Seven Bridges Road

"Seven Bridges Road" is a song written by American musician Steve Young, recorded in 1969 for his '' Rock Salt & Nails'' album. It has since been covered by many artists, the best-known versions being a five-part harmony arrangement by English musician Iain Matthews in 1973 and a similar version recorded by the American rock band The Eagles in 1980.

Composition and original recording

"Seven Bridges Road" is an ode to Woodley Road (County Road 39, Montgomery County, Alabama), a rural two-lane road which runs south off East Fairview Avenue — the southern boundary of the Cloverdale neighborhood of Montgomery, Alabama — at Cloverdale Road, and which features seven bridges: three pairs of bridges, and the seventh approximately one mile south by itself. The song's composer, Steve Young, stated that he and his friends "used to go out to Woodley Road carousing around": "I wound up writing this song that I never dreamed anybody would even relate to, or understand, or get. And I still don't understand why it was so successful, actually." "I don't know xactlywhat hesong means."''St Louis Post-Dispatch'' 19 April 1992 "Steve Young: Georgia to LA" by Paul A. Harris pp.3C, 13C "Consciously... I ustwrote... a song about a girl and a road in south Alabama." "But I think on another level the song has something kind of cosmic... that registers in the subconscious: the number seven has all of these religious and mystical connotations."

Living on-and-off in Montgomery in the early 1960s, Young stated that he made "a few close friends there who were very different than the mainstream ocals. These friends toldme about this...Seven Bridges Road...As you went out into the countryside the road became this dirt road, and you crossed seven bridges, and then it was almost like an old Disney scene or something, with these high bank dirt roads and trees hanging down, old cemeteries, and so on. It was very beautiful...and on a moonlit night it was exceedingly beautiful." Young initially believed that Seven Bridges Road was his friends' personal byname for Woodley Road, stating, "I found out later that thad been called that for a long, long time. A lot of people over the years had been struck by the beauty of the road, and the folk name for it was Seven Bridges Road." Journalist Wayne Greenhaw in his book ''My Heart Is in the Earth: True Stories of Alabama & Mexico'' (Red River Publishing/ 2001) relates how on a Sunday in springtime he accompanied Young and their friend Jimmy Evans on a drive down Woodley Road to Orion for a guitar jam session with bluesman C. P. Austin, and that it was on the return trip up Woodley Road that Young began the composition of Seven Bridges Road. Jimmy Evans, then Young's roommate and later Attorney General of Alabama, recalled frequenting Woodley Road, including the specific visit which triggered Young's writing the song, stating, "I'd go down oodley Roadto Orion a lot to listen to... C. P. Austin...There ereseven wooden bridges n Woodleyand we'd go out there a lot... I thought it was the most beautiful place around Montgomery that I'd ever seen. That road was a cavern of moss; it looked like a tunnel."..." nenight henthere was a full moon... we were in my Oldsmobile, and when I stopped Steve got out on the right side fender. We sat there a while, and he started writing down words." Evans recalls that after beginning to write the song on Woodley Road that night, Young completed his composition at the apartment he and Evans shared in Montgomery's Capitol Heights neighborhood.

Young's own recollection was that the final version "was put together over a period of several years. Sometimes I'd say o myself'good song'. Then I'd say nobody could relate to a song like this." Young did play a completed version of the song at a gig in Montgomery - according to Jimmy Evans, Young's said his local performing venue was the Shady Grove club and stated, "it got a big reaction. I was very surprised and thought it just because it was a local known thing and that was why they liked it." When Young did approach a Hollywood-based music publisher in 1969 with Seven Bridges Road he was advised the song "wasn't commercial enough." Seven Bridges Road was not originally intended for inclusion on the ''Rock Salt & Nails'' album; in fact, Young states album producer Tommy LiPuma "didn't want me to record original songs. He wanted me to be strictly a singer and interpreter of folk songs and country standards." However, in Young's words: "One day we ran out of songs to record or ''Rock Salt & Nails''in the studio... I started playing Seven Bridges Road. LiPuma interjected: 'You ''know'' I don't want to hear original stuff.' But uitaristJames Burton said, 'Hey, this song sounds good and it is ready, let's put it down... After it was recorded, LiPuma had to admit that, original or not, it was good." Subsequent to the song's introduction on A&M's 1969 ''Rock Salt & Nails'', Young remade the song three more times: on his Reprise Records 1972 album entitled ''Seven Bridges Road'' and on his RCA Victor 1978 album ''No Place to Fall'', as well as his 1981 reissue album for Rounder Records again entitled ''Seven Bridges Road''; this 1981 album being a hybrid reissue/archival release, with five tracks from Young's '72 LP of the same name, with four outtakes from the original sessions as well as Young's last studio version of "Seven Bridges Road."

Iain Matthews version/Eagles version

"Seven Bridges Road" would have its highest profile incarnation due to a 1980 live recording by Eagles whose 4/4 time signature and close harmony vocal arrangement are borrowed from a recording made by Iain Matthews from his August 1973 album release ''Valley Hi''. Matthews' album was recorded with producer Michael Nesmith at the latter's Countryside Ranch studio in North Hills, Los Angeles: Nesmith would recall of Matthews' recording of "Seven Bridges Road": "Ian and I put it together and esang about six or seven part harmony on the thing, and I played acoustic. It turned out to be a beautiful record ng. On the similarity of the Eagles' later version, Nesmith would state: "Son of a gun if...Don enleyor somebody in the Eagles didn't lift urarrangement absolutely note for note for vocal harmony...If they can't think it up themselves ndthey've got to steal it from somebody else, better they should steal it...from me I guess." Matthews would recall that, in 1973, he and the members of the Eagles were acquainted through frequenting the Troubadour: "we were forever going back to somebody's house and playing music. Don Henley had a copy of 'Valley Hi' that he liked, so I've no doubt about that being where their version of the song came from."

