Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) - Musical Structure

Musical Structure

The song as first released is performed in E major and is one of the few Beatles songs in triple time. An earlier take, released on Anthology 2, is in the key of D major. The song opens with I (E) chord and a vocal melody B note (on the word "I") which is a 5th in the Mixolydian E scale; this shifts to a D natural note (♭7 in the Mixolydian E scale) with the ♭7 (Dadd9) chord on "she", to return, via a 4th (A) melody note on "once" and a suitably ambiguous VI (C#) note on "had", to an equally double entendre 5th (B) melody note on "me" (at a lower octave than the opening B note on "I") with its I (E) chord. Meanwhile the bass emphasises the E tonic in a static harmony. In the bridge (in Em key) the root chord begins at "She asked me", transforms to an IV chord (A) at "where", goes back to i (Em) at "looked" before the bridge runs back to the major verse with a ii7 (F#m7)- V (B) progression that resolves on the appropriate E chord of "I sat on a rug."