It was rare at the time to allow a woman in a break-up to have the upper hand in a pop song. And although the narrator isn’t sure exactly whether he’s upset or not, he says his baby definitely isn’t. The prefix of ‘I think’ adds so much to the song, without explaining itself. McCartney once claimed she’s simply off to Ryde on the Isle of Wight. But where to? Some suggest the woman has become a prostitute. A woman is leaving the narrator, that much we know. The combination of an adoration of Bob Dylan and drugs made the words in Ticket to Ride more adult, oblique and interesting.
Whoever came up with what, this track was breaking new ground.Īlthough The Beatles were innovative with their songwriting from the start, those first few years were often full of basic lyrics about love. George Harrison once said that the drums were also influenced by the equally important jagged guitar riff, which he claimed ownership of, having played it on his Rickenbacker. Making Starr play in such a stop-start fashion created an epic, proto-pyschedelic sound, which isn’t that far removed from the still-startling Tomorrow Never Knows, created a year later. He said Paul McCartney was only responsible for Ringo Starr’s drum sound, whereas McCartney later stated they wrote it together in three hours.Įven if Lennon was right, you can’t underestimate the drums on Ticket to Ride, so McCartney clearly made an important contribution. None of their singles had sounded like this, musically or lyrically.
The jury’s out on both, but it began one hell of a creative patch. He also proudly stated it invented heavy metal. In 1980, Lennon claimed in Playboy that the song was pretty much his own. Ticket to Ride was the first track worked on for their fifth album. That’s nothing compared to the impact on their music, though. Lads.įortunately for everyone, The Beatles on marijuana didn’t result in self-indulgent dribble. In some scenes, their eyes are bloodshot from all the smoking they indulged in. The Beatles spent most of the time stoned out of their minds, and would often struggle to stop themselves laughing while filming. Intended as a spoof of spy films, it essentially became an excuse for the Fab Four to travel to exotic locations. Once again directed by Richard Lester, this was a more surreal, loose, knockabout comedy than A Hard Day’s Night (1964) and with a bigger budget, too. Just as weird as the title was the film itself.
In February, The Beatles had begun filming, and recording the soundtrack album, for their second movie (their first in colour), provisionally called Eight Arms to Hold You.