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Beatles forums => Songs => Song Of The Week Series => Topic started by: nimrod on December 26, 2013, 12:40:27 AM

Title: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: nimrod on December 26, 2013, 12:40:27 AM
Creme tangerine and Montelimar
 A ginger sling with a pineapple heart
 A coffee dessert, yes, you know it's good news
 But you have to have them all pulled out
 After the Savoy truffle

Cool cherry cream, nice apple tart
 I feel your taste all the time we're apart
 Coconut fudge really blows down those blues
 But you'll have to have them all pulled out
 After the Savoy truffle

You might not feel it now
 When the pain cuts through
 You're going to know and how
 The sweat is going to fill your head
 When it becomes too much
 You'll shout aloud

You'll have to have them all pulled out
 After the Savoy truffle

You know that what you eat you are
 But what is sweet now turns so sour
 We all know Ob-la-di-bla-da
 But can you show me where you are?

Creme tangerine and Montelimar
 A ginger sling with a pineapple heart
 A coffee dessert, yes, you know it's good news
 But you'll have to have them all pulled out
 After the Savoy truffle
 Yes, you'll have to have them all pulled out
 After the Savoy truffle


Apparently, George wrote the song as a tribute to his friend Eric Clapton's chocolate addiction, and indeed he derived the title and many of the lyrics from a box of Mackintosh's Good News chocolates.
Supposedly all of the confectionery names used in the song are authentic, except cherry cream and coconut fudge. The chorus ("But you'll have to have them all pulled out after the savoy truffle") is a reference to the deterioration of one's teeth after eating too many sweets. The line "We all know Ob-la-di-bla-da" refers to the song "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", which appears earlier on the album, but with the "sinister" overtone (as Walter Everett put it) that "life may not go on" as the latter song insists

Personnel

George Harrison – double-tracked vocal, lead guitar
Paul McCartney – bass guitar
Ringo Starr – drums, tambourine

Additional..
Chris Thomas – organ, Hohner Pianet
Art Ellefson – tenor saxophone
Danny Moss – tenor saxophone
Derek Collins – tenor saxophone
Ronnie Ross – baritone saxophone
Harry Klein – baritone saxophone
Bernard George – baritone saxophone

Personnel per Ian MacDonald


Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Hello Goodbye on December 26, 2013, 02:33:08 AM
George was pretty brilliant coming up with this song.  And it all had to do with a box of candy...


(http://i42.tinypic.com/2i7myjq.jpg)


(http://i41.tinypic.com/54vs6t.jpg)


It's a nice jazzy piece and I love the saxophones.  I like this song a lot.  Always did since I first played the LP on its release.

It's neat how George worked a "clue" into the song:

We all know ob-bla-di-bla-da
but can you show me where you are


I guess he meant life does not go on.    ;D
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Moogmodule on December 26, 2013, 03:11:47 AM
This has a nice hard rocky edge. Especially the middle 8. I suppose having such quirky lyrics means it sticks out in the memory while simultaneously making it sound like a throwaway novelty. I like it though. It's fun and showing George's sardonic humour. I think it'd make my one album White Album.

I liked the story in Living in the Material World of Ken Scott working to get a good sax sound and then having George say "great. Now distort them."  A window into the Beatle mind set that wanted different sounds. Not just nice ones.




Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Hello Goodbye on December 26, 2013, 03:25:05 AM
I suppose having such quirky lyrics means it sticks out in the memory while simultaneously making it sound like a throwaway novelty.

Right.  I had no idea what George was talking about in the first verse.  We didn't have Mackintosh's Good News chocolates here in the United States.



It's fun and showing George's sardonic humour.

Definitely!
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: nimrod on December 26, 2013, 03:27:18 AM
This has a nice hard rocky edge. Especially the middle 8. I suppose having such quirky lyrics means it sticks out in the memory while simultaneously making it sound like a throwaway novelty. I like it though. It's fun and showing George's sardonic humour. I think it'd make my one album White Album.

I liked the story in Living in the Material World of Ken Scott working to get a good sax sound and then having George say "great. Now distort them."  A window into the Beatle mind set that wanted different sounds. Not just nice ones.






yes I think that ruined Ken's day :D

you pretty much summed up my feelings moog, it would make my single album white album, great song, I really like it.
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Hello Goodbye on December 26, 2013, 03:44:22 AM
This song deserves another listen...in glorious MONO!


