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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | Dave Seaman <seamand@upmc.edu> |
| Subject | Building bridges |
| Date | Tue, 10 Aug 2004 09:59:51 -0400 |
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From: "kerry_kompost" <kerry_kompost@yahoo.com>>
> Top bridges of all time?
I love bridges; I think that -- for me -- they're consistently the
most fun (and motivating) part of the songwriting process
I love bridges (or middle 8's or interludes) also, and I agree, the Beatles
were masters at it - for instance, take the middle 8's in Things We Said
Today, She Loves You, Here There And Everywhere, Ticket To Ride... well, I
could go on and on.
Kudos for mentioning the Paul Williams bridge. Some other lite pop songs
with great bridges that come to mind: I Don't Know How To Love Him (from the
JCSuperstar soundtrack - can't stand the Andrew Lloyd Weber in general,
except for this soundtrack); Georgy Girl; Last Night (I Didn't Get To Sleep
At All)...
And speaking of XTC, how about Great Fires Burning, where the bridge ends
with a double (or is it triple?) key modulation? kills me every time! Or
the superb bridges in Senses Working Overtime or Take This Town? Kerry also
mentions outros that are departures from the basic song in the same sense as
bridges are, and a few shining Partridge examples that come to mind are the
outros to Your Dictionary and Wrapped In Grey.
Oh, and one of my all time fave bridges - the one in Todd Rundgren's great
ballad, It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference.
The Raspberries were also bridgemasters - particularly when Eric Carmen
would add a bridge to someone else's song. Eric wrote fabulous bridges.
People always herald the merits of catchy riffs, verse melodies or sing-
along choruses in pop songs, but it is often a well-written bridge that
brings me chills more than about anything else, and lifts the song to a
higher level. Bridges (and tamborines! :-) ) are crucial power pop/pop
elements!
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