| "Rocky Raccoon" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by The Beatles
from the album The Beatles |
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| Released | 22 November 1968 | |||
| Recorded | 15 August 1968 | |||
| Genre | Folk rock | |||
| Length | 3:33 | |||
| Label | Apple Records | |||
| Writer | Lennon/McCartney | |||
| Producer | George Martin | |||
| The Beatles track listing | ||||
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"Rocky Raccoon" is a 1968 folk rock song by The Beatles 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 with John Lennon and Donovan Leitch in India (where the Beatles had gone on a retreat).
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Composition
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."[1] The Old West-style honky-tonk piano was played by producer George Martin.[2]
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
- Personnel per Ian MacDonald[2]
Cover versions
Richie Havens, Ramsey Lewis, Jack Johnson, Andrew Gold, James Blunt 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. Lena Horne (with Gábor Szabó) recorded a memorable version in 1969, which was subsequently re-released on several LP and CD compilations. Crowded House covered the song live as an intro to "Chocolate Cake". This performance was later released on their single "Instinct"
Cultural references
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Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (April 2009) |
- This song was sampled on Danger Mouse's 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 in an issue of The Incredible Hulk titled, "Now Somewhere In the Black Holes of Sirius Major There Lived a Young Boy 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.
Notes
- ^ "Radio Luxembourg Interview". The Beatles Interview Database. 1968-11-20. http://www.beatlesinterviews.org/db1968.1120.beatles.html. Retrieved 2007-06-10.
- ^ a b MacDonald (2005), p. 308.
References
- MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Second Revised Edition ed.). London: Pimlico (Rand). ISBN 1-844-13828-3.</ref>
External links
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