Though he probably has a handful of better songs, "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" is perhaps the epitome of John Lennon. With a lovely melody, that famous sitar line giving it some dignity and Lennon's relaxed voice (with partner Paul McCartney joining in here and there), it is a joy to listen to. A lot has been made of the influence Bob Dylan played on it as well as his alleged parody "4th Time Around" but simply unraveling the story establishes that by far the most important figure involved was Lennon himself. Think about it: he is explaining where he was the night before to a woman (presumably his wife), acknowledges that, yes, he did go to another woman's place only for him to claim that nothing happened beyond lots of talking and plenty of wine being downed. They stayed up late, he slept in the bath and then got up and burned her house down out of "revenge" or, as I prefer it, to hide the evidence.
"Norwegian Wood" is a spin job. Lennon's clearly lying. Of course he didn't burn down her place. He did, however, sleep with the woman he was visiting. Yet, people scarcely noticed at the time and it doesn't even get brought up nowadays. All anyone could say about it was how much Lennon had been maturing as a songwriter and how nice that mysterious stringed instrument sounded. The power of Beatlemania was such that a scandalous topic could be easily ignored.
Less than a decade earlier with a duo that Lennon admired, this was anything but the case. In "Wake Up Little Susie" you have a young man having accidentally fallen asleep and in a panic that he and his girlfriend are coming home way past curfew. Mostly, the stress is on her and how her parents are going to react ("What we gonna tell your Mama? What are we gonna tell your pa?") with his folks not even mentioned. He's expecting to get joshed by his chums but otherwise he's coming out of it largely unscathed.
It's possible though that there's as much of a spin job going on in "Susie" as there is in "Norwegian Wood". What if the young man is coaching his girlfriend, feeding her some crap about watching a boring movie that led them to falling asleep from at least ten until four in the morning. Maybe it's just me being a very light sleeper but a six hour nap seems implausible. (That said, my wife's sleep habits would beg to differ) There are other holes in this tale. If they were supposed to be at a Drive In movie, why didn't an attendant knock on the windshield of their car to get them to clear out? Somehow I doubt that the songwriting couple Felice and Boudleaux Bryant considered all the variables as they churned this number out. It's possible that it's only because of "Norwegian Wood" and, as we'll get to at the end of this review, "Papa Don't Preach" that "Susie" seems more suggestive than it was ever intended to be
Not that it didn't cause some controversy when it came out. Through modern ears we can listen to "Wake Up Little Susie" and wonder what all the fuss was about, as well as refuting the notion that people being easily offended is some kind of modern phenomenon. The people of Boston threw such a shit fit that it got banned in a city that is now lampooned for its foul-mouthed citizens. (I had no idea the practice of prohibiting certain pieces of music, films and books in the capital of Massachusetts was so commonplace as to merit its own Wikipedia page) Just to broach the subject of a young, unmarried couple falling asleep next to one another was bound to ruffle the feathers of the hardline church bible-thumpers of the day; if only they knew how much worse it was going to get for them. Leaving the self-righteous aside, it's nice to imagine how youngsters would've reacted when they first heard this latest offering from Don and Phil Everly. I can imagine being caught up in the rebellious thrill of being out all night with a member of the opposite sex while feeling sympathetic to the kind of grief that awaited them when they returned home.
One thing that has long bothered me, however, is the use of 'trouble deep' in the lyrics. I was thinking that it comes up a lot in pop, perhaps even as frequently as the tired 'don't mean maybe'. Then I concluded that it has only cropped up in a pair of songs, albeit both very prominent. Nearly thirty years after "Susie" caused a furor in Boston (and elsewhere), Madonna sang about getting knocked up on her 1986 smash "Papa Don't Preach". Unable to pretend she hadn't been up to something, her pregnancy had left her in 'trouble deep'. I haven't tried to write a song since I was a teenager with silly aspirations but I wouldn't use it. Nor would Lennon I daresay ('I told my wife about it and she said that I am a creep / I wish I'd said nothing cos now I am in trouble deep': "Norwegian Wood" didn't need that extra verse, did it?). I don't care for the lyrical twist but I appreciate the subtle nod. Of course Madonna and co-writer Brian Elliot intended to pay tribute to a hit single that paved the way for it. (It's just too bad they had to spoil it with the use of (shudder) 'don't mean maybe'. Oh dear)
But why must I get so bogged down by details I can't really prove? While not quite as great as "Bye, Bye Love", "Wake Up Little Susie" is a wonderful single. The big Everly Brother hits (along with the two just mentioned, "All I Have to Do Is Dream" and "Cathy's Clown" are the others I associate with them) seem baked into my conscious. Yet there are things I'd missed along the way. They're a lot more country than I remember. Don and Phil Everly don't sound as milk-fed and naive as I imagined either. And you know else? Good on them for standing by old Suse when plenty of other boys their age would have left her to face the music alone. They're in trouble deep, not just her.
Score: 8
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