Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) - Bass Line Video

Here's a cover of Paul McCartney's bass line on the Lennon/McCartney (but primarily Lennon) song "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" from the Beatles' 1965 album Rubber Soul. This was the second song recorded for the album, but was completed on the first day of recording, along with "Run for Your Life." The bass line on "Norwegian Wood" is fairly straightforward and not as adventurous as McCartney's bass lines on "Nowhere Man," "You Won't See Me," and many others on this album. It is, however, solid, functional, and an entirely appropriate bass line for the song. Playing a more active line may have distracted from the simplicity of the song.

The song was inspired in large part by Bob Dylan, who had demonstrated that pop/rock songs could be more sophisticated lyrically than the traditional "teen romance" song of the 1950s and early 1960s. The song is notable for being the first widely released popular song to feature an Indian sitar, played on this occasion by George Harrison. 



I am playing a 1985 Rickenbacker 4003 through a SansAmp VT Bass Deluxe. My bass is strung with LaBella flatwound strings. 

Music and lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

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