― hstencil, Wednesday, 21 April 2004 17:18 (nineteen years ago) link
Now the Commitments, on the other hand, as both a film and a "band" is far far FAR guiltier of the alleged crimes directed at the BBs in this thread. That is some of the worst shit EVER. Totally indefensible.
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 21 April 2004 17:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― hstencil, Wednesday, 21 April 2004 17:34 (nineteen years ago) link
It may have turned the stomach of some people that were blues fans before and after the movie, especially black fans, but I don't think that you would have a blues bar or two in every decent sized US city perhaps with out it. If not, why do all of these places have some artwork in the bar referencing the movie?
I know the first time I ever heard Elmore James, John Lee Hooker, Sam & Dave and Cab Calloway was when I saw this movie at age eleven.
― earlnash, Wednesday, 21 April 2004 17:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 21 April 2004 17:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 17:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 17:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 17:53 (nineteen years ago) link
You couldn't move for Blues Brothers tribute bands back in the 1980's but they all seem to have disappeared now thank god.
I don't know a single person that's seen Blues Brothers 2000.
― udu wudu (udu wudu), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 18:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 19:33 (nineteen years ago) link
The first movie is still pretty good. 2000 is pretty bad, but I think it could have been saved had they had more car crashes.
― Doobie Keebler (Charles McCain), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 19:35 (nineteen years ago) link
Likewise "the Pianist" and "Prince of Tides".
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 19:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 19:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 19:58 (nineteen years ago) link
The second one's a pile of shit, obv.
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 20:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― BanjoMania (Brilhante), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 21:11 (nineteen years ago) link
I reserve my ire for their appearances in bar jukeboxes and classic rock radio. That shit is wrong.
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 21 April 2004 22:16 (nineteen years ago) link
however, can we blame the blues brothers for the musical career of bruce willis?
― stevie (stevie), Thursday, 22 April 2004 07:11 (nineteen years ago) link
I liked it better than Jaws too.
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Thursday, 22 April 2004 07:37 (nineteen years ago) link
This was eclipsed only by a swing type band at a wedding last summer: "Here's another great Robbie Williams track, called Mack the Knife" etc
― bham, Thursday, 22 April 2004 09:24 (nineteen years ago) link
I hear that, apart from the fact that The Prince Of Tides is probably beyond salvation: "Lowenstein! Lowenstein!". It goes for many other films, though.
― Jay Kid (Jay K), Thursday, 22 April 2004 10:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Thursday, 22 April 2004 18:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― sexyDancer, Thursday, 22 April 2004 18:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― Broheems (diamond), Thursday, 22 April 2004 18:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― Andy K (Andy K), Thursday, 22 April 2004 20:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― robin (robin), Friday, 23 April 2004 01:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― jim wentworth (wench), Friday, 23 April 2004 02:27 (nineteen years ago) link
never cared for it much beyond that tho.m.
― msp, Friday, 23 April 2004 03:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― Stupornaut (natepatrin), Friday, 1 April 2005 13:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― Stupornaut (natepatrin), Friday, 1 April 2005 14:48 (nineteen years ago) link
And Aretha and Calloway come across great even if Landis couldn't direct the numbers for shit.
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 1 April 2005 17:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Friday, 1 April 2005 20:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― cobra commander (cobra commander), Friday, 1 April 2005 21:08 (nineteen years ago) link
"Orange Julius? Orange Julius? Three Orange Juliuses."
― Pleasant Plains, Thursday, 20 December 2007 21:07 (sixteen years ago) link
Let's not forget that this is the director who also brought us Kentucky Fried Movie, American Werewolf in London, and Thriller before turning to absolute shit.
I highly value this movie (not the sequel, not the soundtrack)... as an important part of my childhood with as many quotable lines as any great comedy.
― Nate Carson, Thursday, 20 December 2007 21:55 (sixteen years ago) link
it's funny cuz they're white
― pc user, Thursday, 20 December 2007 21:56 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.myfonts.com/images/family/gonzalez/orange-whip.gif
― sexyDancer, Thursday, 20 December 2007 22:03 (sixteen years ago) link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Whip
― sexyDancer, Thursday, 20 December 2007 22:04 (sixteen years ago) link
corrected.
