Songwriter U: Lyrically Speaking—Building Bridges II

Previously, we looked at bridge function in the AABA song form, where the bridge bridges verses. Now, we’ll look at bridges bridging choruses. Bridges moving from verse to verse function differently than bridges between choruses. What material a bridge bridges has a lot to do with its function.

While the bridge in an AABA provides a different perspective than the verses, it typically enters verse material that’s on its way to a refrain, so doesn’t have sole responsibility for enlarging the meaning of the refrain: it shares that responsibility with the verse it enters. (In the case of “refrain-first” verses, it leaves from unrepeated material and ends at the opening refrain of verse three, operating a little like a pre-chorus.)

In the chorus bridge, however, all the responsibility for enlarging the final chorus falls squarely on the bridge. It moves us into material we’ve seen at least twice before, so, ideally, this bridge not only should give us a newer, deeper look at the final chorus, it typically must deliver the WHY of the song, making the final chorus the most important chorus of the song. Let’s take a look.

More than one commentator has called Taylor Swift “Queen of the Bridge,” and with good reason. A case in point is “Sweet Nothing” from her remarkable Midnights album. Here’s the lyric:

Sweet Nothing 
Taylor Swift

Verse 1: I spy with my little tired eye
Tiny as a firefly
A pebble that we picked up last July
Down deep inside your pocket
We almost forgot it
Does it ever miss Wicklow sometimes?

Chorus: They said the end is coming
Everyone’s up to something
I find myself a’running home to your
Sweet nothings
Outside, they’re push and shoving
You’re in the kitchen humming
All that you ever wanted from me was
Sweet nothing

Verse 2: On the way home
I wrote a poem
You say, “What a mind”
This happens all the time

Chorus: ‘Cause they said the end is coming
Everyone’s up to something
I find myself a’running home to your
Sweet nothings
Outside, they’re push and shoving
You’re in the kitchen humming
All that you ever wanted from me was
Sweet nothing

Bridge: Industry disrupters and soul deconstructors
And smooth-talking hucksters out glad-handing each other
And the voices that implore, “You should be doing more”
To you, I can admit that I’m just too soft for all of it

Chorus: They said the end is coming
Everyone’s up to something
I find myself a’running home to your
Sweet nothings
Outside, they’re push and shoving
You’re in the kitchen humming
All that you ever wanted from me was
Sweet nothing

TS first uses the title in its familiar sense: whispering those sweet nothings to me:

I find myself a’running home to your Sweet Nothings

But then she drops the terminal s, giving it a new look:

All that you ever wanted from me was Sweet Nothing

All you want from me is nothing and that’s pretty sweet.  Neat.

Look at the levels of discourse in the three contrasting sections of Sweet Nothing:

Verses: bring us inside the love relationship: the pebble in your pocket, the poem. 
Chorus: Outside is a hustle, so I run to your sweet nothings; you ask nothing of me. 
Bridge: Inside me: I can tell only you that I’m too soft for all of it. 

Industry disrupters and soul deconstructors
And smooth-talking hucksters out glad-handing each other
And the voices that implore, “You should be doing more”
To you, I can admit that I’m just too soft for all of it

This new level of discourse, the intimate look inside the narrator, reveals not only a new perspective (as an AABA bridge should), it reveals (unlike the AABA bridge) the raison ‘detre of the song: this is WHY I’m telling you all of this.

As Sweet Nothing’s level of discourse evolves, the melodic rhythms of each section also provide contrast. The verses move in a quarter-note feel, starting on the downbeat of the bar:

But at the crucial last line of the bridge, she underscores “soft” with a dotted quarter note, that extends the bridge to a nine-bar sequence. Lovely spotlighting, both with note values and the extension of the section.

The bridge reveals the WHY (the real message, the point) of the song: WHY do I run to you? Because I can be honest with you and show you who I really am, making my running to your sweet nothings a refuge, rather than just a preference. 

It makes the final chorus the most important chorus, and the running more vulnerable and intimate. 

Nicely done.

Here are a few considerations when building a bridge that moves from chorus to chorus:

1. Does the bridge move to a new level of discourse? What is it?
2. Does the bridge create deeper meaning in the final chorus? Jammed between two identical landmasses, does it give us a reason to experience the other side?
3. Does the bridge contain the WHY of the song, the emotional point?
4. Does the trigger line (the last line before entering the chorus) contain the most crucial material to express the WHY of the song?
5. How is the bridge’s new level of discourse supported? Byline lengths? Rhyme schemes? By contrasts in melodic rhythm? Placement in the bar? Harmonic rhythm, pitch, staccato vs. legato?

Keep these concepts in mind as you build your bridges. What landmasses are you joining? Bridges come in all shapes and sizes, so it’s useful to notice where they start and where they end.

Next issue we’ll look at bridges that transition between verse and chorus. They may be called pre-choruses, but their job is a linking job. They too are in the bridge building business. 

See you then.