Middle 8s and Bridges
Background: In my last blog, you may recall me discussing “Haitian Divorce” and referring to one section as a “Middle 8.” I always knew there was a difference between the two, but never took the time to look it up — because most of the chord progressions I see online use the term “bridge” even when it’s a middle 8, and I therefore assumed interchangeability. I have talked many times about knowing the moment for your songs. Most of my songs tend to lend themselves well to bridges, which transition back into a chorus, so that’s my default. But in this blog, we are going to talk about Middle 8s, which transition into a third verse or a solo, rather than a chorus.
Of note: I have already discussed a handful of songs that would make the list. “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” by Poison is a great middle 8, while “Until You’re Over Me” by Maroon 5 is one of my favorite bridges. I won’t dissect those songs again, but they’re worth listening to for the transitions, now that we have the proper terminology for it.
Middle 8s
“Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding
Lyrically: Written with Memphis’ own Steve Cropper, “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” is one of the ultimate mental escape songs, though I did not talk about it in my escapism blog. It does not shy away from the troubles of one’s world, but says that despite that, he’s “sittin’ on the dock of the bay watching the tide roll away. Sittin’ on the dock of the bay, wastin’ time.” The second verse tells about him leaving home in search of a better life, before realizing that the better life he desired is not at the moment attainable: “I’ve got nothing to live for, looks like nothing’s gonna come my way.” The middle 8 in question concludes that “Nothing’s gonna change,” before ultimately concluding, “I guess I’ll remain the same.” Eventually, this becomes a positive thing, as he goes back to his state of relaxation, “Sittin’ here restin’ my bones” even though he says, “This loneliness won’t leave me alone.”
Note: This has a similar vibe to the Fountains of Wayne song “Mexican Wine,” which sees the narrator looking at all the bad stuff around him and ultimately giving up on changing the world, saying, “Think I’ll have another glass of Mexican wine.” Interestingly, that song uses a bridge, instead of a middle 8, despite conveying a similar message.
Melodically: The song is written in the key of G major, and uses G, B7, C, A, a I, III7, IV, II pattern, while the chorus uses G, E (I, VI played twice), G, A, and ends on G, E (a I, II, I, VI pattern), while the middle 8 uses G, D, C, G, a I, V, IV, I pattern played three times, before ending on the VIIb, V pattern of F and D. Instrumentally, the song uses guitar, bass, and drums, and is distinguished by the whistling at the end of the song, which was put in there as a filler, and sadly not finished before Otis’ untimely passing.
Structurally: The song uses a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle 8, verse format. It’s an incredibly simple song, with each verse and chorus going back and forth between desperation and relaxation. The middle 8, rather than taking the song to a different place, adds to the acceptance of knowing things will stay the same for him, so he might as well accept his state of relaxation to forget about the world. This transitions back into the third and only verse that truly accepts this (with the first verse watching the ships roll in–representing relaxation, and watching them roll away again — the acceptance of peaceful moments making a habit of leaving you.
“Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” is embedded below
2. “The Difference” by Matchbox Twenty
Lyrically: “The Difference” is written from a 3rd person perspective, talking about the good things someone is seeing in their relationship, and how much they’re taking the good things for granted. This includes “Slow dancing on the boulevard,” as well as “Night swimming in her diamond dress,” before culminating in one of my absolute favorite lines, “Feel the quiet moments warm your second hand heart.” The conclusion through all of these things is that “This could be the difference between what you need and what you want to be.” The middle 8 says, “Every word you never said, echoes down your empty hallway. Everything that was your world just came down.” There are many things to dissect about this song, lyrically. First, the picture painted in each verse is absolutely gorgeous. And with that, comes an incredibly relatable story. We all have that friend who has a good thing but can’t keep ahold of it, and regrets it, even though they could change. I completely forgot about the line “Every step she takes reminds you that she’s walking wrong.” It’s so good.
Melodically: The song is written in the key of G major and in the verses uses G, C, G, C, G, D, played three times, before ending on the G. This is a I, IV, I, IV, I, V, I pattern. The pre-chorus uses Cadd9, Em, D, G, Cadd9, Em, and Am. The chorus then uses G, Cadd9, Em, D, played twice. The third time around, they use essentially the same pattern, except they use D, G, Am, Cadd9, Am, and G after the initial Cadd9. This is a V, I, ii, IV9, ii, I pattern. Instrumentally, the song uses guitar, bass, and drums.
