Far under the sea

When I was going to school in England, we had to participate in a time honored, daily ritual first thing before classes known as morning assembly. While there were some variations in the format of the morning assembly in the different schools I attended, one thing was the same: the morning hymn sing-along. For the most part, they were regular old hymns like When I Needed A Neighbour, Cross Over The Road, One More Step, Lord Of The Dance (yes, that song), etc. Once in a while, though, we'd sing I guess what passed for secular songs; mostly--as I came to realize several years later--Beatles songs.


Interestingly, in every school, my teacher was also the person responsible for music education in the primary school, as well as the band director (band in primary school consisting of a wind ensemble made of recorder wielding kids!) and/or the choir director. This meant that he or she was also responsible for picking out the hymns for the morning assemblies, which meant our class always got a preview of new songs, being added to the school repertoire, during our own music classes.


That's how I first heard several Beatles songs including Penny Lane, Yellow Submarine, Ob-la-di Ob-la-da and, um, The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill (which, if you know the lyrics, I think you'll agree was a bit ferocious for first thing in the morning singing. Certainly, it would never be allowed on any playlist in an elementary school over here, nowadays, what with the out of whack zero tolerance policies, where you can't even say the words kill or gun without fear of repercussions. Anyway...)

My favorite out of that lot, though, was Octopus's Garden. I really liked the idea of going away to the bottom of the sea to get away from everything, and the tune was just a generally happy-go-lucky one that was easy to learn and even easier to sing to. Despite liking it so much, though, in all the years since we first learned it in Mr. Cowell's class, I'd only heard the actual original maybe two or three times, and always in passing, never deliberately. So when the kid was looking around for youtube videos of Beatles songs (he's suddenly starting to get into them), and L. found him a version and started playing over the living room LCD, it really was the first time in my entire life I'd ever actually paid attention to it.

First opening bars of the guitar twang play.

"This was my favorite Beatles' song for the longest time. Probably still one of my top three favorites."
"Really?!"
"Yeah, really. What, it's not complex or weird enough for me to like?"
"No, it's just that..."
"Shh, wait, it's starting."

First verse is sung. I'm suddenly listening intently, not because it's the first time really hearing it, but because either my ears are playing tricks on me, or the thought forming in my head is too impossible to consider without absolutely verifying it.

"Are you playing a cover?"
"No."
"But, that doesn't sound like George Harrison."
"Ummm..."
"That sounds like...Ringo. Where's the real version, with George Harrison singing?"
"This is the real version."
"This can't be the real version. Ringo is singing this. RINGO. My once favorite, still top three favorite song by the Beatles cannot be one sung by Ringo!"

I listen to the song again in stunned silence. And again. I look it up on wikipedia.

Ringo Star - vocals, drums, percussion, sound effects.

Vocals.

Vocals.

I may not listen to this again for a good time to come. But don't let that stop you. It's still a--deep breath--good song.

Octopus's Garden - The Beatles (vocal: Ringo Star. In case you missed it).