― Pleasant Plains, Thursday, 20 December 2007 22:10 (sixteen years ago) link
kinda cool it's actually a casual product placement
― sexyDancer, Thursday, 20 December 2007 22:17 (sixteen years ago) link
fuck the haters. funny, can do without the way-off Stax imitations, but like so many others this was my first exposure to blues & soul music and it's why I saw B.B. King when I was 12 and why I still own 3 Albert Collins albums and two boxes of Stax records.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 20 December 2007 22:33 (sixteen years ago) link
You get me my cheez wiz, boy?
― B.L.A.M., Thursday, 20 December 2007 23:30 (sixteen years ago) link
for umpteenth time, edd s hurt otm
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Friday, 21 December 2007 03:13 (sixteen years ago) link
it's great that e. hurt "already knew about that stuff" but i kind of like the idea of, yknow, the rest of us getting to find out about that stuff, too.
― J.D., Friday, 21 December 2007 03:36 (sixteen years ago) link
J.D. OTM. (Closest I've ever come to dissing eddhurt!)
Also, give Aykroyd credit for legitimately learning how to play a decent blues-harp for the sake of the character. I admire that dedication.
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Friday, 21 December 2007 04:21 (sixteen years ago) link
I watch the movie more for the Brothers than the Blues.
― Pleasant Plains, Friday, 21 December 2007 04:45 (sixteen years ago) link
but i kind of like the idea of, yknow, the rest of us getting to find out about that stuff, too. I dunno, maybe you kids could have listened to Oldies Radio and taken out old school rock critic books out of the library, like us old-timers had to do.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Friday, 21 December 2007 04:54 (sixteen years ago) link
bought the record when it came out, i was 12 i think, loved it for a few months then never listened to it again. really just the first example of an ok snl skit taking on a life of its own. the movie holds up much better than the record.
― gershy, Friday, 21 December 2007 04:56 (sixteen years ago) link
I wonder why they never made the "Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger" skit into a movie?
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Friday, 21 December 2007 04:58 (sixteen years ago) link
"No Coke. Pepsi!"
― Nate Carson, Friday, 21 December 2007 05:32 (sixteen years ago) link
also briefcase full of blues went double platinum tho presumably at least some of that was after the film? i mean the backing band had earned this i guess but― mark s, Saturday, August 25, 2018 10:43 AM (eight hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― mark s, Saturday, August 25, 2018 10:43 AM (eight hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Yes indeed.
Evidently a popular Xmas '78 gift.
BLUES BROTHERS BRIEFCASE FULL OF BLUES
2x Multi-Platinum | October 30, 1984Platinum | January 5, 1979Gold | December 22, 1978
― Andy K, Saturday, 25 August 2018 23:43 (five years ago) link
Haha, exactly
― The Vermilion Sand Reckoner (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 August 2018 00:03 (five years ago) link
I was also going to say that the music in TBB is mostly definitely not blues, the genre just happens to make a couple of cameo appearances.
This is probably one of the Blues Brother's biggest problems for me tbh, they flatten the history of Afro-American music down to this level where "blues" stands for everything from Cab Calloway to Aretha Franklin.
The Blues Brothers 2000 soundtrack has some jams, surprisingly.
― Daniel_Rf, Sunday, 26 August 2018 08:42 (five years ago) link
Speaking of Gerri Hirshey again, what was up with the paperback cover of Nowhere To Run? It seemed to depict Solomon Burke in an Elvis imitator wig.
― The Vermilion Sand Reckoner (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 August 2018 16:08 (five years ago) link
This is great
https://youtu.be/lVydhKIDoqQ
― piscesx, Sunday, 26 August 2018 20:17 (five years ago) link
fair amount of The Sting,
Not as much as you might think overall. Most of it was Pasadena http://movie-tourist.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-sting-1973.html
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 27 August 2018 08:52 (five years ago) link
whole concert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTpiL_Leg-Q
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Monday, 27 August 2018 09:41 (five years ago) link
Feels like there's a trajectory from "Shout" in Animal House to this to the Lee Atwater / yuppie era that killed popular 12-bar blues by the early 90s.
there's a lot of other little steps along the way, usually involving white people's (and ONLY white people's) reification of 60s R&B - from the Big Chill to the Commitments. But idk seeing people diss this movie for its impact on the music industry or the way it handled the music is strange. Never knew this movie had detractors to be honest.
