Beatles: Norwegian Wood Meaning

Song Released: 1965

Norwegian Wood Lyrics

I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me.
She showed me her room, isn’t it good, norwegian wood?
She asked me to stay and she told me to sit anywhere,
So I looked around and I noticed there wasn’t a chair.
I sat on a rug, biding my...

1. anonymous

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   Feb 28th 2012 !⃝

   call me an optimist but your all filthy.
   every theory has holes except this:
   guy meets a girl, gets a bit obsessed, she likes him, go's to her place, they get a bit drunk, shes like DENIED, he's like fine ill go sleep in the bath, he wakes up, shes gone, he lights a fire IN THE HEARTH (he said he was cold), and waits for her. cause he likes her, and she likes him, and for gosh sakes they talked till two she was no whore, come on people stop reading between the lines if you cant read the line itself
2. anonymous

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   May 31st 2011 !⃝

   This song is a song about hippie love, as some1 previusely said. its not a prostetute,but a girl he mes somewhere. They sit on the floor like some steryotype hippies and have a good time. then its late and they got to bed. there they do whatever they wanted too, and John went to sleep in the bath so she wouldent wake him up when she went to work.
3. anonymous

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   Apr 18th 2011 !⃝

   The song is about a guy who goes to a chicks flat in hopes of a 1 night stand. She plays head games with him and leaves in the morning, so he decides to take some of her furnature made of wood from Norway and build a fire to keep warm in the shanty flat. Lennon likes to write songs that have negativity in them. He was the original punk rocker, ahead of his time.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
4. anonymous

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   Feb 9th 2011 !⃝

   Yes, this song was about having an affair, with a reporter. She's playing hard to get, hence: "She told me she worked in the mourning and started to laugh, I told her I didn't and I crawled out to sleep in the bath". Then when he woke up and she was gone he "burned some Norwegian wood". Meaning in my opinion, Norwegian wood is a pun for "smoking Weed". Hence:"Isn't it good, Norwegian Wood". That's just my opinion. Of course only John Lennon knows.
5. anonymous

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   Oct 5th 2010 !⃝

   I mostly agree with May 22, 2008 anonymous, but you left out a few details. I think the writer knew exactly whom he was dealing with. He begins by explaining that the girl got a lot more than he did that night (she [once] had me). We, the listener, later discover that in spite of his drunkenness, he pleased his date, and then in his plastered state, “crawls out to sleep in the bath” He’s so drunk, he crawls to the tub where he can pass out and still have a place to throw up. So anyway, after a night of fun, and lots of drinking at the local club, the girl/prostitute invites him back to “her room” – the flat where she takes all of her “johns” (no pun). There is no furniture, just a bed. Fine with him - isn’t it good “Knowing She Would” have sex with him throughout the night of partying, and now it’s confirmed – only a bed. So she tells him sit anywhere or “make yourself at home” so he does just that. The writer takes no time in beginning his lovemaking – first having oral sex with her (she having him or he doing her). I would not put it pass John to cleverly refer to the girl’s pubic hair as “her rug”. “Biting my time, drinking her wine’ leaves little to the imagination. Eric Burton of the Animals and later WAR, sang similarly in the song “Spill the Wine” and sang “take that pearl” and “dig that pearl”, with the same play on words – the pearl obviously the clitoris. We “talked” until 2 (am) meant it was a long session of mutual pleasure, taking his time down there and finally, she wanted intercourse (it’s time for bed). She then hastily stated that even a hooker has to work in the morning, so they should hurry, do it and get some rest – occurring to her that she just had a satisfying workout – the whole notion funny to her, and she laughed. The writer appears to have had enough for the moment and crawls to the tub to throw up. After sleeping in the bathroom all night, he realizes that it is morning and the girl has left, probably hours ago and is already doing her thing. So, he lights up a joint, reminisces about his evening; enjoying his smoke and before leaving himself, thinking – I didn’t get laid, instead she had me but, isn’t it good “Knowing She Would”.
6. anonymous

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   Jul 28th 2010 !⃝

   Guese what, John was ACTUALLY Imitating Bob Dylan Songs! I'm sorry BUT IT'S TRUE!
7. Stargate

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   Jun 25th 2010 !⃝

   Do you think there could be the possibility that this girl never actually existed? Just a figment of his imagination (or drug inspired)?
   
   'And when I awoke, I was alone, this bird had flown."
   
   The whole song has an unreal feel about it. Like the man is in an altered state of consciousness.
   
