Comments on: Rocky Raccoon

By: Mr. Kite

Mr. Kite — Sat, 23 Mar 2019 18:25:48 +0000

Congratulations

By: Mr. Kite

Mr. Kite — Fri, 22 Mar 2019 20:58:06 +0000

The clever rhyming in this song is hilarious. (fancy-Nancy, etc.)

By: Mr. Kite

Mr. Kite — Fri, 22 Mar 2019 20:54:21 +0000

Jane broke off the engagement in July when she found Paul in bed with Francie.

By: Mr. Kite

Mr. Kite — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 19:02:36 +0000

To go with the cowboy motif, Paul should have had Rocky riding into town rather than walking.

By: MikeP

MikeP — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 13:33:45 +0000

I don’t know about Linda at this point, but by the mid July Jane had already announced that she and Paul were no longer together. This session took place a month later.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 15:05:07 +0000

It can’t be Linda because he was still with Jane Asher then

By: John Hale

John Hale — Thu, 24 Jan 2019 00:30:04 +0000

“in the next room at the hoedown” I always heard the harmonica break after that line as bed-springs squeaking up and down.

By: Laurie

Laurie — Thu, 20 Sep 2018 01:39:14 +0000

I love the many “American” or “cowboy” references in this song.
1. Talking blues
2. Accent
3. Honky tonk piano
4. black mining hills of Dakota
5. Rocky Raccoon
6. guy (I don’t think they use that word in England too much)
7. “his woman”
8. saloon (In England they are called “pubs”)
9. Gideon’s Bible. I think they are only in the U.S.- put in hotel rooms. I imagine the Beatles got a big laugh when they stayed at US hotels and there was always a bible there.
10. gun. (In Great Britain, owning a gun is a very big deal. I understand that if you have one, they send a SWAT team to retrieve it! Beatles must find the US very gun-happy).
11. “shoot off the legs”. Violent US
12. called herself Lil; known as Nancy (Sounds like a Western)
13. hoedown. That’s like an American square dance, although my sister says that is a euphemism, and that they were in the next room making love.
14. showdown. Americanism?
15. revival. A pun on religious revival vs. recovering from gunshot. However, Protestant religious revival meetings are a uniquely American phenomenon. Probably Beatles found that amusing or interesting too.

By: Bilah

Bilah — Sun, 02 Sep 2018 04:49:59 +0000

yes, rumor is that it was linda McCartney

By: Jeff Beam

Jeff Beam — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 02:26:33 +0000

Are you sure John overdubbed the harmonica? The instrument appears on the Anthology version, and the session has John playing six-stringed bass live; I think there’s a slight discrepancy here, as this claims that the harmonica was an overdub, but there’s no reason to believe the band would add a harmonica overdub on a take they weren’t going to use. I think either John played harmonica live with the bass, or someone else played harmonica/the six-string bass. Pretty small potatoes here, but I think we have a mystery!

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 22:18:36 +0000

No it was Paul singing the intro. For some reason I thought it was Ringo.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 22:04:58 +0000

Didn’t Ringo sing the beginning part? “Now somewhere in the Black Mountain Hills of Dakota”

One of the first songs I ever learned on the guitar when I was about 12, I got my neighbour, John Renbourn, to show me how to play it, I think he hated the song too. I still love it though.

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 30 Jan 2016 00:56:11 +0000

Was this the last time John played harmonica on a Beatles song?

By: kevpod

kevpod — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 15:46:58 +0000

I’m surprised John played so many things on the song when once again, he was seething with contempt for it.

By: bobbytee

bobbytee — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 18:33:18 +0000

Gee, I always thought it was “I’ll be better, doc, as soon as I am Mabel.” 😉

By: Sam

Sam — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 13:02:34 +0000

Some wonderful subtle wordplay in this song…

“I’ll be better, doc, as soon as I am able”: An amusing tautological statement if we read ‘able’ as ‘healthy’.

“To help with good Rocky’s revival”: On the face of it, ‘revival’ means ‘recovery’, but at the same time, it’s a wordplay on the phenomenon of a religious revival (e.g., when a religion which was out of fashion comes back into fashion, this is a “revival”).

By: Maria Doyle

Maria Doyle — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 22:31:53 +0000

I am a Liverpudlian and John, Paul, George and Ringo grew up close to where I grew up. Regardless of this fact, i had never heard this song before in my life until this weekend just gone when i was skiing in New Jersey and happened to have the good fortune of sharing the ski lift with a hansone if not rugged looking fellow called Eric, also from New Jersey, who was singing it on our way up the mountain. When he said it was a Beatles song i damn near fell off the lift!!

By: Coco

Coco — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 18:39:21 +0000

I love the anthology version….probably because I’m from Minnesota. whatever, this is amazing, Paul knows how to rock.

By: rick

rick — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 00:32:07 +0000

Txs for reminding me about the Anthologies!

By: Bulldog

Bulldog — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 01:58:21 +0000

I’ve always loved Paul’s story songs, and this is definitely no exception. I especially enjoy the humor he threw in there. Considering how great most of the White Album is, I still can’t say if I think this is a highlight, but I do really enjoy it.