On May 29th, 1968, The Beatles recorded a demo version of "Rocky Raccoon" at George's 'Kinfauns' home in Esher, Surrey on an Ampex four-track machine. The group had met on this and the previous day to record demos of songs they were to bring to EMI Studios in the upcoming months for inclusion on their next album.
The demo recorded on this day was very similar to what was to
become the released version with the exception being the exclusion of the
spoken-word introduction and the “doctor” section of the second verse, these
not being formalized until he got into the studio two-and-a-half months later.
This demo consisted of Paul double-tracking himself on acoustic guitar, George
adding country-like acoustic guitar fills in between lyric phrases, and
sporadic tambourine probably supplied by Ringo. The song concludes with a
tricky surprise ending by George and Paul not unlike what they recorded for
“Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby” back in 1964.
The “White Album” was a little over half finished by the time Paul
brought “Rocky Raccoon” into EMI Studio Two on August 15th, 1968. The group
arrived sometime after the documented 7 pm on this day and began rehearsing the
song. Although George had contributed some suitable country guitar licks on the
'Kinfauns' demo outlined above, he sat out on the official recording of the
basic track on this day, opting to occupy himself in the control room instead,
evidenced by him announcing “take one” at the start of the recording process.
The instrumentation on the basic track was Paul on acoustic guitar
and lead vocal, John on bass and Ringo on drums. “It was a difficult song to
record,” Paul relates, “because it had to be all in one take, it would have
been very hard to edit because of the quirkiness of the vocal, so I had to do a
couple of takes until I got the right sort of feel. But it was fun to do.”
It actually took nine takes for Paul to get the right feel, as
well as to ad lib a suitable spoken introduction and formulate the “doctor”
section of the second verse. “Take eight,” which eventually Apple released on
the compilation album “Anthology 3,” featured the following introduction: After
John is heard suggesting the phrase “He was a fool unto himself,” Paul begins,
“Rocky Raccoon...Rocky Raccoon, he was a fool unto himself. And he would not
swallow his foolish pride. Mind you, coming from a little town in Minnesota; it
was not the kind of thing that a young guy did when a fella went and stole his
chick away from him.” An earlier take of this introduction even had him
exclaim, “This here is the story of a young boy living in Minnesota...F*ck
off!”
As for the verse about the “doctor,” Paul tried many things, such
as “roll up his sleeves on the sideboard,” “roll over, Rock...he said ooh, it's
OK doc, it's just a scratch, and I'll be OK when I get home” and “move over
doc, let's have none of your cock.” “Take eight” featured this attempt: “The
doctor walked in shminking of gin...shminking?...and proceeded to lie on the
table...he was really shminking of gin, and it did him in in the end...poor
doc...meantime back on the table, yeah, the doctor said, 'Rock, you met your
match, son.' Rocky said, 'It's only a scratch, son, I'll be better soon.' 'You
better be better soon,' said the doc, 'Come on son, gotta get hip, gotta get
up, gotta get back to your gun, gotta go shoot that Danny boy'...However...”
“Take nine” was the keeper, onto this Paul overdubbed an
additional bass part and Ringo overdubbed another drum part. This filled up the
four-track tape, so a tape reduction was made to free up more tracks for
overdubbing, the result being called “take ten.” Onto this, John added
harmonica throughout most of the first verse and a harmonium in the first half
of the second verse. George Martin added
another keyboard, a honky-tonk piano in the refrains of the song. George
Harrison then found his way out of the control room to help John and Paul
record backing vocals. This completed the recording of “Rocky Raccoon.”
The session was not over though. George Martin and engineers Ken
Scott and John Smith created the mono mix immediately after the song got
recorded, this mix ended up on the mono version of the “White Album.” Only one
try was needed to get it right, the announcement on tape of “RM1” being kept
for posterity and added to one of the three ad lib tapes that engineers created
for The Beatles. Tape copies of this mix, as well as the previously recorded
“Yer Blues,” were made for John and Paul to take home. The session then came to
a close at 3 am the following morning.
A further tape copy of the mono mix of “Rocky Raccoon” took place
on August 23rd, 1968, along with four other previously recorded “White Album”
tracks, all of which were taken away by assistant Mal Evans.
The stereo mix of the song was created on October 10th, 1968 by
the same team of Martin, Scott, and Smith in the control room of EMI Studio
Two, only one attempt being needed for this also.
George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick returned to the master
tapes of “Rocky Raccoon” sometime in 1996 to create a mix of “take eight” for
inclusion on the album “Anthology 3,” thus giving an interesting birds-eye view
of the jovial nature of the recording session of August 15th, 1968.
