The Beatles song Paul McCartney called “quirky”
The list of Beatles songs inspired by unusual events could take up a full list all its own. Some are tragic, like the death of Tara Browne, which inspired the lyrics to ‘A Day in the Life’. Some are a case of mistaken facts, like the alleged inappropriate advances of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi that turned into ‘Sexy Sadie’. And some are just goofy as hell, like the ridiculous narrative of ‘Rocky Raccoon’.
“‘Rocky Raccoon’ is quirky, very me,” Paul McCartney proclaimed in the book Many Years From Now. “I like talking blues so I started off like that, then I did my tongue-in-cheek parody of a western and threw in some amusing lines. I just tried to keep it amusing, really; it’s me writing a play, a little one-act play giving them most of the dialogue. Rocky Raccoon is the main character, then there’s the girl whose real name was Magill, who called herself Lil, but she was known as Nancy”.
The names, characters, and scenarios of ‘Rocky Raccoon’ are made up for dramatic effect, something that McCartney thrived on. “There are some names I use to amuse, Vera, Chuck and Dave or Nancy and Lil, and there are some I mean to be serious, like ‘Eleanor Rigby’, which are a little harder because they have to not be joke names,” he said.
McCartney added: “In this case Rocky Raccoon is some bloke in a raccoon hat, like Davy Crockett. The bit I liked about it was him finding Gideon’s Bible and thinking, Some guy called Gideon must have left it for the next guy. I like the idea of Gideon being a character. You get the meaning and at the same time get in a poke at it. All in good fun. And then of course the doctor is drunk”.
The drunk doctor was the one element of the song inspired by a real-life incident. McCartney was riding his scooter to his cousin Betty’s house late one night when he crashed and required some stitches. The local doctor who answered their house call was celebrating a little bit too much beforehand, as McCartney revealed in a promotional interview for his book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present.
“I was riding on a little moped to my cousin Betty. It was a moonlit night – ‘Wow, look at that moon!’ When I looked back, the bicycle is no here [leans to the side]. And there’s no way to get back up, so I’m hitting that pavement. I smashed me lip and everything, bleeding away, I go, ‘Hey, don’t worry but I’ve had an accident’.
“Bring in the doctor, I think it was around Christmastime, and he was pissed. [Slurring’ ‘I think you need a couple stitches’. I’m going, ‘OK, do you have anaesthetic?’. ‘Er, no, I’ve got needle and thread’. And he’s trying to thread the needle and he can’t see it. He’s seeing a few needles. So Betty takes the needle and she threads it. So he was the doctor who was stinking of gin”.
See McCartney tell the story behind his bike accident and hear the studio version of ‘Rocky Raccoon’ below.
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