Composition
The song, a folk rock 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. The lyrics describe a conflict over a love triangle.
During take 8 of the song (featured on Anthology 3), Paul McCartney flubbed the line "stinking of gin", singing "sminking" instead. 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 "black mountain hills out Dakota", and McCartney's faux-Western accent is more pronounced.
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 Paul, saying "Couldn't you guess? Would I have gone to all that trouble about Gideon's Bible and all that stuff?"
"Rocky Raccoon" was the last Beatle song to feature John Lennon's harmonica playing.
Read more about this topic: Rocky Raccoon
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