Defend the Indefensible: The Blues Brothers

I liked it better than Jaws too.

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

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.

never cared for it much beyond that tho.
m.

And Aretha and Calloway come across great even if Landis couldn't direct the numbers for shit.

"Orange Julius? Orange Julius? Three Orange Juliuses."

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.

it's funny cuz they're white

http://www.myfonts.com/images/family/gonzalez/orange-whip.gif

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Whip

corrected.

kinda cool it's actually a casual product placement

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.

You get me my cheez wiz, boy?

for umpteenth time, edd s hurt otm

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. 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.

I watch the movie more for the Brothers than the Blues.

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.

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.

I wonder why they never made the "Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger" skit into a movie?

"No Coke. Pepsi!"

Product placement problems, you think?

I need some clarifcation from an older person:

What was the appeal of this project?The movie obviously is a cult object and a funny comedy, so I don't need that explained to me. I'm talking about Blues Brothers ca. 1978-1979, which became such a marketable thing that it WARRANTED a movie.

The SNL "sketches" weren't really funny ever, but still got a RECORD ALBUM that was POSITIVELY reviewed in Rolling Stone and so-so review by Xgau and other places. Why did people like this shit? Was it like how people who don't like metal buy the Deathklok album?

But I assume the Deathklok album has jokes on it? I didn't listen to that because I like actual metal bands and funny TV shows

good question. the whole weird... '80s... white guy blues... "thing" is just... so bizarre to me

it was all the mega popularity of SNL, the music was just incidental. the blues bros albums are comedy records, and like you say not very funny ones. this is probably where the original show and certainly belushi "jumped the shark" and got self-indulgent. people ate this shit up,though, at least for awhile. i worked in a record store in 1978-79 and there was a mini comedy boom then, steve martin sold lots of records too which was also mystifying. he's been good in movies since but his comedy was meh. the blues bros were like the cheech and chong of the late 70s, only they were coked to the gills. the blues bros movie actually being OK was a surprise.

comedy albums -- you listen once or twice and file em away forever. i remember ragging on people who bought the blues bros album. went all "high fidelity" on these fraternity and sorority types. telling em to buy aretha and howlin wolf instead.

i was only 12 or 13 when the blues brothers came around, and i had no idea then what Stax records was or implied (i.e. some of the best r'n'b ever recorded, mostly in the sixties. uniting blacks and whites, somewhat, theoretically). i think they(Belushi and Aykroyd) deserve kudos for having good musical taste, and for bringing Booker T/mg's back into public conciousness. the movie is silly, not to be harsh, but it's not very funny.

it was all the mega popularity of SNL, the music was just incidental.

I was 13 back then and this is very OTM.

3 comedy records i ever owned

blues bros. - got it when it came out, i was 12. really liked it but was confused at first because there was no "comedy" as such, except maybe for "rubber biscuit"

a steve martin album, can't remember the name but one side is him playing bluegrass tunes on banjo

bob & doug mackenzie - the one with the geddy lee song

buying all those records was tied to be really into snl/sctv.
m coleman otm

it was all the mega popularity of SNL, the music was just incidental. the blues bros albums are comedy records, and like you say not very funny ones. this is probably where the original show and certainly belushi "jumped the shark" and got self-indulgent. people ate this shit up,though, at least for awhile. i worked in a record store in 1978-79 and there was a mini comedy boom then, steve martin sold lots of records too which was also mystifying. he's been good in movies since but his comedy was meh. the blues bros were like the cheech and chong of the late 70s, only they were coked to the gills. the blues bros movie actually being OK was a surprise.

― chief rocker frankie crocker (m coleman), Saturday, November 14, 2009 5:27 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you're insane re: steve martin

John Landis on the movie and Aretha:

https://deadline.com/2018/08/john-landis-aretha-franklin-the-blues-brothers-reminisces-john-belushi-dan-aykroyd-1202447056/

This bit is really revealing:

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.

That interview was a good read. Thanks!

still love this film a lot. interesting to see Landis mention how '60s and '70s cinema opened up opportunities for directors, not bc it's an original quote but bc he's discussing it in relation to The Blues Brothers! But I think he's right; this is 130+ minutes, it's a showcase for a side of Chicago that was really not seen in films, and musicians who were not exactly big sellers, and it's really weird in an off-kilter nonsensical way that's not a million miles from something like Repo Man, just really meandering and odd and more about tone and weird performances and specific moments and surreal bits and incredible music. they even both feature cameos from kinda square blonde superstar musicians of the '70s (Jimmy Buffett/Joe Walsh.) And every time I'm staying at the old family house in IL and I go visit my brother, I drive down the stretch of road where the police cars all piled up in the ditch.

I really can't get with cutting away from Cab doing "Minnie the Moocher" to, y'know, Belushi and Aykroyd crawling through a sewer.

I'm pretty sure that was my first exposure to real soul and blues musicians

it's a showcase for a side of Chicago that was really not seen in films

This was largely due to Daley. For whatever reason, he never allowed films to be shot in Chicago. Jane Byrne, though, threw the doors open in order to attract as much film business as possible. This was, if I'm not mistaken, the first major release to be shot in Chicago in years, possibly decades.

This is a pretty good history:

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2013/01/making-of-blues-brothers-budget-for-cocaine

I thought it was Roger Ebert, but I didn't see it in his review (which is online).

lol this is now going to drive me nuts >:(

ha this is playing at the Castro next week and my daughter expressed interest after seeing the Aretha clip, maybe we'll go

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).

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.

the nun is of course Kathleen Freeman, of Jerry Lewis' rep company and Singin' in the Rain ("rrrround tones").

oh WOW I had never made that connection!!

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

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.

and also, Landis cut off the sax player's head. (foreshadowing of Vic Morrow)

*rimshot*

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.

isn't John lee Hooker onscreen for about 45 seconds?

this was enough to make quite an impression on young me

And he's not on the album?

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.

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.

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).

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.

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!

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0008/3453/5487/products/8488566437676557808_GRATEFUL_DEAD_NEW_YEARS_2048x.jpg?v=1537901528

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.