Youneverknow.

[Victor Steinbok]

I don't know about a Britishism, but the literal expression goes back to
1901 in GNA. Here's one from July 15,  1904:

http://goo.gl/6A5bk
St. Joseph's (MO) News And Press
Ad for Sampson's: Why Walk When You Can Ride
> No matter what your errand downtown may be, whether it's to the
> Butcher's, the Baker's, the Grocer's, the Doctor's, the Bank, or
> anywhere else, if you'll just drop in here and buy 50 cents worth--say
> a dozen spools of thread, a pretty wash dress for your little
> daughter, a cool dressing sacque for yourself, or choose from a
> thousand and one other useful and seasonable articles that we will
> sell you for that amount--we'll give you a car ticket to ride home
> with, and if you'll buy a dollar's worth, another ticket to ride down
> again some other day.

This is not only literal, but appears unremarkable. This is just an
ordinary "ticket to ride X" or "ticket to ride on/in X" that's been
around as long as there have been tickets to ride cabs, buses, trains,
etc. Only a few years later we find a version of "ticket to ride [to
election victory]". Then, there is this:

http://goo.gl/zRoOD
The Pittsburgh Gazette Times, Dec 11, 1910. Section 3, p. 6/3
Notables Roasted on the Gridiron: Famous Washington Club Dines Its
Friends, the Statesmen, and Sees Them Squirm. President Taft a Guest.
The New "Miss Democracy" Appears in Hobble Skirt and Otherwise Disguised.
> "I'm taking a joy ride in the band wagon for the first time in 16
> years. I've got it chartered for quite a spell too."
> "This is no place for you to flaunt," said Bone.
> "I'm flaunting myself all over the country, except in Danville, and
> the flaunting is pretty good. You talk like T. R. before election day."
> "Police!" yelled Bone.
> "Don't call the police," shouted Gov. Harmon of Ohio, rushing in.
> "It's against my street car principles, and, besides, I'm going to
> take a ride in that wagon myself."
> *"Have you a ticket to ride?"* asked Miss Democracy.
> "I am the ticket. I am the logical candidate."
> "Not yet," answered the stout lady.

Again, this seems quite ordinary--the question is whether the governor
has a ticket for riding the "band wagon". It could have been just "Have
you a ticket?", without "to ride". Or maybe not.

In any case, this is all irrelevant to the Beatles song, as even the
members of the band could not recall what they meant by that phrase.
According to the Wiki article on "Ticket to Ride", McCarney went for the
G-rated explanation that it referred to a ticket to the town of Ryde,
while the rest of the band vaguely recalled that it referred to the
clean bill of health for prostitutes in Hamburg. Either way, it does not
seem to be a common expression for the location and the period in which
the song was written.

There is, of course, another possibility that they failed to mention.
Lennon could have picked up the phrase from a blues song or some other
American song that they used to listen to and liked the expression
enough to include it in his own song. We'll never know.

But here's something that *is* actually suggestive:

http://goo.gl/vc36A
Washington Afro-American - Mar 11, 1958
NAACP Aide Beaten on Bus. p. 5/8
> "Naturally," he interjected, "I did not appreciate being hit in the
> face with fists, but I continued the 93-mile ride from Meridian to
> Jackson in the front seat.
> "*I had purchased my ticket to ride* and as an American citizen I rode
> where I chose."

The words belonged to Medgar Evers.

     VS-)



On 2/1/2011 3:20 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
> I was completely unfamiliar with the phrase, _ticket to ride_, until
> the heyday of The Beatles, at which time I simply accepted it as
> merely some obscure Briticism that may or may not have had a literal
> meaning.
>
> One day not long, as I'm combing iTunes for material by Texas
> bluesmen, I come across "Texas Blues," released in 1951, by the Texas
> bluesman, Charles "Good-Time Charlie" Brown, who once held a day-job
> as a high-school chemistry teacher. IAC, as I'm listening to the song,
> which has to do with returning to Texas from California, I hear:
>
> My days of care
> Are behind me
> I've got my _ticket to ride_
> And from now on
> You'll find me
> With my baby
> At my side
>
> --
> -Wilson

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