"Octopus's Garden"

Ringo Starr, with a little help from George Harrison

It’s spring in New Hampshire, May, in fact, and for the past two days we’ve had driving rain and overnight temperatures in the thirties, perilously close to freezing. We’d been all ready to work on our gardens, and had purchased plants for that purpose … but suddenly we were thrown into a dark, wet, cold world. While that’s not good for the tender new flowers, it’s evidently the perfect atmosphere for one kind of a garden, that of an octopus.

What?!, you say? Octopuses don’t have gardens. That was just a gag for an old Beatles song! Nay, nay! I found out the true story of the song and the inspiration for it while I was “noodling” around trying to decide on my song for this week. It seems, in fact, that Ringo Starr was inspired to write this song (and as you know he was not primarily known for being on the song-writing end of things with The Beatles) while on a boat near Sardinia, having his first-ever taste of squid. He’d ordered “fish & chips,” thinking of home. And the server brought him squid instead. His reaction to it was similar to mine on first taste: “It was rubbery, and tasted like chicken.” Striking up a conversation about the squid, Ringo found out that octopuses have a habit of roaming the shore bed and picking up pretty rocks or shiny objects, which they collect to build their dens (called gardens because they are so colorful). Did you know that? I didn’t. Neither did Ringo, evidently, but he was so charmed by the idea — and he was tired of the constant squabbling going on among the Fab Four at that time, shortly before their breakup — that he wrote a little song to lighten the mood. “With a little help” from his friend George Harrison, who contributed a chord orchestration and preliminary arrangement, our Sometimes a Song sprang into being. Eventually, the song was fleshed out and nurtured and became one of many charming tunes released on the album “Abbey Road,” in the fall of 1969, six months before the news of the band’s breakup was formally announced. “Octopus’s Garden” was the last song Ringo would with The Beatles.

There’s a lot of back and forth among Rock ’n’ Roll afficianados about Ringo Starr’s ranking as a drummer. Certainly, he wasn’t just prop musician. With no formal musical training whatsoever, and really with almost no formal education of any kind — this due to his having been desperately sick for much of his childhood — Ringo nevertheless did “study” the drums. His teachers were the great drummers of the swing era, notably Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. He also was influenced by the C&W style of such singers as Hank Williams, Buck Owens, and Hank Snow, to whose music he listened intently, particularly to the percussion. In time, he imparted some of his love of country music to Beatles productions (as you will hear in today’s song). He also credited — of all people — Little Richard, with his odd keyboard style, for driving the lead in percussion for his music. From Little Richard, Starr imported a peculiar rhythm which he replicated on the drums.

To become a musician himself, Ringo learned by emulating the greats, and yet — his style became his own. One explanation for Ringo’s style was that he was a lefty who had learned to play on a drum kit for right handers. Without getting too technical here, Ringo’s style was more swing than rock, and that was part of what gave The Beatles their sound, and it suited some of the band’s more soulful work, as well. Drummers are often underrated and considered a bit like human metronomes by folks who don’t understand their art. And if a great band can be said to have a soul, the band’s drummer is in a real way its beating heart. Ringo Starr himself became a great influence on drummers who followed him. And in fact, Rolling Stone has ranked him at Number 14 in their list of The 100 Best Drummers of All Time. And that’s saying a lot, considering the competition for those 100 places.

So here are the boys doing their verion of Ringo’s song — and if you think that this production was a piece of cake to record, the drum portion alone required 32 takes before it was done. For “Octopus’s Garden” we’ve got

• Ringo Starr on lead vocals, drums, and percussion

• Paul McCartney on backup vocals, bass guitar, and piano

• John Lennon on rhythm guitar

• George Harrison – on lead guitar, backup vocals, special effects (blowing bubbles into a glass of milk through a straw)

Don’t miss George Harrison’s thoroughly entertaining rockabilly hot licks throughout, but particularly at the end!

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Word & Song by Anthony Esolen is an online magazine devoted to reclaiming the good, the beautiful, and the true. We publish six essays each week, on words, classic hymns, poems, films, and popular songs, as well a weekly podcast for paid subscribers, Poetry Aloud or Anthony Esolen Speaks. Paid subscribers also receive audio-enhanced posts and access to our full archive and to comments and discussions. We value all of our subscribers, and we thank you for reading Word and Song!