“I’d Come to a Bad Spot”: The Ringo Starr Beatles Classic Born at an All-Time Low

Of all the songs in the Beatles’ vast and varied catalogue, the Ringo Starr classic, “Octopus’s Garden,” is arguably one of the most buoyantly cheerful and whimsical. But despite what the imaginative lyrics and saccharine background vocals might suggest, the Fab Four drummer wrote this track while he was experiencing an all-time low with his fellow bandmates. In fact, he wasn’t even in the band.

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A telegram would ultimately bring Starr back into the fold, future Abbey Road track in tentacle, er, hand.

The Row That Inspired This Ringo Starr Song

Even before the official breakup, members would take turns walking out on sessions or ghosting the others. One such occasion happened with Ringo Starr, who quit the band over Paul McCartney micro-managing his drum parts on “Back in the U.S.S.R.” Starr recalled in Anthology, “We were all in a messed-up stage. It wasn’t just me. The whole thing was going down. I had definitely left. I couldn’t take it anymore. There was no magic, and the relationships were terrible. I’d come to a bad spot in life.”

“It could have been paranoia,” Starr continued. “But I just didn’t feel good. I felt like an outsider. But then I realized that we were all feeling like outsiders, and it just needed me to go around knocking to bring it to a head.” Before coming to this realization, Starr sought to escape his tumultuous life in the U.K. by going on vacation with his family. Borrowing Peter Sellers’ yacht, the Starrs made their way to the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, where they enjoyed the weather, water, and some local cuisine, like octopus.

The yacht’s chef first introduced the Starr family to calamari when they asked for fish and chips, as typical Liverpudlians are wont to do. That sparked a conversation between Starr and the chef, where the Beatle learned about octopi’s underwater gardens that they decorate with stones, cans, and bottles. “I thought this was fabulous,” Starr said. “Because, at the time, I just wanted to be under the sea, too. A couple of tokes later with the guitar, and we had “Octopus’s Garden.””

How The Beatles Got Their Drummer Back

While Ringo Starr was strumming an acoustic on a yacht in the Mediterranean, the boys back home were brainstorming ways to get their drummer back. Eventually, they sent a telegram. It read, “You’re the best rock ‘n’ roll drummer in the world. Come on home. We love you.” Starr said, “So, I came back. We all needed that little shake-up. When I got back to the studio, I found George had had it decked out with flowers. There were flowers everywhere. I felt good about myself again. We’d got through that little crisis, and it was great.”

Starr had left the band during the “White Album” sessions, but he kept “Octopus’s Garden” in his back pocket until the band used it for their 1969 album, Abbey Road. George Harrison once sang the song’s praises, saying, “I find very deep meaning in the lyrics, which Ringo probably doesn’t see. But all the things like resting our head on the seabed and we’ll be warm beneath the storm, which is really great, you know. It’s like this level is a storm, and if you get sort of deep in your consciousness, it’s very peaceful. So, Ringo’s writing his cosmic songs without noticing.”

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