Norwegian Wood by The Beatles: Song Analysis

The song opens with a sweepingly catchy acoustic seam that seamlessly evokes sense of nostalgic longing. This feeling of distress and reflection permeates throughout the piece. While the arrangement is actually quite complex, the medicine appears stripped down to the casual listener the song is centered close to a mall lick performed simultaneously on acoustic guitar and sitar, which Is Introduced at the beginning and decidedly does not evolve into anything beyond this. The simplistic anatomical structure brings to mind a sensation of lone business organizationss, which is heightened by Lemons yearning vocals.The soothing melody can be described as dreamlike, and the petition is used to about hypnotic effect, succeeding in ministering the concentrated listener into a peaceful, reflective daze. The short length of the song Is somewhat Jarring (It ends just after(prenominal)ward two minutes) because Just as the listener has been subdued by the pathogenic melody, they are aband oned by It just as quickly. It feels as though there should be more as if there is something missing. I would argue, however, that this is scarcely the effect The Battles intended, as it adds to the ambiguous nature of the song. The production of the song, courtesy of GeorgeMartin, succeeds in bringing the contagious melody to the forefront of the experience, all the while allowing the symmetry of the Instruments sufficient clarity. Ambiguity Is also achieved through the songs lyrics, which describe a patently clandestine love familiarity between Lennox and an unnamed wo human. The song opens with the line I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me, suggesting that not only is the relationship mysterious to the listener, but also inconclusive to the man involved in it. The lyrics continue to outline a strained evening of the couple talking, ranking wine, and eventually going to bed in set forth rooms.Much speculation has been made as to what the song Is actually about , especially the final exam lines And when I awoke, I was alone, this bird had flown / So 1 11th a fire, Isnt It good, Norwegian wood. Some believe that the fire being lit is a joint of marijuana, or that the man burns the house down after the woman makes him sleep in the bath. In The Battles Anthology, Lennox says of the lyrics Norwegian Wood was about an affair I was having. I was very careful and paranoid because I didnt compulsion my wife, CCNY, to know that there authoritatively was something owing on outside the household.Id ceaselessly had some kind of affairs going, so I was trying to De innovative In writing auto an tall, out In sun a smokescreen way that you couldnt tell. (196) Like many of The Battles innovations in sound, the incorporation of the sitar came from self-generated experimentation. In The Battles Anthology, George Harrison recalls I went and bought a sitar from a little shop at the top of Oxford Street called Antiaircraft it stocked little carvings, an d incense. It was a real crummy-quality one, actually, but I bought it and mucked just about with it a bit.Anywayay, we were at the mint where wed put down the Norwegian Wood backing snub (twelve-string and six- string acoustic, bass and drums) and it needed something. We would normally 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 hadnt really figured out what to do with it. It was quite self-produced I found the notes that played the lick. It fitted and it worked. (196) Norwegian Wood is the second track on Rubber Soul, following the upbeat Drive My Car and is followed by the also light-hearted muff Wont See Me.