Octopus

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 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.

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...

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".

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

I am The Walrus

This is the best dissemination of the meaning behind Octopus that I have ever read:

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

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.