ROCK RAT

also called Dassie Rat (Petromus typicus), squirrel-like rodent of the family Petromyidae (order Rodentia), found in the rocky hills and mountains of southwestern Africa. The rock rat is a soft-furred, gray, tawny, or yellowish brown animal about 15 to 20 centimetres (6 to 8 inches) long without the long tail. It has a wide, flat head and extremely flexible ribs, and can thus flatten its body to squeeze into narrow openings in the rocks. Diurnal in habit, it shelters in rock crevices and emerges during the day to feed on green plants, berries, and seeds, and to lie in the Sun. It breeds once a year, in summer; the female bears one or two relatively large, well-developed young per litter. Representative Works: Bill Haley and His Comets, Rock Around the Clock (1955) Elvis Presley, Elvis Presley (1956) Chuck Berry, One Dozen Berry's (1958) Elvis Presley, Elvis' Golden Records (1958) Buddy Holly, The Buddy Holly Story (1959) Muddy Waters, Muddy Waters at Newport (1960) Ray Charles, The Genius Sings the Blues (1961) Sam Cooke, The Best of Sam Cooke (1962) The Beatles, With the Beatles (1963 [different version released in the United States as Meet the Beatles in 1964]) James Brown, Live at the Apollo (1963) Bob Dylan, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963) The Ronettes et al., A Christmas Gift for You (1963) The Shirelles, The Shirelles'Hits (1963) The Beach Boys, All Summer Long (1964) Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home (1965) B.B. King, Live at the Regal (1965) Otis Redding, Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul (1965) Various artists, A Package of 16 Big Tamla Motown Hits (1965) Cream, Fresh Cream (1966) The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) Aretha Franklin, I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You (1967) The Jefferson Airplane, Surrealistic Pillow (1967) Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced? (1967) Van Morrison, Astral Weeks (1968) The Rolling Stones, Beggars Banquet (1968) Various artists, Woodstock (1970 [film soundtrack]) David Bowie, Hunky Dory (1971) Carole King, Tapestry (1971) Led Zeppelin, the album usually referred to as Zoso, Runes, or Four Symbols (1971) Jimmy Cliff et al., The Harder They Come (1972 [film soundtrack]) The Wailers, Catch a Fire (1973) Stevie Wonder, Innervisions (1973) Joni Mitchell, Court and Spark (1974) Elton John, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975) Patti Smith, Horses (1975) Fleetwood Mac, Rumours (1977) Funkadelic, One Nation Under a Groove (1978) Kraftwerk, The Man-Machine (1978) Neil Young, Rust Never Sleeps (1979) The Clash, London Calling (1980) Talking Heads, Remain in Light (1980) Michael Jackson, Thriller (1982) Bruce Springsteen, Born in the U.S.A. (1984) Paul Simon, Graceland (1986) Madonna, You Can Dance (1987) Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1988) Nirvana, Nevermind (1991) Primal Scream, Screamadelica (1991) Portishead, Dummy (1994)