Structurally: The song uses a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle 8, verse, chorus format. The middle 8, transitioning into a third verse, works very well, because it’s a final dagger into the heart of this person, of their own doing. Anything that starts with “Everything that was your world” needs something to follow up on, rather than just saying “This could be the difference between what you need and what you want to be.” It’s just that much more powerful using the structure it does and not going back into a chorus. Side note: I. mentioned in a previous blog that “Everything You Want” by Vertical Horizon was one of the first song structures I ever paid attention to (as was “I Want it That Way” by the Backstreet Boys), both of which use Middle 8s. This tune does the same thing, and came out 3 years later—so shoutout to those three groups and the people behind the songs for making me pay attention at such an early age, even if I didn’t have a term for it.
The structure of the lyrics in the chorus is incredibly powerful too. It would have been easy to use the word “need” at the end, but putting “what you want” last is a fabulous choice. Because what they need is what the narrator wants to emphasize, yet what they want comes last–and it somehow sticks even more.
“The Difference” is embedded below.
3. “Kathleen” by Josh Ritter
Lyrically: “Kathleen” is an underdog story of someone who is pining after someone who is way out of his league. They meet at a party, where he declares, “All the other girls here are stars, you are the northern lights” and that “everything that they do is a ghost of a trace of a pale imitation of you.” He then dives into the hook, which says, “I’ll be the one to drive you back home, Kathleen.” In a previous blog, I talked about “Blue Ain’t Your Color” by Keith Urban and how the narrator’s comments could be taken the wrong way. But there’s such a sweet optimism to the narrator’s intentions in “Kathleen,” still knowing his place in her life: “I won’t be your last kiss, just your last goodnight, every heart is a package tangled up in knots someone else tied.” This line is excitedly shouted out in the third verse, which comes after the middle 8: “I’ll have you back by break of day. I’m going your way anyway. And if you’d like to come along, I’ll be yours for a song.” In between the middle 8 and the third verse, there is a small instrumental interlude. Unlike the previous middle 8s we looked at, there is also a fourth verse after he drops her off, which turns the narrator’s optimism into confidence: “The next time we meet a new kind of hello, both our hearts have a secret only both of us know, ‘bout the night I drove you back home, Kathleen.”
Note: The middle 8 is a fan favorite among Josh Ritter fans. They will often chant out the lyrics at his live shows, and it’s a really cool moment. More on the choice of a middle 8 over a bridge in the structure section.
Melodically: The song is written in the key of Bb and is played with the capo on the first fret. In the verses, he uses the chords Bb, Bbsus2, Bbsus4, which gets played twice, followed by Bb, Gbm, Eb, and Bb. This is a I, vi, IV, I pattern. The middle 8 uses Bbmaj7, Gbm, Eb, and E#7, a I, vi, IV, IV7 pattern. Instrumentally, the song uses guitar, drums, and violin.
Structurally: The song uses a verse, verse, middle 8, verse, verse format. At the end of the first three verses comes the hook, “I’ll be the one to drive you back home, Kathleen.” Keeping in mind our definition of a bridge, that it transitions back into a chorus, having a bridge would be impossible for “Kathleen,” barring the addition of a chorus on Josh’s part. But adding a full on chorus would take away from the simplicity and sweetness of the song. This is just a beautiful woman and the narrator wants to be in her life, no matter the capacity. It’s not some grand display of love, it’s just “I want to be around you.” Beyond that, the goal is stated throughout the song: “I’ll be the one to drive you back home, Kathleen.” This is written in future tense. Once he does drive her back home, it becomes something they’ll both remember forever. So the use of a middle 8 into the final bit of information (that she agreed), lends itself well to a third verse. The fourth verse, after he drops her off, feels like a deep exhale–all the hard work of convincing her to hang out with him is done, and now he’s got an inside bit of nostalgia for the next time they see each other.
“Kathleen” is embedded below. The Cars bassist Benjamin Orr sadly passed away in 2000, three years before “Kathleen” was released. Maybe this is who drove his girlfriend home after that.
Bonus track: “Summer of ‘69” by Bryan Adams. We’ve already done multiple nostalgia blogs, but this one fits very well into the middle 8, and that middle 8 transitions very nicely in a thematic sense into another verse (after a short instrumental interlude). That song is embedded below.
