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| From | "bryan" <munki100@pacbell.net> |
| Subject | Take me to the bridge -- part three |
| Date | Sun, 12 Sep 2004 10:10:10 -0700 |
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[from today's L.A. Times - part 3]
"Elliott Smith once said, when he was a kid first trying to write
songs, his favorite parts were all transitions." His best bridges
"give you the thesis statement of the song," Nugent says,
sometimes adding a new instrument to the mix for emphasis. In
"Southern Belle," the music becomes tougher and the lyric more
accusatory on the bridge: "How come you're not ashamed of
what you are?"
"He gets away from the metaphors he's been using throughout
and states the real meaning of the song."
A staple of R&B
Sometimes you find it in unlikely places. Tim DeLaughter of
the Polyphonic Spree writes expansive, oddly shaped, choral
rock songs that often rely on traditional, if overlong, middle-
eights. But the bridge itself, he says, remains a mystery to him.
The bridge has a parallel history in black music. As 12-bar
blues turned into rhythm and blues, it picked up the bridge,
which became more than just a structural element.
"The important thing about a bridge for R&B people such as
Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield," says
David Ritz, who co-wrote books with several soul giants, "is
the literal and metaphorical confirmation that a song is a
journey.
"At its heart, R&B is a spiritually informed music; it's about
transformation, going somewhere. So the bridge is this path
you walk. It's more than just cocking your head in a different
direction, but a confirmation that we're 'Moving Up,' 'People
Get Ready,' 'A Change is Gonna Come.'
"So when James Brown shouts 'Take me to the bridge,' it's
more than just 'Take me to another place in the song,' " Ritz
says.
As R&B became more dance- and groove-oriented in the '70s,
the bridge became more rare, and it hasn't maintained its
prominence in hip-hop, though it still has a place in the
"bedroom R&B" of R. Kelly and Usher, where the bridge
serves as a sigh before the seduction.
Some accomplished, critically acclaimed bands - Fiery
Furnaces, Bright Eyes, Wilco - use the bridge rarely.
Even some craftsmen dislike it. "My favorite songs generally
don't have bridges," says Stephin Merritt, songwriter for
Magnetic Fields. "They're good enough they don't need them."
And though he writes structured, often Tin Pan Alley-derived
songs, he says he uses middle-eights only when he needs to
lengthen a song. Bridges he detests: the Police's "Every Breath
You Take," the Beatles' "Eight Days a Week" and so on.
But the bridge still stands for many as a sign of sophisticated,
crafted songwriting that reaches for a complicated emotional
effect. "It's a very delicate thing," Smith biographer Nugent
says, "to depart from the melody and come back to it and not
have it look strained."
"Just as in real life, bridges are beautiful things," Ritz concludes.
"They can thrill you with their sweep and their logic."
Bridges worth crossing
Scott Timberg tapped some music writers and musicians
for a list of the top 10 middle-eights.
"Baba O'Riley"
Pete Townshend
"Townshend brings a plaintive, pleading quality to the bridges
he sings," critic Ira Robbins says of the Who song. "Roger
Daltrey's burly, defiant verse/chorus delivery is contrasted by
Townshend's more profound and personal bridge work."
("Don't cry / Don't raise your eye / It's only teenage wasteland.")
"Up the Junction"
Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook
"Bridges aren't as important as how you come out of them,"
musician Ted Leo says. This song by Squeeze "is made brilliant
not by the bridge itself but in the key change, coming right out of
the bridge, that starts the last verse, lifting the song to a higher
(literally and figuratively) level."
"Let's Get It On"
Marvin Gaye and Ed Townsend
"The song is a seduction, in the tradition of metaphysical poets
like Donne and Herbert," says Gaye's biographer David Ritz.
"The bridge seems to take off the edge; it's brilliantly sneaky -
'I ain't gonna push, I won't push you, baby.' "
"Pitseleh"
Elliott Smith
This is one of singer-songwriter Aimee Mann's favorite bridges.
In a sad, metaphor-packed song, Smith suddenly sings, "No
one deserves this," and a piano comes in to underline it.
"Could I Leave You?"
Stephen Sondheim
The bridge from the musical "Follies," says Stephin Merritt of
Magnetic Fields, "tells us that the singer has had an affair; it
gives the song another dimension."
"Strawberry Letter 23"
Shuggie Otis
"We spent a whole tour singing the vocal line on the bridge of
this song," says J.P. Caballero of Dios Malos, "because it
sounds so sweet." The bridge of the hit by the Brothers
Johnson begins, "With my baby, I am free ."
"Beach Baby"
John Carter and Gillian Shakespeare
"It's good, sunny, orchestral pop," says the Polyphonic Spree's
Tim DeLaughter - though the song by First Class gets darker
on the bridge ("Mmmm, I never thought that it would end .").
"Sexy Sadie"
John Lennon and Paul McCartney
It's the favorite bridge of Carl Newman, songwriter for the
New Pornographers. On the bridge - "We gave her everything
we owned just to sit at her table ." - this bitter Beatles song
turns harsh.
"A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square"
Eric Maschwitz and Manning Sherwin
"It's tricky," songwriter Richard Thompson says of his favorite,
sung by Vera Lynn. "A beautiful key change." It begins, "The
moon that lingered over London town . "
"Salt of the Earth"
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
"In the verse and chorus Jagger allows you to believe he might
be singing some kind of anthem for the workers," says writer
Benjamin Nugent of the Rolling Stones song, "and then in the
bridge he quiets down and admits how indistinct and unreal
the faces in the crowd look to him."
[END]
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