AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Think about Los Angeles within the late ’70s. in a smoke-filled room, outdated buddies plug in some amps and switch up the quantity.
(SOUNDBITE OF JEFF BRIDGES SONG, “THIS IS THE ONE”)
JEFF BRIDGES: Each Wednesday night time, we would go over there, and we might 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a pair Oscar nominations, however he was all the time enjoying music, together with at these weekly jam periods with outdated highschool buddies.
BRIDGES: There have been guidelines to the jam, the principle one being that no songs had been allowed. Even songs that we had been writing weren’t allowed. It was only a free-form jam, enjoying devices that you do not know how one can play – a saxophone, simply hanging from the rafters by a piano string – and anyone might go simply, (vocalizing), you realize, wail on it.
CHANG: Finally, the crew did work on some correct songs – songs that Bridges had been writing – they usually received them down on tape.
BRIDGES: We received a bit area and, you realize, received a cool – a type 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 a bit an excessive amount of.
CHANG: Many years later, Bridges discovered a cassette tape of these recordings, and now he is releasing it as an album referred to 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 form 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, nicely, you realize, this was the age of experimentation.
(LAUGHTER)
BRIDGES: You understand…
CHANG: So to talk.
BRIDGES: LSD, Quaalude, cocaine, pot – all the issues. It was form of an harmless time. We hadn’t seen the darkish facet 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 understand, 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 outdated “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 track, “Kong.” Burgess sang on that track, after which he stated, say, I’ve received 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 downside we have now on so discovering is the notice night time 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 believe a few of these tunes return sooner than that.
CHANG: And what did you suppose you had 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 from time to time, we would say, yeah, let’s make a band and take this additional. However we had been all into different stuff, and that fantasy by no means actually materialized. It is humorous. My mother and father liked showbiz, significantly appearing, they usually each inspired all of their children to enter appearing. And after I was a teen, you realize, who needs to do what their mother and father need them to do?
CHANG: (Laughter).
BRIDGES: And I stated, I received music. Possibly…
CHANG: Oh.
BRIDGES: …You consider music.
CHANG: Music made you totally different out of your mother and father.
BRIDGES: Nicely, Dad – you realize, Dad would say, now, Jeff, you are going to be referred to as upon as an actor to do all of those belongings you’re all for.
CHANG: Yeah.
BRIDGES: So, you realize, that is a terrific 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 understand, it is virtually form of a seasonal factor, you realize, and it will come out. It needs to be expressed.
(SOUNDBITE OF JEFF BRIDGES SONG, “ATTITUDE”)
BRIDGES: There is a factor that I did after 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 whilst you had been….
BRIDGES: Oh.
CHANG: Sure, you had 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 received the power to get a band collectively…
CHANG: (Laughter).
BRIDGES: …To rehearse all of the songs, go right into a studio, document. I stated, 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 may go it on, or you may expose the plan, or you can smile and nod.
CHANG: While you hear again to this music and listen to your self from virtually half a century in the past, what do you hear? Like, what are you noticing about your self again then?
BRIDGES: You understand, I do not really feel I’ve modified a lot since I used to be a bit child, you realize? I am mainly the identical man simply doing the identical factor. The massive plus for me was it was great getting the music out and having individuals hear.
CHANG: Yeah.
BRIDGES: However it additionally introduced collectively all these outdated buddies, you realize, that we hadn’t seen one another such as you stated, in a…
CHANG: Superior (ph).
BRIDGES: …A few of them in a half a century.
CHANG: Yeah.
BRIDGES: And we received to, you realize, form of rekindle these relationships. And that was great.
(SOUNDBITE OF JEFF BRIDGES SONG, “YOU COULD BE READY”)
CHANG: Nicely, you at the moment are, like, most well-known as a performer on the display, however enjoying music itself can also be a efficiency, proper? So I used to be questioning, is there one thing that is particular about performing music you could’t faucet into if you’re performing for movie or TV? What’s totally different about performing music?
BRIDGES: Nicely, music, in my case – I am writing these songs, you realize, so the – I am not writing the films. You understand, I – generally I’ll do improvisations in movie, and that’ll be, you realize, captured.
CHANG: Positive.
BRIDGES: However when it will get all the way down to it, all of my artistic 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 possibly can be prepared, however oh, wait, then, it is ready in your likelihood wherever it’s (ph). Oh, did you actually suppose you’d keep down?
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