The Beatles - The White Album Part XII (2009 Mono Remasters) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShdGpTWZdhc#)
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Hello Goodbye on December 26, 2013, 03:50:48 AM
Ella Fitzgerald did an outstanding cover...


Ella Fitzgerald Savoy Truffle (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KmvANzwRWk#)

That's Nicky Hopkins on piano.
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: nimrod on December 26, 2013, 04:01:57 AM
Right.  I had no idea what George was talking about in the first verse.  We didn't have Mackintosh's Good News chocolates here in the United States.




so a bit like Blackburn Lancashire then ?
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Hello Goodbye on December 26, 2013, 04:17:32 AM
so a bit like Blackburn Lancashire then ?

I had to look it up in a dictionary.
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Kaleidoscope_Eyes on December 26, 2013, 11:01:52 AM
I suppose having such quirky lyrics means it sticks out in the memory while simultaneously making it sound like a throwaway novelty.
Nicely put! I never warmed up to this song. It's more fun than a proper song and the tune is not very catchy, in my opinion.
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Klang on December 26, 2013, 11:58:21 AM

Pretty good, in my opinion. I probably liked it less when it was first released. I was such a guitar snob. Too many horns in there for proper rock 'n' roll. What did I know? Nice guitar solo in the middle anyway. Some people's kids...

 :P

Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: KelMar on December 26, 2013, 07:00:07 PM
I'm glad to see that this is a well-liked song. I've read a few negative things about it but I think it's a great. When I first bought the White album as an adult I didn't remember it but then I found myself listening to it over and over for a while. I like the way the words "Creme tangerine and Montelimar" sound together LOL It's a good rocker too. Of course I'm another one from this side of the pond who didn't know exactly what Good News meant so I was very happy to have Google to clear that up.
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Hello Goodbye on February 01, 2014, 06:05:05 AM
"Savoy Truffle" (The Beatles) bass cover (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxTUEQPoH_0#)
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Moogmodule on February 01, 2014, 09:24:35 AM
That's odd. When I click on the link it says the content owner hasn't made the video available for mobiles. You have to log on via PC. Why on earth would someone restrict it like that?
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Dcazz on February 01, 2014, 01:20:21 PM
I've always been a fan of this song! I'll repeat it several times when I'm in my truck. The instruments are all right on and Georges voice is clear. No matter what part of the song you focus on it's interesting. Horns are great!
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Normandie on February 01, 2014, 07:13:29 PM
I like the way the words "Creme tangerine and Montelimar" sound together LOL It's a good rocker too.

Omigosh; me too, Kelley!  ha2ha

This is one of my favorites on the White Album.
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Hello Goodbye on February 02, 2014, 12:05:02 AM
That's odd. When I click on the link it says the content owner hasn't made the video available for mobiles. You have to log on via PC. Why on earth would someone restrict it like that?

The link to the YouTube video opened just fine on my Windows Phone without logging in.

Anyway, it's a pretty good instructional video for Paul's bass part on a Hofner 500/1 bass.  She's uploaded quite a few and she plays perfectly, note for note.
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: stevie on February 02, 2014, 01:52:51 AM
Yeah, like this one.

Very good sound production wise. Macca's bass is great and really booms out. In fact, lyrically, it could almost be a Paul song. Ringo's drums sound cool too and nifty guitar by George.
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Hello Goodbye on February 28, 2014, 04:29:08 AM
When we played Savoy Truffle backwards, we found out what really happened to Paul...


Name the Song Backwards Song 182.wmv (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xJlHYMlf38#)
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: oldbrownshoe on March 02, 2014, 10:06:09 AM
Ah, the White Album.
Not content with a pastiche of music hall, nursery rhymes (the two styles that book-end 'Savoy Truffle'), nods to 'John Wesley Harding' and The Beach Boys, ska, Paul McCartney inventing heavy metal (and then wisely never going anywhere near it again!), 'Savoy Truffle' always sounded to me like a pastiche of the kind of song you'd hear in the party scene of a 60s film.
It's not my favourite song by George, that's 'The Inner Light', but in the context of the record it's brilliant.

Around these couple of years (late 67-end of 69) George released the superb 'Wonderwall Music' and wrote songs such as 'Not Guilty', 'All Things Must Pass', 'What Is Life', 'Isn't It A Pity', 'Sour Milk Sea' etc. etc.

