Small Voice Calling > The Voice > Bridge of Sighs
“They don’t hear you cry yourself to sleep those lonely nights.”
Within a year of the ‘miserable failure’ of the Telstar project, Ralph McTell was back in the recording studio with twelve new songs. He told his biographer, “It was clear I had to have an ‘adult’ album out after all the kids’ stuff of the past few years”. (Hockenhull, Chris. ‘Streets of London’, p. 115.) The resulting album, ‘Bridge of Sighs’, was released in 1986.
In his essay for the 2007 CD release, Paul Jenkins says, “The bridge has long served as an apt metaphor for uniting separated parties. On this album, McTell presents us with twelve examples of people trying to connect on various levels… they all serve to highlight McTell’s keen understanding of the human condition and his ability to translate it into song”.
Typical of Ralph’s understanding is his sympathy for the ‘Bad Girl’, of whom Ralph sings: “…they don’t hear you cry yourself to sleep those lonely nights“; and Ralph concludes, “I don’t think that you’re bad, deep down I know that you’re sad, little girl”.
LP and CD Issues
LP – Released 1986 in UK – Mays TPG009.
CD – Released 2007 in UK – Leola TPGCD27.
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