A coffee dessert, yes you know it’s good news,...

Cream 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.
Cool cherry cream and 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
But when the pain cuts through you’re going to know, and how.
The sweat is gonna fill your head,
When it becomes too much you’ll shout aloud,
But you’ll have to have them all pulled out after the savoy truffle.
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.
Cream 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.



Lyrics submitted by Ice

Track duration: 02:48


Savoy Truffle song meanings
Add your thoughts

42 Comments

sort form View by:
  • 0
    General Comment:Given what George says -- that it was directed at Eric Clapton -- I wonder if it's not by chance that the first word in the song is "Cream", the name of Clapton's band at the time.

    my sense is that there's not a 'point' to it, but that the candy title theme sends him riffing off in various directions -- sometimes it's food as sex metaphor, like in an old blues song, elsewhere a bit like a love song, and mostly he's moralizing or mock-moralizing. The riffing, free-associative element is a bit Lennon-ish, and even dropping a Beatles reference (Ob-la-di) is taking a trick from the Lennon playbook.

    But the moralizing aspect seem more like George, who seems to have written a lot of 'killjoy' songs. Some of them are very good songs ("Taxman"), some aren't ("Only a Northern Song"). But leave it to George to take a box of candy and turn it into a cautionary allegory of sorts.

    But can he tell us who he is? Anyway, it's fun for all that, and its 'bitter' side works well with all the bummer-ific stuff on the White Album.
    Flag supinenyon April 01, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:harrison wrote a number of songs about him grappling with his elevation into more than comfortable wealth that are essentially existential class commentaries. i've always interpreted this as one of them, in the sense of it being about sex, chocolate and a tongue-in-cheek jab at the bourgeois/bohemian lifestyle.
    Flag dgkfhjlffjfjhlfhjaon March 10, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:What a load of pretentious twaffle. Whatever the song is about it defines the very essence of rock 'n'roll: unrestrained joy, wit and excitement. An uplifting experience amid three minutes of magic.
    Flag EdGlinert1on February 08, 2013   Link
  • 0
    My Opinion:First of all, this is a GREAT song, one of Harrison's very best. The arrangement with the distorted sax section is way cool. And it is not IMHO really about sweet sweets at all but about certain particular very sweet sweets of the carnal kind. This IS rock and roll after all - you just don't have odes to lollipops! Clapton's (and Harrison's, for that matter) peculiar weakness was for sweets of the groupie persuasion, and like all successful rock stars who can they did not excessively inhibit their indulgence thereof, whatever their girlfriend or matrimonial connections might counter-indicate. Cream Tangerine, a Ginger Sling with a Pineapple Heart, a Coffee Dessert yes you know it's good news - but they're all trumped by the greatest of them all, the Savoy Truffle. So I assume she must have been French. Probably looked a bit like Bridget Bardot, to whom Patty Boyd/Harrison/Clapton herself bore a tangible resemblance.
    Flag HonkyChaton November 26, 2012   Link
  • 0
    My Opinion:I'm baffled why George decided to keep this song on the White Album, at the expence of the superior 'Not Guilty'. Along with 'I Me Mine' possibly George's worst Beatles tracks. He so many better material from this period he could have used.
    Flag winsfordtownon October 08, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:"A coffee dessert, yes you know it’s good news,"

    Some of the Clapton stuff may be correct, especially the dentists. However as the line above says but may be missed "good news" was a box of chocolates brand name and pretty much all the fillings are mentioned in the song. I would guess Savoy Truffle was Eric's favorite. Grew up in the UK and ate my fair share of 'good news" Cadbury's is still king!

    Read more at songmeanings.net/songs/view/931/
    Flag ChrisBateson October 08, 2012   Link
  • 0
    Song Meaning:The song has meaning at at least 2 levels.

    1. The obvious meaning is confirmed by Harrison's 1977 quote, "'Savoy Truffle' on The White Album was written for Eric (Clapton). He's got this real sweet tooth and he'd just had his mouth worked on. His dentist said he was through with candy. So as a tribute I wrote, 'You'll have to have them all pulled out after the Savoy Truffle.' The truffle was some kind of sweet, just like all the rest-- cream tangerine, ginger sling-- just candy, to tease Eric."

    2. The song's really about pussy though. Consider: "Cool cherry cream and nice apple tart, I feel your taste all the time we’re apart". Listening to the song with this perspective confirms this interpretation (try it). The song's totally delicious imho. Have fun :)
    Flag Samroskion October 06, 2012   Link
  • +1
    Song Meaning:It's basically 4 guys having fun. But it could talk about overeating and lust for food.
    Flag Nocturnaeon February 09, 2012   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:worth mentioning the heroin/opiate refs (ginger sling, might not feel it now but when the pain cuts through, sweat)

    I'd always gone with the Clapton sweet tooth thing, but I kind of like this idea about it being a comment on Paul's songs
    Flag eleventyon October 15, 2011   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:I know this song is actually about a box of chocolates or whatever, but whenever I listen to it I immediately start thinking about George and all the women he's had. I mean all the different type of chocolate, some sweet, some sour. That's just my opinion don't rate me down you fags
    Flag janeasheron August 09, 2011   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

Back to top
explain