Ticket to Ryde? or to Ride?

The first stop in our ride is The Beatles of course.
We all know them, but for those of you who don’t know them and for those of you who wish to know a little more about them let’s discuss a bit about who were they?

The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960.
It’s comprised of the musicians John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
The band broke up in 1970 (yes, only 10 active years and they’re still considered the greatest band of all times by many).
In 1980 John Lennon was murdered near his home in NYC by a fan and in 2001 George Harrison died of lung cancer.

You’re probably thinking that they are indeed one of the most known bands of all time, but that is incorrect. They are the most known band of all times, even now, 60 years after they have formed and 50 years after their break-up.

the Beatles had, and still has, much success. For example, they hold the record for most number-one albums on the UK Albums Chart (15), most number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (20) and the list go on and on.
but, in these days where Oyster (the British Rav-Kav) and Rav-Kav dominate our transportaions platforms, people don’t use many tickets to ride don’t they?
Regard to digital music platforms, the Beatles are still dominating!

According to Forbes magazine in 2019 their music has been streamed 1.7 billions times on Spotify and 47% of those streamings are coming from people under the age of 30.
Let it sink for a moment. This means that people all around the world, that were born roughly 30 years after the band was formed, listen to about 92 million minutes of their music in a single year (fun fact: the average length of their songs is approximately 3.25 minutes).

In the awards category they were very successful either: 7 Grammy Awards, 4 Brit Awards, an Academy Award for best original song score for their film “Let It Be” from 1970 and the list goes on and on.
So, there is no doubt that they were, and even now, very much popular all over the world.
Which brings us to the next stop in our ride!

One of their most known hits, and one of my own favorites is “Ticket to Ride” which was written by the two band members John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
It was released in April 1965, 2 months after it was recorded.
So, let’s cut to the chase, what makes this song a top hit? Why is it popular? What makes it so special (is it special)?

the lyrics of the song:

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
For 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 ridin’ 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 gonna be sad
I think it’s today yeah
The girl that’s driving me mad
Is going away, yeah

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 ridin’ 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
Is bringing her down, yeah
For she would never be free
When I was around

Ah, 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

We have learned in the course about few criterions of what makes a great song great. As I’ll explain later, many of them are true and relevant for this song as well, for it being, indeed, a great song (I wouldn’t make a book about a very regular song, would I?).
So, with your permisson (hahaha like you have permissions in my own book!), I’ll start discussing about the course’s criterions that are relevant to this song.

#1: A wide consensus– There is no doubt that this song is loved by many.
it became the Beatles‘ seventh consecutive number 1 hit in the UK and their third consecutive number 1 hit (and eighth in total) in the United States, and similarly topped national weekly charts in Canada, Australia, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden. In South Africa and Germany it reached the second place in these charts.
In the end of 1965 charts it reached the 3rd place in South Africa, 5th place in the UK Singles chart and 31th place in US Billboard.
Notice that in the previous YouTube link, which is a performance of the song back in 23 of November 1965, and was uploaded by the band official channel, has “only” 48.95 million views.

#2: Same but different– So yeah, like many other songs of The Beatles, this too is a pop song. So this is the first similarity to other songs (you don’t expect them to suddenly change their style only 5 years after they’ve just started, don’t you?). It resembles another song by them, which first came out only a year prior to “Ticket to Ride”, can you guess which song?

Sounds alike? you decide.

But wait, it’s also sound like a very familiar song that was released a year later (1966). I’m reffering of course to “Last Train To Clarksville” by The Monkees.

They’re quite similar, don’t you think?

Moreover, the song’s composition’s structure is an AABA pop song format, which is a common format for pop songs prior to this time (such as the known song, and yes the beginning of the course, “Over the Rainbow” by Harold Arlen. Oh yeah I made a good reference, haven’t I?).

but! The song ends with a change of tempo, even Paul McCartney himself referred to that: “Instead of ending like the previous verse, we changed the tempo. We picked up one of the lines, “My baby don’t care,” but completely altered the melody. It was something specially written for the fade-out, which was very effective but it was quite cheeky and we did a fast ending. It was quite radical at the time”.

So one can say that it has that taste of similar but different kinda taste, doesn’t it?

#3: Our ride continuous! how fun! Our next stop is:

Words and rythms– these are the most important ingredients and in these days they seems to be very rare. In this song, there is repetitiveness in the chorus which is a lot shorter than the verses, but this is the catchy part of the song isn’t it?
Try to hear this song without singing the chorus, I dare you.

In addition, there is of course a lot of rhyming (throughout the entire song) which makes it ‘singible’ of course.

But what makes it special, when speaking about its words (in my opinion), is that the theme of the song is quite sad. It talks about a loved girl that’s leaving (otherwise she didn’t have that ticket to ride!) and don’t seem to care about it but it’s sang with a happy manner, a fast melody, a harmony singing by all 4 members throughout the chorus and by McCartney and Lennon.
We’ve got a sad song which is performed as a happy one.

Furthermore, this theme is what McCartney claims this song is about, a “British Railway ticket to the town of Ryde on the Isle of Wright.”
This was a trip he and John Lennon took by train to the town Ryde back in the 1960s.

On the other side, Lennon claimed it was about cards indicating a clean bill of health carried by prostitutes in Hamburg Germany in the 1960s (not all those heroes wear capes, do they?).
What is it then?  A happy-sad song or a rude trip song in disguise? Depends on whom you agree with, but we sure got a nice song.

In the next page you can see a photograph of the English town Ryde, which is located in the north-east coast of the Isle of Wight, England.

We have a few more stops but oh what fun is it to ride, ha?
#4: Publicity– well we’re talking about the most famous band of all times, aren’t we? But regard to the song, it has its own recognition.
It was published as a B-side with the song “Yes it is”, together they formed their first single in 1965. As mentioned earlier, it toped many charts in UK and in many other countries throughout the globe.

#5: Covers– A good song has good covers, this is so true it can be a 4th law of Newton, is it not?
This song has a great cover, performed by the famous band, Maroon 5, in 2014.
In the next page you can hear their cover(Bonus: try to notice some relevant people in the crowd).

How classic! isn’t it?

So, unfortunately our ride has arrived to it’s destination.
As you might have noticed, this is an awesome song made by an awesome band and many of the criterions which was learned in the course are relevant to this great hit too!

I hope you enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed making it.
Hope you’ll never missed your tickets to ride, as they are, enjoyable.