported heritage and an erection?
Quadruple entendre! Check this out as an example of double entendre wit in one of their previous songs: Please Please Me, like I pleased you last night, could be about giving oral sex to an Beatle after he did her the night before
If you listen to the Rockband tracks, you can hear Ringo (probably) hitting against something with his hands or clapping in the middle section and also again at the same time as the tambourine and the bass drum in the last section. Go ahead and listen to it on the drum track, it’s definitely there.
I always thought the deed was consummated – hence the instrumental/interlude following immediately on “and then she said ‘it’s time for bed.'” After all the song is acknowledged to be about an affair – not about a tease. And I assumed also that “I crawled out to sleep in the bath” meant crawling out of bed, not out of the living room or whatever. Of course Phillip Norman writes to the effect that the pass when unrequited, and I can see how that interpretation fits with what Paul says about figuratively burning the place down. But I still don’t read “She told me she worked in the morning” as necessarily meaning she wouldn’t sleep with him, but possibly that she insisted he leave afterwards – and laughing at that. So more like she was in control, and not him, and that’s what he found shameful or hurtful. Any thoughts on this? Cheers.
Art, that is really a revelation–very defensible based on the text. “Crawled OUT”…of bed–yes! And the idea of her kicking him out of bed when she’s done with him, laughing a little awkwardly, and then being gone before dawn is very compelling. John’s being treated in a way he may perhaps of treated some others after a one-night stand.
On the other hand, “out” could refer to “out of the room”–crawling because he’s been biding his time drinking TOO MUCH wine, only to be rejected in the end.
It’s great both ways! The hallmark of Beatles’ “constructive ambiguity.”
Just like it’s great to hear “This Bird Has Flown” or, as is unshakably the case for me sometimes: “Whispered the Fool.”
I’m pretty sure the line is “crawled *off* to sleep in the bath”.
I’ve never understood why a woman’s prerogative to say No is considered a tease. Men say “no” if and when they want to and we (women) don’t call them teases – we call them impotent a******s, but not teases. Maybe she just wanted to have a conversation with a friend and not actually have sex. Its a woman’s body and her decision. Men need to learn to take it with dignity and stop the demeaning rhetoric. Men need to grow up!
I recall reading an interview with John (can’t remember where, it’s been a long time) in which he said that Norwegian Wood was his way of obliquely relating a one night stand he once had. I always assumed that when “she said ‘it’s time for bed'” they went to bed and made love, and when “she said she worked in the morning” she was kicking him out of bed. As for “I lit a fire,” maybe a marijuana reference but probably just John playing with word imagery.
Go back and read the line “under the influence of Bob Dylan”. I don’t think you need to look for a solid narrative as much as a montage of experience, image and idea–as well as stream of consciousness. If he was continuously having affairs, it makes you wonder if just another night in the sack would inspire a whole story. I’m sure one experience got the song started, but then it was filled out by whatever he came up with to make it a song. “Norwegian would” sounds quite plausible for the chorus, but other parts of it could be inspired by the journalist he was also sleeping with (“had to work in the morning”). In the end, it’s probably just the craft of songwriting that turns it into a single story. And the dark humor fire at the end shows that at least some of it is fiction.
Incredible. All people are absolutely wrong. The song was about a supposed affair, that never got to the “end”, between Brigitte Bardot and John Lennon. Bardot was the blowing mind sexual fantasy of Lennon during his life. He even made Cynthia try to look like Bardot. When the Beatles went to France, the “meeting” was arranged. Lennon was so “blown up” that he had to much wine and to much dope and, when he was awoke, the “bird”, which obviously means the girl, was gone. Obviously a Girl to leave Lennon alone, if he was “out”, at the peak of his stardom, had to be some woman as Bardot. The Norwegian Wood, refers to the “decoration” of the hotel room in which the ” meeting” was arranged. And the phrase ” So I lit a fire” means exactly that. He lit a fire. The bird, of his life’s fantasy, was gone. Surely never to return.
How much bullshit is said about the “hidden” meanings is astounding. What man in the world would come home, a day after to his wife and say: “Sorry, darling, I was caught up in a meeting with Brigitte Bardot”? Not even Lennon, for sure. For all of Paul says, will keeping saying, adding to the story, is bullshit. He was, is and will ever be, covering up for his pal. More indeed because the meeting never got to ” the expected end”. So they, both, had to lit the fire that was never lit because of too much wine and dope. That’s it folks…
Nice theory. In case this is anything other than wild conjecture (the very thing you seem to criticise others for), what’s your source?
The Beatles didn’t meet BB in France in 1964. Lennon’s disastrous meeting with her didn’t take place until 1968, in London.
I hesitate to enter the fray with people more knowledgeable and articulate than I, but has no one noticed that Norwegian Wood is an anagram of a woman’s name, Rowena Goodwin? I understand that John Lennon enjoyed word play.
