The Beatles Share Unreleased ‘Rubber Soul’ Recording
A new recording of ‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’ appears on the forthcoming expanded Special Edition of the 1965 album.
A new recording of The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” has arrived as part of the forthcoming expanded Special Edition of the landmark 1965 album Rubber Soul.
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Following the release of “Michelle (Take 1),” and “Day Tripper (Songwriting Work Tape),” “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (Second Version – Take 2)” is available to listen to now. Rubber Soul Special Edition is out October 2 via UMG and Apple Corps Ltd. and is available to pre-order now across multiple LP, CD and Blu-ray formats.
Newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell, the collection brings 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 U.S. album version and the contemporary “Day Tripper” / “We Can Work It Out” single.
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 on the sitar, which he had discovered during the filming of Help! 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 Harrison playing drone notes on sitar. Harrison added more sitar on tracks two and three, with Lennon and McCartney’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.
Harrison 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.”
Listen to The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (Second Version – Take 2)” here.
