Cortically Magnified

“Once I had a girl, or should I say, she once had me” sang John Lennon in Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), the second track of the classic Beatles album Rubber Soul. Released in 1965, this innovative composition, widely considered a Rock and Roll canon heralding the maturation of the relatively young art form, immortalized John Lennon’s extramarital affair with an unidentified woman, popularized the use of the sitar in Western music, and unintentionally led to the creation of one of the most clichéd imageries in Asia.