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TL;DR:

  • George Harrison used a sitar on a song from The Beatles’ Rubber Soul.
  • He said the sitar wasn’t good.
  • A famous sitar played had mixed feelings on the song in question.
The Beatles near a window during the 'Rubber Soul' era
The Beatles near a window | Icon and Image / Contributor

George Harrison took issue with an instrument he used in a song from The Beatles’ Rubber Soul. In addition, Indian musician Ravi Shankar had mixed feelings about the song. Despite these opinions, Rubber Soul became a big hit in the United States and the United Kingdom.

George Harrison disliked a sitar he used in a song on The Beatles’ ‘Rubber Soul’

The book George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters includes an interview with George and Shankar from 1997. In it, George discussed the origin of The Beatles’ “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown).” He said the Fab Four were open to taking influence from a variety of sources at the time, including avant-garde music. He revealed the other Beatles liked when George includes a sitar on “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown).”

“So you know, they just thought, ‘Well, that’s good,’ they liked the sound of it,” he said. “And on ‘Norwegian Wood,’ it was one of those songs that just needed something to give it that little extra, and the sitar I’d bought — a very cheap one in a shop called India Craft in London — and even though it sounded bad, it still fitted onto the song, and it gave it that little extra thing, so they were quite happy about it.”

Ravi Shankar did not like The Beatles’ song but he ‘couldn’t believe’ its impact

In the same interview, Shankar was asked what he thought of George’s sitar playing on “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown).” “When my niece and nephews, [laughs] they made me hear this — and that was after I met George, I hadn’t heard anything before that — and I was not much impressed by it, you know,” he said.

On the other hand, Shankar was impressed by the impact the tune had in multiple countries. “But I saw the effect on the young people; I couldn’t believe it, even in India,” he said. “It was not only in the West, but it seemed they were just lapping it up, as you say. [Laughs.] You know, they loved it so much.”

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How the song and The Beatles’ ‘Rubber Soul’ performed on the charts intenationally

“Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” was not a single, so it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The tune appeared on the classic album Rubber Soul. That album reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for six weeks. Rubber Soul lasted on the chart for a total of 70 weeks.

According to The Official Charts Company, “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” never charted in the United Kingdom either. On the other hand, Rubber Soul reached No. 1 in the U.K. for eight weeks, lasting on the chart for 42 weeks in total.

“Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” is an important part of rock ‘n’ roll history, even if George and Shankar had mixed feelings about it.

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