Happy 71st Birthday George Harrison: Savoy Truffles

Happy 71st to George Harrison, who is no longer living in the material world but is no doubt celebrating in a spiritual one somewhere.

Today I was thinking of all the great little ditties that George contributed to The Beatles' albums when Lennon & McCartney threw him a bone: "I Need You," "If I Needed Someone," "Taxman," "It's All Too Much," "For You Blue," and many more. Of these, perhaps my favorite is "Savoy Truffle," from Side 4 of the White Album.

"Savoy Truffle" is indeed a truffle, a fun and funky piece of ear candy in a record that contains many flavors. 

The song is a cheeky ode to Good News, a Whitman's Sampler type of English chocolates that was a favorite of George's good buddy and fellow guitar god Eric Clapton, and featured flavors like Creme Tangerine, Ginger Sling, Coffee Dessert, and yes, Savoy Truffle.

Slowhand had a huge sweet tooth, and George was warning him in song that if he kept eating them, he'll "have to have them all pulled out," meaning his teeth. 

Here is a wonderfully literal video interpretation of "Savoy Truffle" that I found on YouTube.

There was only one bon bon that Clapton craved even more than the Savoy Truffle - George's shagadelic, super mod, Swingin' London model wife Pattie Boyd. 

Eventually, in 1974, a few years after Clapton wrote "Layla" and other assorted love songs for Pattie and her marriage to George fell apart, she took up with him. They were married throughout the 70s and most of the 80s.

In a style befitting wife-swapping rock royalty, Harrison held no grudge against Eric or Pattie, saying something to the effect of "I'd rather she take up with him than some idiot."

Boyd is surely #1 on the all-time list of rock muses, having inspired not only Clapton's best album, but his easy-listening 70s classic "Wonderful Tonight."


Of course, on a much higher artistic plane, Pattie was also the inspiration for George's "Something," which the rock-disdaining Frank Sinatra famously called "The best love song of the past 50 years," even though he thought it was written by Lennon/McCartney.

Here's Harrison playing "Something" at the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971 with a drug-addled Clapton backing him on guitar and no doubt listening to George's lyrics and thinking, she is pretty cute, isn't she? 



Happy Birthday George! From all your fans on Earth.

Buy on iTunes:
The White Album
Abbey Road
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs