UMG and Apple Corps Ltd. release ‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (Second Version – Take 2)’ from the forthcoming expanded Special Edition of The Beatles’ landmark 1965 album Rubber Soul. Pre-Order here
The first version of what was then called ‘This Bird Has Flown’ was recorded during the first day of sessions for Rubber Soul and featured George Harrison’s new discovery, the sitar. The band were not happy with this version, so nine days later they taped three more performances.
On take two, track one featured John Lennon’s acoustic guitar, Paul McCartney’s bass, Ringo Starr on drums and George playing drone notes on sitar. George added more sitar on tracks two and three, with John and Paul’s vocals also recorded on track three. Rather than starting with an instrumental version of the verse melody, as the final version does, this arrangement opens with double-tracked sitar playing the tune of the bridge section.
George had first been exposed to the sound of the sitar during the filming of Help! and became increasingly curious about Indian music. During a meeting with members of The Byrds in Los Angeles, David Crosby spoke about the music of Ravi Shankar, which prompted George to explore his recordings.
George explained how the instrument came to be used: “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.”
‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (Second Version – Take 2)’ is included in the forthcoming Rubber Soul Special Edition, newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell. The expanded collection opens the studio doors on the making of Rubber Soul, bringing together 24 early session recordings, including 20 previously unreleased takes and three previously unreleased home demos, alongside the album’s new stereo mix, original mono mix, original Capitol US album version and the contemporary ‘Day Tripper’ / ‘We Can Work It Out’ single.
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