The Beatles Lyrics, album "Ringo Starr and Friends"

PAUL 1966: 'It's a happy place, that's all.
You know, it was just… We were trying to write a children's song.
That was the basic idea.
And there's nothing more to be read into it than there is in the lyrics of any children's song.'

JOHN 1972: 'Paul wrote the catchy chorus.
I helped with the blunderbuss bit.'

JOHN 1980: ''Yellow Submarine' is Paul's baby.
Donovan helped with the lyrics.
I helped with the lyrics too.
We virtually made the track come alive in the studio, but based on Paul's inspiration.
Paul's idea.
Paul's title… written for Ringo.'

PAUL 1984: 'I wrote that in bed one night.
As a kid's story.
And then we thought it would be good for Ringo to do.'

PAUL circa-1994: 'I was laying in bed in the Asher's garret, and there's a nice twilight zone just as you're drifting into sleep and as you wake from it – I always find it quite a comfortable zone.
I remember thinking that a children's song would be quite a good idea… I was thinking of it as a song for Ringo, which it eventually turned out to be, so I wrote it as not too rangey in the vocal.
I just made up a little tune in my head, then started making a story – sort of an ancient mariner, telling the young kids where he'd lived.
It was pretty much my song as I recall… I think John helped out.
The lyrics got more and more obscure as it goes on, but the chorus, melody and verses are mine.'

GEORGE 1999: 'Paul came up with the concept of 'Yellow Submarine.' All I know is just that every time we'd all get around the piano with guitars and start listening to it and arranging it into a record, we'd all fool about.
As I said, John's doing the voice that sounds like someone talking down a tube or ship's funnel as they do in the merchant marine.
(laughs) And on the final track there's actually that very small party happening! As I seem to remember, there's a few screams and what sounds like small crowd noises in the background.'

JOHN 1972: 'Both of us wrote it, but mainly Paul.
I helped him finish it.'

JOHN 1980: ''I Wanna Be Your Man' was a kind of lick Paul had – 'I wanna be your lover, baby.
I wanna be your man.' I think we finished it off for the Stones.
We were taken down to meet them at the club where they were playing in Richmond by Brian and some other guy.
They wanted a song and we went to see what kind of stuff they did.
Mick and Keith heard we had an unfinished song – Paul just had this bit and we needed another verse or something.
We sort of played it roughly to them and they said, 'Yeah, OK, that's our style.' But it was only really a lick, so Paul and I went off in the corner of the room and finished the song off while they were all still sitting there talking.
We came back, and that's how Mick and Keith got inspired to write… because, 'Jesus, look at that.
They just went in the corner and wrote it and came back!' You know, right in front of their eyes we did it.
So we gave it to them.
It was a throw-away.
The only two versions of the song were Ringo and the Rolling Stones.
It shows how much importance we put on them.
We weren't going to give them anything great, right? I believe it was the Stones' first record.'

PAUL 1984: 'I wrote it for Ringo to do on one of the early albums.
But we ended up giving it to the Stones.
We met Mick and Keith in a taxi one day in Charing Cross Road and Mick said, 'Have you got any songs?' So we said, 'Well, we just happen to have one with us!' I think George had been instrumental in getting them their first record contract.
We suggested them to Decca, 'cuz Decca had blown it by refusing us, so they had tried to save face by asking George, 'Know any other groups?' He said, 'Well, there is this group called the Stones.' So that's how they got their first contract.
Anyway, John and I gave them maybe not their first record, but I think the first they got on the charts with.
They don't tell anybody about it these days; they prefer to be more ethnic.
But you and I know the real truth.'

JOHN 1970: 'Paul had the line about 'a little help from my friends.' He had some kind of structure for it, and we wrote it pretty well fifty-fifty from his original idea.'

JOHN 1980: 'That's Paul, with a little help from me.
'What do you see when you turn out the light/ I can't tell you but I know it's mine' is mine.'

PAUL circa-1994: 'This was written out at John's house in Weybridge for Ringo… I think that was probably the best of our songs that we wrote for Ringo actually.
I remember giggling with John as we wrote the lines, 'What do you see when you turn out the light/ I can't tell you but I know it's mine.' It could have been him playing with his willie under the covers, or it could have been taken on a deeper level.
This is what it meant but it was a nice way to say it – a very non-specific way to say it.
I always liked that.'