1965 The Beatles: Ticket To Ride

Well there's plenty to like here. That The Beatles (and in particular Harrison) dabbled with Eastern mysticism and musicianship is well documented, but the short changed guitar chime of 'Ticket To Ride already has a definite sitar-like chime skittering all over McCartney's bass that drones in a mantra anchor for Starr to play behind the beat to before catching up with some glorious drum roll fills; it's almost a bare bones cut of 'Tomorrow Never Knows' a year early. More than that, I can hear the germ of Roger McGuin's jangling Rickenbacker riffs from 'Mr Tambourine Man' AND 'Eight Miles High' in its opening ten seconds, and there's still over three minutes to go ('Ticket To Ride' was the first Beatles single to break the three minute running time - plenty to like indeed).

I'm growing tired of typing it, but there really wasn't anything else in the charts that sounded like this. Strip away the vocals and what's left borders on the avant garde, music that on initial listen you'd struggle to work out just exactly where lyrics could fit amongst the sharp angles of this particular puzzle box (with such innovation all around I'll overlook that that basic ascending melody that ends each verse is a sly crib from Lieber and Stoller's 'Little Egypt'). The only thing about it that sounds 'normal' is the squealing guitar break that heralds a fresh round of verses.

And the lyric too - so far this year we've had Cliff dying the minute his girl leaves, Unit 4+2 boasting their love will last longer than mountains and The Seekers finding tru luv 4 eva etc, but after their everyday statement that love feels 'fine', 'Ticket To Ride' continues the same shoulder shrugging observations in a song where nobody gives much of a toss about anything. "I think I'm gonna be sad, I think it's today. The girl that's driving me mad is going away" - not driven mad to the point of heartbreak by her leaving then, and if John and Paul are non-plussed then the girl herself isn't losing any more sleep either - "She's got a ticket to ride, and she don't care".

It's ambivalent to the point of bloody mindedness, yet it's simplicity offsets the hypnotic weirdness of the music in a way that demands more than a single listen, if only to confirm that you really have just heard what you've heard. 'Ticket To Ride' closes side one of the Beatles' 'Help!' album with a cover of 'Dizzy Miss Lizzy' closing side two. How far more fitting it would be had this order been reversed - the Larry Williams song was where they came from while 'Ticket To Ride' was a direct springboard into 'Rubber Soul' and a series of recordings that would show all-comers exactly what could be achieved in the field of pop with talent and imagination.