― Οὖτις, Monday, 27 August 2018 16:11 (five years ago) link
“Back to the Future” had a white teenager from 1985 retroactively inspiring Chuck Berry, and somehow rock 'n roll survived...
― stan in the place where you work (morrisp), Monday, 27 August 2018 16:21 (five years ago) link
Not knocking the movie with that comment ^, only thinking through its popularity and how it connected the music with being a rebel, etc. xpost
― ... (Eazy), Monday, 27 August 2018 16:23 (five years ago) link
this movie has problems unless you find endless vehicular mayhem endlessly funny
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 August 2018 16:25 (five years ago) link
also, as someone pointed out at the time, Belushi's eyebrows were one of his comic assets and he only takes the shades off once.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 August 2018 16:26 (five years ago) link
right, there's obviously some sloppy + stupid stuff in it, I had just never previously heard it criticized specifically for the way it handled the music
xp
― Οὖτις, Monday, 27 August 2018 16:27 (five years ago) link
morbs can you remember *who* said that abt belushi's eyebrows? i assumed i'd remembered it from pauline kael's review but no
― mark s, Monday, 27 August 2018 16:31 (five years ago) link
i thought it might've been Kael; it's def a US contemporary critic
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 August 2018 16:33 (five years ago) link
Belushi's attempt at an ingratiating accent when they show up at Bob's Country Bunker always gets me.
― omar little, Monday, 27 August 2018 16:46 (five years ago) link
David Denby slammed the film in New York magazine for being overblown in general and giving short shrift to the cameo stars:
https://books.google.com/books?id=5uUCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA52&lpg=PA52#v=onepage&q&f=false
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 August 2018 16:55 (five years ago) link
maybe the eyebrows line was from Janet Maslin in the NY Times
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 August 2018 17:03 (five years ago) link
I thought it was Roger Ebert, but I didn't see it in his review (which is online).
― grawlix (unperson), Monday, 27 August 2018 17:12 (five years ago) link
lol this is now going to drive me nuts >:(
― mark s, Monday, 27 August 2018 17:24 (five years ago) link
ha this is playing at the Castro next week and my daughter expressed interest after seeing the Aretha clip, maybe we'll go
― Οὖτις, Monday, 27 August 2018 17:43 (five years ago) link
xp It wasn't Janet Maslin. She panned the film btw, only complimenting Aretha Franklin's performance (and said even that scene was badly edited).
― Josefa, Monday, 27 August 2018 18:18 (five years ago) link
when i was growing up i never knew it could possibly have been panned, since it's generally really entertaining and funny and the music is good (albeit the loosest definition of the blues.) I guess I get it now, but I don't agree. sure the car pileup comedy isn't really funny, except in the absurd sense. but the BBs underplaying everything while it goes to hell around them still works.
i like how it's pretty respectful overall, even if the respect is often awkward. and it's still refreshing to see a movie where there's zero "scary" bits involving the inner city scenes (cf. Adventures in Babysitting, Animal House, any number of other films too numerous to mention.)
the most (comedy) tense bits involve a nun, a country bar (that's a different kind of problematic, i agree), the cops, and a fancy Near North restaurant.
― omar little, Monday, 27 August 2018 19:10 (five years ago) link
the nun is of course Kathleen Freeman, of Jerry Lewis' rep company and Singin' in the Rain ("rrrround tones").
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 August 2018 19:18 (five years ago) link
oh WOW I had never made that connection!!
― Οὖτις, Monday, 27 August 2018 19:22 (five years ago) link
and I watch Singin in the Rain once a year :(
She also in the Americanized Broadway musical of The Full Monty with terminal cancer, and stayed with it until 5 days before her death.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Freeman
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 August 2018 19:28 (five years ago) link
She panned the film btw, only complimenting Aretha Franklin's performance (and said even that scene was badly edited).
supposedly the performance part of the Aretha scene came out the way it did was that she had problems nailing both the lip-syncing and the choreography (something she'd never had to do to such a degree before or after), so they had to kind of edit around her at times when they just didn't have usable footage for certain parts.
