The Beatles released “Ticket to Ride” as the first single from their 1965 movie/album Help!, and the song continued their unstoppable run of success. It topped the charts in the U.S., the UK, and several other ports of call.
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You might not realize, however, the song could easily have been called “Ticket to Ryde” had John Lennon and Paul McCartney revealed the initial inspiration that got the ball rolling. The song’s lyrics then deviated from that source to depict a tale of heartbreak and woe.
That’s the “Ticket”
For many years, it was assumed John Lennon wrote the bulk of “Ticket to Ride.” Lennon gave thorough interviews both right after The Beatles broke up in 1970 and right before his death in 1980, in which he dissected the provenance of many of the band’s songs. He claimed in both to have penned the song.
But it’s important to remember that Lennon was rifling through those questions rapid-fire, which didn’t leave him a lot of room for nuance. In later years, Paul McCartney stepped forward and suggested that while Lennon might have had the original idea for songs like “Ticket to Ride,” Macca was very much in the mix contributing words and music.
In his interviews, Lennon explained he had intended “Ticket to Ride” to be a bit heavier in a musical sense than what the band had been doing at that time. That heaviness seems to have been shorn away somewhat as the song was recorded, although you can hear remnants of it in Ringo Starr’s battering drum pattern.
Many urban legends popped up over the years concerning what The Beatles meant by saying that the girl in the song had a “Ticket to Ride.” McCartney set everyone straight when talking about the song in his book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present:
“John and I always liked wordplay. So, the phrase ‘She’s got a ticket to ride’ of course referred to riding on a bus or train, but – if you really want to know – it also referred to Ryde on the Isle of Wight, where my cousin Betty and her husband Mike were running a pub. That’s what they did; they ran pubs. He ended up as an entertainment manager at a Butlin’s holiday resort. Betty and Mike were very showbiz. It was great fun to visit them, so John and I hitchhiked down to Ryde, and when we wrote the song we were referring to the memory of this trip. It’s very cute now to think of me and John in a little single bed, top and tail, and Betty and Mike coming to tuck us in.”
Behind the Lyrics of “Ticket to Ride”
While that title might have confused folks some, it’s clear in the context of the song it means the girl at the heart of it has decided that she’s moving on from the narrator. The ticket is the physical manifestation of her intent to leave him behind.
Once he sees it, there can be no recovering his happiness: I think I’m gonna be sad, I think it’s today / The girl that’s driving me mad is going away. In the second verse, he suggests that his overbearing nature is partly to blame for her departure: She says that living with me is bringing her down / For she would never be free when I was around.
In the bridge, his indignation rises to the surface: I don’t why she’s riding so high / She ought to think twice, she ought to do right by me / Before she gets to saying goodbye. But it’s all for naught, because not only is she headed out the door, but she’s also prepared to do so without any concern: She’s got a ticket to ride / But she don’t care.
“Ticket to Ride” stands out as one of those Beatles songs where nary a moment of it is wasted, almost like a precursor to power pop in that manner. A fun getaway helped bring it into existence, even if the lyrics end up depicting a journey to loneliness.
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