Rocky Raccoon – The Beatles

2013/04/22The Beatles,THE BEATLES (White Album)

ダコタのうっそうとした山間部に
ロッキー・ラクーンという名の若者が住んでいた
ある日　彼の恋人が他の男と一緒に駆け落ち
若いロッキーは打ちひしがれ　こう言った
「アイツをやっつけてやる」
そして彼は街に出て
小さな宿屋の部屋を借りたんだとさ

ビートルズが1968年にリリースしたアルバムTHE BEATLES (White Album)の13曲目。クレジットはLennon – McCartneyだが、実質的にはポール・マッカートニーの作品である。用意周到な彼にしては珍しく歌詞を固めないままレコーディングセッションに臨み、これまたこだわり屋の彼らしからぬことなのだが1日で最終テイクまで仕上げてしまった。

歌詞は西部劇っぽいイメージを狙った曲で、当初のタイトルはRocky Sassoonだったが、このSassoonをRaccoon(アライグマ)に置き換えて「実際にはありえない人物」をモチーフにした。ハーモニカはジョン・レノン、ピアノはジョージ・マーチン。
「ブラックバード」「ピッギーズ」そしてこの「ロッキー・ラクーン」と動物の名前がタイトルに付いた曲が3連続になっているのは偶然ではなく、アルバム編集の段階で明確な意図を持ってなされたことである。

Paul McCartney (1968)
I was sitting on the roof in India with a guitar– John and I were sitting 'round playing guitar, and we were with Donovan. And we were just sitting around enjoying ourselves, and I started playing the chords of 'Rocky Raccoon,’ you know, just messing around. And, oh, originally it was Rocky Sassoon, and we just started making up the words, you know, the three of us– and started just to write them down. They came very quickly. And eventually I changed it from Sassoon to Raccoon, because it sounded more like a cowboy. So there it is. These kind of things– you can’t really talk about how they come 'cuz they just come into your head, you know. They really do. And it’s like John writing his books. There’s no… I don’t know how he does it, and he doesn’t know how he does it, but he just writes. I think people who actually do create and write… you tend to think, 'Oh, how did he do that,’ but it actually does flow… just flows from into their head, into their hand, and they write it down, you know. And that’s what happened with this. I don’t know anything about the Appalachian mountains or cowboys and indians or anything. But I just made it up, you know. And the doctor came in stinking of gin and proceeded to lie on the table. So, there you are.

Paul McCartney (1994)
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. The bit I liked about it was him (Rocky) 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.