26 April 1965
1965 is when The Beatles kick on from ’50s rock n’ roll-flavoured mop-top Merseybeat and hit their masterpiece stride with a new, nuanced ’60s guitar-pop sound. ‘Ticket To Ride’ still has one foot in the old ways: that mid-section and outro are familiar bluesy rockalongs. But those are tack-ons: the main thrust of this track is thrillingly modern and inventive. George’s chiming intro reasserts his patent on ’60s US folk-rock. Ringo’s broken rhythm calls to mind Hal Blaine’s famous kick-and-snare intro to ‘Be My Baby’. The droning guitar foreshadows the various degrees of Indian influence on mid-’60s British guitar bands, plus adds an ominous and turbulent air. John’s sardonic opening lines of “I think I’m gonna be sad / I think it’s today” are of a piece with his equally dry start to ‘Norwegian Wood’ – the lovable Fab Four cheekiness mutates into something more combative.
However, the extremes of that same Lennon ‘tude mar his ’65 Beatles output. Rubber Soul will feature the hissy sexism of ‘Girl’ and the unlistenable moronic misogyny of ‘Run For Your Life’; ‘Ticket To Ride’ doesn’t quite go so far but “she better think twice / she better do right by me” as voiced by acidic ’65 Lennon is faintly unpleasant all the same. To be fair, Good Lennon wins out over Bad Lennon on his 1965 magnum opus, ‘In My Life’. Still, it’s an unsavoury side of that year’s Lennon. Thankfully, in November 1966 he’ll meet Yoko and from there on, surely with her influence, tone down the knuckle-dragging sexism. Those male middle-aged haters of Yoko probably don’t understand my problem with ‘Girl’ and ‘Run For Your Life’, which sounds right.
