What’s it called when, in a song, the…ummmm…uhhh, damnit. I can’t even think of how to describe it, but it’s used in alot of songs and the most widely known example I can think of right off hand is when MC Hammer says “Break it down!” in “Hammer Time.” Everyone knows that song, right? I know there is a name for it because I remember a music teacher telling me once. 311 also uses this alot. Well, I hope someone out there knows what I’m talking about and I hope this is in the right forum*.
[sub]*(it’s a question, but it’s about “the arts” so I just trusted my fear and decided not to mess with manny & co. over in GQ. :D)[/sub]
It’s not an instrument. It’s like a “thing” they do, usually at the middle or towards the end of the song. 311 does it in “Down”, “Transistor”, “Come Original”,…etc. They do it alot. I swear there is a name for this!
Ok, the part in “Down” that I’m talking about is when it suddenly slows down and he sings: “Keep my feet on the ground/Keep my head in the clouds/Electrified by the sound/Comes from the down” It’s like where a song is going one way, and then it completely changes pace usually about 2/3 of the way through the song, and then goes back to the original song. Here, I’ll draw a diagram:
--------Normalsong--------“breakitdown”—normalsong—
I’m not crazy, I swear!
Is the phrase the “bridge” - that’s the part of a traditional pop song where, after a couple of verse-chorus combos, they move into an interlude-type piece of music, then pick up with another verse.
Enter Sandman - after the solo, the “Now I lay me down to sleep…” part
Whole Lotta Love - the weird sound effect whoosy part
Whenever James Brown calls out “Maceo, take me to the bridge!!” he’s telling his sax player, Maceo Parker to lead the band to a musical interlude…
For those of you who care, the Theremin is an electronic instument and was used in The Beachboys Good Vibrations. It’s also used in horror shows. That spooky high-pitched whine.
I built one a couple of years ago. The kids and play with it.
A vamp is an open spot in the music, often at the beginning, where some sort of cyclic phrase is played, or often improvised, an indeterminate number of times until the melody proceeds. Common in show tune arrangements at points where the musical accompaniment is going to have to wait for some stage action to take place - “vamp till ready” - the orchestra repeats the vamp while the actors do something or a scene change takes place, and when they are ready to start singing they come in on the end of vamp.
A middle eight is essentially a form of bridge - so called because it is classically eight bars.
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That said, I’d like to know if there’s a specific term for the trick Dylan did a lot in songs like “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” and “Mr. Tambourine Man” where he sets up a cyclic spot in the melody that he can insert a variable number of rhyming couplets into.
Example:
Though I know that evenin’s empire has returned into sand
vanished from my hand
left me blindly here to stand
but still not sleeping
…
Then take me disappearin’ through the smoke rings of my mind
down the foggy ruins of time
far past the frozen leaves
the haunted, frightened trees
out to the windy beach
far from the twisted reach
of crazy sorrow
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Didn’t Cecil address this in a column once? He used The Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out” to show an example of a “bridge.” Most of the song (written by McCartney) is upbeat; the Lennon portion (“Life is very short…” etc) provides a brief, sharp contrast, before the song resumes its original tone.
