For my monthly cover video, I decided to record another song by The Beatles: Ticket To Ride.
As usual, mailing list subscribers have also received an exclusive short story inspired by the song.
In this article, I am going to share some information on how The Beatles wrote and released this classic song.
Have a listen to my version by checking out the video down here!
Ticket To Ride is one of the most popular Lennon-McCartney tunes.
Written in 1965 and released as part of the album Help!, it is still widely known even among non-fans.
As with many Lennon-McCartney joint efforts, the two stars had different views on how each one of them had contributed to the final piece.
While Lennon said that the only contribution Paul had brought was the idea for a drum pattern, McCartney argued they had developed the whole song together, crediting John for a "60 percent of it".
In his book British Invasion: The Crosscurrents of Musical Influence, Simon Philo states that Ticket To Ride is a great example of "avant-garde masquerading as pop".
With its heavy sound, at least for the time, and a complex musical structure, featuring changes of tempo, sustained chords, and other innovative elements, this rock ballad was something quite unheard of in the Sixties.
Its origins too are rather mysterious. What was the real inspiration behind Ticket To Ride?
The interpretations of its lyrics are numerous...and quite fun, too.
While many of us simply see the tune as a break-up song, with a strong female character who leaves her boyfriend for good, someone speculated about alternative meanings.
John Lennon, for example, had just acquired his driving license. A "ticket to ride" was simply the written permission received by the government to finally drive a car.
At that time, The Beatles had also spent quite a lot of time in Hamburg, where prostitutes worked under a certification about their health. Considering the other meaning of the verb "to ride", there's a chance Lennon was inspired by this fact to choose a title.
Paul McCartney, however, kept things safer by stating that the inspiration for the song came from a train ride to Ryde, a town close to the Isle of Wight.
Whatever the meaning, this song is certainly one of the most popular ones within rock history. It was covered by many artists too, including The Carpenters, Vanilla Fudge, and even Pink Floyd.
I'll be back with a new cover next month.
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Have a happy day and...rock on!