Eagles recorded "Seven Bridges Road" for their '' Eagles Live'' concert album. According to band member Don Felder, when Eagles first began playing stadiums the group would warm up pre-concert by singing "Seven Bridges Road" in a locker room shower area. Afterwards, each concert would then open with the group's five members singing "Seven Bridges Road" a capella into a single microphone. Felder recalls that it "blew he audienceaway. It was always a vocally unifying moment, all five voices coming together in harmony." Following the release of the ''Hotel California'' album, that set's title cut replaced "Seven Bridges Road" as the Eagles' concert opener, and according to Felder, the band "rarely even bothered to rehearse with it in the shower of the dressing room anymore." The song was restored to the set list for the Eagles' tour prior to the band's 31 July 1980 breakup with the band's performance of the song at their 28 July 1980 concert at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, which was recorded for the '' Eagles Live'' album released in November 1980. They issued it as a single, with " The Long Run (live)" as its B-side; the song reached No. 21 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 becoming the group's final Top 40 hit until " Get Over It" by the reunited band in 1994. "Seven Bridges Road" also became the third Eagles' single to appear on the ''Billboard'' C&W chart, reaching No. 55 there. At the time the Eagles charted with "Seven Bridges Road" the song's composer Steve Young commented, "I didn't like the Eagles' version at first. I thought it was too bluegrassy, too gospel. But the more I hear it, the better it sounds."

Ricochet version

Ricochet, who had been performing "Seven Bridges Road" in concert, recorded the song in 1998 in the sessions for the intended album release ''What a Ride''. After two advance singles from ''What a Ride'': "Honky Tonk Baby" and "Can't Stop Thinkin' 'Bout That," had fallen short of the Top 40 of the C&W chart, the track "Seven Bridges Road" was sent to C&W radio 19 April 1999. The track's sepia tone promo video - filmed on Woodley Road on 22–23 March 1999''Montgomery Advertiser'' "Band Hopes 'Road' Will Be a Hit 23 March 1999 p.1 and mostly comprising footage of trysting couples shown at various times during the 20th century - received strong support from CMT: however the track itself only rose to No. 48 on the C&W chart, and the release of its parent ''What a Ride'' album - intended for July 1999 - was canceled. "Seven Bridges Road" was ultimately included on Ricochet's 2000 album release, '' What You Leave Behind,'' with the track serving as B-side of that album's first single, "Do I Love You Enough". "Seven Bridges Road" is performed live by Ricochet on the band's 2004 concert album ''The Live Album''.

Other versions

* 1970 – Eddy Arnold on his album ''Standing Alone''.
* 1970 – Joan Baez on her album '' One Day at a Time'' as a duet with Jeffrey Shurtleff.
* 1970 – Rita Coolidge on her album ''Rita Coolidge''.
* 1971 – Mother Earth and Tracy Nelson on their album ''Bring Me Home''.
* 1981 – Neal Hellman on his album ''Appalachian Dulcimer Duets''.
* 1982 – Josh Graves on his album ''King of the Dobro''.
* 1982 – Lonzo and Oscar on their album ''Old and New Songs''.
* 1983 – Atlanta recorded Seven Bridges Road in the sessions for their '' Pictures'' album; omitted from ''Pictures'', the track served as B-side for the single Sweet Country Music (No. 5 C&W 1984).
* 1990 – The Carter Family on their album ''Wildwood Flower''.
* 1996 – FireHouse on their album '' Good Acoustics''.
* 1999 – Ricochet on their album '' What You Leave Behind''.
* 2001 – Dolly Parton on her album '' Little Sparrow''. Parton was a fan of the Eagles' version, especially liking its harmonies; for her version Parton sang harmony with sisters Becky and Sonya Isaacs.
* 2003 – Jimmy Bowen & Santa Fe on their album ''Some Place Far Away''.
* 2006 – The Dolly Parton compilation ''The Acoustic Collection: 1999-2002'' features a remix of the '' Little Sparrow'' version augmented with vocals by Kasey Chambers, Norah Jones, and Sinéad O'Connor.
* 2007 – Alan Jackson recorded the song for the album '' Live at Texas Stadium'', with George Strait and Jimmy Buffett.
* 2007 – Nash Street on their album ''Carry On''.
* 2014 – Ilse de Lange & New Amsterdam Orchestra during a live concert
* 2015 – Home Free on their album '' Country Evolution''.
* 2015 – Jubal & Amanda cover the song selection moments on the lives of ''The Voice'' (U.S. season 9).
* 2017 – Delta Rae on their album ''The Blackbird Sessions''. This version more closely matches Parton’s in terms of its harmonies.
* 2018 – Billy Strings (full band) on multiple occasions durin
live performances

* 2019 – The Seldom Scene on their album ''Changes.''
* 2023 – Brothers of the Heart on their album ''Will The Circle Be Unbroken''. The band consists of Jimmy Fortune, Ben Isaacs, Mike Rogers, and Bradley Walker.
* 2023 – The Wilder Blue on their album ''Super Natural''.

References

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Songs about roads
Steve Young (musician) songs
Eagles (band) songs
Ricochet (band) songs
1969 songs
1970 singles
1973 singles
1980 singles
Reprise Records singles
Asylum Records singles
Columbia Records singles
Song recordings produced by Bill Szymczyk
Live singles