From: awp@world.std.com (Alan W Pollack)
Subject: Notes on "Ticket To Ride" (TTR)
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 02:36:21 GMT

	             ===================================
	            || Notes on "Ticket To Ride" (TTR) ||
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KEY	A Major

METER	4/4

FORM	Intro -> Verse -> Verse -> Bridge -> Verse -> Bridge -> 
			Verse -> Outro (fadeout)
		


GENERAL POINTS OF INTEREST


Style and Form
--------------
- After the folksy originals and nostalgic covers of the _For Sale_
  album, "Ticket To Ride" brings with it a measure of tight toughness 
  that is most welcome to those wondering wither this erstwhile sharp 
  edge of the group's attitude and style had fled following the _Hard 
  Day's Night_ album.
  
- The form is an ordinary two-bridge model with only one verse in the 
  middle and no instrumental section.  The special kicks here are to be
  found in the arrangement, especially in its exploitation of texture,
  rhythm, and harmonic dissonance.


Melody and Harmony
------------------
- Although the tune does not make a primarily bluesy impression, both
  the flat 7th and minor 3rd scale degrees do bear some melodic emphasis
  in the verse and bridge, respectively.

- Five of the seven chords that naturally occur in the home key as well
  as the flat-VII chord are used.  No other more exotic chords show up nor
  is there any hint of modulation.  This relatively bland harmonic diet
  is spiced up by the liberal use of free melodic dissonance and a certain
  suspense factor created by the exceedingly slow harmonic rhythm.

- In the dissonance department, Major ninths and seconds appear as though
  a leitmotif.  Not only is there an unusual number of 9th chords in the
  song, but the bare interval is also found within the opening ostinato 
  figure as well as in the repetitious vocal line which takes the song
  out at the end.


Arrangement
-----------
- The ostinato figure played by the solo 12-string guitar at the outset
  provides a great deal of unity to the song.  As we've seen in other
  ostinato-driven songs of the Beatles, these recurring, motorized little
  figures seem to create the illusion of being there in the backing track
  more of the time than is actually so.  For example, if the figure is 
  apparent at both the beginning and end of a section, as long as there
  is something of sufficient interest to divert your attention in the
  middle, you will subconsciously "assume" that the figure has continued
  all the while, even though if you double check carefully you'll find
  that this is not so!

- The ostinato used here's not as distinctively melodic as the ostinati 
  in either "What You're Doing" or "Day Tripper", but it does have a 
  wrenchingly syncopated rhythm which carries all the through to the 
  characteristic backbeat of the intro and first two verses:


			    	    >     >   >
	rhythmic emphasis	1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
	
	ostinato		A   E C#A B   E
				    >     >   >


- As a foil to all this, the tambourine is relegated to simply marking 
  off the 2nd and 4th beats of virtually every measure in every verse.

- The vocal arrangement is fussier than we've seen in a while, with three
  alternating textures used in the verse, alone.  The first half of the
  first phrase is sung by John, solo and single-tracked.  Paul joins
  him above on funky counterpoint for the remainder of this phrase
  into the first half of the next one, and then leaves John exposed
  solo at the phrase's end.  John then sings the third phrase double
  tracked with Paul joining him for a final touch of counterpoint at
  the end of the fourth phrase.



SECTION-BY-SECTION WALKTHROUGH


Intro
-----
- The intro consists of a four-fold presentation of the ostinato figure
  over the I chord.  The ensemble joins the solo guitar with a slow 
  dramatic drumroll just before the downbeat of measure 3:


	|A	|-	|-	|-	|


- The parallel between this and "You Can't Do That" or "Day Tripper"
  is noteworthy.  The accentuation here by the drumming of the syncopated
  rhythm inherent in the guitar ostinato is especially gripping and
  literally *pulls* you into the music.

- Say, is that a small touch of organ or harmonium used as a wash behind
  the solo guitar opening ?  If so, does it continue throughout, just
  buried in the mix ?  or perhaps, does it drop out quickly once the
  rest of the ensemble gets going ?


Verse
-----
- The verse sixteen measures long, built out of four phrases
  equal in length.  The section more logically splits right down
  the middle, with the first half providing an eight-measure
  expository section that harmonically opens up to the V chord, and
  the second eight measures providing a refrain-like ending which
  veers back toward the I:


	|A	|-	|-	|-	||A	|-	|b	|E	|
A:	 I						 ii	 V


	|f#	|D	|f#	|G	||f#	|E	|A	|-	|
	 vi	 IV	 vi	 flat-VII vi	 V	 I


- The tune has an unusually high amount of rhythmic syncopation against
  the underlying beat (on "four-AND") as well as melodic dissonance
  against the underlying chords.  I'll leave the majority of such
  details as an exercise for the reader though two examples here are
  noteworthy.  First off, the melodic sustaining of the pitch E over
  the b chord in measure 7, on the second syllable of the word "away".
  Even better is the the climactic event over the G Major chord in
  measure 12, with John singing the pitches F#-E-C# on the stretched 
  out word "ri-i-de", none of which is consonant with the chord below it.

