Great songs that are even greater because of the bridge

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Re: the "otherwise crap bridge" thread & also was thinking of this earlier when we were talking about Painted From Memory on the EC thread. On that record, "God Give Me Strength" has a very singular, amazing bridge--it launches the song into a totally different realm (capped with the dramatic stop "I want him...I want him to hurt"). It is one of the best examples I can think of where the bridge really adds to the impact of the tune--it's not just there for the sake of having a bridge.

So what are other songs that have great bridges?

― Keith C (kcraw916), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:19 (twenty-one years ago)

1,2 Step

― The JaXoN 5 (JasonD), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Dodgy: "In a Room"
Beatles: "From Me To You"

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 18 March 2005 18:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Jayhawks, "I'd Run Away"

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 18 March 2005 19:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Wham, "Careless Whisper." ("Tonight the music seems to loud . . .")

― Derek Krissoff (Derek), Friday, 18 March 2005 19:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Jayhawks, "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me"

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 18 March 2005 19:13 (twenty-one years ago)

OTM on "careless whisper". wow, i just totally realized how great that is.

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Friday, 18 March 2005 19:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Certainly a great bridge om "Careless Whisper", although I think the greatness has just as much to do with the fact that George Michael delivers one of his best ever vocal performances there than with the bridge itself.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 18 March 2005 19:17 (twenty-one years ago)

yes, geir, i'm gonna have to agree with you there. still a great arrangement, tho

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Friday, 18 March 2005 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

jlo - "Get Right"

― deej., Friday, 18 March 2005 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

"When I get to bed
Late at night
That's the time she
Makes things right
Ooh when she makes love to me..."

Big Star - "September Gurls"

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 18 March 2005 19:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I've always been a sucker for the bridge on "Just Once" by Jeffrey Osborne. At the the end of the second chorus, as on the first chorus, the vocal lands on the tonic note, but the chord underneath it, instead of going to a I as on the first chorus, goes to a sharp-V chord. So while the note Osborne is singing is the same as first time around, instead of it being the root of the chord, it's the third. This is the beginning of a bridge that winds its way through 10 measures (not the usual 8) to come out into a chorus in a new key.

I admit, I got the highfalutin harm,onic knowledge out of a book several years later. But I always thought it was beautiful. It feels like the floor is falling out from under him.

― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Friday, 18 March 2005 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

boys dont cry

― peter smith (plsmith), Friday, 18 March 2005 19:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Björk - Hunter

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Friday, 18 March 2005 19:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Dismemberment Plan - "Ellen & Ben"
The Beatles - "A Day in the Life"

― darin (darin), Friday, 18 March 2005 19:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Pointer Sisters, "Jump (for my love)"
Jamiroquai, "Canned Heat"

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 18 March 2005 19:35 (twenty-one years ago)

oops, I missed the part of the thread title that said "great songs"...

Well, the first one still stands.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 18 March 2005 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

can i ask a quick favor? can we put in some of the lyrics that make up the bridge in these songs? would be so much easier to recognize the parts in question (Derek Krissoff = da man!)

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Friday, 18 March 2005 19:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Björk - Hunter

"I thought I could organize freedom
How scandinavian of me
(Björk Gibberish)
You sussed it out didn't you?!"

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Friday, 18 March 2005 19:41 (twenty-one years ago)

"Suspicious Minds," of course

Aw, let our love survive
Aw, dry the tears from your eyes
Let's don't let a good thing die
'Cause honey, you know I'd never
Lie to you

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 18 March 2005 19:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I think "Canned Heat" is a great song! What's bad about it?

― deej., Friday, 18 March 2005 19:57 (twenty-one years ago)

"Clampdown" by the Clash has an awesome bridge, the song shifts groove at that point too:

The voices in your head are callin'
Your wasting your time, there's nothing comin'
etc ...

― Keith C (kcraw916), Friday, 18 March 2005 19:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, my two choices

Dodgy: In a room
I've thrown away the key. Gonna lock myself in for good
No one can reach me. No one hear my voice anymore. Not anymore.

Beatles: From Me To You
I got arms that hold to hold you, and keep you by my side.
I got lips that long to kiss you, and keep you satisfied. Oooh..

Also: XTC: Dear Good:
Did you make disease and the diamond blue.
Did you make mankind after we made you
And the devil too

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 18 March 2005 19:59 (twenty-one years ago)

boys dont cry:
"Misjudged your limits
Pushed you too far
Took you for granted
I thought that you needed me more"

― peter smith (plsmith), Friday, 18 March 2005 20:04 (twenty-one years ago)

The Beatles: "Things We Said Today":
Me I'm just the lucky kind
Love to hear you say that love is love
And though we may be blind
Love is here to stay and that's enough

In fact, most pre-1966 Beatles songs to thread.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 18 March 2005 20:09 (twenty-one years ago)

"Karma Chameleon" by Culture Club:

"Every day is like survival
You're my lover, not my rival"

Classic.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Friday, 18 March 2005 20:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, the "la la la" bridge in "God Only Knows"

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 18 March 2005 20:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Good call on "Things We Said Today." I'm no musician, but is that major in an otherwise minor song? The mood feels very different but it's effective rather than simply jarring.

