Is it me or is "Norwegian Wood" the saddest song ever?

Something about this song struck me as it never had before. For the uninformed, the song is all about Lennon having an affair since his first marriage was dead. It's all "read between the lines" but the song seems to be 100% more effective that way. (Keep in mind the girl referred to in "I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me" is referring to his wife, the woman in the rest of the song is his affair.)

You can feel all of John's melancholy throught this song.

Anyone else feel this way?

Until he burns her flat down at the end in revenge.

("So, I lit the fire. Isn't it good, Norwegian Wood.")

Yeah I heard Paul joked about that.

Not sure that's what John had in mind, but when he sings "Norwegian Wood" he's covering for what was the original lyric "Knowing she would."

Listen to the song and replace the two and the song takes on a whole different edge...

My house is like a friggin' museum (I was going bonkers on Ebay for a while there!)!

Do you have a butcher cover? And if so can I see?

Oh and do you have one of the few "Get Back" promo albums released to radio stations (with the blue album cover)?

The Beatles RAWKED!

original "Butcher Poster" produced by the NYT for an article about the controversy surrounding the album cover. I too bought it on ebay, wouldn't part with it for the world though.

I never looked at it that way. I guess I always heard it as something of a "one night stand" that didn't go anywhere, so he torched a doobie and that was that.

It is a one night stand at her place:

"I once had a girl
Or should I say she once had me.
She showed me her room
Isn't it good? Norwegian Wood."

That's what her flat is build out of.

They stay up all night talking and drinking, but he is eventually rebuffed:

"She told me she worked in the morning and started to laugh
I told her I didn't and crawled out to sleep in the bath"

At the end, I think he's pretty bummed about the whole thing:

"And when I awoke
I was alone
this bird had flown
So I lit the fire
isn't it good, Norwegian Wood"

Not a doobie. Arson.

"I once had a girl
Or should I say she once had me."

This is about Cynthia. Their marriage is dying.

Suddenly we switch to where John is now, with a girl he met

"She showed me her room
Isn't it good? Norwegian Wood."

It actually changes in meaning knowing what John intended to say...

"She showed me her room
Isn't it good? Knowing she would."

Then we go onto the affair...or attempt. Someone chickens out, maybe her, maybe John...but knowing the context of which the song was written sheds light on it.

"I once had a girl, or should I say she once had me.
She showed me her room, isn't it good, Norwegian Wood."

The "she" is the same person throughout, there's no reason to assume he's talking about someone different in the second line.

When he says "or should I say she once had me" he is making reference to feeling as if he'd been "had." He spent all night courting her, and, dammit, she shuffles off to bed and leaves him to sleep in the tub.

That's why he sets the place on fire.


The original words, "knowing she would", does put an interesting spin on it, but the whole meaning of the released version of the song is different when your remove those words and change what happened. In the first version, he's with her because he knows she'll put out ("isn't it good, knowing she would"). In the final version, she doesn't put out so he burns her place down ("isn't it good, norwegian wood").

He joked in a kind of "yeah, right" sort of way with that interpretation...otherwise I might go for it..

from "knowing she would" to "Norwegian Wood"?

They always joked about how people interpreted their lyrics, even when they were spot on.

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds has nothing whatsoever to do with LSD, right? It was just a picture the Julian drew. Boy, were they shocked when people thought it had something to do with drugs!

It's such a beautiful song.

The saddest song for me is Abraham Martin and John, made even more so by a tribute to Sen Wellstone's death which incorporated that song. I believe I got it from TBTM and since have tried to access the link I saved but have been unsuccessful. It's a tear jerker. :cry:

I just love the song. :)

I never listened much to the lyrics though. Interesting.

one of the best songs ever>
,
./
.
.
IN FACT, THE BEST ALBUM EVER WAS RUBBER SOUL

:evilgrin:

but I did think the "guy" in question was a psychopath....crawling off the sleep in the bath...burning the place down...

"I can't make you love me" Can't remember who wrote it, but Bonnie Raitt sings it.

