AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Think about Los Angeles within the late ’70s. in a smoke-filled room, previous associates 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 taking part in music, together with at these weekly jam periods with previous highschool associates.
BRIDGES: There have been guidelines to the jam, the primary 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, taking part in devices that you do not know tips on how 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 – they usually bought them down on tape.
BRIDGES: We bought a bit of area and, you understand, bought 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 ingesting a bit of 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 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 sort 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, nicely, you understand, this was the age of experimentation.
(LAUGHTER)
BRIDGES: You already know…
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 discovered about that, you understand, years later, thank God.
CHANG: (Laughter).
BRIDGES: However…
CHANG: Good.
BRIDGES: …It was a wild time. You already know, 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 bear in mind Burgess from the previous “Batman” collection…
CHANG: Yeah, he is a legend.
BRIDGES: …With Adam West. And previous to that, he was a giant star on Broadway, you understand, again within the ’40s. So we did this tune, “Kong.” Burgess sang on that tune, after which he stated, 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 downside we now have on so discovering is the notice 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 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 now and again, 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 performing, they usually each inspired all of their children to enter performing. 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 stated, I bought music. Perhaps…
CHANG: Oh.
BRIDGES: …You consider music.
CHANG: Music made you totally different out of your mother and father.
BRIDGES: Nicely, 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 stuff you’re fascinated with.
CHANG: Yeah.
BRIDGES: So, you understand, that is an important 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 on occasion. You already know, it is virtually sort 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 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 understand, 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 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 understand?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ATTITUDE”)
BRIDGES: (Singing) Now, you may move it on, or you may expose the plan, or you could possibly 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: You already know, I do not really feel I’ve modified a lot since I used to be a bit of child, you understand? I am principally the identical man simply doing the identical factor. The massive plus for me was it was fantastic getting the music out and having folks hear.
CHANG: Yeah.
BRIDGES: But it surely additionally introduced collectively all these previous associates, you understand, 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 bought to, you understand, sort of rekindle these relationships. And that was fantastic.
(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 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 once 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 understand, so the – I am not writing the films. You already know, I – typically 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 artistic endeavors are coming from the identical place. And it is simply the duty is principally getting out of the way in which and let the factor do you, you understand…
CHANG: Yeah.
BRIDGES: …Whether or not it is a half or – you understand, you put together, actually. 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 possibly can be prepared, however oh, wait, then, it is ready in your probability wherever it’s (ph). Oh, did you actually assume you’d keep down?
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