To have only just realised this about Norwegian Wood?

[StVincent]

This song was on the radio earlier - how have I not noticed before that it's about a man burning a woman's furniture/house as revenge for her not sleeping with him?

Tell me I'm not the only one!

... so wait, the female singer isn't his current partner? So why is he singing with her? Why doesn't he dump current partner & then he could shag the co-duet person.

I need to go lie down in a dark room.

I always thought it was a particularly excellent erection for a Norwegian woman. Im really quite disappointed now.

I still think he's just admiring her furniture!!

It's a hideous song.

But I expect Stella will be along in a moment to disagree.

yes, yes, lots of people have spectacularly misunderstood it too.

Wow. so the song is not even set in Norway? All these years I've had the wrong idea. I'm gutted.

My visual has always been of a couple enjoying an evening together, most definitely with sex (I once had a girl, or should I say she once had me) so I took that to mean she was in control and seduced him and then kicked him out of bed to sleep in the bath afterwards because she wasn't really all that into him.

And there they were in some Hyggesville cabin in a Norwegian Wood, all log burners and sheepskin rugs and mulled wine.

And in the morning she got up and went out and he sat there twiddling his thumbs waiting for her and lit a fire to keep warm and to ramp up the Hygge factor.

I am gutted that I now know he was in some tacky orange pine-clad bedsit in Wembley and decided to burn her house down because she wouldn't sleep with him. Thirty five years I've loved that song and it's all ruined.

Thinking about it "she once had me" maybe means "conned" as in "you've been had" ie she led him on to expect sex then booted him into the bath. (I know double meanings aren't everyone's cup of tea, but JL loved them)

I really like your Hygge version though, slottedspoon, you carry on.

"Wow. so the song is not even set in Norway?"

Oh mate I am sorry. Maybe it is. I love your interpretation and will forever onwards picture the whole thing taking place in a cosy cabin in Norway, with our protagonist kindly lighting the fire to keep it cosy.

Yes I have always had an unreasoning dislike for this song and it's twee, insipid intro while never really listening to the lyrics.

Then I read the book and saw the actual lyrics, and am very glad to have a real reason to dislike it!

It is a hilarious joke song about burning down a woman's house, who definitely deserved it for 'leading him on' and not sleeping with him. And we all have a good laugh. Particularly coming from John Lennon and his very dubious history of relationships with women...

I agree to an extent, and I'm not keen on the song either, but a thing to remember is there are lots of songs that are told as stories, we shouldn't assume complete identification of the writer with the speaker of the song.

John Lennon is not really the Walrus, for example, and the BeeGees aren't on Death Row while they're singing Got to get a Message to you.

I agree Dry - his attitudes to women are well dodgy and that occasionally does come through. (Run for Your Life is scary and my dad always skips it on the grounds of misogyny)

But what the hell Satsuki? Where did the Beatles live then, if not a yellow submarine? Is this why Tom Jones isn't in jail for the killing of Delilah? :o

I never really thought about the lyrics, but I've always visualised a snowy forest full of pine trees with a little cottage in a clearing whenever I've heard the song.

I thought that meatloaf wouldn't let her touch his anus....I'm not even kidding it always makes me think that she wants to put something up his arse.

I also thought Norweigian wood was a euphemism for an erection with a Norwegian lady.

I'm just realising that I have a filthy mind

This is a thread for shattering illiusions, it's seems stvincent - though it may no bad thing in the case of Lucille, there

I'm with you on JL - but thought it was Paul McCartney who came up with the fire idea, and he always seemed uxorious. Could be wrong though. Looking up the lyrics to Run for Your Life, now.

horrible!

I'm so glad you said that morning I was starting feel like the only deluded fool on this thread

I told you, I've officially joined Team Log Cabin

I always felt sorry for bath sleeper....then on the album 'Girl' came next and I thought it was about the same woman. I thought, he's right pissed of now, she's being a real biatch. I also thought the lyrics 'and I do appreciate you being round' in Help! Was about his friend who was literally round like a ball. The 7 year old mind eh?

Little green (good name) - I had the same illusion, that the whole of Rubber Soul was about one relationship, in order. Was very confusing! How could "I'm looking through you" come just before "in my life"?

Just heard this on Radio 2 and came on to start a thread about what a horrible misogynistic lyric it is. He sets fire to her house because she slighted him. Never listened to it properly before. Depressing.

I always thought she was trying to seduce him but he was too naive to realise. Hence sitting on the rug because there was no chair when she clearly wanted him to sit on the bed and then when she pushes that it’s time to go to bed, instead of getting in with her he goes and sleeps in the bath.

I’m not getting the arson thing at all. We always used to say (about the gas fire in the lounge) “could you light the fire? It’s gettinf cold.” I have not rtwt but why is it definitely arson (ignoring McCartney).