Octopus's Garden

[onelife]

Octopus's Garden doesn't usually get as much as an honorable mention on the "best Beatle song" listings around here, in fact it sometimes even gets slammed, but consider this:

 

Ultimately, what The Beatles did was make records. They wrote the songs (for the most part), played the instruments and sang the parts. They created the whole thing, pulling it out of nothing.

 

Octopus's Garden is a great recording with outstanding yet understated guitar parts - it even modulates nicely for the solo. It may be a silly song about a silly concept but they did it really well with some clever backup vocals and an interesting take on some common bass runs.

 

The recording, like everything on that album, is superb and easily stands the test of time.

[Preacher]

If you like it so much why not post a clip? No need to be ashamed...

 

[video=youtube;FoXq8fQZKLI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoXq8fQZKLI&

 

You're right, I really dig the guitar work, some very tasty stuff from George and a good solo.

 

I don't, however, like the chord progression in the verses (very uninteresting compared to the majority of the Beatles work - in my opinion) and the honky tonk piano and bass line in the chorus really do it no favors, though I don't mind it in the bridge...

 

And the lyrics...wow. In fairness, if John or Paul sang this I probably wouldn't find them so egregious.

 

[dparr]

I like it.

 

The Beatles wrote great songs for everybody.

[kayd_mon]

Yeah, it's a silly song, but I like it just fine. I can understand some people not liking it, though. It's just like "Yellow Submarine" in that it's well-suited for children, but it's still a good song - and most songs for children are supremely annoying.

[ArKay]

[video=youtube;IZqXspiN-lg]

[Flogger59]

A few thoughts on OG:

It has a righteous guitar tone, likely a Les Paul on the neck pickup.

 

Thare is a scene in Let It Be where we see George helping Ringo write the tune, and I think that's cool. Not many other film clips around that show the birth of a song by them.

[Kap'n]

 

Ultimately, what The Beatles did was make records. They wrote the songs (for the most part), played the instruments and sang the parts. They created the whole thing, pulling it out of nothing. Octopus's Garden is a great recording with outstanding yet understated guitar parts - it even modulates nicely for the solo.

 

 

This. J, P, G & R were just a pop band...a killer pop band, but they had no idea they were going to be used as a yardstick for decades. They knew how to write a great hook, and ultimately fun music. They also came from the school that music was supposed to (as far as they were concered) appeal across boundaries. Hippies, straights, beats, etc. It was all there for them to like...or not.

 

If I could write a tune 1% as catchy as OG (and play that groovy GH part spot on), I could die a happy person.

[Crisco]

I was about 5 when it came out, so of course I wanted to 'hear it again!'

Never heard it much again until I bought the album years later

but by that time I was into other reasons for enjoying The Beatles.

[onelife]

A few thoughts on OG: It has a righteous guitar tone, likely a Les Paul on the neck pickup. Thare is a scene in Let It Be where we see George helping Ringo write the tune, and I think that's cool. Not many other film clips around that show the birth of a song by them.

 

I think George used his Les Paul for most of Abbey Road but OG sounds all tele to me - perhaps even that tele which i believe was still around at that time.

 

 

Comparing the guitar sounds directly to some of the other songs on the album, even the neck pickup intro sounds tele to me.

[allthumz]

Considering the rough childhood that Ringo had, often sick and in hospitals, away from family, school and friends, alone a lot, I think OG has a place in his heart. It is a children's song about being happy and safe. I think Ringo liked singing it.

 

My 20 month old toddlers love OG. The tune and rhythm gets them going and in a happy way.

[metallica_00]

It's silly, but I really enjoy that song! And it is a nice piece of guitar.

[sk8centilli]

To be honest, I'd like to be under the sea in an octopus' garden.

[TheBlueStrat]

 

To be honest, I'd like to be under the sea in an octopus' garden.

 

 

Would you ask your friends to come and see, an octopus's garden with me?

[xrleroyx]

Acid, mayne

[honeyiscool]

The guitar is great but the song is pretty {censored} by The Beatles' extremely high standards, as are most songs that Ringo wrote for the band.

[Flogger59]

I think George used his Les Paul for most of Abbey Road but OG sounds all tele to me - perhaps even that tele which i believe was still around at that time. Comparing the guitar sounds directly to some of the other songs on the album, even the neck pickup intro sounds tele to me.

 

Maybe, but I've never gotten that kind of sound from this.

 

 

I have, however, gotten close with this.

 

[BeanoBoy]

I think George used his Les Paul for most of Abbey Road but OG sounds all tele to me - perhaps even that tele which i believe was still around at that time. Comparing the guitar sounds directly to some of the other songs on the album, even the neck pickup intro sounds tele to me.

 

It does sound like a Tele neck pup. Love Octopuses Garden.

[mightysasquatch]

I agree it sounds like the neck pickup of the mahogany Tele into a Twin Reverb with the Leslie 147 that Clapton gave him. Listen to the solo in Let It Be for the same rig using the bridge pickup.

[csm]

Shows how much care and ingenuity they lavished on the arrangement and production of even a throwaway little song ...

[Kap'n]

 

I agree it sounds like the neck pickup of the mahogany Tele into a Twin Reverb with the Leslie 147 that Clapton gave him. Listen to the solo in Let It Be for the same rig using the bridge pickup.

 

 

I'm thinking it's the LP. If it was the neck pickup on the RW tele, it'd sound a bit more 'plucky' like @ 2:10 here

 

KG_E1t-Lr0c

[honeyiscool]

Anyway, a bit OT, but I really do love Abbey Road. I think it has two of Paul's best songs in "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Oh! Darling." Sure, they're just Paul being Paul, but that's what's great about those songs.

[guildfire]

 

Anyway, a bit OT, but I really do love Abbey Road. I think it has two of Paul's best songs in "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Oh! Darling." Sure, they're just Paul being Paul, but that's what's great about those songs.

 

 

He does his best screaming vocal on Oh Darling since his earlier song I'm Down.

[honeyiscool]

I think it's his best vocal performance, period. That high A he hits is ridiculous.

[Flogger59]

 

I agree it sounds like the neck pickup of the mahogany Tele into a Twin Reverb with the Leslie 147 that Clapton gave him. Listen to the solo in Let It Be for the same rig using the bridge pickup.

 

 

Actually, a Rosewood Tele. Better specify the single mix for Let It Be, the album cut was done with a Les Paul, though the rest of the track is the same..

[Karma1]

Another perspective is that when the Beatles were making this music, a lot of the people listening to it (as well as the Beatles themselves) were stoned on pot or psychedelics and songs like Octopus's Garden and others had a very different effect when listening while under the influence. It was considered "head" music and created trippy imagery in your mind. I remember listening to Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour while tripping back then and although I had listened to them many times before, it was a totally different experience through kaleidoscope eyes. There was so much in there I had never heard before and I appreciated the artistry of some songs that had seemed silly before. I'm not advocating that people run out and do that, but just putting the music in some historical context.