Ticket To Ride | Page 4 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Mr. Kite said

meanmistermustard said

Out of interest if she doesn’t care she’s got a Ticket To Ride why is John sad she is going away as surely she wont be. Surely if she wanted to get away she would care that she had a ticket to do so so she could otherwise she couldn’t. 

She’s got a Ticket To Ride and she don’t care [about leaving John].

But John sings “she’s got a Ticket To Ride but she don’t care” which implies to me that she doesnt care about having a ticket not not caring about leaving John. Maybe its just the grammar side of it but its also irked away at me.

I thought of a possible meaning: she has a free ticket for life. John/the singer is saying, “I have all the money she would ever need. She would lack for nothing. But, she doesn’t care about having all the material things because she doesn’t love me.”

Joe has two possible explanations about the orgins of the title phrase on his page for the song.

AG’s interpretation doesn’t sit well with me either. At no point in the song does John ever touch on money or anything materialistic, the only thing we know is that living with John was bringing her down.

For me ‘she’s got a Ticket To Ride ‘ implies she has a way of getting out/leaving but “she don’t care” suggests she isn’t going to (she doesnt care she can get away). So why be so sad?

Mr Kite’s gutter idea works in nicely with that of ‘Please Please Me ‘, ‘Drive My Car ‘, the suggestions in ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand ‘ (there is no way John and Paul were meaning to just hold hands with the girl) but we can’t go there for every interpretation of a Beatles song – or can we?

It could be that whilst she can leave John knows or believes he knows that she wont and which would make it similar in theme to ‘You Like Me Too Much ‘.

From Joe’s page on Ticket To Ride

Another suggestion is that the title refers to sexually-transmitted diseases, and was inspired by the prostitutes encountered by The Beatles during their time performing in Germany.

“The girls who worked the streets in Hamburg had to have a clean bill of health and so the medical authorities would give them a card saying that they didn’t have a dose of anything.

I was with The Beatles when they went back to Hamburg in June 1966 and it was then that John told me that he had coined the phrase ‘a Ticket To Ride ‘ to describe these cards. He could have been joking – you always had to be careful with John like that – but I certainly remember him telling me that.”

Don Short, journalist
A Hard Day’s Write, Steve Turner

Zig said

Thanks AG – I’m glad Joe, Don Short and Steve Turner had it in their articles, but I read it elsewhere (damn my memory) in someone’s book. It does, however, lend creedence to John’s quote.

@Zig, would it be The Beatles Lyrics by Hunter Davies?

Zig said

Ahhh Girl said

@Zig, would it be The Beatles Lyrics by Hunter Davies?

I won’t know until I read it, assuming “Mrs. Claus” fulfills my Christmas list. Thanks for the spoiler though.

&^*!@ Shoot, sorry, Zig.

This author has something interesting on the song:

[About the girl in the song]

Also, she has been inspired to leave by the enlightenment felt “riding so high”; pot was her ticket to a new life.

Come across a mix of this (Rock Band