High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Octopus is an album by British progressive rock band Gentle Giant, released in 1972. It marked a change in drummers from Malcolm Mortimore to John Weathers. The new line-up of the band delivered the Octopus album later in 1972, generally considered to represent the start of the band`s peak period. The hardest and most "rocking" Gentle Giant album to date, Octopus was allegedly named by Phil Shulman`s wife Roberta as a pun on "octo opus" (eight musical works, reflecting the album`s eight tracks).