Rocktober 20, 2023

Rocktober 20th! 

Today our song is: Whole Lotta Rosie by AC/DC

Wikipedia tells us this about the song:

The song is about an obese Tasmanian woman, Rosie, with whom the singer (Bon Scott) had a one-night stand at the Freeway Gardens Motel in North Melbourne.  In addition to pointing out the woman's size, the singer finds her to be one of the most talented lovers he has ever experienced.

The song's first verse reveals Rosie's substantial physical measurements (42"-39"-56"), and that she weighs nineteen stone, or 266 pounds (121 kg). On the Live from the Atlantic Studios disc, however, Scott describes the titular woman as "... a Tasmanian devil ... weighs 305 pounds (138 kg)...," a measurement that differs from the "nineteen stone" lyric.

In 1998, speaking to Vox magazine, Angus Young remembered:

We'd been in Tasmania and after the show [Bon Scott] said he was going to check out a few clubs. He said he'd got about 100 yards down the street when he heard this yell: 'Hey! Bon!' He looked around and saw this leg and thought: 'Oh well!' From what he said, there was this Rosie woman and a friend of hers. They were plying him with drinks and Rosie said to him: 'This month I've slept with 28 famous people,' and Bon went: 'Oh yeah?!' Anyway, in the morning he said he woke up pinned against the wall, he said he opened one eye and saw her lean over to her friend and whisper: '29!' There's very few people who'll go out and write a song about a big fat lady, but Bon said it was worthy.

In 2021, the woman the song was written about was identified by British-Australian AC/DC biographer Jesse Fink as Rosemaree (or stylized as Rose-Maree) Garcia, an Australian sex worker who saw Scott for some time before he went to England.  Rosie was indeed born in Launceston, Tasmania, lived in St Kilda and died in the Melbourne suburb of Prahran in 1979, aged 22.

Be sure to stop by tomorrow to see what is next on the list! Feel free to join in the fun. The more the merrier, I say!