Rocky Raccoon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “Rocky Raccoon” | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Song by The Beatles | ||
| Album | The Beatles | |
| Released | 22 November 1968 | |
| Recorded | 15 August 1968 | |
| Genre | Folk rock | |
| Length | 3:32 | |
| Label | Apple Records | |
| Writer | Lennon/McCartney | |
| Producer | George Martin | |
| The Beatles track listing | ||
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Side one
Side two
Side three
Side four
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"Rocky Raccoon" is a Beatles song from the double-disc album The Beatles (also known as The White Album). The song was primarily written by Paul McCartney, who was inspired while playing guitar for John Lennon and Donovan Leitch in India (where the Beatles had gone on a retreat). Some claim that the song is a parody of a Bob Dylan ballad, much in the same way "Back in the U.S.S.R." is a parody of The Beach Boys.[1]
The song, titled from the character's name, was originally "Rocky Sassoon," but McCartney changed it to Rocky Raccoon because he thought "it sounded more like a cowboy."[2] The song is about a man (Rocky) who tries to shoot the man who stole his lover, but is wounded by the rival instead. The Old West-style honky-tonk piano was played by producer George Martin. Lennon pulls the harmonica out of his sleeve for the first time since the Beatles for Sale track "I'm a Loser".
Contents |
[edit] Personnel
- Paul McCartney – vocals, acoustic guitar
- John Lennon – backing vocals, harmonica, harmonium, 6-string bass
- George Harrison – backing vocal
- Ringo Starr – drums
- George Martin – piano
- Credits per Ian MacDonald[3]
[edit] Cover versions
- Richie Havens, James Blunt, Jack Johnson, Frogg & Jaycatt, Merlin and Phish have recorded cover versions of this song. Folk/Jazz artist Jessie Baylin covers the song on her current tour.
[edit] Cultural references
- This song was sampled on DJ Danger Mouse's popular Grey Album, coupled with the a cappella of "Justify My Thug."
- In the early to mid-1990s, John Porcellino's King-Cat comic book series featured stories about Racky Raccoon, an anthropomorphic, slacker character who worked a series of dead-end jobs, drank too much and listened to punk rock.
- On their album Hot Dogma, Australian band TISM feature a song called "While My Catarrh Gently Weeps". However the lyrics tell a story of a country-boy named Rocky Raccoon who is to feature on a Beatles album, only to be removed in the final cut.
- For the advertisement of the Coco Pops spin-off cereal Coco Pops Crunchers, the Coco Monkey has a new raccoon friend by the name of "Rocky".
- This song was referenced in the CSI episode "Fur and Loathing in Las Vegas", where a furry by the name of "Rocky the Raccoon" dies of mysterious causes.
- In RV, Bob Monroe names the raccoon that inflitrates the family's RV "Rocky".
- In 1982 Marvel Comics premiered a space-faring raccoon character named Rocket Raccoon.
- On Feel The Love, a 1976 live album by Christian rock band Love Song, leader Chuck Girard tells of having once believed that The Beatles hid important secret messages in their music but being convinced otherwise by the White Album: "How much can you get out of 'Rocky Raccoon', after all?"
- In Rocky V, when told by Rocky Jr. that he looks a little like a raccoon, Rocky replies "What like Rocky Raccoon?"
- A raccoon named Rocky was the main character in a series of educational games from The Learning Company. (Example: Rocky's Boots).
- In an episode of Dirty Jobs, during the deconstruction of a New Jersey college campus, Mike Rowe is instructed to remove a bathtub from the main building. The company refers to it as "Rocky Raccoon's Tub" because the tub was filled with raccoon feces.
- "The Further Adventures of Nick Danger" side of the Firesign Theater album "How can you be in two places at once when you're not anywhere at all" contains the line "but everyone knew her as Nancy".
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Notes on "Rocky Raccoon"", MoreThings.com.
- ^ Radio Luxembourg Interview on 1968-11-20. The Beatles Interview Database. Retrieved on 2007-06-10.
- ^ MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties, Second Revised Edition, London: Pimlico (Rand), 308. ISBN 1-844-13828-3.
