‘Ticket To Ride’ - The Beatles | Colouring The Past

On this date in 1965, THE BEATLES released the single TICKET TO RIDE in the UK (April 9th, 1965)

According to A Hard Day's Write by Steve Turner, many Americans concluded the "ticket" was from British Railways, and "ride" was the town of Ryde on the Isle of Wight. 

McCartney confessed to his biographer Barry Miles that they were partly right. Paul had a cousin who ran a bar in Ryde and he and John had visited them there. Paul later mentioned that although the song was primarily about a girl riding out of the life of the narrator, they were conscious of the potential for a double meaning.

Don Short, who traveled with the Beatles in the '60s, recalled that John coined the phrase "Ticket to Ride" for another meaning: The girls who worked the streets in Hamburg had to have a clean bill of health and the authorities would give them a card saying they were clean. 

Don later said that although he specifically recalls John telling him that, John could have been joking - you had to be careful with him like that. 

The brief but recognizable guitar solo was played by Paul McCartney.

This was used in the Beatles movie Help! in the scene where The Beatles ski... poorly. 

Copies of the original singer released on Capitol Records say: "From The United Artists Release 'Eight Arms To Hold You'," which was the original working title of Help! 

This was the first Beatles song over 3-minutes long, which started a trend to longer songs. 

Ringo came up with a distinctive staccato drum pattern for this song which he talked about quite often, sometimes mentioning that he's a left-handed drummer trying to play right-handed.

According to the renown stickman Carl Palmer of Emerson, Lake & Palmer fame, Ringo's work on this track is stellar. 

"One of the most exciting, rhythmical patterns and parts and songs that I ever heard, which I thought was really big-time and had it all going is a track by The Beatles called 'Ticket To Ride,'" said Palmer. "The drum part on that I always thought was exceptional.” go on . . . .CLICK on IT ANYWAY! It Works I SWEAR!!

Go on  . . . CLICK ON IT . . . . . . IT WORKS, I SWEAR!

Colouring The Past