10 Legendary Rock Songs That Feature Weird Instruments

After the Beatles wrapped up production on Help!, they were already getting a bit desensitized to the media circus that had been created around them. Beatlemania had not let up for a second, and there came a time when the Fab Four really needed a break from the madness. Right before they permanently retired from the road, we got the first taste of what they were like as studio labrats on Rubber Soul.

While there are a ton of subtle touches added to the mix this time around like the sped up piano on In My Life, the real gamechanger was George Harrison using a sitar on Norwegian Wood. Harrison had originally become fascinated with the sounds of Eastern music after filming a few scenes in Help! where musicians play Beatles songs on Indian instruments. Although Harrison had just started to learn the instrument at the time, John Lennon thought it would be a perfect addition to his song about a romantic rendezvous that ends with him being left alone to sleep in the bathtub.

This would be one of the first times that an Eastern instrument was used on a Western pop song, and the rest of the rock scene would follow suit, from the sounds of Flower Power happening in San Francisco a few years later to the sitar popping up in rival songs like Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones. The Beatles may have been leaving the touring life behind for good, but this was the first sign that they were going to remain ahead of the curve.