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Originally Posted by Night Wraith
Not every song has a chorus and a prime example of that is bruce springstein. The majority of his songs lack chorus but htey are still unbelieveable.
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Yes and no.
The fact is that most of Bruce's songs do have a chorus and often a bridge...however...one of the finest songs ever written just happens to be a Bruce number with no chorus...unless we count the sax solo outro which is a whole other story.!!!
Allow me a moment to explain.
Bruce's first two albums,
Greetings From Asbury Park and
The Wild The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, were poorly taken by the public at large though some critics raved. The songs are spotty in terms of production and studio discipline so commercial Radio thusly ignored the often long, rambling tunes. By the third album Bruce was getting some decent production advice and became more economical in his recordings but still fairly
grand
by intention. From here we can look at two good examples of songs with no traditional vocal chorus. This third record, by the way, would go on to define his career.
Born to Run starts of with
Thunder Road. It is at this moment Bruce lives up to the high expectations people had for his poetic and intense songs...expectations of the next Dylan.
"The screen door slams, Mary's dress waves.
Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays,
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely,
Hey that's me and I want you only,
Don't turn me home again I just can't face myself alone again.
Don't run back inside darling you know just what I am here for,
So you're scared and you're thinking that maybe we ain't that young anymore,
Show a little faith there's magic in the night,
You ain't a beauty but hey you're all right...
And that's all right with me..."
This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is poetic genius. It stands perfectly without any hint of music.
The song continues this narrative but never presents itself in any way other than a straight line with no repetition. It is a work of perfection. (There is a bridge section under
"Well I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk" but we will leave musical technicalities aside for now.)
Meeting across the River takes a different musical approach. It is a stylised Jazz piece that works behind the narrative...unlike
Thunder Road where there is a sense of musical propulsion.
If you listen to either of these tracks there is no sense of disconnect in respect to traditional pop structures yet neither conform to accepted norms...why?
Because of two essential ingrediants whose sum exceeds the parts. The words are great and the music is great...combine them and you have
magic in the night.
What you don't have are hit singles...
...they have little to do with great, timeless songs.
My long winded point is that writing songs without a chorus is tricky, very tricky indeed. The words in question here are not strong enough on their own...they need music and yes...they would do fine in a blues song.
Cheers,
Aardvark
