Concluding the look at the songs of the Beatles’ White Album:
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Savoy Truffle
Video clip:
Lyrics:
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
Cool cherry cream, a 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 going to fill your head
When it becomes too much
You 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…
About:
- Written by George Harrison.
- The song was inspired by his Harrison’s friend Eric Clapton's fondness for chocolate.
“Savoy Truffle on The White Album was written for Eric. 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.”
- George Harrison, 1977
“Savoy Truffle is a funny one written whist hanging out with Eric Clapton in the '60s. At that time he had a lot of cavities in his teeth and needed dental work. He always had a toothache but he ate a lot of chocolates - he couldn't resist them, and once he saw a box he had to eat them all. He was over at my house, and I had a box of Good News chocolates on the table and wrote the song from the names inside the lid. I got stuck with the two bridges for a while and Derek Taylor [the Apple Press Officer]wrote some of the words in the middle - 'You know that what you eat you are'. “
- George Harrison, "I Me Mine", 1980
- The lyrics list the various flavours offered in Mackintosh's Good News chocolates and serves a warning to Clapton about the detrimental effect that his gorging would have on his teeth. Cherry Cream and Coconut Fudge were Harrison's own inventions.
- Clapton played on the White Album track "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", Harrison reciprocated on Cream's "Badge", beginning a long-lasting friendship between the two musos.
- This marked Harrison's return to the guitar as his main musical instrument after two years of studying the Indian sitar.
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Cry Baby Cry
Video clip:
Lyrics:
Cry baby cry
Make your mother sigh
She's old enough to know better.
The king of Marigold was in the kitchen
Cooking breakfast for the queen
The queen was in the parlor
Playing piano for the children of the king.
Cry baby cry
Make your mother sigh
She's old enough to know better
So cry baby cry.
The king was in the garden
Picking flowers for a friend who came to play
The queen was in the playroom
Painting pictures for the children's holiday.
Cry baby cry
Make your mother sigh
She's old enough to know better
So cry baby cry.
The duchess of Kircaldy always smiling
And arriving late for tea
The duke was having problems
With a message at the local bird and bee.
Cry baby cry
Make your mother sigh
She's old enough to know better
So cry baby cry.
At twelve…
About:
- Written by John Lennon.
- The song recalls the nursery rhymes of Lennon’s childhood.
“I've got another one here, a few words, I think I got them from an advert - 'Cry baby cry, make your mother buy'. I've been playing it over on the piano. I've let it go now. It'll come back if I really want it. I do get up from the piano as if I have been in a trance. Sometimes I know I've let a few things slip away, which I could have caught if I'd been wanting something.”
- John Lennon, "The Beatles", by Hunter Davies
- In 1980, Lennon described the song as “rubbish”.
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Revolution 9
Video clip:
About:
- A sound collage, credited to Lennon–McCartney, created primarily by John Lennon with assistance from George Harrison and Yoko Ono.
- Lennon said he was trying to paint a picture of a revolution using sound.
- At over eight minutes, it is the longest track that the Beatles officially released.
- The track came out of the recording of Revolution 1, Lennon making the first part of the recording into the conventional "Revolution 1" and using the last six minutes as the basis for "Revolution 9".
“Revolution 9 was an unconscious picture of what I actually think will happen when it happens; just like a drawing of a revolution. All the thing was made with loops. I had about 30 loops going, fed them onto one basic track. I was getting classical tapes, going upstairs and chopping them up, making it backwards and things like that, to get the sound effects. One thing was an engineer's testing voice saying, "This is EMI test series number nine." I just cut up whatever he said and I'd number nine it. Nine turned out to be my birthday and my lucky number and everything. I didn't realise it: it was just so funny the voice saying, "number nine"; it was like a joke, bringing number nine into it all the time, that's all it was.”
- John Lennon
- McCartney had been out of the country when "Revolution 9" was assembled and mixed; he was unimpressed when he first heard the finished track, and later tried to persuade Lennon to drop his insistence that it be included on the album.
- Charles Manson found a wealth of symbolism in the track's loops and effects, and thought that Lennon's shouts of 'Right!' were, in fact, a call to 'rise' up in revolt. Manson drew a parallel between Revolution 9 and the Bible's book of Revelation. He thought The Beatles were variously four angels sent to kill a third of mankind, or four locusts mentioned in Revelation 9, which he equated with beetles.
- Revolution 9 also featured in the 'Paul is dead' myth, after it was discovered that the 'number nine' motif, when played backwards, sounded like 'Turn me on, dead man'.
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Good Night
Video clip:
Lyrics:
Now it's time to say good night,
Good night, sleep tight.
Now the sun turns out his light,
Good night, sleep tight.
Dream sweet dreams for me,
Dream sweet dreams for you.
Close your eyes and I'll close mine,
Good night, sleep tight.
Now the moon begins to shine,
Good night, sleep tight.
Dream sweet dreams for me,
Dream sweet dreams for you,
Dream sweet dreams for me,
Dream sweet dreams for you.
Close your eyes and I'll close mine,
Good night, sleep tight.
Now the sun turns out his light,
Good night, sleep tight.
Dream sweet dreams for me,
Dream sweet dreams for you.
About:
- Written by John Lennon as a lullaby for his son Julian, and sung by Ringo Starr.
- George Martin's arrangement is lush, and intentionally so. Lennon is said to have wanted the song to sound like an old Hollywood production number.
“Everybody thinks Paul wrote Good Night for me to sing, but it was John who wrote it for me. He's got a lot of soul, John has.
- Ringo Starr, 1968
“Good Night was written for Julian the way Beautiful Boy was written for Sean, but given to Ringo and possibly overlush.”
- John Lennon, "All We Are Saying", David Sheff
“I think John felt it might not be good for his image for him to sing it but it was fabulous to hear him do it, he sang it great. We heard him sing it in order to teach it to Ringo and he sang it very tenderly. John rarely showed his tender side, but my key memories of John are when he was tender, that's what has remained with me; those moments where he showed himself to be a very generous, loving person. I always cite that song as an example of the John beneath the surface that we only saw occasionally... I don't think John's version was ever recorded."
- Paul McCartney, "Many Years From Now", Barry Miles
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