AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Think about Los Angeles within the late ’70s. in a smoke-filled room, outdated mates plug in some amps and switch up the amount.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 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a pair Oscar nominations, however he was at all times enjoying music, together with at these weekly jam periods with outdated highschool mates.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 the right way to play – a saxophone, simply hanging from the rafters by a piano string – and anyone may go simply, (vocalizing), , wail on it.
CHANG: Ultimately, the crew did work on some correct songs – songs that Bridges had been writing – they usually bought them down on tape.
BRIDGES: We bought slightly house and, , 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 slightly 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 known as “Sluggish Magic.” After we chatted earlier this week, I requested him to take me again in time to these late-’70s jam periods.
There may be 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 periods. So might I ask, what helped create that vibe?
BRIDGES: Oh, properly, , this was the age of experimentation.
(LAUGHTER)
BRIDGES: You realize…
CHANG: So to talk.
BRIDGES: LSD, Quaalude, cocaine, pot – all the issues. It was type of an harmless time. We hadn’t seen the darkish aspect of these substances.
CHANG: Yeah.
BRIDGES: We discovered about that, , 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 And other people, , my age most likely keep in mind Burgess from the outdated “Batman” collection…
CHANG: Yeah, he is a legend.
BRIDGES: …With Adam West. And previous to that, he was an enormous star on Broadway, , again within the ’40s. So we did this tune, “Kong.” Burgess sang on that tune, 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’ve got on so discovering is the attention night time and day that you have 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 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 now and again, 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 liked showbiz, significantly appearing, they usually each inspired all of their children to enter appearing. And once I was a teen, , who needs to do what their dad and mom 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 dad and mom.
BRIDGES: Effectively, Dad – , Dad would say, now, Jeff, you are going to be known as upon as an actor to do all of those belongings you’re enthusiastic about.
CHANG: Yeah.
BRIDGES: So, , that is an amazing path, and I am glad I adopted his recommendation. However the seed of music has at all times been in me. And thank God, it blooms every now and then. You realize, it is nearly type of a seasonal factor, , and it will come out. It needs 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 like nothing. However, , I am 75. To assume – I do not know if I’ve bought the vitality to get a band collectively…
CHANG: (Laughter).
BRIDGES: …To rehearse all of the songs, go right into a studio, file. 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, ?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ATTITUDE”)
BRIDGES: (Singing) Now, you possibly can move it on, or you possibly can expose the plan, or you may smile and nod.
CHANG: If you hear 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, ? I am mainly the identical man simply doing the identical factor. The large plus for me was it was great getting the music out and having individuals hear.
CHANG: Yeah.
BRIDGES: But it surely additionally introduced collectively all these outdated mates, , 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, , type of rekindle these relationships. And that was great.
(SOUNDBITE OF JEFF BRIDGES SONG, “YOU COULD BE READY”)
CHANG: Effectively, you are actually, like, most well-known as a performer on the display, however enjoying music itself can be a efficiency, proper? So I used to be questioning, is there one thing that is particular about performing music that you would be able to’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, , so the – I am not writing the flicks. You realize, I – generally I’ll do improvisations in movie, and that’ll be, , captured.
CHANG: Certain.
BRIDGES: However when it will get right 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 best way and let the factor do you, …
CHANG: Yeah.
BRIDGES: …Whether or not it is a half or – , you put together, definitely. However then, at – , in the intervening time, you let all of it go and, , you pray, please take me the place you need me to go (laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “YOU COULD BE READY”)
BRIDGES: (Singing) You can be prepared, however oh, wait, then, it is ready on your probability wherever it’s (ph). Oh, did you actually assume you’d keep down?
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