# "take to the bridge" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 27, 2002, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-to-the-bridge/129849 "2002-09-27T10:09:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hirsel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8c91f0/32.png) [@Hirsel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hirsel)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-to-the-bridge/129849/1 "2002-09-27T10:09:30Z")
can someone help me to decipher the meaning of this phrase, please. I am a non-native English speaker and I learned English mainly in NZ, where I never heard this expression, maybe it is American? H ---
**Author:** ![Aro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-to-the-bridge/129849/2 "2002-09-27T10:11:48Z")
It relates to songs, where the bridge is the musical link between the verse and the chorus in a song. (If you listen to U2, Bono will say it regularly to the Edge.) ---
**Author:** ![Aro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-to-the-bridge/129849/3 "2002-09-27T10:13:03Z")
Oh, it is usually " take **it** to the bridge…", BTW. ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-to-the-bridge/129849/4 "2002-09-27T10:19:44Z")
James Brown is well known for this, as he acts like a band leader and will vary the structure of his songs on the night as he performs them. ---
**Author:** ![Hirsel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8c91f0/32.png) [@Hirsel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hirsel)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-to-the-bridge/129849/5 "2002-09-27T10:24:40Z")
yeah actually I meant take it to the bridge and I also remember James Brown singing it. Well, great thanks a lot. H ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-to-the-bridge/129849/6 "2002-09-27T10:36:02Z")
Your typical three-part pop song has the following components: verse, chorus and bridge. Usually, songs follow the structure like: verse chorus verse chorus bridge chorus or some of a million variations thereof. often, there can be a solo after the bridge. i would say that the bulk of songs on the radio probably fit into this format. To take one example, for some odd reason Pearl Jam’s “Alive” is the first song to spring to my mind…maybe I’m feeling nostalgic. Anyhow, I reckon y’all know that song. So the “Son she said, have I got a little story for you…” and “Oh she walks slowly across a young man’s room…” are the verse parts. The “yadda, yadda, yadda I’m still Alive…” part is the chorus, of course. Now, the bridge is the section which goes “Is something wrong she said/well of course there is…” It’s a contrasting section to the verse and chorus parts, and “bridges” back to the chorus. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-to-the-bridge/129849/7 "2002-09-27T11:34:54Z")
Off to Cafe Society. **DrMatrix** - General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-to-the-bridge/129849/8 "2002-09-27T13:24:01Z")
The question has been answered, but I have to add: For James Brown, he often said “Maceo, take me to the bridge!!!” asking his bandleader and sax player, Maceo Parker, to lead the band into the bridge section of the song. Definitely one of the tightest, best run bands in the biz… In Led Zeppelin’s “The Crunge” they are trying to do a funk breakdown, James Brown kind of song. They play with the phrase “take me to the bridge” and the stops with someone saying “where’s that confounded bridge!?” ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-to-the-bridge/129849/9 "2002-09-27T15:33:52Z")
The World Music group _3 Mustaphas 3_ used to parody this by shouting out “Take it to the fridge!” during performances, while having a refrigerator on stage. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/take-to-the-bridge/129849/10 "2002-09-27T19:55:56Z")
Flying Lizards did a cover of James Brown’s _Sex Machine_. It’s hard to describe their style, sort of uber-clinical techno. And they copied all of the original verbal cadenzas verbatim. It’s hysterical. “I want to get up and do my thing.” “Yeah.” “Can I get into it?” etc. Take it to the bridge!