Two weeks ago, I learned the guitar parts for the Mamas & the Papas' "Straight Shooter" (from their debut album If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears). Shortly afterwards, I realized a few things about the song (the bridge, specifically).
The beginning of the first line of the bridge ("I've been searching all...") just alternates between the notes D and C. Musically, this going from one note to an-other is something of a representation of searching (especially since the "all" is drawn out to more syllables than it normal has when simply spoken). It almost demonstrates searching high and low, except the two notes are only a whole step apart.
The "night" that completes that line is sung to the phrase D C A. There are three syllables instead of one, which helps to further that exhaustive sense of "all night" that's in the lyric itself.
The other thing I noticed is that - corresponding to the "won't" in the line "Or I won't come 'round your door" - there's a modulation to a C major chord. The song is in A major, a key in which the C has a sharp; normally a chord would be formed on C#, not C. However, that foreign tonality and the lyric "I won't come 'round your door" have a common idea of being elsewhere.
