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Octopus Lyrics
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 crackling at every 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 favorite grand
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
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
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 they'll 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 will never meet
So merrily trip for good my side
Please leave us here
Close our eyes to the octopus ride
You have no word
Trip, trip to a dream dragon
Hide your wings in a ghost tower
Sails crackling at every 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 favorite grand
Grasshoppers green Herbarian band
And the tune they play in us confide
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
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 they'll 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 will never meet
So merrily trip for good my side
Please leave us here
Close our eyes to the octopus ride
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Some of this stuff has more meaning than at first glance, just really listen and try to imagine what he's saying. I would agree, most of his imagery only a person so "on the border" betwen reality and madness would understand, but if you try you can get close. If you think about it, why would he put so much spirit and energy into performing the song if he just put words together in 10 minutes....He refers to himself alot in the song, the "madcap" is him completely insane laughing at the "man in the border" which is also him. He's trapped in the madcap's side and can't cross the border, therefor the madcap laughs at him for even trying. He refers to tripping and sides alot, almost as if he himself knows he's on a continuos trip (reference to insanity) that he can't or wants to get out from ("please leave us here")....Don't dismiss what he says as just rambling, just pay attention and you'll get the big picture...
wow fantastic job
wow fantastic job
@TANSD I agree with you I don't think Syd took anything lightly, especially his song writing. But yeah there is way more here than just nonsense rambling great song, just a stream of consciousness and words it has a sad beauty to it, just like most of his material
@TANSD I agree with you I don't think Syd took anything lightly, especially his song writing. But yeah there is way more here than just nonsense rambling great song, just a stream of consciousness and words it has a sad beauty to it, just like most of his material
@TANSD congratulations on succeeding in joining the 'lunatic on the grass' by also becoming one.
@TANSD congratulations on succeeding in joining the 'lunatic on the grass' by also becoming one.
@TANSD It is actually supposed to be "madcat". David Gilmour said it in a livestream recently. Syd said David could name the album and David said "The Madcap Laughs" and Syd agreed. David later found out that it was actually "madcat", but Syd didn't care and "madcap" became the lyric.
@TANSD It is actually supposed to be "madcat". David Gilmour said it in a livestream recently. Syd said David could name the album and David said "The Madcap Laughs" and Syd agreed. David later found out that it was actually "madcat", but Syd didn't care and "madcap" became the lyric.
I don't get a fun vibe from it at all. Reminds me of a scary trip and those horrible octopus rides at carnivals and midways. I have bad childhood memories from those. To me the images are twisted and confused carnival/ jungle hallucinations.
@mammadaddio - Upvoted, though I DO see fun commingling with the terror. BTW- Totally tied to the Octopus all the kids of our generation (I'm making a big assumption here) rode at the carnival. My memories are lighter than yours. Cheers!
@mammadaddio - Upvoted, though I DO see fun commingling with the terror. BTW- Totally tied to the Octopus all the kids of our generation (I'm making a big assumption here) rode at the carnival. My memories are lighter than yours. Cheers!
Some of this stuff has more meaning than at first glance, just really listen and try to imagine what he's saying. I would agree, most of his imagery only a person so "on the border" betwen reality and madness would understand, but if you try you can get close. If you think about it, why would he put so much spirit and energy into performing the song if he just put words together in 10 minutes....He refers to himself alot in the song, the "madcap" is him completely insane laughing at the "man in the border" which is also him. He's trapped in the madcap's side and can't cross the border, therefor the madcap laughs at him for even trying. He refers to tripping and sides alot, almost as if he himself knows he's on a continuos trip (reference to insanity) that he can't or wants to get out from ("please leave us here")....Don't dismiss what he says as just rambling, just pay attention and you'll get the big picture...
I concur.
I concur.
The song could be about obtaining moksha, the goal of forestdwellers everywhere, where "the octopus ride" stands for life or samsara and the singer is pleading to "please close our eyes" to this repeating cycle of death and rebirth, where the "squeaking door will ALWAYS squeak" and cough nothing is "ever still", contrasting this to the woods wherein it is "good to be lost" and where it's "so quiet there" that earthly life "means even less to me than i thought". In the end though, the man in the border keeps tripping out of it, to the apparent delight of "the madcap".
@fuman very well said thanks for the insight
@fuman very well said thanks for the insight
2 points: 1) the lyric is actually "...mad CAT laughed at the man on the border" 2) i know it's incorrect but, the "little mini gong..." line i've always heard as "little mini GUN..." which, when followed by "...coughs and clears it's throat", seems to make more sense
sorry..."gong" should be preceded by "minute" not "mini" in the first line
sorry..."gong" should be preceded by "minute" not "mini" in the first line
I am The Walrus
This is the best dissemination of the meaning behind Octopus that I have ever read:
http://socialartsnetwork.ning.com/profiles/blogs/untangling-the-octopus
being the person who turned david 'jones' on to the brilliance of the insane syd barrett, I find it somewhat falun dafa that the busu inchin of bawi bix never settled to prominently toward a calmer state for the amigo acids
fortuitously slow
@exobscura - If you really are/were a friend of "Mr. Jones", drop us dogs a line.
@exobscura - If you really are/were a friend of "Mr. Jones", drop us dogs a line.
BLACK MIRROR
The song is a pastiche of poems from one of Barrett's favorite anthologies. He borrowed lines here and there, twisting and changing them, and adding his own bits in. Most significantly, "isn't it good to be lost in the wood? Isn't it bad, too quiet there... in the wood. It meant even less to me than I thought..." which is a reflection of his withdrawal into himself. The Octopus ride is an old fairground ride, of course, and reveals a surrender to childlike fantasy ("please leave us here") and a bewilderment of surroundings ("close our eyes"). It's the kind of bittersweet recollection of times past that are prominent in his solo records.
I agree with the commentators who say that the line is actually "The mad CAT laughed at the man on the border." It is clear in the recording, and animals are the most prominent motif on the solo records. A cheetah and kangaroo pop up in the next line, for instance. I think Waters and Gilmour got a little carried away packaging and presenting his first solo record as the work of a lunatic, and Barrett was too shy and checked out to advocate for himself. It's anyone's guess what the line means, but I have always thought that Barrett is not the cat, but the "man on the border" hunting with the Talbot, and getting lost in the woods.