I so enjoyed visiting this website and reading the civil exchange of ideas. It gives me a greater appreciation of my very first album, a Christmas present from my brother Dean when I was a very little girl. I still have Rubber Soul and play it on my Crosley turntable.
I believe the lyric is “I wanted a girl, or should I say, she once had me”
He didn’t get the girl – he slept in the bath.
He doesn’t consumate the affair, so why would he say “I once had a girl …..”
“She once had me” – she played him, led him on and then backed out.
They probably only played the song just enough to record it (4-5 real takes) and then moved on never to revisit it. I am not aware of it ever having been played live by the Beatles either as a band or by John solo. I find it sad in a way, that they wrote so much great material and could never really do all of it justice. I have played the song around camp fires, in clubs and pubs for over 35 years – literally hundreds of times and still love it – it seems weird that they never got to enjoy the song the way normal people do.
Lol. So you’re just making up lyrics to fit your idea? Nobody is disputing the fact that the song goes “I once had a girl, or should say, she once had me”. Don’t you see the play on words? I wanted a girl doesn’t even work here. You’re funny.
LOL! So, once again you’re criticizing someone else while claiming to know what conversations George Martin had with the Beatles and what his relationship was with them (all the while having absolutely no clue to either). You’re funny.
Easily one of the best songs of John’s career, and a great example of band collaboration as well. This was the Beatles firing on all cylinders. Norwegian Wood is a timeless classic.
This is a timeless classic as another contributor said. One of the best songs about an affair ever, full of John Lennon’s wry humor. One of his best off Rubber Soul one of the greatest albums of all time. I had heard this song many times on radio , but this was reinforced when I got The Love Songs compilation and Rubber Soul for my birthday in 1979. Famous sitar work by George Harrison.
There has been speculation about what the last line means. Paul say’s it was his suggestion to John to burn the place down because the subject’s advances were rejected. I’ve read theories that it is indeed him setting the apartment or house on fire, but also that he is lighting a joint, or starting a fire in the fireplace. I have an additional possibility. John liked word games and double meanings. The different meanings of Please in Please Please Me, the double meaning of the same sounding Belong in It Won’t Be Long till I Belong to You, the two different potential meanings of Come Together with the moaning at the end of the song, the double meaning of the puns in Because. I think it is possible that John ran with Paul’s suggestion to light the place on fire, but cleverly worded it in such a way to allow for a double meaning for the phrase Norwegian Wood. I’ve read that the phrase was a description of cheap wood pine for the walls of one’s dwelling that was popular for a time in Britain during the 60’s. John worded the last line in a way that allows the interpretation that after the bird left for work, the subject resigns himself to having sex by himself in the bathtub, equating that cheap unsatisfying sex (woke up with Norwegian wood, to borrow part of a phrase from ZZ Top) to the cheap wood pine decor on the walls.
When I was 12 years old, my dad gave me the album 1962-1965 to listen to. This was my favourite song of theirs at the time. Only 3 years later, I find myself feeling awfully nostalgic whilst listening to it. And also awfully confused. Is there a second meaning to the song or not? It has been made clear to me by a few sources that the song is most likely about Sonny Freeman. However I still can’t figure out the phrase Norwegian Wood. Is it referring to the literal type of wood, or a play on words (knowing she would/ a Norwegian would). And ‘I lit a fire’- in a fire place or arson; literal or metaphorical.
Please answer with your thoughts, opinions and hopefully facts. (:
The first time I looked into the lyrics, without much influence reading about the meaning, this is what I thought:
The first line indicates this is an established relationship–they’ve hooked up before. But now he’s starting to feel kind of kept (she’s coming to “have him”). He’s come to realize at this particular moment–probably his first time to her flat–that she’s a rather superficial person, and superficial people can be hollow, overinflating the value of material things that are actually of no value at all (like a cheap wood that otherwise looks nice). She intends to seduce him again, inviting him to sit, where there’s nowhere to sit but her bed. Instead, he opts to put her off and sit on the floor, and take advantage of her taste by drinking her no doubt excellent, overpriced wine. He manages to do this until she gives up because she needs some rest for work, laughing it off to save face and pretend he’s not rejecting her. He decides to push the issue to a comedic point by preferring to sleep in the tub rather than even share her bed for sleeping. The next morning, he wakes up alone, frustrated himself, as a result of cockblocking her, wanting to fight being a kept man, and by her superficialness. He decides to mock her and end it all by burning the place down.
At first, I thought it was a piece of furniture being referred to, that he burned the next morning, but then I reread, “there wasn’t a chair,” and the outside context that it was actually cheap wall paneling that inspired it. Which means he burnt the whole place down–a double meaning for both the actual flat, and the context for their relationship aka “playing house”.