― Derek Krissoff (Derek), Friday, 18 March 2005 20:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Major in a minor song, yes. Graham Gouldman used the same contrast to great effect on Herman's Hermits' "No Milk Today", in this bridge, which makes the song a lot better:
But all that’s left is a place dark and lonely
A terraced house in a mean street back of town
Becomes a shrine when I think of you only
Just two up two down

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 18 March 2005 20:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Major/minor textbook entry:

Life is very short
And there's no tiiiiiime
For fussing and fighting my friend

― 57 7th (calstars), Friday, 18 March 2005 20:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Not only the key change but the sudden shift into waltz time, makes that one even more memorable to me.

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 18 March 2005 20:52 (twenty-one years ago)

"Since U Been Gone"

― miccio (miccio), Friday, 18 March 2005 20:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Right. Extra credit to those guys.

― 57 7th (calstars), Friday, 18 March 2005 20:53 (twenty-one years ago)

"Buddy Holly"

― miccio (miccio), Friday, 18 March 2005 20:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Life and how to Live it by REM, for the way he sings it more than anything else
The hills ringing hear the words in time
Listen to the holler, listen to my walls within my tongue
Can't you see you made my ears go tin?
The air quicken tension building inference suddenly
Life and how to live it

Galang if you want to call that change at the end a bridge, which I do

Marquee Moon by Television

There are tons of Pulp songs without traditional bridges (Jarvis just intensifies the singing) that pretty much beat everything else. Babies, Pink Glove even Common People to some extent, where the song goes staccato.

― dan. (dan.), Friday, 18 March 2005 21:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Isn't a change at the end of a song usually considered a coda? Great codas might support a thread.

― Derek Krissoff (Derek), Friday, 18 March 2005 21:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes I think it would.

― dan. (dan.), Friday, 18 March 2005 21:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd call the bit on "Galang" an "outro" instead of a bridge. But either way it's great.

"Caravan" by Van Morrison has a great outro.

― Keith C (kcraw916), Friday, 18 March 2005 21:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought Codas were generally instrumental changes? Por ejemplo, that string part at the end of "One More Robot/ Sympathy 3000-21" by the Flaming Lips

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Friday, 18 March 2005 21:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Codas that make the song better

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 18 March 2005 21:08 (twenty-one years ago)

"Oh Sailor" from that new Fiona record has, like, the best bridge ever.:

"And after waiting, fighting patiently on my knees
All the other stuff tired itself out first, not me
And in it's way your pierce of touch and call of the different breed
One of the steps is getting me wired and got me there and then got me"

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Friday, 18 March 2005 21:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd argue that the "No Milk Today" section Geir mentions is actually the chorus of that song.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 18 March 2005 21:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I would the the other part of the song where it is turned into major is the chorus:
How could they know just what this message means
The end of my hopes, the end of all my dreams
How could they know the palace there had been
Behind the door where my love reigned as queen

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 18 March 2005 21:15 (twenty-one years ago)

That section feels less like a chorus to me, though. Could it just be thought of as the second part of the verse?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 18 March 2005 21:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Bruce Springsteen's "The Ties That Bind" has a great bridge:

I would rather feel the hurt inside, yes I would darlin'
Than to know the emptiness your heart must hide
Yes I would darlin'...

― Keith C (kcraw916), Saturday, 19 March 2005 14:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Morphine by Michael Jackson

I wish he made a song out of the bridge and tossed away the rest.

― Wookie Rookie, Saturday, 19 March 2005 15:03 (twenty-one years ago)

20th Century Man- The Kinks

"I was born in a welfare state, ruled by beurocracy
controlled by civil servants
and people dressed in gray
got no privacy, got no liberty
because the 20th Century people
took it all away from me"

My first thought was that Ray Davies owns this thread but I am having difficulty thinking of others.

― mitch dub (ano ano), Saturday, 19 March 2005 15:18 (twenty-one years ago)

The Monkees, "You Just May Be the One" ("IIIIIIII / Saw when you walked by ..."

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Saturday, 19 March 2005 16:08 (twenty-one years ago)

My first thought was that Ray Davies owns this thread but I am having difficulty thinking of others.

The Kinks' "Mountain Woman" (the bonus track on Muswell Hillbillies) has a good bridge:

The civil servant used compulsory purchase
To acquire the valley for the nation
They'll dig up the land, they're gonna make a dam
And build a hydroelectric power station

― Keith C (kcraw916), Saturday, 19 March 2005 16:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Scritti Politti's "Confidence" -- [spoken] "When I met you, it was only you, it's only you..."

