page_title: Savoy Truffle
section_title: Composition
hierarchical_section_title: Savoy Truffle / Composition
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Schokolade - Pralinen
context_page_description: "Savoy Truffle" is a song by the English rock group the Beatles from their 1968 album The Beatles. The song was written by George Harrison and inspired by his friend Eric Clapton's fondness for chocolate. The lyrics list the various flavours offered in Mackintosh's Good News chocolates and serve as a warning to Clapton about the detrimental effect that his gorging would have on his teeth. Along with Clapton's guest appearance on the White Album track "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and Harrison reciprocating on Cream's "Badge", it is one of several songs that mark the start of a long-lasting musical association between the two guitarists.
  The Beatles recorded "Savoy Truffle" in October 1968, towards the end of the five-month sessions for the album. An upbeat rock track in the soul genre, the song reflects Harrison's return to the guitar as his main musical instrument after two years of studying the Indian sitar. The recording includes a Chris Thomas-arranged horn section, and introduced the horn-heavy sound that became a feature of Harrison's music as a solo artist.
context_section_description: "Savoy Truffle" is primarily in the key of E minor, although the melody continually shifts to the parallel, major equivalent, in addition to anchoring briefly in G major. Musicologist Alan Pollack identifies the composition's harmonic style as one that "makes you feel constantly on the move, on the threshold of some new breakthrough", and he adds: "There are other Beatles' songs that exploit this triumvirate of keys (i.e. a parallel Major/minor pair and the relative Major), but never quite with such audacity." Throughout, the meter is 4/4, delivered in an assertive, driving tempo. The song's main musical style is soul music, while its melody and mood partly recall "Sour Milk Sea", which Harrison wrote earlier in 1968.
  In the verses, Harrison lists a variety of chocolate flavours, beginning with "creme tangerine" and "Montélimar". He employs wordplay to incorporate the Mackintosh's brand name in his closing phrase to the first verse: "yes, you know it's 'good news'". The refrain throughout the song – "But you'll have to have them all pulled out after the savoy truffle" – refers to the deterioration of one's teeth after eating too many sweets, echoing the warning that Clapton had recently received from his dentist.
  Over the second bridge, Harrison adapted Taylor's suggestion to read "You know that what you eat you are". In the same section, a subsequent line names the track "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", a Paul McCartney composition that would also appear on The Beatles. In this way, "Savoy Truffle" continued a tradition initiated by John Lennon in 1967, particularly in his lyrics to "I Am the Walrus", whereby the Beatles deliberately quoted from their previous songs.
  Since "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" was not a song that McCartney's bandmates enjoyed recording, the motive behind Harrison's appropriation of the title has invited speculation. Author Jeffrey Roessner considers it significant that Harrison mispronounces the title; in addition, he contends that the full statement – "We all know Ob-la-di-bla-da / But can you show me where you are?" – serves as an example of Harrison, like Lennon, mocking those listeners who obsessively scanned the Beatles' lyrics for hidden meaning. Music journalist Robert Fontenot interprets the lines as an expression of distaste for "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", since Harrison and Lennon were openly critical of McCartney's composition.
caption: Chocolates with assorted fillings: a box of such confectionery, made by Mackintosh's, provided many of the lyrics to the song.
exif: {}