The Beatles share unheard ‘Norwegian Wood’ take with George Harrison on sitar
The latest track to emerge from the upcoming special edition of 'Rubber Soul'
By Nick Reilly
The Beatles have shared an unheard early version of their song ‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’, which features the late great George Harrison on the sitar.
The new song will feature on the upcoming expanded Special Edition of Rubber Soul, which is released on October 2, featuring a wide array of unreleased session recordings and home demos.
The band previously shared ‘Michelle (Take 1)’, which was later followed up by an early “songwriting work tape” which revealed the genesis of ‘Day Tripper’.
A third preview now comes in the form of ‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’, which is the first recording of the classic Rubber Soul track and sees Harrison fully exploring the sitar for the first time.
Three further takes were later recorded and the final version begins with an instrumental take on the main melody, but this track sees a double-tracked sitar leading proceedings.
George Harrison previously said: “It felt very familiar to me to listen to that music. Around that time I’d bought a cheap sitar in a shop called Indiacraft in London.
“When we were working on ‘Norwegian Wood’, it just needed something and it was quite spontaneous. I picked the sitar up and kind of found the notes. We put it on and it seemed to hit the spot and that was it.”
The late recording is mixed by producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell, and comes ahead of the full Rubber Soul release on October 2.
The record also features a Special Edition Standard with 14 songs, the Special Edition Deluxe which has 30 tracks, and the Blu-ray Edition which includes 16 tracks and four videos.