Here’s a song written quite a while ago; and this particular recording is fairly old as well. Most Like A Road songs have little to do with any particular people. This is an exception.

the bridge will take you somewhere different
but the place looks the same

The target of my frustration here has no idea I ever felt this way. I felt angry and disappointed about a recent life choice he had made, and how it impacted the world we both inhabited. I’ve since made my peace, but I happen to like the song, especially since the phrase about “The Bridge” is self-referential:

• The absurdly formulaic ubiquity of the musical bridge, which often returns us to a familiar melody from earlier in the song.
• Cycles of relationships, where we tend to relive experiences in function, flexible in form.
• The lyrics themselves, which are nearly identical to the opening verse, but different enough to change the meaning entirely.

I wrote this entire song in one mental sitting (or standing, actually) – and raced to my guitar to record this exact piece fairly close to how I imagined it. Some songs are lucky like that.

Although I did try to record it at least 10 times in one day under a bridge in Ojai, and I wasn’t happy with any of them, so here’s the original.

RELATED MUSIC TRIVIA: The song Badge (by Cream) was co-written by Eric Clapton and George Harrison. While writing out the lyrics and music, George wrote “Bridge” at the top of the page on that section of the song. Because it was scrawled rather than written neatly, Clapton thought George had titled the song “Badge,” and they decided to keep it that way.