I’d like to know if the Sitar George Harrison played was tuned in C# (Ravi Shankar style) or was in another tune. Infact, there are version of the song that starts with an upper B, however these cannot be played on Sitar tuned in C# due to the physics and mechanics of it. To play it on Sitar, tuned in C# (the first chord, Ma, has to be tuned in F#) the riff has to be from G#”‘ to G#”, and not from B”‘ to B”.
Looking for additional evidence supporting the G# riff
The song is about John meeting up with a girl who he thought he could seduce, and being invited to go home with her. Anticipating a mutually agreeable and enjoyable tryst with this “bird” he’s disgusted to learn she’s actually a hooker and expecting to be compensated before this particular “affair” (of which it would have been just one of many easy conquests for John at that time) was consummated. John wasn’t going to pay for sex, so took a cold shower.
“I once had a girl, or should I say she once had me” could be referring to his mom. I read in a book on John that he once spoke about lying in bed with his mom as a young teen and “wondering what to do next”
Easily one of John’s or the Beatles best songs. I think that John was just word playing with us in this one trying to be sophisticated about an affair as he says. The melody is just so tight and the structure of the song is perfection. How I miss these guys and those times so long ago.
I figured out the meaning – exactly as Sir Paul says it – after one listen many, many years ago. Great song that highlights the band’s sense of humor.
re: the fire at the end: knowing paul, especially his need to be “cutting edge” and hip, i wouldn’t doubt he heard that interpretation (i.e. burning down the flat) years later and decided to make it sound as if it were his original idea/intention. i’m only speculating of course, but his version of the “fire” (as described in his book) just doesn’t ring true to me.
I just saw this, but that’s hilarious! How bout this: Sugar Ray redoes it as a mashup with his song, Every Morning; Stating: Norwegian Wood, Isn’t it good? You know I wanna do it again (on her four post Norwegian bed).
Ok, so, I distinctly remember reading “somewhere”, that John Lennon was conversing with Brian Epstein about Norwegian Wood, and John wanted to call the song “I Knew She Would”, and I know I read that, and I didn’t dream it, and I can’t find it again anywhere. Brian was against it. Can anyone help? Thanks!
I’m not completely convinced that the line is “So I lit ‘a’ fire” instead of “So I lit ‘the’ fire.” I have always heard “the,” though I know lyric sources say “a,” and I have always seen this fire in the fireplace. “The” positively puts it in the fireplace, though “a” doesn’t necessarily eliminate it. Also, did anyone besides Paul say it was about arson?
I’m speculating that John was having “performance problems” and was unable When he woke up he had Norwegian (morning) Wood and pleasured himself in the tub. “Chasing the bird” is a reference in the Kuma Satra, but that’s a stretch.
I think when asked about the meanings of their songs the Beatles were prone to making stuff up: Lennon because he was snarky, McCartney because he was stoned. Imo, the lyrics are about a guy who thought he was going to get lucky, but didn’t. It got too late (2:00 a.m.) and the woman told him she had to go to sleep because she had to work in the morning. Hence, the opening line: “I once had a girl or should I say she once had me.” In that line, the word “had” is used in two opposing senses: (1) vulgar slang for a sexual conquest, or so the guy was hoping, (2) informal for being deceived or “led on.” It was the inspiring line of the song, and it contains irony. As for the song title, it seems to explain itself. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown). Grammatically speaking, the word “this” should be a reference to the antecedent, “Norwegian Wood.” The girl was Scandinavian, he found her attractive, but she got away. End of story.
Hi all. Long time Beatles fan here. I heard the song as a teen in the mid 80s and immediately thought that it was about setting the apartment on fire and how well the Norwegian wood burns. I didn’t know then about the cheap panelling decor but I generally understood the rest of the song. It is a dark-themed song and seems the kind of thing John Lennon would have written, though to what extent each L and Mc had a hand in it seems debatable. Thanks for pointing out the “she once had me” meaning, as I didn’t realise what that bit meant until now! I found all your different interpretations really interesting too.
When he says he “once had a girl” we know what that means. “She once had me” means she was the aggressor. John loved double meanings like Please ,Please Me, big teaser, Ticket to Ride etc. “Knowing she would” would be a common realization for John. When you go to a bird’s place it is customary to comment on the decor hence the reference to the pine. When he says he crawled off to sleep in the bath it was a way of not incriminating himself, censoring the song, leaving it ambiguous and to your imagination. Nudge nudge, wink wink and a much more poetic take than carnal. It was also not uncommon to spend the night but be denied on a first date and not a total rejection. To wake up alone in the bath is bittersweet but with nowhere to be why not light a fire and basque in the warm glow of the previous evening or anticipation of evenings to come? McCartney’s suggestion that he would burn down the house because he didn’t get laid is a crass joke and diminishes the poetic beauty of one of John’s finest songs but diminishes him instead. It must have been very difficult to be a genius but to unquestionably play second fiddle in the greatest band of all time.
