♫ Ticket To Ride ♫

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, music, music history

I came across an interesting article in The Guardian this evening … the headline read …

Long-lost bass guitar returned to Paul McCartney after more than 50 years

The article begins …

A Höfner bass guitar bought by Paul McCartney for £30 in 1961 has been returned to the former Beatle after a global search to find the stolen instrument.

The distinctively shaped guitar, bought by McCartney before his rise to stardom and reportedly his favourite, was last seen around the time the Beatles were recording their final album to be released, Let It Be.

McCartney paid £30 for the bass guitar 63 years ago, equivalent to about £800 at today’s prices.

A search to find the missing violin-shaped bass, a German-made Höfner 500/1, was launched by the Lost Bass Project last year, and on Tuesday a student, Ruaidhri Guest, shared a photograph on social media of the elusive instrument.

And so, you know I had to play something by The Beatles!  But, I wanted to play something I hadn’t played yet here on Filosofa’s Word, so the search was on!  And this is the first one I came to that I hadn’t played at least three times!

From SongFacts …

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. 

John Lennon: “That was one of the earliest heavy-metal records made.”

The brief but recognizable guitar solo was played by Paul McCartney, who was The Beatles bass player.

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. “You Won’t See Me” from Rubber Soul was the next 3-minute song. Yesterday And Today and Revolver each had one, and Sgt. Pepper had four, including two over 5 minutes.

Longer songs continued over the rest of their albums. Their longest was “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” followed by “Hey Jude .” 

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.”

This one charted at #1 in Canada, the UK, and the U.S., as well as numerous other countries around the globe!  I think the guitar being played by Paul in this video is the same one that was recently returned to him, as per the article … am I right?

Ticket To Ride

The Beatles

I think I’m gonna be sad, I think it’s today, yeah!
The girl that’s driving me mad is going away

She’s got a ticket to ride
She’s got a ticket to ride
She’s got a ticket to ride, but she don’t care

She said that living with me is bringing her down, yeah!
She would never be free when I was around

She’s got a ticket to ride
She’s got a ticket to ride
She’s got a ticket to ride, but she don’t care

I don’t know why she’s riding so high
She ought to think twice, she ought to do right by me
Before she gets to saying goodbye
She ought to think twice, she ought to do right by me

I think I’m going to be sad, I think it’s today, yeah!
The girl that’s driving me mad is going away, yeah!

Oh, she’s got a ticket to ride
She’s got a ticket to ride
She’s got a ticket to ride, but she don’t care

I don’t know why she’s riding so high
She ought to think twice, she ought to do right by me
Before she gets to saying goodbye
She ought to think twice, she ought to do right by me

She said that living with me was bringing her down, yeah!
For she would never be free when I was around

Oh, she’s got a ticket to ride
She’s got a ticket to ride
She’s got a ticket to ride, but she don’t care

My baby don’t care
My baby don’t care
My baby don’t care
My baby don’t care
My baby don’t care
My baby don’t care

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Paul Mccartney / John Lennon

Ticket to Ride lyrics © Sony/atv Tunes Llc, Mpl Communications Inc

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35 thoughts on “♫ Ticket To Ride ♫”

  1. You are such a thorough researcher of everything, Jill. The story of the lost/found guitar I have read in various news. But it has gotten a further meaning with all the details you provided. And this was one of the songs I could sing along because I understood the lyrics already then. Now I‘ll move over to YouTube to grasp that particular song because I can‘t access any of your links on Jetpack. Which is bizarre, because others who post videos on this platform, represent no problem for me to watch.
    And as always, special thanks for the lyrics! Always highly appreciated.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Thank you, Kiki!!! It’s not hard … I have a couple of sources where I can almost always find some background info on the origins of a song and its history. I’m really sorry you couldn’t access the videos I embedded! I wonder if others had the same trouble? Hope you’re able to find them on YouTube!

      Like

  2. I was young; this sounded like a guy who’d been broken up with by an independent girl, and it was fun to sing, not because the guy was sad, but because the words and music fit well to make fun. It sounded as if the music consoled the guy into having fun with it, too. Again, I was young. Thanks, Jill!

    Liked by 2 people

  4. Always liked it, and I’m pretty sure you’re right about Paul playing the newly found bass on it, though he didn’t seem to be trying too hard in the video! Hard to see how he could have played lead guitar at the same time, too. Most of the lead parts were played by George, as they usually were, though Paul was credited with playing a couple of bits in the fills during the final recording sessions.

    Liked by 2 people

    • That’s one of the things I really love about the Beatles … they always seem like they’re having fun instead of working. I never really thought about who played what, or who played the lead, but you’re right.

      Liked by 1 person

  5. That’s quite a bit of a miracle that the guitar got back to Paul McCartney. And thanks for the interesting fact about this song that it was the first one over 3 minutes. The information you are digging out is always pretty cool!

    Liked by 3 people

  6. Pingback: ♫ Ticket To Ride ♫ | Filosofa’s Word | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  7. Not a Beatles tune, but it employed lyrics from “I Am The Walrus”. While known mainly for it’s horn section, Terry Kath wuz a helluva guitarist

    Liked by 2 people

  11. I wonder if McCartney’s search was inspired by the successful search for a guitar stolen from Randy Bachman of Guess Who/Bachman Turner Overdrive (BTO) fame that brought his guitar back to him 2 years ago after 45 years being missing? (https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/randy-bachman-stolen-guitar-reunited-japan-canada-day-1.6508351)
    No matter, this was one uf the Beatles’ more mysterious songs when it came out because of the “ticket to ride” lyric. To me, it was a train oe airline ticket to get as far away as possible from an overbearing, possibly abusive partner. It was my introduction to the world of battered women, one I have never really recovered from, because I found out two of my male friends, really nice seemingly gentle people, were abusers. It was one of my first introductions to the world of partber violence — a real eye-opener that is still a problem today, some 60 years later.
    And this is one reason why lyrics are so impirtant to me — three little words “ticket to ride” were so very informative.

    Liked by 3 people

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