Octopus Lyrics by Syd Barrett

"Octopus" was a song on Syd Barrett's first solo record, "The Madcap Laughs". Barrett released the album after being booted from Pink Floyd and replaced by longtime friend, David Gimour. The song, "Octopus", was released as a single in November of 1969 and was well-received, reaching #40 in the UK. The album containing the song followed in January of 1970.

Trip to heave and ho, up down, to and fro
You have no word
Trip, trip to a dream dragon
Hide your wings in a ghost tower
Sails crackiling at evry plate we break
Cracked by scattered needles
Little minute gong
Coughs and clears his throat
Madam you see before you stand
Hey ho, never be still
The old original favourite gran
Grasshoppers green herbarian band
And the tune they play in us confide...
So trip to heave and ho, up down, to and fro
You have no word
Please leave us here
Close our eyes to the octopus ride!
Isnt it good to be lost in the wood
Isnt it bad so quiet there, in the wood
Twenty even less to me than I thought
With a honey plough of yellow prickly seeds
Clover honey pots and mystic shining feed...
Well, the madcap laughed at the man on the border
Hey ho, huff the talbot
Cheetah he cried shouted kangaroo
So through their tree they cried
Please leave us here
Close our eyes to the octopus ride!
The madcap laughed at the man on the border
Hey ho, huff the talbot
The winds they blew and the leaves did wag
And theyll never put me in their bag
The seas will reach and always see
So high you go, so low you creep
The winds it blows in tropical heat
The drones they throng on mossy seats
The squeaking door will always creep
Two up, two down well never meet
So merrily trip for good my side
Please leave us here
Close our eyes to the octopus ride!

Octopus's Garden Song, Art, and Video

Check out this neat video featuring all mediums of octopus art set to The Beatles tune, "Octopus's Garden".

Ringo was a Romantic: Octopus's Garden Lyrics

The story goes like this: Ringo Starr was on a boating trip with family in 1968. On that trip he was offered octopus for lunch, but turned it down. The boat's captain told Starr that octopuses travel along the ocean floor picking up stones and shiny objects with which to build gardens. Starr claimed that hearing about these creatures spending their days collecting shiny objects was one of the happiest things he had ever heard. It was his inspiration for writing "Octopus's Garden" which was released in 1969 on the Abbey Road LP.

I'd like to be, under the sea

In an octopus's garden in the shade
He'd let us in, knows where we've been
in his octupus's garden, in the shade.

I'd ask my friends to come and see
An octopus's garden with me
I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus's garden in the shade.

We would be warm, below the storm
In our little hideaway beneath the waves
Resting our head, on the sea bed
In an octopus's garden near a cave

We would sing and dance around
because we know we can't be found
I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus's garden in the shade

We would shout and swim about
The coral that lies beneath the waves
(Lies beneath the ocean waves)
Oh what joy for every girl and boy
Knowing they're happy and they're safe
(Happy and they're safe)

We would be so happy you and me
No one there to tell us what to do
I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus's garden with you
In an octupus's garden with you
In an octupus's garden with you.