Beatles: Octopus's Garden Meaning

Octopus's Garden Lyrics

I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden in the shade
He'd let us in, knows where we've been
In his octopus' garden in the shade

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

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   kpatte1

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Sep 25th 2009 !⃝

   What a bunch of morons with your interpretations...Here’s a novel idea! How about getting the interpretation directly from the Beatles...Duh!
   OCTOPUS'S GARDEN
   (Starkey)
   
   GEORGE 1969: "'Octopus's Garden' is Ringo's song. It's only the second song Ringo has ever written, mind you, and it's lovely. Ringo gets bored with just playing drums all the time, so at home he sometimes plays a bit of piano, but unfortunately he only knows about three chords. He knows about the same on guitar too. This song gets very deep into your consciousness, though because it's so peaceful. I suppose Ringo is writing cosmic songs these days without even realizing it."
   
   
   RINGO 1981: "He (a ship captain) told me all about octopuses-- how they go 'round the sea bed and pick up stones and shiny objects and build gardens. I thought, 'How fabulous!' because at the time I just wanted to be under the sea, too. I wanted to get out of it for a while."

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   DigAPwny

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jul 16th 2010 !⃝

   If Ringo hadn't gotten the fish and chips he wanted for lunch, this song might never have happened. He was spending a holiday on Peter Sellers' yacht, and wasn't sure about the squid he was served. When the captain told him later that octopuses keep gardens beneath the sea, the image inspired Ringo to pick up the guitar and write about it.

3. 3TOP RATED

   #3 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jan 16th 2010 !⃝

   Ringo Starr went on vacation on a cruise and the captain personally offered him octopus and he refused but the captain mentioned to Ringo how Octopuses collect rocks at the bottom of the sea and they make a shiny rock garden, I believe this was mentioned in an interview
4. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Oct 13th 2018 !⃝

   It was Ringo all the way and should have been on the Let It Be album , Phil Spector was actually the one that said no because he wanted long languid orchestration, bloody toss. To even mention it was John is an insult , The song is Beatles superlative.......
5. Glen M Wooten

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Oct 20th 2015 !⃝

   I think it's the best song about suicide because it so vague and cheerful.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
6. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Oct 12th 2015 !⃝

   You're all so funny...
   This song have such strong hidden meaning that I don't even think Ringo has actually written it... It was John obviously, unless a great ghost writter.
   It is also obvious that this song is the pendant of Yellow Submarine, and vice-and versa. Guess who sang YellSub? Never wonder why the only 2 songs underwater were offered to Ringo (Apple in Japanese!)?
   In ancient Peru, octopus was a multi-armed supernatural symbolic of sacrifice, especially decapitation. In other words, it became Kali in India, just look who is on sgt pepper near the bottom of the front cover : obviously it is her garden... So octopus's garden stands clearly for where Paul was buried more than 49 years ago now, it is not about sex at all...Wait, isn't 49 his number? Maybe that is why I deliver you this clue, otherwise nobody would have ever found it, who knows?
   Just to finish, the shade refers to the fact the one Ringo adressed to is underground, in the "submarine" (coffin) under the yellow flowers.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
7. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Aug 1st 2015 !⃝

   The story behind the creation of the song is very interesting, but sometimes you just have to look at the lyrics and interpret them in the way that makes most sense. The sexual references in this lyric are overwhelming, obvious, and pretty funny.
8. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   May 3rd 2014 !⃝

   I heard that he made the song because of Paul McCartney being dead after he died in the car crash on Abbey Road. That's where the album name came from.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
9. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Apr 13th 2013 !⃝

   Whatever the Beatles intended to convey, I found at the Monterey Aquarium an exhibit that explained an octopus's garden is the pile of rubble outside the octopus's home, made of the shells and bones of the octopus's prey. Knowing this gives an eery quality to the piece, similar to the playing of "What a wonderful world" at the end of the movie "Good Morning Vietnam".
10. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    May 25th 2011 !⃝

    It is quite clear what this song is about. An octopus's garden.
11. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Mar 28th 2011 !⃝

    when I took L.S.D for the first time I was in an octopus's garden in the shade and the floor looked like corals...it's a beautiful song and it can be easily understood after taking acid(or while buzzing)
12. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Feb 15th 2011 !⃝

    I think it's just like the lyrics say... living beneath the "storm" of life.
13. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jun 10th 2010 !⃝

    It's about sex, obviously XD
14. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Apr 14th 2010 !⃝

    It's not that tough it's just that. Peter Sellers Ringo and Sellers cook on his yaght had a conversation about octopus(i)('s) and Ringo just wrote it with help from George
15. KITtmmzoSIN

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jan 27th 2010 !⃝

    Octopus's Garden is clearly referencing a vagina.
    "I'd like to be under the sea
    In an octopus' garden in the shade.."
    Obviously the author wants to be in or around a vagina, in an octoPUSS's garden in the shade of her underlying anatomy.
    "He'd let us in, knows where we've been"
    One would be admitted into the vaginal canal, after strict analysis of previous sexual partners, for precautionary measures.
    "I'd ask my friends to come and see
    An octopus' garden with me"
    One evening, I call upon my male companions and invite them out to a gentleman's club to to view a lovely set of female genitalia.
    "We would be warm below the storm
    In our little hideaway beneath the waves
    Resting our head on the sea bed
    In an octopus' garden near a cave"
    The orgasm would bring with it a great wave of heat. Following the climax, I will rest my head upon your thigh, near your vagina, or "cave."
    "We would sing and dance around
    because we know we can't be found"
    In privacy we shall rejoice from the pleasure previously experienced.
    "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 "
    My semen will swim about the tunnels of your uterus, or "the coral."
    Every X and Y chromosome will float about, feeling safe in the familiar fluids.
    "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' garden with you."-self explanatory.
16. beatlesholic13

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jan 18th 2010 !⃝

    Ringy here was in India on vacation and when they served him it was I think was octopus instead of fish. He asked why and was told because of some kind of belief so he made one of his only two approved songs.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
17. HowCouldYou

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jun 25th 2009 !⃝

    The first line, 'sea' is a person or an initial.
    The second stanza first line, 'come and see' slurred is 'come in see', so it is a sexual reference.
    
    The guy with the hat is the 'ring leader' or 'introducee' with the connections to get the guys out of the lime light or yank them off the stage with one of those canes but not with the rounded end you might see in a cartoon, but rather something much easier to hold on to.
    
    The 'cave' is a rememberance of times past and a destination as if they knew where they were headed from a certain point in their lives. They hoped or wanted to share what they had learned, but simplified and said we are going to be alright, as if to hold without holding what is intangible and inviting others to at least consider the possibilities.
18. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jun 24th 2009 !⃝

    You're all wrong again. When they went on vacation one of the members (cant remember which) but they took LSD before they went scuba diving and one of the saw an octopus with a top hat hoeing a garden and it asked them to join..
    READ THE ANTHOLOGY its in their own words dude.

Latest Articles

• 
  A new era for Millennial favorite, Linkin Park
• 
  Anime to watch for the soundtracks… and other reasons you’re undateable
• 
  Dolly, we need you
• 
  The Stranger Things Effect: How new media is drawing Gen Z and Alpha's attention to aging media
• 
  The most underrated soundtrack of the early 2000s
• 
  Buy the Soundtrack, Skip the Movie: Brainscan (1994)