Forty years ago today The Blues Brothers hit movie screens across North America.
Compared to what the United States and the world is going through in June 2020 with regard to a global pandemic that has claimed nearly 120,000 American lives, thrown more than 40 million people out of work and nationwide protests (some violent) against police brutality, June 1980 seems quaint by comparison.
But in June 1980, Americans were in the midst of a recession. A 7.8% unemployment rate might appear trivial compared to what we are going through now but the purchasing power of Americans was compromised by an inflation rate of more than 14% not to mention long lines of people awaiting gas. Throw in the ongoing crisis of 52 Americans being held in captivity in Iran and you have a recipe for discontent. Five months later, Ronald Reagan would defeat Jimmy Carter in a landslide election.
In the meantime, Americans would have to content themselves with escape. Those who liked action-adventure went to see The Empire Strikes Back. Those who wanted to laugh saw The Blues Brothers.
The Blues Brothers had plenty of laughs. Indeed, the finest collaboration between Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, a collaboration which began even before they became original cast members on Saturday Night Live and a collaboration cut short by Belushi’s sudden death in March 1982 less than two years after the release of the film.
But The Blues Brothers was so much more than a comedy. It contained one of the greatest chase scenes in the cinematic history inspired in part by the silent era films of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd as well as more contemporary movies such as Bullitt and The French Connection.
Most significant of all The Blues Brothers was a love letter to American music – rhythm & blues, soul, gospel, jazz and even country music. Ahem, I meant country and western music. For this reason alone, I have made a point of nominating The Blues Brothers for inclusion in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. The Registry preserves films which are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." If a film which features Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker, James Brown, Cab Calloway and Aretha Franklin isn’t “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” then what is?
Aykroyd and Belushi played for laughs, but they were completely serious when it came to their love of the blues. The duo first sang the blues before an international audience wearing bee costumes rather than suits, sunglasses and porkpie hats. During the first season of SNL, there was a recurring sketch called The Killer Bees which Belushi absolutely despised. As a goodwill gesture to Belushi, SNL producer Lorne Michaels agreed to have a Killer Bees skit in which he and Aykroyd performed (what else?) Slim Harpo’s “I’m a King Bee”. This performance took place during SNL’s 10th episode which aired on January 17, 1976.
In the skit, which guest host Buck Henry bills as Howard Shore and his All-Bee Band, Belushi is front and center with Aykroyd playing a blues harp in the background with future David Letterman band leader Paul Shaffer on keyboards. Belushi, with sweat trickling down his left cheek, is singing straight with conviction and passion, but leaving plenty of room for physical comedy with several cartwheels which would become one of “Joliet” Jake Blues’ trademarks.
More than two years would pass before Aykroyd and Belushi would perform as a musical act at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. During this time, Aykroyd and Belushi had tremendous individual success on SNL. Aykroyd’s memorable characters included the slimy toy manufacturer Irwin Mainway, Beldar Conehead, Fred Garver, Male Prostitute, critic Leonard Pinth-Garnell and as himself on Weekend Update in which he would say, “Jane, you ignorant slut,” during his and Jane Curtin’s spoof of the Point-Counterpoint debate on 60 Minutes as well as acute renderings of Presidents Nixon and Carter and late night talk show host Tom Snyder. Meanwhile Belushi attracted attention with his dead-on impersonations of Joe Cocker and Truman Capote along with his various Samurai characters and the owner of the Olympia Café (“Cheeseburger!!! Chesseburger!!! Coke, no Pepsi!!!).
But nothing got Aykroyd and Belushi over more than when they donned the suits, sunglasses and porkpie hats and brought Elwood and Jake Blues to life for the first time on April 22, 1978. Introduced by Paul Shaffer portraying rock impresario Don Kirshner, who said, "Today they are no longer an authentic blues act, but have managed to become a viable commercial product. So now, let's join 'Joliet' Jake and his silent brother Elwood—the Blues Brothers,” the newly christened Blues Brothers then launched into a cover of Floyd Dixon’s “Hey Bartender”. Thus began what is considered among the greatest episodes in SNL’s 40 year plus history. Hosted by Steve Martin at the pinnacle of his career who performed his novelty hit “King Tut”, Aykroyd and Belushi, err, Elwood and Jake returned to perform Willie Mabon’s “I Don’t Know.”