I think you are reading too much into this. If you are going to have a go at McCartney you may as well have a go at Dylan as well, who intimated rightly or wrongly that Lennon was copying his style in writing this song.
It must be very difficult to not have a shred of a clue and prove it to the world.
The “crass joke” is right up Lennon’s alley….IF you are paying attention.
Burning down/arson is incredibly farfetched. I have always assumed that John didn’t want his wife to know about his affair, so he made up a cover that he slept in the bath, and that he lit a fire… masturbated.
I never thought John was the rejected one in this song.
She says it’s time for bed. Then she says she worked in the morning and laughs. Not necessarily a rejection— just an acknowledgment that they’re about to do the nasty. But he goes one further and says he doesn’t have to work the next day— he turns it around on her. He’s like, “Screw you, bitch, I didn’t want you anyway. I’m going to go sleep in the tub.”
That’s always how I interpreted it.
Wow, lots of interesting interpretations here. That bit about burning the place down…never would I have come up with that; took me totally by surprise when I read Many Years from Now. This song has a great vibe to it and I’ve always loved it, but I have always found the lyrics to be kind of a hot mess. If he (they) was (were) trying to be circumspect about something, he (they) sure succeeded. I think its obvious they didn’t usually pour as much effort into perfecting lyrics as they did their music, and I’m not always sure the lyrics are able to stand up to interpretation. They’re just word paintings; evocative maybe. If you can clearly understand them, that’s just bonus. I also think they did alot of songs that were kinda 85-90% there, and then just finished ’em to get finished.
Thank you Kestrel. I love the song, always have. The lyrics and music work together to evoke a picture. And for me I see images of a couple back at the girl’s place. He’s hoping (and she may be too) for the hook-up, but it doesn’t happen. Too much wine, too much dope (yes, for me Norwegian wood has always been marijuana), too late, who knows. There’s something maybe like melancholy in the melody, but not bitterness. More like an enjoyable evening but a missed opportunity too. Maybe a touch of sadness, with a touch of, oh well, life goes on. And is it autobiographical? Who knows? Does it matter? Its just a vignette, a sketch or doodle, a phrase, an idea — not the full portrait or novel. But a beautiful song, no matter how you interpret it.
This is a John top 5 Beatle song. I think so strong that it would be great with or without the sitar. Been reading alot about Dylan’s “4th Time Around”. My opinion: I think Dylan is giving himself an undeserved flattering comment. I don’t believe Dylan was harmonizing at this point. He never used the sitar at this point. And clever lyrics like “I once had a girl, or should I say…” Lennon was mastering since 63.
Here’s how I see it, “I’m a Loser” and definitely “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away”, are fair game for Dylan. Lol, imagine YGTHYLA closing with a harmonica instead of flute. And the way he sings it,, that is 100% Dylan.
But by Rubber Soul, Lennon is moving on from Dylan and appropriately places him in his MT. Rushmore of influences along with Berry, Elvis, Holly, Richard’s. But not the dominant influence any longer. And in a year Lennon would conquer his next chapter, the psychedelic era. Dylan should have parodied YGTHYLA, but I think his jaw dropped when hearing Norwegian Wood. And should have left it alone.
I love all the comments here! I love the song, too, and I believe all the theories and explanations are fine. Many of these are so interesting and it’s fun to speculate. My feeling is that the music is even better than the words. I think it is fantastic music. What kind of music it is became clear to me when watching John play « The 3rd Man » theme in the « Get Back » movie that just came out in November 2021. John plated the theme from that great movie perfectly on guitar! I see « NorwegianWood » as a movie theme, too. It isn’t folk or folk rock so much as cool jazz and 60’s grooving with WorldMusic added on to it. Think of the middle section of the 3rd Man Theme … de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de
Then de de de de. De de de de de de de. De.
Then think of Norwegian wood slowing that down to de de de de. De de de de. De de de de
And the middle 8
Really slow de de de de De de de de de
This is very jazz like too !
Just a thought on the music ! I love all the comments !!
I always thought the song was about a guy going to a girl’s room, hopefully for sex, but they didn’t click and it didn’t work out. Norwegian Wood I thought mainly refers to the furniture & decor, i.e., Scandinavian furniture, (like Danish modern), and the phrase just sounds mysterious and good in the song. The fire at the end, I like to think is a metaphorical fire or fire in the mind, as a device to help the guy try to forget about the girl and the not so great situation. For me, arson ruins the song, so I just don’t put that meaning on it.
I LOVE This song but seriously the last verse. Verse 3? Is pure evil!
I found this very well argued explanation about the affairs of John Lennon being the root of the song.
It makes very good sense. Maybe there will always be a margin of lost knowledge on the definite meaning, but I consider the argumenten very plausible and credible.