Bridge Section Optimism in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER by Don Black (Music by John Barry)

The bridge section is traditionally where a lyricist will place content that contrasts the content of the verses.

Don Black uses the first two verses of Diamonds are Forever to establish, by a series of statements, the narrator's preference for diamonds to relationships with men. Men, she maintains, are unfaithful, and cause emotional hurt. Diamonds, on the other hand, are knowable and predictable, don't hurt anyone's feelings, and are therefore preferable to men. In all the lyric's three verses the tone is the same - emphatic, conclusory, and certain.

( It is possible to read this excess as irony - the narrator knowing and self-aware. Or it can be read as 'straight'. In this post I'm going to use 'straight'.)

To contrast the certainty of the verses, Black uses the bridge section to place a hint of doubt, and it comes in the form of the lyric's one and only question:

I don't need love
For what good is love to me?

Of course we, the listeners, all know the answer to that one. It's the narrator who appears not to. This one simple question implies the narrator may not be entirely convinced by her own argument, is still enquiring, and is indeed prepared to continue to try and find the value of love.

In just one single line of lyric, then, Black enabled a space where the narrator can be seen as vulnerable, and where change might be possible. In the bridge section he's put hope and optimism to contrast the defensive materialism of the verses.

Subtle, economic craft, so easily overlooked.


Track Suggestions
 Several covers exist - including one by the Artic Monkeys - but if you want to hear the lyrcs clearly try a studio version sung by Dame Shirley herself. There's a nice one on her album This is My Life - The Greatest Hits (2000).

Here's Shirley Bassey performing it live in Antwerp.