Bridges:
4. “Traitor” by Olivia Rodrigo
Lyrically: If you’ve ever had a situation where someone broke up with you and then almost immediately wound up with someone new, this is a song you’ll relate to deeply. The song begins with the line, “Brown guilty eyes and little white lies, yeah I played dumb, but I always knew that you talked to her, maybe even did worse, I kept quiet so I could keep you.” The chorus then says, “You talked to her when we were together, I gave you my best, but that didn’t matter. It took you two weeks to go off and date her, guess you didn’t cheat, but you’re still a traitor.” The second verse takes it a step further, where he brings his new girlfriend around the narrator just to get at her. A common theme in many of Olivia’s songs is the idea that the other person is now giving someone else their best — the best that they could have given to her if they wanted to. I’ve had situations like this: one where someone just got broken up with and told me she needed time to heal — only to wind up with some random guy 17 days later, and another who told me she was working and had a full class load, only to tell me about a month later about how the guy she wanted to date turned her down. Olivia’s songs get at the emotional impact of people’s words and actions, and that’s why a lot of people, myself included, relate to her music on a deep level. “Traitor” is a fabulous example of this.
Melodically/Structurally: The song is based around an organ, pad, and drums, and is written in the key of E flat. The chords remain the same throughout the entire song, using Eb, Gm, Cm, and Abmaj7. This particular blog is all about bridges and middle 8s, both of which seek to take the song to a different place than what you’ve heard throughout the rest of the song. So you may be wondering exactly why I picked out a song that uses the same exact chords throughout. Melodically, I did this for three reasons. Number one, I’m a lyrics guy first. This bridge doesn’t do anything too complex lyrically or melodically, but the melodic simplicity allows for the lyrics to shine through — and boy are they powerful! “God I wish that you had thought this through, before I went and fell in love with you.” Second, melodically, the presence of the light sounding, but heavily affected drums gives us a sense of heaviness. The third reason this bridge sticks out to me is because of its transition back into the chorus: “When you’re sleeping in the bed we made, don’t you dare forget about the way…” then goes into the chorus, “You betrayed me…” And this dives into my discussion about choosing the structure of the song as a songwriter. Each verse describes the traitorous tendencies of this ex, and each pre-chorus points out the signs she should have seen (or did see but ignored), but by the bridge, she places the blame on him, rather than her falling for it. So in a sense, it does take the song to a different place lyrically. When I initially conceived the structure for this blog, I wanted to put emphasis on how all three of those things need to run in tandem in order to make a good song. “Traitor” is a fabulous example of this–to the point where I almost threw out the three sections to just talk about it as one piece.
You can listen to “Traitor” below.
5. “Move Over Mama” by Justin Townes Earle
Lyrically: “Move Over Mama” tells the story of a man who has been out of town and when he comes back, simply wants his woman to “Move over” because she’s been “sleepin’ in the middle of the bed too long.” When he does come home, he sees the dishes aren’t done and the trash isn’t taken out, but he doesn’t care about any of that — he just wants to be able to share the bed with her again (and have a little adult fun). In other words, he doesn’t want her getting too comfortable without him. He doesn’t care about the rest. In the bridge, he says, “You ain’t gotta clean, mama, ain’t gotta cook, ain’t gotta tell me ‘bout the things that you read in your books. When I come home late, you ain’t gotta wait up, but when I pull up them covers, don’t you give me that look.” I had the pleasure of seeing Justin three times in concert and his sense of humor always shone through in his live shows. This is one of my favorite examples of his dry sense of humor and his ability to turn a phrase with it.
Melodically: The song is written in G major and uses only the I chord in the verses, before going to C, G, D, G, and C in the chorus (a IV, I, V, I, IV pattern). The verse chords are also used in the solo. The bridge uses C, G, C, and D (a IV, I, IV, V pattern). Instrumentally, the song uses guitar, stand up bass, and drums, as well as keyboard, all with a bluesy sounding riff (appropriate for its parent album, Harlem River Blues).
Structurally: The song uses a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, bridge, chorus format. There are two distinct parts to the bridge: the “pushin’ and a shovin’” part and the part I talked about earlier. With the bridge as long as it is, it wouldn’t have made sense to go into another verse, hence the choice of a bridge instead of a middle 8 (going back into a third verse). It also wouldn’t have made sense because this is an example song, not a story song — and all the examples of why mama needs to move over were already discussed in the previous parts of the song.
This tune comes from Justin’s Harlem River Blues album. And while bridges and middle 8s are rather rare in blues music, this tune falls into the rockabilly genre, where it’s more common. I guess that’s maybe why this tune reminds me of some of the Beatles’ early songs, with its simple verses and a bridge (though the Beatles were bigger fans of middle 8s) that force you to pay attention to the lyrics, since they come at you so fast.
“Move Over, Mama” is embedded below.
