Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)

(Lennon/McCartney)

Quick Facts

Composer	John & Paul
Lead Vocal	John
Recorded	Oct 1965
Length	2:05
Key	E
Noted Takes	4
Producer	George Martin
Engineer	Norman Smith

Originally released on

Rubber Soul

Parlophone — PMC 1267

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Story

"Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)", otherwise known as simply "Norwegian Wood", is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1965 album Rubber Soul. It was written mainly by John Lennon, with lyrical contributions from Paul McCartney, and credited to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership. Influenced by the introspective lyrics of Bob Dylan, the song is considered a milestone in the Beatles' development as songwriters. [Wikipedia]

Lennon wrote it as a coded confession to Cynthia about an extramarital affair (most likely with a journalist; Lennon was deliberately cryptic). The 'Norwegian wood' of the title was, McCartney later explained, the cheap pine cladding then fashionable in London flats — 'we were trying to get away from the saying it straight.' George Harrison's sitar debut on 'Norwegian Wood' marks a watershed moment in Western popular music's adoption of Indian classical instruments. Recorded during September-October 1965, the cryptic lyrical narrative—suggesting a cancelled romantic encounter and possible arson—embodied the album's marijuana-influenced introspection. The song's harmonic sophistication reflected Lennon's deepening engagement with folk-rock arrangements and non-Western musical traditions. Lennon's cryptic narrative describes a one-night stand through ambiguous furnishings. George Harrison's beginner-level sitar playing doubles the melody line without elaborate embellishment, framing the song's Dylanesque melancholy. (Kozinn 1995, p. 132, 135)

Cut in October 1965 with George Harrison playing the first sitar to appear on a Western pop record. Harrison had recently bought the instrument during the Help! film shoot and was learning it (his lessons with Ravi Shankar would not begin in earnest until the following year). The take was recorded twice; the second version is the one released. The sitar was overdubbedafter initial guitar-and-vocal tracking, capturing Harrison's carefully learned technique under studio guidance. The song demonstrates Rubber Soul's technical precision: layered acoustic guitars, double-tracked vocals, and capo positioning selected to achieve desired modal tonality. The production required careful microphone placement and mixing under George Martin's direction to balance sitar prominence against vocal clarity (Lewisohn 1988, p. 63-66).

The sitar was recorded on an early overdub session in October 1965.- Mark Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions (1988), p. 65

The sitar introduction and raga-influenced modal structure represented a significant breakthrough for the Beatles' sonic palette. Lennon's sitar part, sensed by acid experimentation and influenced by Crosby's raga exposure, employs an E-major drone characteristic of Indian classical music. (MacDonald 1994, p. 73-74)

The exotic raga phrases Crosby played fascinated Lennon.- Ian MacDonald, MacDonald 1994, p. 74

What's distinctive

At 2:05 it's bottom fifth by length. One of 101 songs led primarily by John. Recorded approximately 8 of 16 into the Rubber Soul Era (late 1965) sessions. Carries the unique tag 'sitar-debut' — no other song shares it. Take count: 5 (highest take number documented in Lewisohn).¹

Recording

Norwegian Wood occupies a sharp pivot in the band’s recording history: the sitar’s first appearance on a Western pop record, cut six months before Tomorrow Never Knows broke the four-track format and ten months before Revolver. The technical story is small in scope — two sessions, a re-make from scratch, a single mono mix from the released take — but the per-track decisions are well documented, and the two primary sources disagree on one detail worth flagging.^1,2
Source conflict per §1 — was the released sitar double-tracked? Lewisohn describes “George Harrison’s double-tracked sitar” on the 12 October first attempt. Kehew & Ryan explicitly correct this for the 21 October released take — “George overdubbed his sitar on Track 2 (and it was not double-tracked as has been previously reported)” — and their four-track layout supports the single-track reading. The two accounts disagree on whether the released sitar is one performance or two; Lewisohn’s account predates K/R by nearly two decades and remains in print, while K/R is the more detailed on the per-track tape geometry. The page flags both rather than resolving the conflict.^1,2

Equipment

Studio	EMI Studios, Abbey Road — Studio Two
Tape machine	Studer J37 four-track²
Console	REDD.51²
Microphones	Neumann U47, U48; AKG C12; STC 4038 (drums)
Outboard / effects	EMI RS124, EMT 140 plate, fuzzbox prototypes
Guitars	Epiphone Casino, Rickenbacker 360-12, Gibson J-160E, sitar (Harrison — first Beatles sitar on 'Norwegian Wood')
Amplifiers	Vox AC30, Vox AC50, Fender Showman

