The Stones have some great middle 8s and bridges (although not those ones to Babylon). What are your favourites?

Some of mine:

Rock's Off: the phasered, dreamy interlude, 'feel so hypnotized..'. Beautiful and woozy, before Charlie cracks us back in to the ragged rock and perhaps one of the Stones best ever lines - 'the sunshine bores the daylights out of me' (by the way, who wrote those? I'm guessing Keith Richard)

Miss You: 'Oh, everybody waits so long...', such soul, great guitars

All The Way Down: the slightly melancholic 'she's there when I close my eyes', the beat splits to half time, a great part of a fantastic song, particularly lyrically

What are yours?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-06-27 17:22 by peoplewitheyes.

I like the bridge in Hearts For Sale.

Dead Flowers has a great bridge too: "Take me down..."

The breakdown in "I had it with you".

"Loving Cup" one of their best.

"I Got the Blues" with the great harmonies.

"Have you seen your mother baby" the whole "Shadow" part


Early on they were really good with it, when they were influenced by the Beatles. Songs like
"Doncha Bother Me"
"What to do"
"I am waiting"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-06-27 17:40 by Palace Revolution 2000.

It is weird that you bring this thread up. I just got through a long discussion about this. I was telling our bassman, how this has been bugging me for quite a while in Jagger's songwriting. I would say since "She's the Boss" to ABB. I call it the "E flat syndrome". Jagger forces these bridges into his songs. Now ofetn they are...decent enough. But they are harsh; take "Sad Sad Sad", the whole "I get a cold chill" part. It could have been edited into the song.
I have always felt that the short bridge/break in "Slipping Away" might be a Jagger contribution. "All I want is ecstasy..." I have nothing to base this on; and I have ehard Keith play it alone and do the bridge; so that also points against this theory. But I still feel that.

Yeah, Rocks Off and Loving Cup have amazing bridges.

Hey Negrita and Dance Little Sister have nice bridges, but that's partly because the songs are so darned repetitive otherwise.

Before They Make Me Run and Shattered have great bridges. I love how they feel a bit countryish, especially in Shattered which otherwise has a very punky sound.

Palace Revolution -- your post is very interesting. I don't have Sad Sad Sad right here, but I'm going to check it out.

sure loving cup, rocks off, and shattered. then sweet heart toghether, when it goes in minor chord while jagger sings "as oneee".

then yeah, ALL THE WAY DOWN.
i've always tought that bridge "she's there when i close" is something special, also a inusual chord progression for the stones. too bad it lasts so short!

I like the middle 8's in IF YOU CAN"T ROCK ME.What an awesome change of groove;from a straight R&R backbeat to a calypso rhythm and back to R&R. I like it on Love you Live. I think they do something similar in Hand of Fate. Yeah that's good Stones creative stuff; mix it up a li'l, you know wh't I'm sayin'.
Rock and Roll,
Mops

Another good one is in "Let me Go"; because it feels like that it goes into an odd count; or that maybe there is a bar of 6/8 in there. But it is actually completely straight. Love it.
""If You Really Want to be my Friend" has that good part twice: "I know you think that life is a thriller"
"Let's spend the Night together" - now that is a totally successful breakdown. The hardest part about these supercool breakdowns is coming out of them. It always sounds, feels and looks fantastic to crash into a slow, huge drone when coming out of a fast rocker. preferably going into 6/8. It is coming out of it without it sounding labored that is hard.
Good - "Rocks Off"
Not so good - Live 73 funk breakdown in "Heartbreaker'. Coming out of it, feels like Keith looks at his watch and goes "Well break-time is over; time to get back to work" and cranks the tractor back up.

The live It's Only Rock n Roll.

The 100 Years Ago middle 8.
And Rocks Off of course.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-06-27 20:17 by SwayStones.

Quote
Palace Revolution 2000
It is weird that you bring this thread up. I just got through a long discussion about this. I was telling our bassman, how this has been bugging me for quite a while in Jagger's songwriting. I would say since "She's the Boss" to ABB. I call it the "E flat syndrome". Jagger forces these bridges into his songs. Now ofetn they are...decent enough. But they are harsh; take "Sad Sad Sad", the whole "I get a cold chill" part. It could have been edited into the song.
I have always felt that the short bridge/break in "Slipping Away" might be a Jagger contribution. "All I want is ecstasy..." I have nothing to base this on; and I have ehard Keith play it alone and do the bridge; so that also points against this theory. But I still feel that.

A classic example of Micks tendency to throw in pointless or inappropriate middle eights is 'Under the Radar',the ''i've been abused...'' bit which nearly completely derails what i think is one of the best stones songs of the past 20 or so years.I wish there was an edit version without it.
On the other side of the coin,to answer the original question,i love the bridge in 'Dance Little sister'

Thanks Still Ill. Perfect example of what I was talking about too. Exactly! The song is just one of the best grooves in forever, and in comes that keychange that feels like the moving van just pulled up.

Quote
Palace Revolution 2000
Thanks Still Ill. Perfect example of what I was talking about too. Exactly! The song is just one of the best grooves in forever, and in comes that keychange that feels like the moving van just pulled up.

Great analogy! I just listened to it again for confirmation..it's exhibit A in bad bridges,i can't believe it's there and no-one pulled him up on it

Friggin' Monkey Man!!

