IV. Take It to the Bridge (ft. Tayla Parx)
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Charlie, I have a question for you.
Shoot.
Can you take it to the bridge? I don't know. I have a question for you. is that confounded bridge where is that confounded bridge welcome to switch don pop i'm musicologist nate sloan and i'm songwriter charlie harding and charlie what are we talking about today the bridge the bridge and what did we hear at the beginning of this episode oh uh shoot which james brown track is that That was get up, parentheses, I feel like being a, close parentheses, sex machine. Wow. See, the bridge is not always the most interesting part of the song, but you've really raised the stakes. What else did we hear, Charles? We heard Led Zeppelin's The Crunch.
Have you seen the bridge?
Where's that confounded bridge? These are two iconic moments where the artists are actually calling out one of the signature sections of the modern pop song, the bridge. And today we're going to devote the fourth and final installment of our series on song structure, the art of the song, to this element, which in a lot of songs is only a small part of it. And yet it kind of has this outsized reputation in the craft industry. and the culture of pop music. It takes a long time to get there. I mean, you got the intro, you have the verse, you might then have a pre-chorus, chorus, post-chorus, and then you gotta do that all again, right? Well, no intro. Maybe there's a little interlude. Verse, pre-chorus, chorus, post-chorus.
And finally, you've arrived at the bridge, usually at like the golden ratio, around two thirds of the way through the song. And what's it going to do? Well, this metaphor of infrastructure is so fitting for this because it kind of feels like it's a moment of suspension. You know, you've heard all these sections that we've talked about now over three episodes of our show, the intro, the verse, the chorus. We've cycled through those a few times. And maybe you've arrived at this penultimate moment in the song where you need a break, you need some contrast, and you get a bridge. You get to literally go over something. And before we go any further, I feel like we need to get the sound of a bridge in our ears a little bit.
And Charlie, I'm going to return to the song I played you back when we did our verse episode. To me, the platonic pop song. Aretha Franklin's You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman.
Let's not jump straight to the bridge. We need to appreciate it a little bit in its context. You'll remember the song starts with a sort of pensive verse. Our pre-chorus raises the stakes and starts to put a more positive spin lyrically as we move towards the chorus. And that's a really unfortunate pause because we're about to hit the iconic chorus of the song. And no one wants to hear my voice.
We want to hear Arisa. You make me feel like a natural woman.
We'll take that whole ride again. Verse, pre-chorus, chorus. But then this time we're going to go to our new section, our bridge.
Oh, baby, what you've done to me. What you've done to me.
And then, final chorus. Wow. That bridge does a lot. Tell me, Charles. Everything here is putting us in suspense.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–6:07
2
What is a bridge in popular song structure and where does it usually appear?
6:07–15:38
3
How does Aretha Franklin's 'You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman' illustrate a bridge's musical role?
15:38–33:11
4
How did the Great American Songbook and Tin Pan Alley shape the modern bridge (AABA form)?
33:11–42:35
5
How did the Beatles expand the bridge into a dramatic, song-within-a-song section?
42:35–42:50