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Songs where the bridge/middle 8 (whatever) takes it to a different level

Started by ajsmith2, May 31, 2019, 12:00:01 PM

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ajsmith2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjnkmNyArNg

Recently discovered the original recording of The Scaffold's 1967 novelty hit 'Thank U Very Much' which I was previously only familiar with the chorus of. I didn't realise until the other week that this otherwise daft jaunty comedy jingle has this brilliant dreamy bridge section at 0.32 and 1.28 that lifts the track completely above the it's otherwise aura of crass singalong tubthumpery. I've got a bit obsessed with those 2 bits and keep re listening to the song again and again just to hear them.

There's a very similar transition and effect in Viv Stanshall's non hit 'Labio Dental Fixative' from a few years later where this insistent knockabout main body of the track suddenly splits into this glorious soaring beautiful middle bit at 1.19:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pil_OYHxLjQ

Arguably it's the contrast with the direct baseness of the verse that makes the bridge so transcendent in each case. If they were songs solely based around those bridge bits maybe they wouldn't have the same appeal to me. Anyway, any other examples? Bad ones where the bridge takes it to a worse and lower level also welcome.

lipsink

I always loved the middle 8 in Up In The Sky by Oasis. The bit at 1:46 where it goes "You'll need assistance with the things..." cos the chord change is so unexpected after the basic structure of the rest of the song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ_ho_1m2tY

Also, the middle 8 in Stop It You're Killing Me by Therapy? at 2:01 is really beautiful and melodic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7o2jcOlbGg


The Culture Bunker

'Ballad for a Rainy Day' by XTC is a great song, but when the middle eight (I guess that's what it is, the bit that starts "when it rains, it rains all the colours in my paintbox") hits, I usually skip back numerous times just to hear it again.

Dodgy's 'In a Room' is a pretty forgettable song in the main, but has an ace middle bit - the "she lies sleeping in a half filled bed" part.

another Mr. Lizard

Someone started a thread here years ago asking, in a rather woolly and undefined way, for examples of songs that somehow 'shifted' in the middle and were altered positively and irrevocably. I immediately responded with Screaming Trees' 'Sworn and Broken', which gratifyingly appeared to be precisely the type of thing the poster had been hoping for. I think it fits this thread too. 1.58-2.31, with that majestic harpsichord-like break banging in at 2.07

Always draws comparison for me with that idea Hitchcock had about intercutting the same shot into different parts of a movie but giving it varying degrees of emotion and meaning, depending on what came before and after. Lanegan and co sound pretty identical in the first and second half of the number, but that instrumental passage serves to make the early part of 'S&B' sound troubled and melancholy while the second is all massive positivity and Oasis-style swagger and bluster. And I'm not quite sure how. Bloody great, anyway.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JMNfTrLG380

SteveDave

"No Reply" by The Beatles. The "If I were you..." bit. Handclaps. Lovely stuff.

dallasman

I always thought the instrumental break/middle eight in "Sink To The Bottom" by Fountains Of Wayne elevated it from a cute earworm to a great rock song. The song was featured in a popular advert over here, but afair, that only had the verse and chorus, so I was pleasantly surprised when I heard the full track and found it had another cool bit to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgLZMvnWxRU

At 1:00 and 2:22. Probably hundreds more I could mention, but that's one that made me check out a band I probably wouldn't have bothered with, if not for that neat chord sequence and the slightly psychedelic sound of the guitars.

PlanktonSideburns

That bit in Freak out by Chic where it's just bass and those rising strings is man's finest achievement I think. Press the button on my cremulator and send the box in to that bit please

PlanktonSideburns

If I'm on a dance floor and that comes on I often imagine slashing my throat at the start of it, dying and being eternally caught in that transcendent moment, rising up and up for ever. Heaven

Johnboy

the middle bit of Something by The Beatles is quite er, something

another Mr. Lizard

Best Of My Love. 1.17 offers a little teaser and then it goes into rapturous ecstasy from 2.11-2.33.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Tb80rmPt4

the science eel

Quote from: SteveDave on May 31, 2019, 01:28:06 PM
"No Reply" by The Beatles. The "If I were you..." bit. Handclaps. Lovely stuff.

YES!

(also: 'everybody's greee-eeeen...')

kalowski

Quote from: the science eel on June 01, 2019, 09:00:43 AM
YES!

(also: 'everybody's greee-eeeen...')
The Beatles were masters at the middle 8.

"Oh and that boy, won't be happy..."

"I could be happy with you by my side..."

"Cause I couldn't stand the pain..."

"When your prized possessions, Start to weigh you down..."

TheMonk

Quote from: PlanktonSideburns on June 01, 2019, 12:07:55 AM
That bit in Freak out by Chic where it's just bass and those rising strings is man's finest achievement I think. Press the button on my cremulator and send the box in to that bit please
Oh yeah. To witness this live is a true moment. And I love that after this it just drops back into a verse. Not a whacking big chorus.

One out of left field, but the mid section of this by St Vincent has always generated quite a sad tumescence. Really adds emotional weight to the song though.

From about 2:10 https://youtu.be/lTvkzT6N_BA

PlanktonSideburns

Quote from: TheMonk on June 01, 2019, 10:27:50 AM
Oh yeah. To witness this live is a true moment. And I love that after this it just drops back into a verse. Not a whacking big chorus.

Sort of doesn't matter where you go after that. Everything else is just the burger van after the firework display.

mojo filters

We've Only Just Begun - The Carpenters

Starts off with two fairly bland verses, then the section beginning "Sharing horizons that are new to us" really takes off via a dramatic chord and tempo change.

It's not really a middle eight section, more like a chorus in the technical sense - though it doesn't really sound like either in the context of the song.

Nevertheless the grooviest song they recorded! Shame they didn't write it though.


MiddleRabbit

Quote from: mojo filters on June 01, 2019, 11:51:45 PM
We've Only Just Begun - The Carpenters

Starts off with two fairly bland verses, then the section beginning "Sharing horizons that are new to us" really takes off via a dramatic chord and tempo change.

It's not really a middle eight section, more like a chorus in the technical sense - though it doesn't really sound like either in the context of the song.

Nevertheless the grooviest song they recorded! Shame they didn't write it though.

It was a bank advert that they expanded into a song, didn't they?  Someone did, anyway.  I'm into it.  The Carpenters had some great songs.  And a lot of dreadful shit as well.

Dr Syntax Head

Quote from: PlanktonSideburns on June 01, 2019, 12:07:55 AM
That bit in Freak out by Chic where it's just bass and those rising strings is man's finest achievement I think. Press the button on my cremulator and send the box in to that bit please

Best piece of music made by anyone ever. I also hope it's what i'm Listening to when I die