"There's one thing baby
That I don't understand
You keep on telling me
I ain't your kind of man"

I like the two different ones on Don´t Stop.

"Bitch" is a classic ("when you call my name I salivate like a Pavlov dog").

"Winter" is lovely ("I wish I was out in California / when the lights on all the Christmas trees went out").

But I think my favorite may be "2000 Man" when the beat really kicks in: "Oh Daddy, be proud of your planet..." It's the highlight of the entire song for me.

I'm not sure why, but I've always loved the bridge of "Pain Of Love". Maybe it's because it doesn't sound forced into the song. A good bridge should be like a quick vacation from the main composition. Some of the things people are calling bridges, I would call choruses. Is there a Chuck Berry song with a bridge? The best bridges were written by people like Irving Berlin ("Cheek To Cheek") or Jerome Kern ("Just The Way You Look Tonight"). They truly took the main song into a completely new direction, and then, very neatly, got the listener back to the original mode. The Stones have become a bit lazy with their bridges, although they written some of the best in all of rock and roll. Bridges, I don't need no stinkin' bridges. Great Post.

Quote
peoplewitheyes
All The Way Down: the slightly melancholic 'she's there when I close my eyes', the beat splits to half time, a great part of a fantastic song, particularly lyrically

What are yours?

Particularly lyrically??? I always thought is was such a shame that he just sang the same line four times... A bit unimaginative IMHO.

Cheers,
Wuudy

I didn't know there was a bridge in Dead Flowers or Bitch - I've never heard a bridge in those, those are just parts that are lead ins to the chorus. A bridge is what is the instrumental part in Shattered (likewise with the almost exact same bridge in), Before They Make Me Run, If You Can't Rock Me, Hey Negrita, Out Of Tears as well as bridges with vocals in them - IORR, Rocks Off, Hang Fire, Tie You Up, Loving Cup, She Saw Me Coming, All The Way Down, the silly rap in Anybody Seen My Baby, Rock And A Hard Place, Mixed Emotions, Sad Sad Sad...

Who could explain me the difference between aBridge and aMiddle 8 ?
I know what both of them are but it's getting confused now.
Thanks .



I am a Frenchie ,as Mick affectionately called them in the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 .

SwayStones asked :Who could explain me the difference between aBridge and aMiddle 8 ?
I know what both of them are but it's getting confused now.
Thanks .


Answer:

In a popular song a bridge is a contrasting section of music. It is used for the purpose of - well - contrast to break the sameness of the song. In a 32 measure song it would be the B section in an AABA form. The "B" section is also sometimes called the middle 8.
Basically it's the same thing; if the bridge is 8 bars then it's called middle 8
Rock and Roll,
Mops

Yeah, Rocks Off and Loving Cup.

I also like the instrumental bridges: Shattered, brilliant, and JJF, with the maracas coming in. I always thought it was great when the stones took the pain to write specific instrumental parts rather than just solo on the riff.

Completely agree about Rocks Off and All the Way Down....some great slowing down of the vocals there. Brilliant.

The one in One Hit to the Body is superb...especially with the video with Mick and Keith having a swing at each other, works really well.

Wuudy, with All The Way Down I meant that the whole song (not just the bridge) was great lyrically.

'how the years rush on by, birthdays, kids and suicides'. inspired.

(I'm also partial to that bit toward the end, not really a bridge, with the effected/slowed vocals - 'down, down, down...')

Someone raised this point "What is a bridge?" In rockmusic the bridge has become a little more vague. Early on in this thread there were several passages mentioned that I would not consider a bridge; but then we get into the territory of me wanting to impose my concept of a bridge on someone else.
In instrumental music the bridge was originally a bridge to facilitate the transition in key modulation; or from one theme to another.
The term Middle Eight (used much by the Beatles) is the amount of bars that was traditionally employed for the bridge. The Beatles wrote great bridges; I would almost say that they felt they had to come up with a bridge, in order to deem a song complete, finished. The examples are almost too many.(Please Please Me. I Saw Her Standing There, The Night Before, I'll Follow The Sun, ) Pick any early Beatles song. But what they had gotten even better at was to sometimes even shift the meter.
Take "We Can Work It Out", maybe the best example. Paul singing the very melodic verses in 4/4, then John coming in in a minor key, with stacked harmonies even throwing in some 6/8 bars, then effortlessly hopping back into the verses.
'Effortless' being a keyword here. Nothing worse than a labored change between song sections.
So I would not really say "Dead FLowers" has bridge; there is a song section between verse and chorus that leads up to the chorus. Or in "2000 Man" that whole part is Pt 2 of the song; it might even be longer than the first section. Then the A theme does resume after-wards. "2000 Man" is structurally smilar to e.g "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (the song).
Sometimes a bridge comes twice: Like in "Salt of the Earth" and "Let it Bleed", "Miss Amanda Jones" or "If you really want to be my friend".
But the best, classical ones like "I Got The Blues", "She Smiled Sweetly", "Till The Next Goodbye" "Dance Little Sister", "Words Of Wonder", "IORR" appear once and add drama.

Where is the bridge that is twice in Let It Bleed? You mean the verses? Ha ha....

Where's that confound bridge?

Yeah, I got it jumbled in my head. WTF, I'm doing this while driving in a van. No need to get rude about it.

Quote
Elmo Lewis
Where's that confound bridge?

there it is