The only side who could be relied upon to consistently come through was The Beatles. Yet, there had been the nagging worry that they were beginning to coast a little bit. While "I Feel Fine" and "Eight Days a Week" are far stronger than your average number one hit, they plainly weren't close to the high standards of "She Loves You", "All My Loving" / "This Boy" and "A Hard Day's Night" from 1964. Fans may have been expecting them to maintain their selection of good-not-great singles. While previous number ones would go on to enjoy at least a couple weeks on top of the American Hot 100, their latest single only managed one measly seven day period before being deposed by a relative throwaway by The Beach Boys.
When listened to nowadays on key compilations 1962-1966 (aka The Red Album) and 1, "Ticket to Ride" is now viewed rightly as one of the highlights of their career as well as the first real indication that The Beatles were striving for something deeper. They had used feedback and a fade-in respectively on their two previous North American singles but these were tantamount to novelty effects; beyond their startling opening seconds they were standard issue tunes. But now they had completed a full on departure — and fans didn't seem to know what to make of it.
It would be easy to dismiss youthful Beatlemaniacs of the age but I kind of get it. As a boy who would go through periodic bursts of interest in the Fab Four, I would never have listed "Ticket to Ride" as being among my favourites. I'm not sure it was one that even crossed my ten year-old mind all that much. While I was crazy about early efforts like "Please Please Me" and "Rock and Roll Music", it wasn't as though I found their more mature material to be off putting. Songs like "Eleanor Rigby" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" appealed to me just as much as their early stuff. (I remained largely ignorant of their work from 1968 and '69 until I was well into my teens which was probably for the best all things considered)
Though far more bleak, "Eleanor Rigby" has some vivid imagery that can illuminate the mind of listeners of all ages whereas "Ticket to Ride" is an account of a seriously depressed individual. Though other John Lennon compositions — "I'm a Loser", "Help!", "Nowhere Man" — are cited as examples of his worsening mental condition, this track holds its own in what is a vast catalog of melancholy. As Ian MacDonald notes, Lennon's use of the word 'sad' in the song's opening line is especially resonant. (As if to hammer the point home, the maudlin "Yes It Is" was placed on the flip side. Ever his own worst critic, Lennon dismissed it as a failed re-write of "This Boy" but the old grump couldn't have been more wrong about such a poignant number) If its message didn't turn youngsters off then its weightier sound might also have done the trick. Incidentally, Lennon's claim that it was "one of the first heavy metal records" is patently ludicrous but there's no denying its tough edge.
Perhaps "Ticket to Ride" is a song that many of us have to age into. (Once again providing proof that it isn't the music that ages, it's us) Lennon's spitefulness isn't particularly pleasant but it is something that many can identify with, especially young men who go through their share of breakups. But if the Lennon of "Sexy Sadie", "How Do You Sleep?" and "Steel and Glass" is too nasty for your taste, this is also the start of the drugged out Lennon which resulted in "Tomorrow Never Knows", "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "I Am the Walrus" and even — my personal favourite — the lethargic Lennon of "I'm Only Sleeping", "I'm So Tired" and "Watching the Wheels". While he doesn't go out and say it specifically, the singer is narrating a tale in which he is seemingly unwilling to do anything about his predicament: he thinks he's gonna be sad but not do a damn thing about it.
Musically, it points the way forward in a number of respects as well. Ringo's drumming is masterful and his playing began to take on a much more prominent role from this point forward. (His playing on "Ticket to Ride" is every bit as accomplished as on "Rain", the track he typically is praised the most for) The faint use of drone looks ahead to George Harrison's obsession with Indian music as well as their interest acid rock the following year. The irresistible chiming guitar work would go on to be used more in upcoming landmark albums Rubber Soul and Revolver. And then there's the matter of how this is arguably the song that convinced generations of bands to try to sound like The Beatles. I often take issue with idea of boring old power pop groups being compared to the Fab Four but it had to come from somewhere. Along with "Day Tripper" (a sort of poor cousin "Ticket to Ride"), it is the blueprint for acclaimed indie guitar bands who never seem to become all that popular. If aping The Beatles' sound is tricky enough then being similarly popular to them is an even greater impossibility.
It would be nice to think that "Ticket to Ride" managed to effect similar change in its own day by sweeping aside the mediocrities of the British Invasion. Think again. Yet, it ushered in their mid-sixties' creative peak while pushing some of their competitors into a higher realm. Herman's Hermits weren't going anywhere — for the time being at any rate — but at least the group that was in the imperial period to end all imperial periods were there to rise above the detritus. The kids may not have got it but for seemingly everyone else "Ticket to Ride" is pop-rock perfection. Amazingly, there would plenty more to come.
Score: 10
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