I think "The Dance" by Garth Brooks is the saddest song ever. :cry:

:D

Just kidding; he really did some great pop writing, but 'Norwegian Wood' is one of my least favorite '65-and-on Beatles songs.

is For No One off of Revolver.

Your day breaks, your mind aches
You find that all the words of kindness linger on
When she no longer needs you

She wakes up, she makes up
She takes her time and doesn’t feel she has to hurry
She no longer needs you

And in her eyes you see nothing
No sign of love behind the tears
Cried for no one
A love that should have lasted years!

You want her, you need her
And yet you don’t believe her when she said her love is dead
You think she needs you

And in her eyes you see nothing
No sign of love behind the tears
Cried for no one
A love that should have lasted years!

You stay home, she goes out
She says that long ago she knew someone but now he’s gone
She doesn’t need him

Your day breaks, your mind aches
There will be time when all the things she said will fil your head
You won’t forget her

And in her eyes you see nothing
No sign of love behind the tears
Cried for no one
A love that should have lasted years!

The saddest song ever for me is Bruce Springsteen's The River:

I come from down in the valley
where mister when you're young
They bring you up to do like your daddy done
Me and Mary we met in high school
when she was just seventeen
We'd ride out of that valley down to where the fields were green

We'd go down to the river
And into the river we'd dive
Oh down to the river we'd ride

Then I got Mary pregnant
and man that was all she wrote
And for my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat
We went down to the courthouse
and the judge put it all to rest
No wedding day smiles no walk down the aisle
No flowers no wedding dress

That night we went down to the river
And into the river we'd dive
Oh down to the river we did ride

I got a job working construction for the Johnstown Company
But lately there ain't been much work on account of the economy
Now all them things that seemed so important
Well mister they vanished right into the air
Now I just act like I don't remember
Mary acts like she don't care

But I remember us riding in my brother's car
Her body tan and wet down at the reservoir
At night on them banks I'd lie awake
And pull her close just to feel each breath she'd take
Now those memories come back to haunt me
they haunt me like a curse
Is a dream a lie if it don't come true
Or is it something worse
that sends me down to the river
though I know the river is dry
That sends me down to the river tonight
Down to the river
my baby and I
Oh down to the river we ride

The old home town still looks the same
As I step down off the train

I get a lump in my throat every time I spin it!

What about Carroll County Accident?

Although that one might be more appropriate in the "Creepiest Ditty" thread. :shrug:

I've been meaning to listen in to your show but I don't ever think about it at the right time. Maybe you'll play some Gladys Knight for me?

Face in a jar and nobody came to her funeral FOR THE LOVE OF GAWD, OH THE SAD, SAD, PAIN! AND SHE SPENT HER ENTIRE LIFE ALONE WHILE DARNING SOCKS FOR CHRIST'S SAKE! Oh the humanity.

But my vote for a song that makes me the most melancholy is George Harrison's "Isn't It a Pity."

;)

Maybe not the saddest song ever, but it was written for me and lots of other steelworker's "kids". Everytime I hear it, it makes me sad.

Allentown - Billy Joel

Well we're living here in Allentown
And they're closing all the factories down
Out in Bethlehem they're killing time
Filling out forms
Standing in line

Well our fathers fought the Second World War
Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore
Met our mothers in the USO
Asked them to dance
Danced with them slow

And we're living here in Allentown
But the restlessness was handed down
And it's getting very hard to stay

Well we're waiting here in Allentown
For the Pennsylvania we never found
For the promises our teachers gave
If we worked hard
If we behaved

So the graduations hang on the wall
But they never really helped us at all
No they never taught us what was real
Iron and coke
And chromium steel

And we're waiting here in Allentown
But they've taken all the coal from the ground
And the union people crawled away

Every child has a pretty good shot
To get at least as far as their old man got
But something happened on the way to that place
They threw an American flag in our place

Well I'm living here in Allentown
And it's hard to keep a good man down
But I won't be getting very hard to stay
And we're living here in Allentown

As a parent, it kinda gets to me.