I didnt know what to expect from this music.
Ive heard your latter-day records, but this is cool stuff, man.Oh, you dig it?
We used to meet every Wednesday night at Baims house.
One track on Bridges’ new album of unearthed music was inspired by his never-made idea for a sequel to 1976’s ‘King Kong.’Courtesy of Candy Clark
We would jam, and there were rules.
And then we got in cahoots with this guy, [musician and composer] Ken Lauber.
I was doing a movie calledHearts of the West[released in 1975], and I met Kenny.
I played him some tunes in my trailer.
He said, Oh yeah, lets record these.
And then a few years after that album, we did a thing called Sleeping Tapes.
That was your ambient spoken-word work.Its this weird little series that we did on the cuff.
Its in the same spirit as the Wednesday-night jams.
So Keefus and I did that together.
And I played him this album, which consisted of a little cassette.
We had to find a way to play it.
And he ended up digging it and wanted to make an album.
And I said, Youre kidding, man.
He said, No.
What would the Dude think of this music?[Laughs.
]Oh, he would dig it right along with the whales, man.
Its perfect for the bathtub.Put those jams on loop, man.
Theres a Dylan line about how he saw his songwriting as more confessional than professional.
He loved it so much.
I was into my music and into painting and all these different things.
He said, Jeff, dont be ridiculous.
Im so glad I listened to him, becauseCrazy Heartis a perfect example of that.
But the music thing was always bubbling in me.
And it comes out in these weird ways.
The assignment: Get out of the way, let the thing come through, thats it.
Thats how I approach all those different things Im interested in.
Looking at your SeventiesRolling Stonecover, you were obviously going through a period of self-examination.
You were doing Est and isolation chamber stuff.
I do hear maybe some of that psychic exploration in this music.Im still interested in all of that stuff.
That interest in whats it all about, Im still curious about all that.
I hear Captain Beefheart in there, maybe.Yeah, Beefheart.
Also, you know who Moondog is?
T Bone used some Moondog inLebowski, so we got to relive that excitement.
And hed be passing out pamphlets.
I thought he was, like, a homeless guy.
And I would see him there every time I would go to New York.
One day I went into a record store.
And I said, Oh, look, theres that guy.
So I became a fan of his and Ive been following his story all these years.
And his music was very exciting to me.
That was a great period.
It doesnt get better.
But my era, the Beatles and Dylan?
Come on, man.
Can you imagine every day going to high school and heres the new Beatles?
The first single, Obnoxious, reminded me of the band My Morning Jacket.
Do you know them?I know the name more than the music.
You psychically predicted them somehow.You know, its doo-woppy, right?
I remember I liked it, it was fun.
Hey, ludes, man, yeah.
But there were some terrible drugs, angel dust, all that stuff.
It was a bit like being drunk, but a little in a different way.
I cant quite remember what Quaaludes were like.
The track Slow Magic itself is really great, almost a Van Morrison vibe.
Tell me about what you remember about that one.Yeah, thats a song thats stuck with me.
I did a newer version of it too.
I formed a band called the Abiders.
Theres nothing like playing with a bunch of guys, man, a band.
God, its really just a wonderful thing.
So I toured a bunch with these guys, the Abiders, and made another album with them.
And then I got sick and I got cancer.
I had no immune system, I thought I was very close to dying.
I thought, shit, this is it, people die, and this is me doing that.
And then I got better!
And then the music started to…
I dont know if I have the energy to get into the studio and do all these things.
Maybe Ill just release all of this stuff, and not be so precious.
So I got this idea of doing this series of tunes called Emergent Behavior.
So theres a version of Slow Magic there as well.
I think, Am I getting in trouble?
And he says to me, Jeffy.
He called me Jeffy.
Two words, Jeffy.Kong-a Two.
And I said, What do you mean?
He says, Kong-a Two.
I said, Oh, a sequel!
And he says, Think about it, I said OK.
So I started thinking about it, and I had this wild idea.
And all this oil is on the ground, and it all burns.
We end the movie there.
And then here come the fucking aliens that say, This is ours.
He didnt dig it at all.
Ill have him come and do [a version of] the Hindenburg broadcast.
And so thats what we did.
That was probably the most professional thing on there, but theres all kinds of musical clams and shit.
We didnt perfect that.
He turned me on to the isolation tanks.
Dear friend and incredibly talented.
What about that poem he says in the album?
It reminds me a little of how they use Vincent Price on theThrilleralbum.
You were ahead of that too, by a few years.Yeah.
That poem is quite remarkable.
We couldnt find it.
But life has its way with you, man.
You lose all kinds of shit.
Do you have any thoughts about performing some of this stuff live?Funny how impulses come and go.
My music left me for a while.
Now its starting to come back, and I dont know whats going to happen.
Ive been jamming more on GarageBand, writing and mixing new stuff.
I dont know whats going to happen.
Its up for grabs, at this point.
He wrote the tune Light Blues thats in there.
And thats one of his kind of lesser songs some of his tunes are just remarkable.
That fired up all these tunes that weve written together that havent been realized.
I was sorry thatThe Old Mangot canceled.
I was really enjoying that show.Yeah.
The best thing about that show for me was the people.
I got to work with Jon Steinberg, the showrunner, and [John] Lithgow.
Oh God, it was wonderful working with all those folks.
So its sad that way, but the fact that its cancelled Im occupied with all this auxiliary stuff.
It takes time for these things to surface, the music, the painting, the ceramics, gardening.
Youve obviously been through a lot the past few years.
Bernie would talk about retiring.
He says, thats just like going into a tire shop and putting on some off-road tires.
Ive been retired since Ive been born.
I heard a famous tennis player give a speech, but he said, No.
Ive always been tough to drag to the party, do something, do a movie or whatever.
Ive been resistant because I know what it means.
It means if you do that, you cant do all this other shit.
Youre away from your family.
So Ive always resisted it.
And now I noticed Im even resisting more because theres all kinds of other stuff I want to do.
Im still open to do movies, but its got to be one that tickles me to the depth.
It has to tickle for me to do it.
