Octopus’s Garden by the Beatles

"Octopus's Garden" album version
"Octopus's Garden" live performance

Ringo Starr has spent his life first as a member of the Beatles and now as a solo artist sharing joy and happiness through his music. He was the last of the four Beatles to join the group before they made their meteoric rise to worldwide super-stardom. As the drummer of the Beatles he contributed to almost all of the songs musically but was the least prolific song-writer and vocalist in the group.

On all of the Beatles albums, Ringo sang at least one song, which Lennon and McCartney composed for Ringo. The most famous of these songs is “Yellow Submarine.” This gave Ringo a voice in the group but these songs were more often not as popular as the other songs on the albums and were not released as singles. So it was understandable that Ringo, who at one time was the leader of his own band, became frustrated with being in the shadow of the other three Beatles.

Ringo felt he had enough during the sessions for The White Album and left the group for two weeks in 1968. During this time, he took his family on a vacation, which included a boat ride with his family. On this boat ride he had a conversation with the boat’s captain that inspired on one of the Beatles most enduring songs.

“We were talking about octopus and he was actually telling me that they build these gardens. Octopuses go around the seabed find shiny things, nice stones and they put them around and I just thought, ‘this was the happiest thing I’ve heard.’”

Ringo took the happiness that he felt in the idea of an octopus’s garden and transformed it into a song. There is joy in the inspiration of the song matches the mood it which it was created as can be seen in this clip showing Ringo working on “Octopus’s Garden” with George Harrison.

Watching the look on George and Ringo’s face, there is a sense of pride and pure joy coming from the magic of musical creation when Ringo starts playing chords on the piano. It is interesting to see George suggest some different chords to bring the song out of the chorus, which shows George’s amazing musical intuition. When they start it again after working at some chords from the beginning of the song (at 1:40), their producer George Martin comes into listen (he is on the top left corner) and starts adding back-up vocals, fascinated by what is watching. John and Yoko walk in and John adds some playful percussion while leisurely lighting a cigarette.

“Octopus’s Garden” is a description of a fantasy world. The lines in the song speak to basic needs that we all have to feel safe and at home. The octopus “knows where we’ve been,” and the garden is warm and restful. It’s a place where we feel free to sing, dance, shout and swim about. Most of all Ringo is singing about a place that we can be happy and safe, and really, that is all that we really want in our lives after facing the storms of the day.

Ringo speaks from the first person using the inclusive “we” to describe how great the garden is, “we would be warm . . we would sing and dance.” This is not an experience for Ringo alone but for us all to share. After describing how the garden, Ringo ends the songs with “I want to be under the sea in an octopus’s garden with you.” With this one line, we realize that Ringo does not want the octopus’s garden for himself but as something that he can share with us.

There is something different in Ringo’s voice. It’s not just the fact that he has a lower baritone voice while the other three Beatles had higher tenor voices. Ringo’s voice is not as resonant or bright as Paul’s voice but it has a familiarity to it. In some ways, his singing is closer to speaking. Ringo reminds me of a children song singer who focuses more on the character in their voice than the vocal beauty and it is Ringo’s character that makes this song feel some warm.

Adult logic tells us that we can’t live under the sea, and that an octopus’s garden would probably be a horrible place to live, but even though the literal meaning of the song is child-like and fantastic, the song’s heart is true. We all yearn for the place that Ringo is singing about and we all, hopefully have an “octopus’s garden” in our lives. It can be in our apartment, our car, or the arms of a loved one. What I love about this song is that for me “Octopus’s Garden” is exactly what it sings about: a song that takes me to place inside of myself where I am happy and safe.