Before the show was over The Blues Brothers were an overnight sensation. Notwithstanding their SNL origins, The Blues Brothers only appeared in character on the show twice. They would return in November 1978 in support of host Carrie Fisher (Aykroyd’s former fiancée who would later join The Blues Brothers cast as Jake’s jilted girlfriend). That appearance took place 10 days before the release of their debut album A Briefcase Full of Blues. Recorded live as the opening act for Steve Martin at L.A’s Universal Ampitheatre in September 1978, A Briefcase Full of Blues went double platinum.
For all the laughter, this was one serious band. Accompanying Jake and Elwood were Steve Cropper and Donald “Duck” Dunn, the power combo from Booker T & The MGs, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, who had performed with the likes with Howlin’ Wolf, Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon, Sonny Boy Williamson, Otis Rush, Chuck Berry. Well, you get the idea. Throw in Willie Hall of The Bar-Kays on drums plus the SNL band’s horn section (Alan Rubin, Lou Marini and Tom Malone) plus Shaffer and American blues finds a whole new audience. The emergence of The Blues Brothers represented something of an antidote to the excesses of the disco era and the nihilism of punk rock (although Belushi was a big fan of punk).
The Blues Brothers also represented the impetus of Aykroyd and Belushi’s departure from SNL in 1979 having agreed to star in a movie to be directed by John Landis who had previously worked with Belushi in Animal House. While Animal House cost $3 million to make, The Blues Brothers would cost $30 million (approximately $93 million in 2020 dollars). A significant portion of those costs were due to the elaborate chase scene near the conclusion of the film where Jake and Elwood are chased 106 miles into Chicago through land, air and lake by various police forces, swat teams, The National Guard, The Good Old Boys with the owner of Bob’s Country Bunker and a couple of Illinois Nazis with nothing but one broken down Bluesmobile, two pairs of sunglasses and a pack of cigarettes. All to get to the Office of the Cook County Assessor to pay a $5,000 in property tax on behalf of Saint Helen of The Blessed Shroud orphanage. As we know, they were on a mission from God.
My favorite portion of that chase scene is when Elwood turns to a sleeping Jake and says, “Jake, I gotta pull over,” and proceeds to crash through a railing en route to another road. Dozens of police cruisers then follow the Bluesmobile, but end up crashing into each other in the ditch with the car containing John Candy leaping into a transport truck. The scene ends back in the ditch with one of the police officers amid all the carnage saying, “I think they broke my watch.” Like many people, I first watched the movie on TV in the early 1980s this was so over the top and absurd that I couldn’t contain my laughter. All that wreckage and only a broken watch.
But for all the laughter, the heart and soul of The Blues Brothers is the music and those who made the music. As Aykroyd stated in a 2004 NPR interview:
John and I, when we did "The Blues Brothers," we were in existence to serve these great artists and to, you know, reintroduce them to our audience and never felt that we were their equal, but we felt that we were really in service to their gift. You know our great band that we had? I think that's why they joined us and they realized we had a great reverence and respect for the music.
Yet Universal Studios was less than enthusiastic about casting the likes of Franklin, Brown, Calloway, Hooker and Charles viewing them as acts that were not contemporary and would not resonate with movie audiences. Instead of Franklin, Universal wanted Rose Royce of “Car Wash” fame. To their everlasting credit, Aykroyd and Belushi told Universal they had better think. A few years later, Franklin had a string of Top 40 hits (“Freeway of Love”, “Who’s Zoomin Who?”, “Would I Lie to You?” (with Annie Lennox) and “I Knew You Were Waiting” (with George Michael). I think it is safe to say that Aretha Franklin had no problem connecting with Gen Xers and would be sorely missed by generations of fans beyond when she passed away in 2018.
Neither did Gen Xers raised on heavy metal have any trouble connecting with “Minnie The Moocher” even if the song was nearly 50 years old at the time The Blues Brothers was released in summer of 1980. In his early seventies, Cab Calloway sung and dance with ease. I remember being on a bus in Israel with teenagers in the summer of 1988 when “Minnie the Moocher” came on the radio and every one of us was going “Hi De Hi De Hi!!! Hi De Hi De Ho!!!” In 2019, “Minnie The Moocher” was inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry. If “Minnie The Moocher” belongs in the National Recording Registry then surely the movie which breathed new life into it belongs in the National Film Registry.
Whether or not The Blues Brothers is ever included in the The National Film Registry, it will always have a place in the heart of American music in all it forms.
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