Beatle Poll: Late Night Post 1: BEATLES SONG OF THE WEEK TIME MADE: 9:24 PM

Beatle song of the week and the first Late Night Post
Beatle Song of the Week: Ticket to Ride/Yes It Is
Year: 1965
Album: Ticket to Ride - Help! Yes It Is - Past Masters I
"Ticket to Ride" is a song by The Beatles from their 1965 album, Help!. It was recorded 15 February 1965 at Abbey Road Studios and released two months later. In 2004, this song was ranked number 384 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

Composition

The song was written primarily by John Lennon (credited to Lennon/McCartney), with Paul McCartney's contributions in dispute. Lennon said that McCartney's contribution was limited to "the way Ringo played the drums".^[1] McCartney said that was an incomplete response, and that "we sat down and wrote it together... give him 60 percent of it... we sat down together and worked on that for a full three-hour songwriting session."^[2] Lennon said the double-time ending section (with the lyric "My baby don't care") was one of his "favourite bits" in the song.^[3] This song was also the first song by the band in which McCartney was featured on lead guitar.

Lennon proudly claimed that it was the first heavy metal song given the droning bassline, repeating drums, and loaded guitar lines.^[1]

[edit] Meaning of "ticket to ride"

While the song lyrics describe a girl "riding out of the life of the narrator",^[4] the inspiration of the title phrase is unclear. McCartney said it was "a British Railways ticket to the town of Ryde on the Isle of Wight",^[2] and Lennon said it described cards indicating a clean bill of health carried by Hamburg prostitutes in the 1960s.^[4] The Beatles played in Hamburg early in their musical career, and "ride/riding" was slang for having sex.

[edit] Release

"Ticket to Ride" was released as a single on 9 April 1965 in the UK and 19 April in the US with "Yes It Is" as its B-side,^[5] topping the Hot 100 for a week in the US and the UK Singles Chart for three weeks in the UK. The American single's label declared that the song was from the United Artists release Eight Arms to Hold You. This was the original title of The Beatles' second movie; the title changed to Help! after the single was initially released.^[6] The song was also included on the Help! album released on 6 August in the UK and on 13 August in the US.

[edit] Critical response

Music critics Richie Unterberger of allmusic and Ian MacDonald both describe "Ticket to Ride" as an important milestone in the evolution of the musical style of the Beatles. Unterberger said, "the rhythm parts on 'Ticket to Ride' were harder and heavier than they had been on any previous Beatles outing, particularly in Ringo Starr's stormy stutters and rolls."^[7] MacDonald described it as "psychologically deeper than anything The Beatles had recorded before ... extraordinary for its time — massive with chiming electric guitars, weighty rhythm, and rumbling floor tom-toms. Macdonald also notes that the track uses the Indian basis of drone which might have influenced the Kinks' "See My Friends".^[8]