A contentious view I know, but if he'd got in a less obtrusive producer in late 69/early 70 like, for example, Joe Boyd, instead of Phil Spector, and recorded a 10-12 track LP of no more than 35 minutes duration, I think we'd now be listening to a much better record than the over-wrought and over-long 'All Thing Must Pass'.
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Moogmodule on March 02, 2014, 10:34:30 AM
A contentious view I know, but if he'd got in a less obtrusive producer in late 69/early 70 like, for example, Joe Boyd, instead of Phil Spector, and recorded a 10-12 track LP of no more than 35 minutes duration, I think we'd now be listening to a much better record than the over-wrought and over-long 'All Thing Must Pass'.

I can't think of too many double albums that couldn't have been "better" albums by being tightened up and cutting obvious filler. I really love All Things Must Pass. But I love it because of those 11 or 12 very good to excellent tracks. The other ones I'd rarely listen to.

I suppose double albums are their own reason for being. The filler is almost the point of them. They're meant to be a large work like a painter doing a fresco rather than working on a smaller canvas. I think that worked on the White Album. The quirky songs and throwaways showed the different aspects of each of the Beatles.  And was a major departure from their tightly plotted and produced albums to that date.

I'm not sure it worked as well on ATMP. When you have to repeat a song with a not overly different second version it seems pruning would be more beneficial. Still. It's sprawling approach was probably meant as a message from George. Look at all the songs I couldn't get on Beatle albums


Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: oldbrownshoe on March 02, 2014, 11:12:14 AM
Yep, fair enough, I can certainly see that George would want to use his first 'proper' album to get it all out there.

Actually, I'm giving 'ATMP' a spin for the first time in ages and there's no doubt that it does contain some terrific songs, but I still get the nagging feeling that they could have been more sensitively produced. It also doesn't seem to have much in the way of consistent production veering wildly from a big-band sound (not my favourite) to an acoustic one for no apparent reason. It sounds like 3 or 4 different albums at once, but then maybe that was the point!

I certainly don't like it much when it gets 'heavy' ('Wah, Wah', 'Let It Down') and during those bits it sounds quite dirge-like rather than the bright new start of 'McCartney'. I rather wish more of it was in the style of 'Apple Scruffs' (i.e. ramshackle, less produced, more spontaneous).

But I'll stick with it in the name of science.
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Moogmodule on March 02, 2014, 11:29:33 AM
 I'm also biased toward the acoustic style numbers. Behind that Locked Door, Run of the Mill, and I've always liked Apple Scruffs. For a chap who's vocals were undoubtedly more limited than John and Paul, he could sound pretty good with not much more than an acoustic guitar. But like lots of singers (including John) he apparently didn't like his own voice and tried to hide behind production.


Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Dcazz on March 02, 2014, 03:14:24 PM
I always felt that based on the little public spat that Paul and George had over how to play Hey Jude, Isn't It A Pity was his answer to the extra bars between the verses. Not sure, just sayin'!
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: nimrod on March 02, 2014, 10:48:33 PM
I'm also biased toward the acoustic style numbers. Behind that Locked Door, Run of the Mill, and I've always liked Apple Scruffs. For a chap who's vocals were undoubtedly more limited than John and Paul, he could sound pretty good with not much more than an acoustic guitar. But like lots of singers (including John) he apparently didn't like his own voice and tried to hide behind production.

Johns obsession with changing his voice annoys the crao out of me

His early singing is the best imo, listen to 'Slow Down' The BBC version, theres nothing better

His voice on the Spector R & R album is highly processed, nowhere near as good....way too 'studio'  (as is all his Spector stuff)
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Moogmodule on March 03, 2014, 02:04:33 AM
Johns obsession with changing his voice annoys the crao out of me

His early singing is the best imo, listen to 'Slow Down' The BBC version, theres nothing better

His voice on the Spector R & R album is highly processed, nowhere near as good....way too 'studio'  (as is all his studio stuff)

Yep I don't think you can beat his singing on the early stuff. And the BBC sessions showed what a great singer he was. 

Although I still liked his understated vocals on things like strawberry fields and a day in the life. They had a subtle haunting quality which showed yet another dimension to his delivery.

