 After developing the piano lick and having the title, Lennon wrote the words around a conception of the Lennon's home, The Dakota, being metaphorically their Palace of Versailles.Although Lennon claimed that the lyrics apply to people in general, and not specifically to the Lennons, the song does reflect the reality of the Lennons cleaning up their diets and their finances, as well as their drug habits, and reports on what the previous five years away from recording meant to the Lennons.The song, like Lennon's Beatles' song "Cry Baby Cry," incorporates elements of the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence."