Rocky Raccoon

Song facts

It was a difficult song to record, because it had to be all in one take. It would have been very hard to edit, because of the quirkiness of the vocal. But it was fun to do.

Paul McCartney – from “The Beatles” super deluxe book, 2018

From Wikipedia:

“Rocky Raccoon” is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles (also known as the “White Album”). It was primarily written by Paul McCartney, although credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. McCartney began writing the song in Rishikesh, India, where the Beatles were studying Transcendental Meditation in the early months of 1968. John Lennon and Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan, who joined the Beatles on their retreat, also made contributions to the song. The Marvel Comics character Rocket Raccoon, created by Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen, was inspired by the song’s title and some of the lyrics.

Composition

The song, a country ballad, is titled from the character’s name, which was originally “Rocky Sassoon”, but McCartney changed it to “Rocky Raccoon” because he thought “it sounded more like a cowboy”. Former 13th Floor Elevators drummer Danny Thomas claims the name “Rocky” was inspired by Roky Erickson, the American rock band’s then vocalist and guitarist. The Old West-style honky-tonk piano was played by producer George Martin. “Rocky Raccoon” is also the last Beatles song to feature John Lennon’s harmonica playing.

The lyrics describe a conflict over a love triangle, in which Rocky’s girlfriend Lil Magill (known to the public as Nancy) leaves him for a man named Dan, who punches Rocky in the eye. Rocky vows revenge and takes a room at the saloon in the town where Dan and Nancy are staying. He bursts into Dan’s room, armed with a gun, but Dan out-draws and shoots him. A drunken doctor attends to Rocky, the latter insisting that the wound is only a minor one. Stumbling back to his room, Rocky finds a Gideon Bible and takes it as a sign from God.

During take 8 of the song (featured on Anthology 3), McCartney flubbed the line “stinking of gin”, singing “sminking” instead (presumably confusing the words “smelling” and “stinking”). This caused him to laugh, exclaim “Sminking?!” and make up the remaining lines in the song. This take also has a noticeably different spoken-word introduction, with Rocky coming from “a little town in Minnesota”, rather than the album version’s “somewhere in the black mining hills of Dakota”, and McCartney’s faux Western-American accent is more pronounced.[citation needed]

Legacy

In Mojo magazine in October 2008, McCartney acknowledged that the style of the song is a pastiche, saying: “I was basically spoofing the folksinger.” Lennon attributed the song to McCartney, saying: “Couldn’t you guess? Would I have gone to all that trouble about Gideon’s Bible and all that stuff?”

Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of its release, Jacob Stolworthy of The Independent listed “Rocky Raccoon” at number 22 in his ranking of the White Album’s 30 tracks. He called the song “proof of McCartney’s songwriting versatility” and continued that the song is “bolstered by a vibrant honky-tonk piano from the group’s long-time record producer George Martin.” […]

I was sitting on the roof in India with a guitar– John and I were sitting ’round playing guitar, and we were with Donovan. And we were just sitting around enjoying ourselves, and I started playing the chords of ‘Rocky Raccoon,’ you know, just messing around. And, oh, originally it was Rocky Sassoon, and we just started making up the words, you know, the three of us– and started just to write them down. They came very quickly. And eventually I changed it from Sassoon to Raccoon, because it sounded more like a cowboy. So there it is. These kind of things– you can’t really talk about how they come ‘cuz they just come into your head, you know. They really do. And it’s like John writing his books. There’s no… I don’t know how he does it, and he doesn’t know how he does it, but he just writes. It’s like any writer, you know. I think people who actually do create and write… you tend to think, ‘Oh, how did he do that,’ but it actually does flow… just flows from into their head, into their hand, and they write it down, you know. And that’s what happened with this. I don’t know anything about the Appalachian mountains or cowboys and indians or anything. But I just made it up, you know. And the doctor came in stinking of gin and proceeded to lie on the table. So, there you are.

Paul McCartney – from interview with Radio Luxembourg, 1968

From The Usenet Guide to Beatles Recording Variations:

[a] mono 15 Aug 1968.
UK: Apple PMC 7067 white album 1968.

[b] stereo 10 Oct 1968.
UK: Apple PCS 7067 white album 1968.
US: Apple SWBO 101 white album 1968.
CD: EMI CDP 7 46443 2 white album 1987.

Last updated on September 22, 2021

Lyrics

Variations