Rocky Raccoon

Song infobox
Name = Rocky Raccoon
Artist = The Beatles
Album =

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Released = 22 November 1968
track_no = 13 of disc 1
Recorded = 15 August 1968
Genre = Folk rock
Length = 3:33
Writer = Lennon/McCartney
Label = Apple Records
Producer = George Martin
Tracks = Side one
#"Back in the U.S.S.R."
#"Dear Prudence"
#"Glass Onion"
#"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"
#"Wild Honey Pie"
#"The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill"
#"While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
#"Happiness Is a Warm Gun"Side two
#

"Martha My Dear"
#"I'm So Tired"
#"Blackbird"
#"Piggies"
#"Rocky Raccoon"
#"Don't Pass Me By"
#"Why Don't We Do It in the Road?"
#"I Will"
#"Julia"Side three
#"Birthday"
#"Yer Blues"
#"Mother Nature's Son"
#"Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey"
#"Sexy Sadie"
#"Helter Skelter"
#"Long, Long, Long"Side four
#

"Revolution 1"
#"Honey Pie"
#"Savoy Truffle"
#"Cry Baby Cry"
#"Revolution 9"
#"Good Night""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).

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."cite web |url=http://www.geocities.com/~beatleboy1/db1968.1120.beatles.html |publisher=The Beatles Interview Database |title=Radio Luxembourg Interview on 1968-11-20 |accessdate=2007-06-10] 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.

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 MacDonaldcite book |first=Ian |last=MacDonald |authorlink=Ian MacDonald |title=Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties |year=2005 |pages=308 |edition=Second Revised Edition |publisher=Pimlico (Rand) |location=London |isbn=1-844-13828-3]

Cover versions

Richie Havens, James Blunt, Jack Johnson, [http://www.thesixtyone.com/effinjay/collection/collection_item/4208/?autoplay_song Frogg & Jaycatt] , Merlin and Phish have recorded cover versions of this song. Folk/Jazz artist Jessie Baylin covers the song on her current tour. Steel Train have covered the song in the past.

Cultural references

* This song was sampled on 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" and a character named Rocky Rococo.
* In the video game Pocky & Rocky, Rocky is a raccoon.

References

External links

* [http://www.stevesbeatles.com/songs/rocky_raccoon.asp Song lyrics]
* [http://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/rocky-raccoon/ The Beatles Bible: Rocky Raccoon]