The Beatles UK singles: A sides v B Sides

Most probably Paul came up with the idea and played it because he'd worked it out- The Beatles recorded several songs per session, there may not have been time for George to perfect it. In fact, although he's got it nailed on the first live performance they gave of it, at the NME concert in April and on the European tour in June, he completely screws it up on their live TV appearance from Blackpool on August 1st! See the look Paul shoots across!

 

Ticket To Ride definitely - the great riff, heavier sound etc.

Yes It Is is OK, but was never one of my favorites - feels to me like a not as good retooling of This Boy.

 

Agreed. Paul probably just winged it during rehearsals and it fit the groove. It's certainly not a difficult lead part. Paul also played lead on Another Girl from the same time-frame... and of course played the only guitar on Yesterday. So yea, it was abvout the time he started branching out some. Ron

 

Correct. Paul's guitar and John's doubled-up chorus vocal. A photo in Beatles Monthly shows him sitting with his Epiphone, ciggie in mouth as John stands at a mic.

 

It sure isn't hard, it was one of about a dozen lead bits even I could play in my time! But it's undeniably a very cool lick!

 

Ticket To Ride was also the first Beatles A-side to break the 3-minute mark (3:10), also a sign of the band's expanding horizons.

As for the "heaviness" of the track: This was recorded in February 1965. There wasn't much of a precedent for this heavier sound at the time. Was there some song that could have specifically influenced them? Maybe an Animals song or something by the Kinks? Arnie

 

A vote for "Yes It Is" here. Love the harmonies.

"Ticket to Ride" is fine - I might just be burned out on it, but it doesn't do a lot for me these days...

 

Maybe some of the early Kinks hits, not as an influence so much, but they do have a heavier sound.

 

That one's from the UK.

 

"You Really Got Me" came out earlier (August 1964).....perhaps the first heavy British Invasion song. "All Day and All of the Night" is also 4 months older than "Ticket To Ride." If both songs inspired the Beatles on recording "Ticket To Ride," I couldn't find anything on the web.

 

You could be right but I thought it referred to a card that these Hamburg ladies carried?

 

Not sure if I'm preaching to the choir or not, but I've always thought George played the main 12-string riff that kicks off the song, and Paul's 'lead guitar' was simply the fills at the end of the chorus and in the outro - no?

 

Yes. 'Lead guitar' meaning 'solo guitar', not the riff, which isn't really lead guitar in the sense that it's just finger-picking a chord with a ring finger variation, clearly Lennon-written. (As were I Feel Fine and Day Tripper)

 

Most of the stories about the meaning of 'Ticket To Ride' are just that, stories; the only one with a grain of truth is Paul's assertion that it started out as a reference to Ryde, Isle Of Wight where a relative of his ran a hotel and he and John had been to. But that may have been a connection in Paul's mind only, John never mentioned it. And it's "the girl that's driving me mad is going away, she's got a ticket to ride" which couldn't be much plainer. No double entendre.

 

To be honest, I never really noticed 'Yes It Is', the A side was so spectacular. When The Beatles did 'Yes It Is' on TV, John Paul and George shared a mic and the lights were low. Seemed a bit spooky to a kid like me. Seemed like 'This Boy' revisited with a touch of 'Baby's In Black' .

 

"Yes It Is" is the song "This Boy" wants to be when it grows up. So many people seem to dismiss it as a retread but its so much darker and meaningful than it's antecedent. I think Ian McDonald sums it up best in "Revolution In The Head".

 

When did they do 'Yes It Is' live ? I have never heard or seen it performed live ??

 

They lip-synched on Thank Your Lucky Stars, and on The Eamonn Andrews Show in the first week or so of April 1965. I believe they did it on Top Of The Pops too, but I missed that week. I don't think they ever did it 'live'. The only live TV that year was from Blackpool in the summer.

 

Cool

 

Cool

 

Good point! I never thought of connecting/comparing Baby's In Black; has a similar (dark?) 'feel' to it too - though of course, Baby's In Black is very direct; Yes It Is, is somewhat laid back.

TTR's one of my favourite singles of all by the Fab Four! I agree completely what many here have already said about how wonderful the vocals/drums/guitars set the scene and about how it seemed to mark a change - paving the way for their more mature sound/songwriting (certainly Rubber Soul to my mind - that's always been my favourite album!) But it's a song of theirs I truly never tired of - so much that stands out to me in those few short minutes. And Yes It Is; hmm... an unusual one - you could see they were reaching a level of maturity there, unafraid to make people stop and think ('there's something going on there..') I've loved it since I heard it first when I was quite young, even if it does have slightly sinister/morbid overtones! Though it doesn't specifically tell you anything BAD has happened to his ex; it does feel he's keeping something from us..

Was the opening guitar figure/riff played on 12-string? Sounds like that to me (unless it was double-tracked to 'beef it up as The Searchers did ..) Whenever I've picked a 12-string up, I've never thought to try it (even though I owned a cheapie 12 acoustic in the early 90s) because on the occasions I've heard it live, it doesn't sound completely like the recorded version. Though of course 12-strings WERE used live, quite often too. I'm confused...

 

Yes, those 2 Kinks songs are fore-runners of songs driven by a "heavy"-type guitar riff. BUT the production on those Kinks songs is not really "heavy" to me (it's moreof a garage rock or punky sound to me). "Ticket To Ride" has more of a brooding, simmering drone sound, similar to what the heavier British groups (Yardbirds with Jeff Beck; Cream; Jimi Hendrix Experience) would start to deploy in 1966. I was just trying to see if the Beatles were directly influenced by something else at the time (late 1964/early 1965). Because if they weren't influenced by something in particular, then "Ticket To Ride" is one of their greatest achievements in sound, similar in its innovativeness to even Strawberry Fields Forever. Arnie

 

And Tomorrow Never Knows. And all three the very FIRST song to be recorded for the new album (though SFF never made Pepper of course).

 

Could be a 12 string- John also had a 12 string Rick 325 but used a strat on Ticket to Ride.