Bridges to Nowhere
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I was at a songwriter’s event in Berkeley (and what the Sam Hell an ex-cowboy is doing in Berkeley, California is another question altogether) when a competition judge warned the participants “You’ll stand a better chance if your song has a bridge.”
Being cut of rough cloth, I thought this notion absurd and an insult to songwriters who have avoided bridges like they would avoid cheap whiskey (which describes mainly me, though bridgeless folk like Tom Waits come to mind too).
A bridge is just another tool, and by itself does not make a song better or worse. But it is a tool to change the audiences expectations and add variety. Like a drummer who knows when to drop a beat in order to get the audience to anticipate a changing verse, a bridge establishes a change in the song, and breaks up musical monotony.
But necessary? No more necessary that tits on a nun.
Take one extreme example, James McMurty’s Choctaw Bingo. Search all you like, you will never find a bridge in the entire song which rivals a Wagner opera in length. McMurty uses other devises to keep energy and audience attention, including interludes between stanzas that foreshadow lyrical reentry, and lyrics that rivet attention.
Bridges have their use, and should not be discounted. But almost every pop-tune has a bridge and nobody remembers pop-tunes a year after they hit the top ten (well, aside from the Beatles … but that’s a whole different side of beef on which to chew). Writing a good song requires writing the words and music that convey the emotion you want people to feel, and even the longest bridge won’t cross a chasm between your concealed emotion and a bored audience.
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