The Beatles: Octopus's Garden (Drum Cover)

Track #5 off of the album Abbey Road. Octopus's Garden is the second song that Ringo had written while in the Beatles and was the last song The Beatles released with him as the lead vocalist. The song is in the same vein as "Yellow Submarine" as they both are thought of as being songs for children. It's bouncy, has a simple melody, and is just a great track all together. Yet some people tend to dislike it. Oh well. That's their opinion I guess.

Ringo came up with the song while on a boat trip in 1968 where the captain told him how octopuses gather up stones and other shiny objects while on the sea bed and would gather them all together to make gardens. Footage of Ringo playing piano, George on guitar, and Lennon on drums can be seen in the original Let it Be documentary as well the more recent Get Back documentary. You see can the smile on George's face while Ringo is playing the song.

32 takes of the basic track were recorded on April 26, 1969. The group followed their traditional line up with Starr on drums, McCartney on bass, and both Lennon and Harrison on guitars. Ringo also provided a guide vocal on this date. Take 2 can be heard on Anthology 3 where Ringo sings the first verse three different times. Take 9 can be heard on the deluxe edition of Abbey Road. Lead vocals were added on a later date and McCartney and Harrison's backing vocals were processed through various compressors and limiters which creates that underwater sound. Harrison also provided the sound of bubbles while blowing through a straw into a glass of milk. So in addition to guitar, Harrison plays a glass of milk. How fun.

The drum track is relatively straight forward. Nothing to flashy, though it does have some tricky fills throughout the song. Ringo switches to a swinging tom groove during the guitar solo which is a rather neat change in the song. He also switches to only the ride cymbals during the ending of each verse before going back to the hi hat groove in the verses. The song ends with two different fills (the second fill I believe is the hardest fill in the song) and concludes with two cymbal and tom hits. A lot happens in a 2:48 song.

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