5 Responses to “Ticket to Ride: Inside the Beatles’ 1964 and 1965 Tours That Changed the World”

• By John Dunlap on Jul 28, 2010

  The events recounted here might well have provided the journalistic mother lode for the writer lucky enough to live through them. Viewed through a 40-year lens, the story of the Beatles’ raucous mid-’60s tours might have taught us a lot about the band as individuals and as a group; about the development and performance of their early music; about the era’s incredibly rudimentary state of road-show management and technology; about the quaintly naïve interplay between musicians and fans; about the birth of the cultural revolution in which the Beatles played such a significant role; and about the nascent movement’s early exposure to sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll. It seems a writer would really have to work at it to take a story this potentially rich and render it completely unenlightening and unsatsifying.
  Well, meet the hard-working Larry Kane. With “Ticket to Ride,” he did it. It’s difficult to see in hindsight how a grown man, a contemporary of the band, and a professional journalist into the bargain, could possibly have learned so little from his presence on the tours, to say nothing of the intervening four decades. His naivete permeates the book to the point that the reader wonders if he wrote it when he was 22, immediately after the 1964 and ’65 Beatle tours on which was a traveling reporter, then inexplicably stashed the pages for all these years.
  Examples of Kane’s feeble storytelling abound, but retelling them is not worth the effort it would take. Neither, frankly, is reading the book. Suffice it to say that a man who knows nothing about music or the music business should not try to write a book about music, nor should a guy who can’t figure out why a young woman might want access to Paul McCartney’s hotel room try to tell the story of a rock band on tour. Beyond being unbelievable, it’s just plain embarrassing.
  It’s too bad that such a juicy topic didn’t rate a better book, but that’s the way it goes. Maybe somebody else was on those tours, somebody with a clue, and will yet deliver a satisfying book about them. I sure hope so. Because not even the presence of the Beatles can save “Ticket to Ride” from consignment to the Things Not to Do list, and that’s a real shame.
  Rating: 3 / 5
• By Anonymous on Jul 28, 2010

  The book is an easy read but the journalistic integrity is questionable. At age 21 one tends to embellish and throw in more than a modicum of fantasy into one’s stories. Sometimes memories are created or adjusted to be what we want them to be. This is human nature and is inescapable. I feel Mr. Kane fell victim to his own human nature on more than one occasion in his tome.
  Rating: 3 / 5
• By Beatlefansincethen on Jul 28, 2010

  I really enjoyed this book. I loved the eyewitness recollections of each concert and city. I enjoyed Larry’s anecdotes just like anyone who has asked him, “What was it like”? The stories on the plane were a delight, especially the revealing ones. I wonder who made that anti semetic remark anyway? I can’t help thinking it was John because he was so outspoken, and I’ve heard he made other”jew” remarks. Who knows? Concidering Larry’s catty, unfair, unwarranted, little asides about Paul McCartney, you’d almost think Paul was the one who made the remark, and maybe Larry knows this but isn’t saying. There has to be some reason why Larry digs Paul throughout this book. Like other reviewers I found this book biased in Lennon’s favor. I’m not begrudging his picking John as his favorite. He has excellent taste, but like his book Lennon Revealed this book puts Lennon on a pedestal and doesn’t mention the others enough. Okay, for a book about John Lennon but not a book that’s supposed to be about all four of them. Also people who love John the most seem to feel that this means that they need to show Paul in the worst possible light, and the Paul fans seem to always do this to John as well. Nothing is more boring and childish. We’re not in 7th grade. Please grow up, Beatle writers. Jeez I love both of them equally. Why doesn’t everybody else? Larry doesn’t bash Paul McCartney in this book, but he never misses an opportunity to spin every event to make it look like everything Paul did had an ulterior motive. For instance, at the Capitol Records garden party the boys were expected to sit on little stools and greet over 500 guests, who shuffled past them one by one. Larry observes that while John, George and Ringo seem to be going through the motions, Paul greets each guest warmly and even finds something to say to almost all of them. (I’m not quoting from the text because I don’t have the book in front of me) Then Larry somehow slants this observation to make it seem like Paul is phoney or superficial. Because my oppinion is not biased by dislike, I view this story as an example of professionalism. If Larry really knew the boys as well as he pretends to, he would have seen that all four of them were professional like this. They always went that extra mile and every obligation was carried out with enthusiasm, even if they weren’t feeling that way deep down. Paul is more well known for this but all of them played the game. Another thing that Larry seems to have missed about Paul because he really does not know him very well, is that Paul is NICE. His father was NICE. His brother is NICE. The entire family has always been described by insiders as impeccably well behaved and well mannered. Paul was brought up to beleive in a work ethic and to be a team player. In fact he has said that if he didn’t act this way, it would have been phoney. I’m sure if John or George were seen greeting the guests with enthusiasm Larry would have gushed about what troopers they were and how professional. In fact if Larry had portrayed George in this unfavorable light, all of the Harrison mommies and daddies would be slamming this book, and giving it one star. ( see Here There and Everywhere and Revolution in the Head) In another part of this book, where Paul is talking about his views on civil rights, Larry even has the nerve to insert words into the text that Paul never said, to try and show that he’s really a racist in disguise (listen to the accompanying cd which has the actual, Paul and Larry civil rights interview to see that what he really says differs from the text.) After reading this book my feeling is that ALL FOUR of them were lovely men, with a strong sense of humanity and for twentysomething pop stars, they had an unusual amount of integrety. They were discreet in their personal lives, wonderful to their fans, and just really down to earth. This book does a fantastic job of conveying that.

  Another wonderful thing are the recounting of stories by the fans who were lucky enough to either witness a concert first hand or at least were first generation fans and remember the magic first hand. I love Beatle books that do this. It’s always nice to hear what other fans have to say.I gave this book five stars because I really loved everything about it. It was fun, facinating and exciting to read. I’m just not happy with Larry’s snotty, catty remarks about Paul, especially since he doesn’t seem to have anything to back them up. Paul doesn’t deserve it. Larry is lucky to have been given the priviledge of traveling with, and getting to know The Beatles. And we are lucky that he finally wrote a memoir. Add this one to your collection.

  Rating: 5 / 5
• By C. W. Brown on Jul 28, 2010

  This book seemed pretty good until about the 4th chapter, when I realized that all I’m reading is how excited the fans were at the concert in (fill in city name here). We all know that already, and don’t need to hear someone confirm it for us. Larry refuses to get into anything controversial that may have happened, opting instead to “fade to black”, or end chapters with teasing lines about something that was to happen later. Very repetitive, boring.
  Rating: 2 / 5
• By Searcher on Jul 28, 2010

  It isn’t the Led Zeppelin tell-all, but this great book takes you inside the behind-the-scenes life of being a Beatle (or in their entourage) during their early tours of the U.S.A. New tid-bits about ‘the boys’, and how hard it was being in that blinding limelight that was Beatlemania!
  Rating: 4 / 5

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