6. “Just a Feeling” by Maroon 5
Lyrically: Pro tip — If you’re going through a rough time and are listening to the parent album, Hands All Over, I would skip over this song. I totally forgot about this tune when I was in that situation, and absolutely lost it when it came on. Here’s why: The opening line says, “I watched you cry, bathed in sunlight by the bathroom floor. You said you wished you did not love me anymore.” The use of the word “wished” makes the line as powerful as it is. In other words, she’s actively trying not to love him, but downplays her leaving, saying, “It’s just a feeling that I have.” The bridge reveals the narrator’s pain: “So much to say, it’s not the way she does her hair, it’s the way she seems to stare right through my eyes.” In other words, he’s running out of good things to say about her, since she’s been so distant lately. But the mysterious thing about the rest of the bridge is the revelation that, at least from her perspective, it’s “the love she tried so hard to save” and also that “In (his) darkest days she refused to run away.” In other words, she tried to love him, did everything she could, and the fact that she doesn’t is “just a feeling.” People often make fun of me for liking Maroon 5 as much as I do, but when I tell them I relate to their lyrics, this is exactly what I’m talking about.
Melodically: The song is based around a piano part, with drums, bass, and acoustic guitar added in for flair. The intro uses Eb, Ab, Cm7, and Bb, followed by Ab, Bb, and Eb. This is a I, IV, vi7, V pattern. The first verse uses Ab, Bb, Cm7, and Bb (the same pattern as the verses, minus the I chord), followed by Eb, Ab, Bb, Cm7, Bb, Ab, Bb, Eb, Ab (a I, IV, V, vi7, V, IV, V, I, IV pattern), while the second verse uses Ab, Bb, Cm7, and Bb, followed by Ab, Bb, and Eb (this is only half as long as the first verse). The second verse uses the IV, V, vi7, V, IV, V, I chords. The first part of the pre-chorus (“Obsessed, depressed at the same time” and the second time around, “Undress, confess that you’re still mine”), uses Ab, Bb, Cm, and Bb, followed by Ab, Bb, Eb, Fm7, and Eb/G (a IV, V, vi, V, IV, V, I pattern), while the second part of the pre-chorus uses Fm7, Eb/G, Ab, and Bb (a ii7, I, IV, I pattern). The chorus then uses Eb/G, Ab, Eb, Bb, Eb/G, Ab, Eb, Bb, Cm, Ab, Eb, Ab, and Bb (a I, IV, I, V, I, IV, I, V, vi, IV, I, IV, V pattern). The bridge then uses Cm, Bb, Ab, Gb, Fm7, Eb, Cm7, Bb, Ab, Eb/G, and Gb, and Fm7 (a vi, V, IV, III, ii7, I, vi7, V, IV, I, III, ii7 pattern).
Structurally: “Just a Feeling” uses a verse, pre-chorus, chorus, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, chorus, chorus format. There’s something interesting that happens with the pre-chorus that always sticks out to me, in that it’s twice as long as what I think of as a normal pre-chorus, which is normally two lines. This pre-chorus has two distinct parts: the first part in the first chorus says, “Obsessed, depressed at the same time, I can’t even walk in a straight line, I’m lyin’ in the dark no sunshine, no sunshine, no sunshine,” before transitioning into “She cries this is more than goodbye, when I look into your eyes, you’re not even there.” The second pre-chorus says, “Undress confess that you’re still mine, I roll around in a bed full of tears and I’m still lyin’ in the dark no sunshine, no sunshine, no sunshine,” It’s incredibly well done because the repetition of the phrase “no sunshine” makes you think it’s going into a chorus, but then it hits you with the second part. We talked about the bridge in the lyric section, but we didn’t talk about the choice of using that one as opposed to a middle 8 and another verse. In case you couldn’t tell, I listen to a lot of sad songs. With those sad songs comes the idea of running out of steam. It’s why it’s so effective that the chorus is so simple and short after pouring his heart out in the verses and pre-choruses, and why it works so well to go into the stripped down chorus after the bridge. Another verse would have dictated another song title — according to the woman in the song, “It’s just a feeling” and there’s nothing more to say. So there’s no reason to say anything other than that coming out of the bridge.
Closing Production Note: This song, like all of the ones on the standard edition of Hands All Over, was produced by legendary producer Mutt Lange. Reportedly, the process was that Adam Levine would bring a song to Mutt and he’d say, “That’s a good start, now build on that.” This may explain the double pre-chorus length. This entire album is absolute fire, and deserves more love than it gets. As exhausting as it was for the band to make, I think it’s their best, and that’s a testament to the band and the producer.
“Just a Feeling” is embedded below. When it ends, you’re gonna say, “I can’t believe that it’s over!”
