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As a songwriter I must come up with bridges for songs. The bridge serves to increase the love for the chorus and verse. It happens only once within the song and it takes the listener on a journey far far away (but not too far) from the verse and chorus. You've already spent two minutes getting to know and perhaps falling in love with your song's verse and chorus and them boom you're on the BRIDGE that carries you to strange lands of minor and augmented tones or even the ever-ironic major scale after a minor verse, the rainbow during the storm perhaps and then eventually where? Back to the chorus or verse and you feel even more in love and familiar and happy or just moved as you reunite with your first love and appreciate her familiar arms and the drama just bursts forth in true pop song fashion. The key is making that happen well. The bridge can almost stand up on its own, as its own separate song. Sometimes people make bridges of parts of songs that never made it to the final cut. I think Bob Dylan confessed to that. But unfortunately, I couldn't think of any Dylan songs to make the list. He'll be OK, he won an Oscar. Songs With the Best Bridges 1. Shawn Colvin's "Another Round of Blues" from Fat City2. Blondies's "Dreaming" from Eat to the Beat
3. Led Zeppelin's"Going to California" from IV
4. Indigo Girls's "World Falls" from Indians, Nomads and Saints
5. Kenny Loggins's "Footloose" from Footloose
6. Joni Mitchell's "Judgement of the Moon and Stars" from For the Roses
7. Joni Mitchell's "See You Sometime" from For the Roses
8. Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach's "God Give Me Strength" from Painted From Memory
9. Elvis Costello and Aimee Mann's "The Other End of the Telescope" from All this Useless Beauty
10. Crosby, Stills and Nash's "Suite Judy Blue Eyes" from So Far
11. The Beatles " A Day in the Life" from Sgt. Pepper
12. XTC's "Earn Enough for Us" from Skylarking
13. Squeeze's "Up the Junction" from Argybargy
14. The Police's "Every Breath You Take," from Synchronicity
15. Violent Femmes's "Kiss off" from Violent Femmes
16. Joe Jackson's "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" from Look Sharp!
17. John Cougar's "Jack and Diane" from American Fool
18. Chicago's "Hard Habit to Break" from Chicago XVII
19. Wham!'s "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" from Wham!
20. The Carpenters' "Close To You"
--Stephanie St. John is playing this Saturday at the C-Note in New York's East Village at 9pm. Listen to the bridge of her song "Susan" .
Stephanie
St. John
032701