Recording Timeline

12 October 1965 — first attempt (take 1), Studio Two — built from John’s double-tracked vocal, George’s double-tracked sitar, Paul’s harmony vocals, Ringo on finger cymbals, tambourine and maraca (no drum kit), plus acoustic guitar and bass. This is the version later released on Anthology 2; Lewisohn’s verdict was that “it was still a brilliant recording, quite different but equally as dazzling as the version which ended up on the LP.”¹
21 October 1965 — re-make (takes 2–4), Studio Two — take 2 had a heavy sitar introduction and no drums or bass; take 3 was predominantly acoustic (two acoustic guitars + Paul’s bass + John/Paul vocals), introducing the acoustic opening that survived to the final; take 4, the released form, folded the sitar back in. The released master is a remix of take 4 only.¹
25 October 1965 — mono remix, Studio Two — Norman Smith’s mono remix from take 4; the canonical released form.¹
26 October 1965 — stereo remix — Smith’s stereo remix from take 4, with the wide hard-Left / hard-Right four-track-to-two routing documented by Kehew & Ryan.^1,2

It is very hard to record because it has a lot of nasty peaks and a very complex wave form. My meter would be going right over into the red, into distortion, without us getting audible value for money. I could have used a limiter but that would have meant losing the sonorous quality.— Norman Smith, on recording the sitar¹

Studio Notes

Studer J37 four-track + REDD.51 console — Studio Two, Norman Smith engineering with Ken Scott as 2nd (his last Beatles LP as engineer). The four-track format constrained every per-track decision; the band would not have an eight-track until Hey Jude at Trident in summer 1968.^1,2
Pre-ADT hand-double-tracked vocals — Lennon’s vocal was “double-tracked in places” by manually recording the same lead twice in unison rather than through Ken Townsend’s Artificial Double Tracking system. ADT did not yet exist in October 1965 — Townsend invented it at the 6 April 1966 Tomorrow Never Knows session — so every pre-Revolver Beatles vocal layering used hand-doubling.¹
Sitar overdub — the first documented use of the instrument on a Western pop record. Lewisohn flags an earlier studio precedent: George Martin produced a Peter Sellers session using sitar and tabla on 16 October 1959, six years earlier and almost unknown to the rock canon. Within months of Rubber Soul the sitar appeared on the Rolling Stones’ “Paint It, Black” and in the Byrds’ work; the instrument’s mid-1960s rock vocabulary traces back to this overdub.¹
Buried “I showed ya!” Lennon aside — at the end of take 4, immediately after the final guitar strum, Lennon’s “I showed ya!” was caught on the session tape; per Kehew & Ryan the closing crash cymbal is abruptly turned down in the original 1965 mixes, likely to suppress the aside. The decision is audible on close listening to the final two seconds of the released masters.²

Releases

1965 UK mono LP (Rubber Soul, Parlophone PMC 1267) — Norman Smith’s mono remix from the 21 October take 4, made 25 October 1965 at Studio Two; the canonical released form (the band attended only the mono mixes through Sgt Pepper).¹
1965 UK stereo LP (Rubber Soul) — Smith’s stereo remix from take 4, made 26 October 1965. Kehew & Ryan document the four-track-to-two routing: tracks 1 & 2 hard Left (bass, 12-string acoustic, sitar), tracks 3 & 4 hard Right (lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitar, percussion, crash). On headphones the sitar sits entirely in one ear.^1,2
1987 George Martin stereo CD (Rubber Soul) — Martin’s 1987 remix from the original four-track, softening the hard-Left/hard-Right panning for modern listening; widely held to lose some of the dry intimacy of the 1965 stereo.
Anthology 2 (1996) — the 12 October 1965 first attempt (take 1), released for the first time; the only documented Beatles version with the original finger-cymbals / tambourine / maraca percussion arrangement.¹
2014 mono CD box set (Rubber Soul) — flat transfer of the 1965 UK mono master; widely held to be the intended form of the record per the band’s documented mono-only attendance.

Sources

Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (New York: Harmony Books, 1988), 63–66.
Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew, Recording the Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albums (Houston: Curvebender Publishing, 2006), chap. 6 and “A Closer Look: 12 October 1965.”

Frequently asked

Who wrote Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)?

“Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” was written by Lennon–McCartney.

Who sings lead on Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)?

The lead vocal on “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” is by John Lennon.

When was Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) recorded?

The released take was recorded 21 October 1965 at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, after a 12 October first attempt.¹

How many takes did Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) require?

Mark Lewisohn's session log documents up to 4 numbered takes; the released form is a remix of the 21 October take 4.¹

On this page

Story

What's distinctive

Recording

Equipment

Recording Timeline

Studio Notes

Releases

Sources

Frequently asked