AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Think about Los Angeles within the late ’70s. in a smoke-filled room, previous pals plug in some amps and switch up the quantity.
(SOUNDBITE OF JEFF BRIDGES SONG, “THIS IS THE ONE”)
JEFF BRIDGES: Each Wednesday evening, we would go over there, and we’d jam.
CHANG: That’s Jeff Bridges. Again then, he was in his late 20s. He was already a film star with a pair Oscar nominations, however he was all the time taking part in music, together with at these weekly jam periods with previous highschool pals.
BRIDGES: There have been guidelines to the jam, the principle one being that no songs have been allowed. Even songs that we have been writing weren’t allowed. It was only a free-form jam, taking part in devices that you do not know methods to play – a saxophone, simply hanging from the rafters by a piano string – and anyone may go simply, (vocalizing), you realize, wail on it.
CHANG: Ultimately, the crew did work on some correct songs – songs that Bridges had been writing – they usually acquired them down on tape.
BRIDGES: We acquired slightly area and, you realize, acquired a cool – a kind of TEAC four-track tape recorders, and we went to city.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “OBNOXIOUS”)
BRIDGES: (Singing) Oh, I used to be sitting round being obnoxious, I used to be consuming slightly an excessive amount of.
CHANG: A long time later, Bridges discovered a cassette tape of these recordings, and now he is releasing it as an album known as “Gradual Magic.” After we chatted earlier this week, I requested him to take me again in time to these late-’70s jam periods.
There’s sort of, like, a haze to this music. Like, at one level, you are singing about Quaaludes. There’s positively a vibe – proper? – to those jam periods. So might I ask, what helped create that vibe?
BRIDGES: Oh, properly, you realize, this was the age of experimentation.
(LAUGHTER)
BRIDGES: You realize…
CHANG: So to talk.
BRIDGES: LSD, Quaalude, cocaine, pot – all the issues. It was sort of an harmless time. We hadn’t seen the darkish aspect of these substances.
CHANG: Yeah.
BRIDGES: We realized about that, you realize, years later, thank God.
CHANG: (Laughter).
BRIDGES: However…
CHANG: Good.
BRIDGES: …It was a wild time. You realize, two of the tunes on the album, “Kong” and “Right here On This Island,” speaking about experimentation – Burgess Meredith…
CHANG: Yeah.
BRIDGES: …Was included in each of these songs. And other people, you realize, my age in all probability bear in mind Burgess from the previous “Batman” sequence…
CHANG: Yeah, he is a legend.
BRIDGES: …With Adam West. And previous to that, he was an enormous star on Broadway, you realize, again within the ’40s. So we did this music, “Kong.” Burgess sang on that music, after which he mentioned, say, I’ve acquired a poem. Do you guys wish to again me on this poem? And he recited this poem, “Right here On This Island.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “HERE ON THIS ISLAND”)
BURGESS MEREDITH: Right here on this island, which we sought and located, the one drawback we’ve got on so discovering is the attention evening and day that you’ve got introduced a fiddle.
CHANG: I perceive that all the music we hear on this album got here from a single cassette tape. Are you able to inform me about that tape?
BRIDGES: Yeah, it was a cassette. On the cassette, it was marked – what? – ’77 to ’78. However I feel a few of these tunes return sooner than that.
CHANG: And what did you suppose you have been going to do with that tape? Like, why not launch that music years in the past? What was stopping you?
BRIDGES: Yeah, it is humorous. Each on occasion, we would say, yeah, let’s make a band and take this additional. However we have been all into different stuff, and that fantasy by no means actually materialized. It is humorous. My dad and mom cherished showbiz, significantly performing, they usually each inspired all of their children to enter performing. And once I was a teen, you realize, who desires to do what their dad and mom need them to do?
CHANG: (Laughter).
BRIDGES: And I mentioned, I acquired music. Possibly…
CHANG: Oh.
BRIDGES: …You consider music.
CHANG: Music made you completely different out of your dad and mom.
BRIDGES: Properly, Dad – you realize, Dad would say, now, Jeff, you are going to be known as upon as an actor to do all of those stuff you’re enthusiastic about.
CHANG: Yeah.
BRIDGES: So, you realize, that is a fantastic path, and I am glad I adopted his recommendation. However the seed of music has all the time been in me. And thank God, it blooms occasionally. You realize, it is nearly sort of a seasonal factor, you realize, and it will come out. It desires to be expressed.
(SOUNDBITE OF JEFF BRIDGES SONG, “ATTITUDE”)
BRIDGES: There is a factor that I did once I was sick and had some downtime. I…
CHANG: Proper. You battled most cancers for…
BRIDGES: Yeah, most cancers and COVID on the identical time.
CHANG: And COVID when you have been….
BRIDGES: Oh.
CHANG: Sure, you have been being handled for most cancers.
BRIDGES: The COVID made the most cancers…
CHANG: Sure.
BRIDGES: …Appear to be nothing. However, you realize, I am 75. To suppose – I do not know if I’ve acquired the power to get a band collectively…
CHANG: (Laughter).
BRIDGES: …To rehearse all of the songs, go right into a studio, report. I mentioned, I am simply going to enter my music mine, M-I-N-E, and see if there are any tunes in there simply to place out, you realize?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ATTITUDE”)
BRIDGES: (Singing) Now, you’ll be able to move it on, or you’ll be able to expose the plan, or you could possibly smile and nod.
CHANG: While you pay attention again to this music and listen to your self from nearly half a century in the past, what do you hear? Like, what are you noticing about your self again then?
BRIDGES: You realize, I do not really feel I’ve modified a lot since I used to be slightly child, you realize? I am mainly the identical man simply doing the identical factor. The massive plus for me was it was fantastic getting the music out and having individuals pay attention.
CHANG: Yeah.
BRIDGES: However it additionally introduced collectively all these previous pals, you realize, that we hadn’t seen one another such as you mentioned, in a…
CHANG: Superior (ph).
BRIDGES: …A few of them in a half a century.
CHANG: Yeah.
BRIDGES: And we acquired to, you realize, sort of rekindle these relationships. And that was fantastic.
(SOUNDBITE OF JEFF BRIDGES SONG, “YOU COULD BE READY”)
CHANG: Properly, you are actually, like, most well-known as a performer on the display screen, however taking part in music itself can also be a efficiency, proper? So I used to be questioning, is there one thing that is particular about performing music that you may’t faucet into if you’re performing for movie or TV? What’s completely different about performing music?
BRIDGES: Properly, music, in my case – I am writing these songs, you realize, so the – I am not writing the films. You realize, I – typically I’ll do improvisations in movie, and that’ll be, you realize, captured.
CHANG: Positive.
BRIDGES: However when it will get right down to it, all of my inventive endeavors are coming from the identical place. And it is simply the duty is mainly getting out of the way in which and let the factor do you, you realize…
CHANG: Yeah.
BRIDGES: …Whether or not it is a half or – you realize, you put together, actually. However then, at – you realize, in the meanwhile, you let all of it go and, you realize, you pray, please take me the place you need me to go (laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “YOU COULD BE READY”)
BRIDGES: (Singing) You may be prepared, however oh, wait, then, it is ready on your probability wherever it’s (ph). Oh, did you actually suppose you’d keep down?
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