are usually the most interesting, exciting, and core sections of their songs. I first became aware of them back in grade 9 (1963-4) when they were first broke in Canada. “It Won’t Be Long”, which was the first song on Beatlemania (the first album released here) with a very catchy bridge which went:
Since you left me I’m so alone, Now you’re coming, you’re coming on home, I’ll be good like I know I should, You’re coming home, you’re coming home.
About the same time, we teens were flipping over their 45 rpm of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to find:
Well, my heart went boom When I crossed that room, And I held her hand in mine.
in “I Saw Her Standing There”.
From such modest, but memorable beginnings, the typical payoff- climaxes of many a Lennon-McCartney song.
Who could forget
I don’t know why she’s riding so high, She ought to think twice, She ought to do right by me. Before she gets to saying goodbye, She ought to think twice, She ought to do right by me. (“Ticket to Ride”)
or
All these places had their moments, With lovers and friends I still can recall, Some are dead and some are living, In my life I loved them all.” (“In My Life”)
as the lyrics became more intriguing, unconventional, and thoughtful.
Word choice and ideas became more poetic and less straightforward on songs like “Lady Madonna”:
Friday night arrives without a suitcase, Sunday morning, creeping like a nun. Monday’s child has learned to tie his bootlace. See how they run.
And there was a cool cinematic feel to bridges like the one in 1967’s “A Day in the Life” from the drug-inspired Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album:
Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head, Found my way downstairs and drank a cup And looking up I noticed I was late. Ha, ha, ha. Found my coat and grabbed my hat, Made the bus in seconds flat, Found my way upstairs and had a smoke And somebody spoke and I went into a dream.
As they continued, the word choice eventually became more multi-levelled and abstract, as in “Hey Jude”:
So let it out and let it in, Hey Jude, begin, You’re waiting for someone to perform with. And don’t you know that it’s just you, Hey Jude, you’ll do, The movement you need is on your shoulder.
There is also a philosophical quality to the bridges from Revolver onward, reflected in one of their last hits, “The Ballad of John and Yoko”:
Saving up your money for a rainy day Giving all your clothes to charity. Last night the wife said, “Oh boy, when you’re dead, You don’t take nothing with you but your soul.”
Before The Beatles, most pop songs consisted of just verses and choruses. What they added, lyrically and musically, were clever and sometimes exquisite bridges which were often the ‘money parts’ of their songs, especially the hits. And, as they developed and honed their songwriting skills from 1963 to 1970, their bridges moved from ear-catching lines to clever, more sophisticated wording and phrasing.