By the time 1969 rolled around, The Beatles must have almost felt bulletproof from a musical standpoint.
They had nothing left to prove, delivering hit after hit, album after album, yet they had the audacity to release what many would adulate their magnum opus in Abbey Road.
Blurring the line between outright studio fun and high-brow artistry, the record showcased a band truly in their own lane and enjoying the fruits of their own creative labour. George Harrison was proving himself a true writing force, while John Lennon and Paul McCartney were squeezing out the last bit of innovative juice from their shiveling their partnership before dramatically biting the dust.
As the band’s tectonic plates shifted, Ringo Starr rose through the cracks. Like a child desperate to have fun amidst a crumbling divorce, he sought to build a bridge through the ever-growing band split, but doing what he had rarely done until this point: write a song.
‘Octopus’ Garden’ is exactly what everyone would have expected and needed from a Ringo Starr song. Irreverent, charming and brilliant all in equal measures, and quietly acts as the favourite of Beatles fans who revel in their obscurity. And it was refreshing that the genesis of such a charming, yet silly song came from an equally as playful scenario, offsetting the narrative heaviness that was beginning to overshadow the band’s backstory.
“Two things happened,” the drummer began, “One was the nanny we had with us was carrying Jason [who] was a little kid and she, we were just climbing over rocks and then she stopped, and she said ‘Take the baby…’, so I took my son and I said, ‘Well what’s going on’, and there was an octopus wrapped around her leg.”
When Starr eventually sat down for some seaside rest and sparked up a joint, before enjoying octopus and chips for lunch, the kernel of his great sonic idea formed. He ended up chatting to the captain of the boat, who taught him about how octopuses collect tins and rocks to make little gardens underwater.
Unbeknownst to the captain, he had just planted one of The Beatles’ greatest ever songs in Starr’s lap. “Well, when you’re stoned, that’s the best idea,” the drummer explained, stating how he immediately wrote a song in the wake of the conversation, adding, “And so, I did start because I had my guitar there, and I played three chords, so everything’s in three chords.”
The funniest part of the entire backstory is that not a single Beatles fan would have batted an eyelid had Starr’s story come from nothing more than his imagination. With his floppy hair, bristly moustache and wide-eyed Grin, the moptop was always considered the fun-loving member of the group, relied upon to make silly faces and deliver irreverent quips during media appearances.
With an unlikely Starr on vocals and the psychedelic appetite for Beatles music at fever pitch, an octopus’ garden in the shade could have meant anything at that point, and Beatles fans would have been none the wiser.