   
8. Acquitaine

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   Mar 26th 2010 !⃝

   C'mon, folks, this one is obvious. John finds he is not really in the mood after all---- after he gets alone with this woman he thought he lusted after. See famous journalist Maureen Cleves), reportedly never consummated. He has some conflict about having the affair (Poor Cyn). "She told me she worked in the morning and started to laugh" (meaning she's laughing nervously-as in "Are we going to do this or not?"). I told her I didn't (ie he didn't work 9-5) and crawled off to sleep inthe bath. Obvious. He has imbibed too much--alcohol, drugs, whatever, and can't perform so he CRAWLS off to sleep in the bath. It is so endearing--John was not you're typical 5 girls a night rock star. He is cerebral and he's not feeling the connection, and wondering how he allowed himself to get into this situation. This bird has flown-meaning, boy, I blew it. Here I'm supposed to be this virile rock star, and I'm just feeling forced here, like I have to perform.Try it on.I love this song becasue it shows the Beatles were just like any one of us.
9. anonymous

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   Feb 17th 2010 !⃝

   This song was written by John about his affair with Yoko. It was the first time he stayed the night with Yoko.
   
   "She asked me to stay and she told me to sit anywhere,
   So I looked around and I noticed there wasn't a chair."
   
   Yoko's japanese that's why there was no chair in her flat.
   
   "She told me she worked in the morning and started to laugh.
   I told her I didn't, and crawled off to sleep in the bath"
   
   Yoko has to go to work in the morning and she laughed bec she knows john doesn't go to work from 9 to 5 obviously. John slept in the bath because nothing happened that first night. They just talked until 2am.
10. anonymous

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    Feb 8th 2010 !⃝

    The song is definately about having sex with a prostitute, hence the name of the famous liverpool brothel.
    'I once had a girl or should i say she once had me,' i think that this line speaks for itself in this context.
11. me1

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    Dec 30th 2009 !⃝

    This song is about a certain girl John knew who lived above him at the time in London give you a hint FREEMAN her husband was a photographer and her living room was furnished with dark brown Norwegian wood the clues are there but few really know :) 1 more hint she was a model and in a very famous calendar :)
12. loomis

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    Aug 7th 2009 !⃝

    All wrong!
    
    It's a much sweeter, more innocent "Mrs Robinson" type song. John's being seduced by an older and/or more experienced woman "or should I say, she once had me".
    
    Maybe even what could have been his first time.
    
    "She told me to sit anywhere...there wasn't a chair"
    
    He's got no clue that she wants him sexually. There's nowhere to sit but in her bed.
    
    "She told me she worked in the morning and started to laugh...I told her I didn't and went off to sleep in the bath"
    
    He's still got no clue what she's getting at. Like a naive virgin he gets all the obvious signals wrong. She's insinuating she wants him for the night, he takes it that she wants to get some sleep and so he sleeps in the bath.
    
    "This bird has flown".
    
    He finally realizes what he's missed out on.
    
    Everyone, even John, had his "first time", or perhaps a "first time seduction by an older, more experienced woman" that he missed out on.
    
    "This Bird has Flown"
13. anonymous

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    May 2nd 2009 !⃝

    Men always "have women"; never the other way around - unless she led him on... Its a tavern story, where we're being told an amorous ale with a lennon twist. the cock is sure of his quest (knowing she would), but she lays him not (Norwegian wood, fake stuff - false intentions). She said to stay, but she didn't mean it (no chairs for guests). She liked a man's company but she had no sexual intentions. She talked the evening away. She had his mind; he got nothing. When she says bed, his ears perk up, but she means sleep, cause she's a working girl. but his ego is flattened because when a woman goes for you, girl-jobs don't matter. he takes the hint and sleeps in the tub (hard & cold, not like a woman). and he crawls because his ego's been put down. we comfort women when they need us; we crawl away when they don't. in the morn, he's cold and lonely; not like when you awake with a woman. to him, she was just another bird. to her, she could see that he was not sincere, like Norwegian Wood. we think that she is a tease (no sex), but to her, he is a tease (no job). to warm himself, he burns her memory, but in the refrain he always remembers her phrase and her face when he started to fall for her as she said "isn’t it good, norwegian wood" when he thought he was going to get lucky "knowing she would". or was she addressing him as Norwegian Wood??
14. anonymous

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    May 2nd 2009 !⃝

    it's all about knowing she wood, mon. one takes the time to know her or the mixin' up becomes lonely. you got to get to know her.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
15. anonymous

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    Mar 22nd 2009 !⃝

    People are nuts thinking Lennon was singing about arson with a prostitute. It is a hippy song about love and no traditional respect for time and conformity. "I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me" that's not about paying for sex, it's simply stating that it was a mutually pleasurable experience. Then, two hippies sitting on the floor, conversing about life, and drinking wine. "She told me she worked in the morning and started to laugh, I told her I didn't and crawled up to sleep in the bath" A statement about how pleasure is the reason for life (in her life seeing as how she starts work soon) and then taking it one step further with sleeping in the bath. Sleeping there so as not to be woken when she gets up early - to each his own. The last line is not about arson, simply that he just got up and wanted to sit by the fire, although it was not his house, he felt comfortable (ever hear 'imagine no possessions'?)

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