Syd Barrett – Octopus

 I was never a huge Pink Floyd fan, but I did start liking them more and more through the years. My favorite era was the Syd Barrett era, before they became massive. Syd Barrett was a co-founder of Pink Floyd. He is credited with coming up with the band’s name, which was inspired by blues musicians Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Their debut album has really grown on me and there are some gems on there. 

By the time this was recorded in late 1969, Syd was already something of a rock ‘n’ roll ghost story. The man who led Pink Floyd through UFO Club acid nights and their first album (The Piper at the Gates of Dawn) had flamed out under the weight of mental illness. Octopus was the lead single from his 1970 album The Madcap Laughs, his first solo album. Yes, it is worth checking out. 

A track that sounds like it was part nursery rhyme and English psychedelia mixed together into a surreal song. In just under two years since his short-lived run as Pink Floyd’s original frontman, Barrett had all but disappeared into erratic behaviour. I’m glad EMI decided to let him try again in 1969; it wasn’t out of commercial ambition because they had to know better. I like this album though, and I would recommend it. 

The sessions were chaotic. Producers came and went: Peter Jenner tried first, then Malcolm Jones. When things still weren’t gelling, Barrett’s old bandmates David Gilmour and Roger Waters were drafted in to finish the job. Between all of them, they managed to pull the album together. Uncut placed this in their 200 Greatest Albums of all time. In 2015, NME (New Musical Express) placed this album at number 7 on a list of best albums recorded at Abbey Road. 

The album peaked at #40 on the UK charts in 1970. 

Octopus

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 cackling at every plate we break

Was cracked by scattered needles
The little minute gong
Coughs and clears his throat
Madam you see before you stand
Hey ho, never be still
The old original favorite grand
Grasshoppers green Herbarian band
And the tune they play is “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

Isn’t it good to be lost in the wood?
Isn’t it bad so quiet there, in the wood?
Meant even less to me than I thought
With a honey plough of yellow prickly seeds
Clover honey pots and mystic shining feed

The madcap laughed at the man on the border
Hey ho, huff the Talbot
The winds they blew and the leaves did wag
They’ll never put me in their bag
The raging seas will always seep
So high you go, so low you creep
The wind it blows in tropical heat
The drones they throng on mossy seats
The squeaking door will always squeak
Two up, two down we’ll never meet

Please, leave us here
Close our eyes to the octopus ride

Please, leave us here
Close our eyes to the octopus ride

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

36 thoughts on “Syd Barrett – Octopus”

  1. Pingback: Syd Barrett – Octopus – MobsterTiger

  5. Great post, Max. While I dig Pink Floyd pretty much throughout their career, I can see why you’re drawn to the Syd Barrett era. My entry to Pin Floyd were the “Wish You Were Here” and “Dark Side of the Moon” albums. Only, subsequently, I started to explore their earlier music. I’ve come to love “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn” and also previously listened to Syd Barrett’s “The Madcap Laughs.” There’s some interesting stuff on there. It’s very sad what drugs dig to Syd. He was brilliant – a true diamond!

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    1. Thanks Christian…finding out about pre-Dark Side of the Moon Floyd was a revelation to me…I love the stuff. Not that I don’t like any later Floyd song…it’s not that…but this stuff is so fresh and I just love the 60s sound in it.

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  6. A sad story was Syd , the crazy diamond. He wrote some good ones early on, like ‘See Emily Play’ for instance, but this is no ‘See Emily Play’ to my ears. Still, it’s good it managed to be released

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  7. Nice. What a mind he had. A radio station I used to listen to years ago used to have a show called Classic Rock Sunday where they played more obscure stuff. That was where I first heard “Bike” from Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. I couldn’t believe the sound of it. He was truly original.

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    1. He really was. I had never heard the pre-popular stuff but when I did…I liked it…I cling to this era and I wish it got more play.

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  8. My intro to Pink Floyd was via Ummagumma. “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” enthralled me. Then I listened to the earlier stuff. Being introduced to them post-Barrett is kinda like learning of the Grateful Dead post-Pigpen. (For both bands, the bulk of the career came after those guys were gone, but “purists” say that was the best era.) I was excited when they were coming to town in 1973. We were “prepared”, so to speak. It was a great disappointment. While “Dark Side of the Moon” is considered one of the greatest and best-selling albums of all time, it was also my introduction to concert as marketing tool. It was the opening of the US tour. They used a quadrophonic sound system and someone in the booth played with a joystick to make the sound spin around us. Cute gimmick. They played the album and went home. It may have been the shortest concert I’ve been to and possibly the biggest waste of money. But, hey, it sold records. Listening to the record later, I realized it was better than the concert.

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    1. I think for me I was so worn out on Dark Side of the Moon and their seventies hits that I finally stopped listening much. I do like those but when I found this period…I thought…how different and melodic.
      Wow…I heard some concerts used the quadrophonic sound system…The Who did but I know nothing about the “spinning”… thanks for that memory…well you probably saw them at their height…commercially anyway.

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    1. Thanks CB. I never have covered him before and I was quite surprised by that. I like his solo albums….and yea I love his Pink Floyd stuff. He was different and great at melody.

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      1. Max, I devoured Syd. I could tell you the track sequence on the records. I wasnt much into my teens so what does this music do to a young CB’s brain? For one thing it influences his tastes. The simplicity , humor , darkness plus those things you mentioned all came into play. Plus He was not in the band anymore and back then you didnt have access to the ins and outs of things. No Syd, no Floyd.

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      2. It was like listening to a new band (early Floyd) for me when I started a few years ago…I can’t imagine real time.
        I read about the guy before but never listened…man it’s the melodies that hooked me…and yea I love the out of the box stuff he did.

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  11. For me at this stage the diamond was cracked and flawed, if that isn’t too trite. Glimpses of genius but too few and fleeting to captivate me for too long. I liked early PF and when he remerged I wanted to like his offerings but the cohesion and focus of his muse had run off, way over the hills and far away.

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    1. I came to it with a clean slate mostly because I didn’t know much about Pink Floyd‘s early stuff so that’s why I like it probably. It is different and I really like his version of Pink Floyd a lot as well.

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