The Rock and Roll Album was a disappointment. It's a very different singer who ripped through the Please Please Me album. As you say perhaps too much production to give a false veneer.
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Hello Goodbye on March 03, 2014, 03:05:33 AM
Although I still liked his understated vocals on things like strawberry fields and a day in the life. They had a subtle haunting quality which showed yet another dimension to his delivery.


Sir George Martin...


George Martin discusses A Day In The Life (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WkUgNKOtSE#)
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: nimrod on March 03, 2014, 03:19:03 AM
Yep I don't think you can beat his singing on the early stuff. And the BBC sessions showed what a great singer he was. 

Although I still liked his understated vocals on things like strawberry fields and a day in the life. They had a subtle haunting quality which showed yet another dimension to his delivery.

The Rock and Roll Album was a disappointment. It's a very different singer who ripped through the Please Please Me album. As you say perhaps too much production to give a false veneer.

Leave My Kitten Alone, Slow Down, Money = Lennons voice at its best imo

Yes I too like the haunting delicateness of Strawberry Fields, Lucy, Day In The Life and Norwegian Wood as well but Spectors Lennon was terrible, another reason Im no fan of solo Beatles
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: oldbrownshoe on March 03, 2014, 09:49:38 AM
I find it increasingly difficult to get past the production, or over production, on a record, and can never understand it when people say of records, normally recorded in the (truly dire) 1980s, 'Yeah, the production's very 1980s, but they're some great songs on it etc. etc.'.....
Can't be, I'm afraid, the production IS the record.

I'm currently listening to an Elvis compilation of his Sun/Early RCA recordings (i.e. 1954-56); it is as good as any record production I have ever heard, and these recordings were made 60 years ago.
It can't come as too much surprise that Joe Boyd swears by the striped down production of pre-war blues records, and some of them are 90 years old!
 
I'd take a Memphis Minnie record (circa 1930) over whatever is now No. 1 (2014) for clarity of sound every time. 
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Moogmodule on March 03, 2014, 10:34:36 AM
Sir George

That clip is one of the highlights of Anthology. Sir George looks quite wistful listening to the tapes.
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: KelMar on March 03, 2014, 07:19:23 PM
His voice on the Spector R & R album is highly processed, nowhere near as good....way too 'studio'  (as is all his studio stuff)

Quote from: Moogmodule
The Rock and Roll Album was a disappointment.

I've never heard this album all the way through but whenever I've heard tracks from it, like I did last night, I've never really felt like hearing the whole thing. I'd much rather hear something like "Anna". John's voice on that one about does me in!

Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: nimrod on March 03, 2014, 09:59:24 PM
typo

I meant to say "(as is all his Spector stuff)"  not studio stuff
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Hello Goodbye on March 03, 2014, 11:51:51 PM
That clip is one of the highlights of Anthology. Sir George looks quite wistful listening to the tapes.


Sir George Martin, when listening to Take 1, said "Even in this early take he has a voice which sends shivers down the spine."


the making of sgt. pepper's lonely hearts club band (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZdTtOLoPsQ#)
43:17
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Hello Goodbye on March 04, 2014, 12:01:12 AM
By the way, Take 1 proves who does the ahhhhhhhs...


The Beatles - A Day In The Life (Takes 1, 2, 6 & orchestra) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va10Qrcfdds#)


...the same one who missed his cue to do them and says "Oh sh*t!"





It was Paul





Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Snoopy66 on March 04, 2014, 07:03:28 PM
I've always been a fan of this song! I'll repeat it several times when I'm in my truck. The instruments are all right on and Georges voice is clear. No matter what part of the song you focus on it's interesting. Horns are great!
Me too !! It's one of the iconic song of the "White Album"... everything, but not boring. Normally, I don't like horns in a song, but it sounds good in this one. Aaah, I just love it  :)

Snoopy
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Hello Goodbye on March 05, 2014, 06:54:44 AM
(http://www.oldskoolhooligans.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/s/a/savoytruffleblue.jpg)
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Dcazz on March 05, 2014, 03:45:00 PM
Coconut fudge sounds really good right now!
That's the flavor of ice cream I have in the fridge. I feel a weak moment coming on!
Title: Re: Song Of The Week - Savoy Truffle
Post by: Hello Goodbye on March 08, 2014, 12:51:28 AM
Go to the fridge...go to the fridge!