The Rocky Raccoon

Beatles - The Rocky Raccoon

"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 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." 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. In this take, McCartney sings that Rocky is from "a small town in Minnesota," rather than the album version's "black mining hills of Dakota".
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" Music Video [The Beatles] from Matthew R. Morgan on Vimeo.