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When your nickname is Rocky, you get used to being asked whether it came from Rocky Balboa, Rocky the Flying Squirrel, or Rocky Raccoon. I answered that question in a blog post back in 2009.

The Beatles’ song “Rocky Raccoon” appeared on the White Album (technically entitled “The Beatles”) in 1968. It was written by Paul McCartney while the boys were in India studying with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the guru of Transcendental Meditation.

After the Maharishi made sexual advances to some of the ladies in the Beatles’ entourage, the boys packed up and departed.  “We made a mistake,” McCartney said. “We thought there was more to him than there was.”

In later years, McCartney explained that “Rocky Raccoon” was meant as a spoof of the folksinger style. He also said the original name of the character was “Rocky Sassoon,” but he changed it because “Raccoon” sounded “more like a cowboy.”

Rocky Raccoon

By The Beatles, 1968
Written by Paul McCartney

Now, somewhere in the black minin’ hills of Dakota,
There lived a young boy named Rocky Raccoon.
And one day his woman ran off with another guy.
Hit young Rocky in the eye.
Rocky didn’t like that.
He said, I’m gonna get that boy.
So one day he walked into town,
Booked himself a room in the local saloon.

Rocky Raccoon
Checked into his room
Only to find Gideon’s bible.
Rocky had come
Equipped with a gun
To shoot off the legs of his rival.

His rival, it seems,
Had broken his dreams
By stealing the girl of his fancy.
Her name was Magill,
And she called herself Lil,
But everyone knew her as Nancy.

Now, she and her man,
Who called himself Dan
Were in the next room at the hoedown.
Rocky burst in,
And grinning a grin,
He said, “Danny boy, this is a showdown.”
But Daniel was hot.
He drew first and shot,
And Rocky collapsed in the corner.

Now the doctor came in,
Stinking of gin,
And proceeded to lie on the table.
He said, “Rocky, you met your match.”
And Rocky said, “Doc, it’s only a scratch,
And I’ll be better — I’ll be better, doc — as soon as I am able.”

Now, Rocky Raccoon,
He fell back in his room,
Only to find Gideon’s bible.
Gideon checked out,
And he left it, no doubt,
To help with good Rocky’s revival.

The boys and their entourage with the Maharishi.