A hat tip to the encouragement of KLWhite to “Please Write Your Diaries” — I’m writing this diary because I thought it would be fun, and that’s it….
A bridge, as many of you already know, is a passage in a song — and not all songs include one — that is neither a verse nor a chorus but provides a “bridge” between the two and generally occurs only once. The best ones give you a moment to step back from the song and see it through a different lens.
It’s a chance for the artist to take a few seconds and say, “Let’s pause for a bit here, because in a nutshell, here’s what this song’s all about.” It can also be a chance to get a little playful with the theme and shift for a minute to another angle, another flavor.
To me, a really good bridge ought to be the part of the song you really look forward to. It ought to be the “I love this part!” part.
There are a few bridges in songs that stand out to me, not because they got critical acclaim or were technically superior, but because I think they just work so well. I realize that my own corner of the musical universe is but a speck, and even within it, I won’t remember everything. So I don’t claim my examples below are the best everrrr or anything, just that they’re very good.
I’d like to hear your ideas, too.
I’ll start off with what I think might be my favorite bridge (or two) of all time, and I’m not even a particular fan of this artist. Never bought a single album, wouldn’t even put him in my top 100. Yet it gave me the idea to write a diary about bridges! So I have to give credit where it’s due.
I don’t know how you could possibly do better than this in amplifying the mood of your song by making it at once dreamy and wide with its imagery, and yet urgent and climactic. It would be tough to produce a more-effective bridge than the one in Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run”. That appears at 2:30 below.
Beyond the Palace, hemi-powered drones
Scream down the boulevard
The girls comb their hair in rearview mirrors
And the boys try to look so hard
The amusement park rises bold and stark
Kids are huddled on the beach in the mist
I wanna die with you, Wendy, on the street tonight
In an everlasting kiss…
But there are certainly others. Do you remember the Go-Go’s? If you do, one of the reasons is the simple but highly effective bridge (more like the Jane Wiedlin Overpass) within their first-ever song, “Our Lips Are Sealed” (1:30). It’s an “Oh, this is my favorite part!” moment within a song that — unless you lack a pulse — already completely rocks out. It’s like hitting the filling within a Boston cream donut that doesn’t even need the filling. (And if you look carefully in the video, when Jane Wiedlin is supposed to be in the car by herself singing the bridge, you can see Belinda Carlisle still ducking down low in the driver’s seat, trying to hide. Sorry, Belinda!)
Hush, my darlin’
Don't you cry
Quiet, angel
Forget their lies…..:
Oh boy, and then we have First Aid Kit with “Emmylou”, which is an amazing song all around, but the bridge (2:34) erases any doubt about that. Usually Klara Söderberg is the vocal star in this band (and rightfully so — she’s one of my favorite vocalists anywhere), but here her sister Johanna gets a real chance to shine, and she does not disappoint:
And yes, I might have lied to you
But you wouldn’t benefit from knowing the truth
I was frightened, but I held fast
I need you now at long last…
And sheesh, another terrific song, this one by the Sundays, who only made three (sublime) albums. Their third and final album was a bit of a departure for them because it almost seemed to fans like a foray into Adult Contemporary, but in retrospect it’s possible it was their best overall effort of all. The bridge (2:45) from the lovely song “When I’m Thinking About You” is memorable:
When you’re searching your soul
When you’re searching for pleasure
How often pain is all you find
When you’re coasting along
And nobody’s trying too hard
You can turn around and like where you are…
I guess I’d be remiss if I didn’t include the looong and dreamy bridge from Deep Purple’s otherwise hard-rocking “Woman From Tokyo”. They get right to it at 1:58:
So far away from the garden we love
She is what moves in the soul of a dove
Soon I shall see just how black was my night
When we're alone in her city of light...
I mean, I could go on for a while, but you must have favorites too, no?