On the surface, the structure for "Rocky Raccoon" is
very simple, namely 'verse/ refrain/ verse/ refrain' (or abab) with a spoken
word introduction thrown in at the beginning.
It's unique in that the entire song follows a simple chord pattern
repeated over and over again throughout while each verse strolls about with
indiscriminate length. The purpose of
the verses is to tell a story, not to fit within the bounds of a predetermined
set of measures. If a longer story, it
would have had longer verses. If a
shorter story, it would have had shorter verses. In fact, earlier takes of the song had
different lengths of second verses since Paul hadn't quite decided on the exact
story yet.
In any event, a ten-measure introduction is heard first which
consists of two measures of the first chord to get the ball rolling and then
two repeats of the four-chord pattern with Paul's spoken word explanation of
who Rocky is, where he came from, and then setting the stage for the drama that
was to unfold. Rocky's “woman ran off with another guy” and, adding insult to
injury, this guy “hit young Rocky in the eye,” him determined to seek revenge
and get his girl back. He, therefore “books himself a room in the local saloon”
where he knows they are. The only instrumentation in this introduction is Paul
on acoustic guitar and, briefly in the tenth measure, John blowing a few notes
on harmonica.
Then comes the first verse, which is a whopping 28 measures long,
since he has quite a detailed story to tell. The only thing to occupy Rocky in
the room points to “Gideon's Bible,” since television hadn’t yet arrived. He's
not interested in that, though, especially the part about “Thou shall not
kill.” He just sits there with the gun he brought contemplating how he's going
to “shoot off the legs of his rival.” We then hear the narrator introduce the
former “girl of his fancy,” who is actually known by three different names:
“McGill,” “Lil” and “Nancy.” Her new beau “Dan” occupies the room next door at
the “hoedown” when Rocky broke in and pulled out his gun. But Dan was the first
to fire his weapon which resulted in Rocky on the ground “in the corner.”
Instrumentally, this long verse includes, other than Paul's
continuing rhythm guitar and vocals, Ringo with a simple hi-hat beat that
starts in the fourth measure, and both John and Paul's bass guitar work (Paul's
is the more prominent one) starting in the ninth measure, and John's harmonica
starting in the 20th measure signaled by the word “hoedown.” Ringo begins
alternating his hi-hat beat with bass drum starting with the 13th measure and
then accentuates the gunshot in the 26th measure with a snare drum flam.
An eight measure refrain then occurs with Ringo taking the song into
double-time with his drum playing and George Martin dangerously sitting in on
the saloon piano while bullets are flying. John apparently ducks for cover with
his harmonica but Paul bravely sings a “da, da, da...doo, doo, doo” rendition
of what the piano player is playing.
After a brief drum break from Ringo at the end of the eighth
measure, he drops the tempo back as before so Paul can narrate the rest of the
story in the second verse, which is sixteen measures long. George Martin even
stops playing to witness what happens next, while John drops his harmonica and
jumps on a nearby harmonium for the first eight measures.
“The doctor” arrives for a house call but, given the urgent
request for his immediate presence, he was drunk from drinking gin. So drunk,
in fact, that he “proceeded to lie on the table,” not being much help at all
apparently. Rocky consoles the doctor and himself by minimizing the injury,
saying “it's only a scratch and I'll be better.” This happy news even gives
Ringo an excited burst of energy, him performing a jovial drum break in
celebration. Humiliated, Rocky “fell back in his room” and figures that this
guy named “Gideon,” in great synchronicity accidentally left his Bible in the
room to initiate the young Rocky's “revival” from his injury and/or broken
heart. Somehow our hero will carry on thanks to the healing power of God's
word! A chorus of three men harmonize in the twelfth through sixteenth measures
as an indication of Rocky's saved soul.
In jubilation, George Martin jumps back on the piano stool to
reprise his role in the previous refrain along with the same instrumentation
and vocalization as heard before. Paul repeatedly prods our hero on with
encouraging words (“come on, Rocky boy!”) while John finds his dropped
harmonica by the time the final measure of the song rings out.
Paul's pet project appears to have been well received by all
involved, everyone giving it their all (except for George, unfortunately, who
pretty much sat out for the entire proceedings). This sort of thing was usually
a little too hokey for John but, possibly because of Yoko's presence in the
studio, he showed himself a team player and put in a spirited performance. Of
course, George Martin, the prolific pianist, was up for the task and created
the perfect saloon atmosphere. And three cheers to Ringo, as usual, for doing
what he always did best.
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