“Norwegian Wood” by The Beatles
Marty E: What was great about being a little kid and being given the gift of music was that I often didn’t understand what a song was “about” and didn’t have the presence of mind to even care. I had few biases or prejudices about anything, so music was a clean slate to be loved for its own sake, on its own merits. So, when I was a 4-year-old (yes, I remember), listening to John Lennon sing this sort-of satirical song about torching a pretentious lover’s expensive furniture; or I guess it wasn’t furniture as he “noticed there wasn’t a chair”(Hahahahahaha!!!)
It’s weird, I remember when he sang, “…and then she said, it’s time for bed…”, I thought about how much I HATED going to bed! Then he mentions crashing in the bathtub. It was to be quite a few years before I experienced that!
On that note, once I got a little older and started listening to everything from the likes of Prince to the Sisters of Mercy to….well, Dokken…my Beatles records took a back seat and I forgot all about them until I walked into my favorite English, my major, class in college, English 160, Intro to Texts, one day. The Professor asked us to get out three blank sheets of paper and a writing utensil. He told us that he was going to play us three songs on this portable record player and give us a minute or two after each one to quickly write down our thoughts, as they came to us.
You guessed it. the first song he played was this one. Mind: BLOWN. I got up and read what I wrote in front of the class; about being in my parents’ house listening to this and how I hadn’t thought about this song in eons…and…you know the rest. Of course, by that point, I understood the comical nature of dating and relationships and getting drunk and crashing in a bathtub, etc. But what struck me the most was that I just couldn’t shake the wide-eyed, wistful awestruck feeling that the song gave me.
5songpjct: Yeah I like that juxtaposition with it being happy, waltzy and sing-songy, but ultimately about being abandoned in an awkward spot.
Marty E: And being a dick and torching the place. As a kid you didn’t understand what was going on. I can’t remember for the life of me who gave me the Beatles – Rubber Soul album, but it remains my favorite of theirs to this day.
COMING UP TOMORROW… opening for your idols