Monday, May 11, 2009

octopuses travel along the sea bed picking up stones and shiny objects with which to build gardens



From The Beatles' 1969 album Abbey Road.

George Harrison commented: "'Octopus's Garden' is Ringo's song. It's only the second song Ringo has ever written, mind you, and it's lovely."

Conception

The idea for the song came about when Starr was on a boating trip with his family in Sardinia in 1968. He ordered Fish and Chips for lunch, but instead of fish he got squid (it was the first time he'd eaten squid, and said "It was OK. A bit rubbery. Tasted like chicken.")[citation needed] Then the boat's captain told Starr about how octopuses travel along the sea bed picking up stones and shiny objects with which to build gardens.[1] Starr said that hearing about octopuses spending their days collecting shiny objects at the bottom of the sea was one of the happiest things he had ever heard, inspiring him to write this song.



The song is sometimes thought of as being a song for children, like "Yellow Submarine", "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" or "All Together Now". It has also been performed by the Muppets several times in various episodes of their shows.


In the Beatles' film Let It Be, Starr is shown rehearsing the song on piano, joined by Harrison, who assists him with the "We would be, so happy you and me..." portion of the song. Starr received sole writing credit despite this.



Other versions

An early Sesame Street Muppets underwater sketch featured "Octopus's Garden" as sung by a deep sea diver, a fish and a clam, with a green octopus frolicking around the water in the background. The Muppet Show performed the song as well with Robin the Frog, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.



Mary Aiese, former lead singer with Reparata and the Delrons recorded the song as a solo single in 1972 under the name of Reparata.


Noel Gallagher of the band Oasis adds adapted lyrics from "Octopus's Garden" to the end of their song "Whatever" during some of his live performances. The phrase "I'd like to be under the sea" is in the refrain of one of Oasis' most popular b-sides, "Take Me Away." Also, the refrain from the chorus of "Octopus's Garden" can be heard about forty seconds from the end of "The Masterplan", also by Oasis.


The song was covered and recorded by Raffi Cavoukian in the 1980s; like most of Raffi's songs, this version was indeed primarily aimed towards a child audience. [1]



The Punkles did a Punk cover on their fourth Album "For Sale" sung by their drummer Markey Starkey.


Samuel E. Wright sang the song on a Disney video, Sebastian's Party Gras!.


A mash up with Blondie's Heart Of Glass circulated on the Internet in 2007, as Glass Octopus




3 comments:

ronald said...

apprécier!

Nina said...

love the beatles, and the song and ringo starr :D

What is Reality Anyway? said...

i'm listening to them as we speak. have you studied the paul mccartney death conspiracy of 65? its so much fun...even if it isnt true xx