- The three-way alternating pivot off the vi (f#) chord is one of the more
  novel harmonic gambits we've ever seen the Beatles pull; first to
  the IV, then to the flat-VII, and ultimately to the V, which under
  the circumstances is the most comfortingly "functional" of the three
  choices.  It kind of reminds of the feeling one has in a chess game
  where you think you've been check-mated, but in a half-panic, on
  considering your several brute-force logical alternatives, you eventually
  discover with some relief that there is still at least one legal
  move available to you with which to continue the game.

- The vocal counterpoint at the beginning of the second phrase not
  only features their trademark parallel, open fourths, but Paul's
  initial stress on the pitch B provides a development of the added-
  ninth flavor we've described as inherent in the opening ostinato
  figure.  Also note how John's initial stress on G natural here adds
  a subtle, partly hidden touch of the blues (I'm also very partial
  to the little rapid-fire 16th note run with which John ends the
  phrase):


	Paul:	B	B	A   G	A	A

	John:	G	G	E   D   E	EDC#


Bridge
------
- The bridge is eight measures long and built out of a parallel-style
  repeat of the same four-measure phrase:


	|D	|-	|-	|E	|
	 IV			 V


- Bridge-ly contrast is provided by virtually every compositional parameter:

  o  the vocal arrangement shifts to straight-away parallel thirds except
     for a couple of stray eighth notes in which John is left exposed solo
     for a split second (check out the second syllable of the word "goodbye.")

  o  the rhythm section, including the tambourine, shifts away from wrenching
     syncopation to a pattern of relatively even-handed eighth notes in which
     the off-beat (on 2 and 4) pattern, first heard from the tambourine in
     verses, now prevails in the drums.

  o  the harmony, even though it features no kind of modulation, *does*
     manage to stay entirely away from the I chord, the section ending
     firmly on the way back towards it.
     
- A new guitar riff is used at the very end of the section to lead back
  into the next verse.  Its melodic and rhythmic gesture are reminiscent,
  albeit not slavishly so, of the opening lick.  The F# that marks the
  apex of this new figure makes for yet another added ninth chord here.


Verse Variants
--------------
- This song has a higher than average number of small twists applied
  to the arrangement of its later verse sections.  As spontaneous as
  these details sound to us, I rather suspect that at least some of them
  were planned quite in advance.

- Here, in the third verse, John adds the word "yeah" to the end 
  of the second line (in addition the one that repeatedly appears
  at the end of the first line), and he prefaces the third line with
  an "Oh" (or is it an "aw" ?); the latter variation being repeated 
  in the fourth verse as well.

- Ringo provides an evenly beaten sixteenth note pattern as a fill between 
  the second and third lines of the third verse in place of the plain roll 
  he uses elsewhere in the song.  In the final verse he plays in this spot 
  no roll nor fill, but only a single whack "on FOUR!".  

- One particular variant feature rises above the status of mere detail
  to assume structural, and perhaps subtextual significance.  The hard
  syncopations mentioned above which so pungently characterize this song
  are actually found to be very much subdued starting right after the
  second verse.  Granted, we already noted that the bridge itself dispenses
  with the syncopation as a matter of contrast.  But look ahead -- in
  both of the final verses, Ringo's drumming sticks with the more evenly 
  played eighth note patterns introduced in the bridge instead of
  returning to the wrenchingly syncopated pattern; this, in spite of the
  fact that the guitar ostinato (from which his syncopoated patterns
  were derived in the first place) does continue to make its own
  appearance.  This could hardly have been accidental and I find
  myself pondering its motivation -- did they discover that the
  wrenching rhythm when carried all the way through was simply too
  much of a good thing, or is there some subtle poetry embedded
  in this change drumming ?


Outro
-----
- The question of what manner of poetry may be conveyed by a change
  of beat is further sharpened by what happens in this outro where the
  syncopation is loosened even further than it was for the bridge.

- This time, the effect is one of a sudden, free-wheeling, accelerating
  release of all tension.  John would later use a similar effect at the
  end of "She Said She Said."

- Also here at the very end, the final vocal lick, which is otherwise
  double-tracked in unison, splits out for an instant to include one
  last example of a Major second sonority.
  


SOME FINAL THOUGHTS


- "Ticket To Ride" was recorded after more than a two-month hiatus 
  (11/27 to 2/15) in the Beatles attendance at Abbey Road.  One gets 
  used to the song's having been tucked away on the _Help!_ album as the 
  last song on "side 1", but in truth, it was the first song recorded 
  after the _For Sale_ album was released, and it appeared as the A-side 
  of a single several months before the film was released.

- Once you get the chronology straight in your mind, it's hard to listen
  to the song without feeling as though you've crossed a frontier.  
  Lewisohn himself comments on this, though his perspective is entirely 
  on the recording process changes that kicked in at this point in time; 
  i.e., the practice of perfecting the rhythm and backing track first 
  before adding everything else on later as overdubs.

- I'm thinking more of style, though whatever compositional innovations
  are to be found in this song are not without their own irony to the
  extent that they represent at least as much a return to erstwhile
  values as much as they do a forward evolution.  Yeah, this one looks
  at least as far ahead as "Day Tripper", but it equally so picks right
  up where "A Hard Days Night" left off, followed as it was by the
  anomalistic _Beatles For Sale_ album.
 



Regards,
Alan (awp@bitstream.com *OR* uunet!huxley!awp)


---
"I ride this train regularly; twice a week!"            	082592#65
---

                Copyright (c) 1992 by Alan W. Pollack
                          All Rights Reserved

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