AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Think about Los Angeles within the late ’70s. in a smoke-filled room, previous mates plug in some amps and switch up the amount.
(SOUNDBITE OF JEFF BRIDGES SONG, “THIS IS THE ONE”)
JEFF BRIDGES: Each Wednesday night time, 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 enjoying music, together with at these weekly jam classes with previous highschool mates.
BRIDGES: There have been guidelines to the jam, the primary 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, enjoying devices that you do not know easy methods to play – a saxophone, simply hanging from the rafters by a piano string – and anyone might go simply, (vocalizing), you understand, wail on it.
CHANG: Finally, the crew did work on some correct songs – songs that Bridges had been writing – and so they bought them down on tape.
BRIDGES: We bought somewhat house and, you understand, bought 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 ingesting somewhat 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 “Sluggish Magic.” Once we chatted earlier this week, I requested him to take me again in time to these late-’70s jam classes.
There’s type of, like, a haze to this music. Like, at one level, you are singing about Quaaludes. There’s undoubtedly a vibe – proper? – to those jam classes. So might I ask, what helped create that vibe?
BRIDGES: Oh, properly, you understand, this was the age of experimentation.
(LAUGHTER)
BRIDGES: …
CHANG: So to talk.
BRIDGES: LSD, Quaalude, cocaine, pot – the entire issues. It was type of an harmless time. We hadn’t seen the darkish aspect of these substances.
CHANG: Yeah.
BRIDGES: We realized about that, you understand, years later, thank God.
CHANG: (Laughter).
BRIDGES: However…
CHANG: Good.
BRIDGES: …It was a wild time. , 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 folks, you understand, my age in all probability keep 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 understand, again within the ’40s. So we did this track, “Kong.” Burgess sang on that track, after which he mentioned, say, I’ve bought a poem. Do you guys need 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 now have on so discovering is the attention night time and day that you have introduced a fiddle.
CHANG: I perceive that the entire 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 assume 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 every now and then, 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 mother and father cherished showbiz, significantly appearing, and so they each inspired all of their children to enter appearing. And once I was a teen, you understand, who desires to do what their mother and father need them to do?
CHANG: (Laughter).
BRIDGES: And I mentioned, I bought music. Possibly…
CHANG: Oh.
BRIDGES: …You consider music.
CHANG: Music made you completely different out of your mother and father.
BRIDGES: Effectively, Dad – you understand, 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 enthusiastic about.
CHANG: Yeah.
BRIDGES: So, you understand, that is an incredible 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 on occasion. , it is virtually type of a seasonal factor, you understand, 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 similar 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 understand, I am 75. To assume – I do not know if I’ve bought 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 understand?
(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: Once 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: , I do not really feel I’ve modified a lot since I used to be somewhat child, you understand? I am principally the identical man simply doing the identical factor. The large plus for me was it was fantastic getting the music out and having individuals hear.
CHANG: Yeah.
BRIDGES: But it surely additionally introduced collectively all these previous mates, you understand, 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 bought to, you understand, type of rekindle these relationships. And that was fantastic.
(SOUNDBITE OF JEFF BRIDGES SONG, “YOU COULD BE READY”)
CHANG: Effectively, you are actually, like, most well-known as a performer on the display screen, 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 that you may’t faucet into while you’re performing for movie or TV? What’s completely different about performing music?
BRIDGES: Effectively, music, in my case – I am writing these songs, you understand, so the – I am not writing the flicks. , I – generally I’ll do improvisations in movie, and that’ll be, you understand, captured.
CHANG: Certain.
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 principally getting out of the best way and let the factor do you, you understand…
CHANG: Yeah.
BRIDGES: …Whether or not it is a half or – you understand, you put together, definitely. However then, at – you understand, in the meanwhile, you let all of it go and, you understand, you pray, please take me the place you need me to go (laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “YOU COULD BE READY”)
BRIDGES: (Singing) You would be prepared, however oh, wait, then, it is ready in your likelihood wherever it’s (ph). Oh, did you actually assume you’ll keep down?
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