"I thought I could organize freedom, how Scandinavian of me!"
I never realised she sang that! That's hysterical! That song used to annoy me up until now...

― Quit glaring at Ian Riese-Moraine! He's mentally fraught! (Eastern Mantra), Saturday, 19 March 2005 16:45 (twenty-one years ago)

three years pass...

Rape Me
No Reply
It Won't Be Long
Oh Pretty Woman (2 bridges?)

Most of the choices here are OTFM

― billstevejim, Sunday, 14 December 2008 18:39 (seventeen years ago)

I prefer this to trying to figure out who writes the best bridges.

― billstevejim, Sunday, 14 December 2008 18:40 (seventeen years ago)

My favorite bridge right now is in Gene Clark's "Tried So Hard".

― Manchego Bay (G00blar), Sunday, 14 December 2008 18:43 (seventeen years ago)

two Lady Gaga songs I've heard recently definitely fit the bill: Poker Face and Beautiful Dirty Rich.

― miss precious perfect (musically), Sunday, 14 December 2008 18:43 (seventeen years ago)

Another Elvis Costello example: "Crimes of Paris," when it jumps up and shifts out of first/second person for a moment: "And it's all here and now/She hit him with that paperweight Eiffel Tower..."

Also, the Fall's "Totally Wired": "My heart and I agree..."

― Douglas, Sunday, 14 December 2008 19:40 (seventeen years ago)

Two of Weller's:

But I'm Different Now. "I know I've done some things, I should never have done", plays straight back into chorus

I Got By in Time. "What you say, what you do don't mean nothing, nothing at all, yeh, ...."

― Dr X O'Skeleton, Sunday, 14 December 2008 21:56 (seventeen years ago)

Please Please Me

― Cunga, Sunday, 14 December 2008 22:35 (seventeen years ago)

ludacris + nate dogg - area codes

― passanchino XL (and what), Sunday, 14 December 2008 22:36 (seventeen years ago)

"Father Lucifer" - Tori Amos

― Turangalila, Sunday, 14 December 2008 23:24 (seventeen years ago)

XTC - Ten Feet Tall

― davek_00, Sunday, 14 December 2008 23:41 (seventeen years ago)

uh, karma police

― k3vin k., Sunday, 14 December 2008 23:42 (seventeen years ago)

uh, learn what a bridge is

― country matters, Sunday, 14 December 2008 23:45 (seventeen years ago)

"This Lamb Sells Condos" - Final Fantasy

― Turangalila, Friday, 19 December 2008 02:26 (seventeen years ago)

Some good times I remember, my birthday that September, we laid out on the lawn, and counted until dawn
The stars that we lay under, and is he still I wonder, the fairest of them all, mirror mirrorball

― calstars, Friday, 19 December 2008 02:47 (seventeen years ago)

radio free europe
the waist and k

― Zeno, Friday, 19 December 2008 02:50 (seventeen years ago)

SINNERMAN

― Turangalila, Friday, 19 December 2008 03:03 (seventeen years ago)

'Raspberry Beret', even though I think line about the 'thunder drowns out what the lightning seeds' is stolen.

― Jeff Wright, Friday, 19 December 2008 03:29 (seventeen years ago)

"call the shots"

― electroghost, Friday, 19 December 2008 03:35 (seventeen years ago)

Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)

― Turangalila, Friday, 19 December 2008 13:37 (seventeen years ago)

Oliver's Army:

Hong Kong is up for grabs
London is full of Arabs
You could be in Palestine
Overrun by the Chinese line
With the boys from the Mersey and the Thames and the Tyne

. . . and then a big whole-step key change to the final verse and choruses.

Bus Stop:
Every morning I would see her waiting at the stop
Sometimes she'd shop and she would show me what she bought
All the people stared as if we were both quite insane
Someday my name and hers are going to be the same

― ^likes tilt-a-whirls (Pancakes Hackman), Friday, 19 December 2008 14:03 (seventeen years ago)

"IOU," by The La's, which ends with a glorious major sixth. The remixed version on the deluxe edition is incredible.

― Jazzbo, Friday, 19 December 2008 14:09 (seventeen years ago)

You've Lost That Loving Feeling - phenomenal, epic bridge, makes the song, just keeps besting itself:

Baby baby, I'd get down on my knees for you
If you would only love me like you used to do
We had a love, a love, a love you don't find every day
So don't, don't, don't let it slip away
Baby, baby, baby, baby
I need your love, I need your love
Now bring it on back, bring it on back

― dad a, Friday, 19 December 2008 14:20 (seventeen years ago)

Bowie - Ashes to Ashes

I never done good things
I never done bad things
I never did anything out of the blue,
Want an axe to break the ice
Wanna come down right now

― redmond, Friday, 19 December 2008 14:59 (seventeen years ago)

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