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The Beatles were such a prolific album act that it’s sometimes hard to abstract their later singles; here, they ride their roots as a bar band in Liverpool and Hamburg to a new kind of glory.
~Dave Marsh (The Heart of Rock & Soul)

The opening circular riff, played on 12-string guitar by George Harrison, was a signpost for the folk-rock wave that would ride through rock music itself in 1965.
~Richie Unterberger (allmusic.com)

Wikipedia:

Released	9 April 1965
Recorded	15 February 1965, EMI Studios, London
Genre	Rock
Length	3:10
Label	Parlophone
Writer	Lennon–McCartney
Producer	George Martin

John Lennon: double-tracked lead vocals and rhythm guitar
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass and lead guitar
George Harrison: rhythm guitar
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine and handclaps

“Ticket to Ride” is a song by the Beatles from their 1965 album, Help!. It was recorded 15 February 1965 and released two months later. In 2004, this song was ranked number 394 on Rolling Stone‘s list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.

They say this was one of John’s personal favorites, probably because it has his most soulful vocal ever. But “Ticket to Ride” is intricate and interesting all the way through, with Paul playing mean lead guitar and Ringo dispelling all doubt about his prowess as a drummer: The groove comes straight out of his pure backbeat.
~Dave Marsh (The Heart of Rock & Soul)

Ticket To Ride was slightly a new sound at the time. It was pretty fucking heavy for then, if you go and look in the charts for what other music people were making. You hear it now and it doesn’t sound too bad; but it’d make me cringe. If you give me the A track and I remix it, I’ll show you what it is really, but you can hear it there. It’s a heavy record and the drums are heavy too. That’s why I like it.
– John Lennon (Anthology)

Ticket To Ride (Video-Mix 1965) HD 0815007:

Composition

The song was written primarily by John Lennon (credited to Lennon–McCartney), with Paul McCartney’s contributions in dispute. Lennon said that McCartney’s contribution was limited to “the way Ringo played the drums”. McCartney said that was an incomplete description, and that “we sat down and wrote it together… give him 60 percent of it… we sat down together and worked on that for a full three-hour songwriting session.” This song was also the first song by the band in which McCartney was featured on lead guitar.

The song features a coda with a different tempo that extends the song’s length past three minutes, the first Beatles single ever to do so. Lennon said this double-time section (with the lyric “My baby don’t care”) was one of his “favourite bits” in the song.

Shea Stadium Live 1965 – HQ:

Critical Response

Music critics Richie Unterberger of Allmusic and Ian MacDonald both describe “Ticket to Ride” as an important milestone in the evolution of the musical style of the Beatles. Unterberger said, “the rhythm parts on ‘Ticket to Ride’ were harder and heavier than they had been on any previous Beatles outing, particularly in Ringo Starr’s stormy stutters and rolls.” MacDonald described it as “psychologically deeper than anything the Beatles had recorded before … extraordinary for its time — massive with chiming electric guitars, weighty rhythm, and rumbling floor tom-toms.” MacDonald also notes that the track uses the Indian basis of drone which might have influenced the Kinks’ “See My Friends”.

 

Meaning of ‘Ticket To Ride’

While the song lyrics describe a girl “riding out of the life of the narrator”, the inspiration of the title phrase is unclear. McCartney said it was “a British Railways ticket to the town of Ryde on the Isle of Wight”, and Lennon said it described cards indicating a clean bill of health carried by Hamburg prostitutes in the 1960s. The Beatles played in Hamburg early in their musical career, and “ride/riding” was slang for having sex.

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By 1966, according to Lennon, he was ‘eating’ LSD, taking ‘thousands’ of trips and lapsing into introspective states for days on end. This self-centred, addictive outlook, which eventually led him to heroin, is vividly prefigured in the droning sound and lethargic mood of Ticket To Ride. The first Beatles recording to break the three-minute barrier,2 it, is an extraordinary precognition of their next stage of development, commenced fifteen months later with Tomorrow Never Knows.
~Ian MacDonald (Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties)

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So we round off with with a fine version @ Wembley Stadium April 11, 1965:

The Beatles top the bill at the annual New Musical Express Pollwinner’s Concert at Wembley Stadium.

They performed a five-song set with “I Feel Fine,” “She’s a Woman,” “Baby’s in Black,” “Ticket to Ride” and “Long Tall Sally.”

Lyrics:

I think I’m going to be sad
I think it’s today, yeah
The girl that’s driving me mad
Is going away

She’s got a ticket to ride
She’s got a ticket to ride
She’s got a ticket to ride
But she don’t care

She said that living with me
Is bringing her down, yeah
For she would never be free
When I was around

[Chorus]

I don’t know why she’s riding so high
She ought to think twice
She ought to do right by me
Before she gets to saying goodbye
She ought to think twice
She ought to do right by me

I think I’m going to be sad
I think it’s today, yeah
The girl that’s driving me mad
Is going away, yeah

[Chorus]

I don’t know why she’s riding so high
She ought to think twice
She ought to do right by me
Before she gets to saying goodbye
She ought to think twice
She ought to do right by me

She said that living with me
Is bringing her down, yeah
For she would never be free
When I was around

[Chorus]

[Outro]
My baby don’t care, my baby don’t care
My baby don’t care, my baby don’t care
My baby don’t care, my baby don’t care

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Check out: The Beatles 40 best songs

– Hallgeir & Egil