― Ubering With The King (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 27 August 2018 20:00 (five years ago) link
and also, Landis cut off the sax player's head. (foreshadowing of Vic Morrow)
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 August 2018 20:07 (five years ago) link
*rimshot*
― Οὖτις, Monday, 27 August 2018 20:16 (five years ago) link
It's interesting to read what the early-80s NYC media had to say, but please...the Blues Brothers (and Landis etc in general) is a classic example of a chasm between critics and ticket-buyers.
― everything, Monday, 27 August 2018 23:20 (five years ago) link
isn't John lee Hooker onscreen for about 45 seconds?
this was enough to make quite an impression on young me
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 28 August 2018 01:16 (five years ago) link
And he's not on the album?
― Mark G, Tuesday, 28 August 2018 10:56 (five years ago) link
Nope. With the exception of "The Old Landmark" (James Brown with the Rev. James Cleveland Choir), everything on the soundtrack album is recorded by the Blues Brothers band, either with Belushi & Aykroyd ("She Caught the Katy," "Gimme Some Lovin'") or with whichever guests (Aretha, Ray, Cab Calloway).
None of the other songs in the film -- Sam & Dave, Fats Domino, John Lee Hooker, Louis Jordan -- are on the soundtrack record.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 28 August 2018 13:59 (five years ago) link
Posted upthread:
LANDIS: What’s important to remember about that movie is, it was John and Danny’s intention to exploit their own celebrity of the moment, and focus a spotlight on these great American artists because rhythm and blues was in eclipse. To give you an idea, MCA Records, Universal Records, refused the soundtrack album.DEADLINE: Why?LANDIS: They said, who’s going to buy this music? And then, one of the great accomplishments of The Blues Brothers came when we recorded live John Lee Hooker on Maxwell Street, which is gone now. We had Pinetop Perkins, all these legendary people, recording John’s song “Boom Boom.” And when we ended up making a deal with Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun himself wouldn’t put John Lee Hooker on the album. He said, he’s too old, and too black. It was very gratifying when the album went platinum.
LANDIS: They said, who’s going to buy this music? And then, one of the great accomplishments of The Blues Brothers came when we recorded live John Lee Hooker on Maxwell Street, which is gone now. We had Pinetop Perkins, all these legendary people, recording John’s song “Boom Boom.” And when we ended up making a deal with Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun himself wouldn’t put John Lee Hooker on the album. He said, he’s too old, and too black. It was very gratifying when the album went platinum.
I pulled a bunch of my parent's vinyl from storage last week, and among the titles was Briefcase... Spun it earlier this evening, and enjoyed it a bit. Aside from a couple obvious numbers, they dug fairly deep for songs, made sure you knew who did most of 'em to begin with, give the band room to move, and emphasize the humor in Blues/Soul that gets too often forgotten by revivalists (although they do go overboard--some serious cocaine thought went into doing "Groove Me" in comedy Jamaican).
― Ubering With The King (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 31 August 2018 04:42 (five years ago) link
watched this movie with the kids last night and maybe I shouldn't have been surprised at how much they loved it. In a weird way, it's a perfect kids' movie, as long as you don't mind the swearing - the set-up is bare-bones simple, there's no extended dialogue or plot mechanics to decipher, tons of WB-cartoon style physical comedy, a great musical number every 5 minutes or so.
― Οὖτις, Monday, 8 October 2018 16:34 (five years ago) link
No thank you, ma'am. We may be suckin' back a few beers later on. We'll be here all night. You see, we're the band!
― omar little, Monday, 8 October 2018 16:46 (five years ago) link
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0008/3453/5487/products/8488566437676557808_GRATEFUL_DEAD_NEW_YEARS_2048x.jpg?v=1537901528
― earlnash, Monday, 8 October 2018 17:49 (five years ago) link
I haven't seen this since I watched it many times as a kid, and my only memories are the country bar scene, Aretha singing "Think," and the car chase/crash, which was my favorite part of the whole thing.
― Fedora Dostoyevsky (man alive), Monday, 8 October 2018 22:57 (five years ago) link