• Registered: 2012-12-23
  • Posts: 159

Topic: Bridge over troubled lyrics?

I'm wondering about how often you folks use bridges in your songs.  As an example of a perfectly designed popular song, I offer "Country Roads" written by  Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert with help from an obscure singer/songwriter named John Denver. Some of you may have heard of him. Anyway, "Country Roads" is structured,

Verse/Chorus
Verse/Chorus
Bridge
Chorus

I'm thinking that, had they wanted to, the writers could have written another verse, but in order to create variety and interest, they developed a bridge instead. As a beginner song writer, I never think about using a bridge--what about you guys? Do you include bridges and do you have examples of bridges, in your music or the music of others, that you really like?

  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,704

Re: Bridge over troubled lyrics?

if you have a lot to say in your song then a bridge will break up the monotony of verse chorus verse chorus etc, which is why we tend to use solo's.
there's a good story of how the cream song badge was in the process of being written; george harrison wrote "bridge" but his writing was so bad eric clapton thought he'd named the song "badge" !

what has to be the best bridge ever is in queen's "bohemian rhapsody" the " i see a silhuetto" part, priceless

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

  • From: Chillicothe, Ohio
  • Registered: 2010-08-16
  • Posts: 1,013

Re: Bridge over troubled lyrics?

A bridge can can be a great transitional element in a song and can grab the listener's attention, especially if it contrasts well both musically and lyrically from other song sections. As songwriters, it gives us the opportunity to use a different melody, meter or chord structure as well as a different rhyme scheme.  Another favorite John Denver song of mine which uses a bridge is "Goodbye again" (verse/chorus, verse/chorus, bridge, verse/chorus)

In "Slip, Slidin' Away", Paul Simon uses a different strategy - (chorus/verse, chorus/verse, bridge, chorus/verse, chorus)

I've put bridges in a few of my songs to try to break up the monotony a little (my voice can get pretty monotonous) In a song I wrote a few years ago called "Pistol Don", I didn't use a chorus anywhere, but added a "refrain" at the end of a couple verses.  So to try to break things up a little I put in a bridge.  If you charted it, it would look like (verse, verse, verse/refrain, verse/refrain, bridge, verse refrain).

Here's a recording done of the song when I played it at an open mic.  Please forgive the jumbled lyrics at the end - it was the first time I had played it and forgot the lyrics so I stumbled/ad-libbed some words in the last verse.;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btug3B1XUG0

DE

I want to read my own water, choose my own path, write my own songs
  • Registered: 2012-12-23
  • Posts: 159

Re: Bridge over troubled lyrics?

Thanks for the reference to the John Denver and Paul Simon songs--they are good examples to draw on. I enjoyed your Pistol Don song, and found the non-traditional structure of verse, verse/refrain, chorus, and bridge engaging.

  • dino48
  • Honoured Member
  • Offline
  • From: los banos,california
  • Registered: 2007-04-06
  • Posts: 6,801

Re: Bridge over troubled lyrics?

Artie'splaying wrote:

Thanks for the reference to the John Denver and Paul Simon songs--they are good examples to draw on. I enjoyed your Pistol Don song, and found the non-traditional structure of verse, verse/refrain, chorus, and bridge engaging.

Elton John uses a lot of bridges in his music i.e. Tiny Dancer etc. John Denver is not  obscure he is a well known singer songwriter.

my papy said son your going too drive me too drinking if you dont stop driving that   Hot  Rod  Lincoln!! Cmdr cody and his lost planet airman
  • From: Chillicothe, Ohio
  • Registered: 2010-08-16
  • Posts: 1,013

Re: Bridge over troubled lyrics?

dino48 wrote:
Artie'splaying wrote:

Thanks for the reference to the John Denver and Paul Simon songs--they are good examples to draw on. I enjoyed your Pistol Don song, and found the non-traditional structure of verse, verse/refrain, chorus, and bridge engaging.

Elton John uses a lot of bridges in his music i.e. Tiny Dancer etc. John Denver is not  obscure he is a well known singer songwriter.

I know Artie used the "obscure" reference tongue-in-cheek, but in fact Henry John Deutschendorf (aka John Denver) wasn't very well known when he co-wrote "Country Roads" with Danoff and Nivert (actually it was their song but he helped change the lyrics)  Up til then he was known as the songwriter that wrote "Leavin on a Jet Plane" which was recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary.  When he recorded "country Roads" on his"Poems Prayers and Promises" album and it hit the airwaves, JD's career took off like a rocket. His music was the reason I wanted to play guitar.  "Poems, Prayers and Promises" is still my favorite JD tune.

DE

I want to read my own water, choose my own path, write my own songs
  • Registered: 2012-12-23
  • Posts: 159

Re: Bridge over troubled lyrics?

D.E.,

Country Roads, and then Rocky Mountain High, were life changing songs for me. 

And yeah, I was using "obscure" ironically. But that's the thing with humor--it doesn't always come across unless people know you're trying to make a joke.

  • Registered: 2012-12-23
  • Posts: 159

Re: Bridge over troubled lyrics?

Thanks Dino, for the Elton John suggestion--he and Bernie Taupin are great songwriters and definitely deserve a look.