Blues Brothers 2000/The Blues Brothers Part 4

(Wikipedia)

Elwood Blues: The Lord works in mysterious ways.


Part 1 Of A Series Of 4
The Blues Brothers:

• Origins and New Years Eve With The Grateful Dead
• The Blues Brothers Movie
• The House Of Blues
• Blues Brothers 2000

The Movie

The 1990's ended with a slew of revival films bringing back and rebooting classic TV shows. John Landis hopped on the bandwagon. He wrote a script for an updated Blues Brothers movie.

Dan Aykroyd was still available to act in the character of Elwood Blues. There was no way to bring back Jake Blues, John Belushi was a hard act to follow!

Landis wrote three characters to replace one Blues Brother: a ten year old kid, a bartender and the first black Blues Brother.

From Wikipedia we have a plot summary:

The story picks up 18 years later with Elwood being released from prison, and learning that his brother, Jake Blues, has died. He is once again prevailed upon to save some orphans, and with a 10-year-old boy named Buster Blues (J. Evan Bonifant) in tow, Elwood again sets about the task of reuniting his band. He recruits some new singers, Mighty Mack (John Goodman) and Cab (Joe Morton), a policeman who was Curtis' son. All the original band members are found, as well as some performers from the first film, including Aretha Franklin and James Brown. There are dozens of other guest performers, including Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Junior Wells, Lonnie Brooks, Macaulay Culkin, Eddie Floyd, Wilson Pickett, Isaac Hayes, Sam Moore, Taj Mahal and Jonny Lang, Blues Traveler, as well as an all-star supergroup led by B. B. King called the Louisiana Gator Boys. On the run from the police, Russian mafia and a racist militia, the band eventually ends up in Louisiana, where they enter a battle of the bands overseen by a voodoo practitioner named Queen Moussette (Erykah Badu). During a song by the Blues Brothers (a Caribbean number called "Funky Nassau"), a character played by Paul Shaffer asks to cut in on keyboards, which Murph allows. This marks the first time in a film that the Blues Brothers play with their original keyboardist.

Like the original Blues Brothers film, this is a hard film to categorize. Not because of the genre busting combination of being a musical, an action film, and a comedy, rather because it was billed as a sequel but it was more of a remake.

The whole movie was filled with excess. It took what worked from the original film and tried to raise the stakes.In stead of two Blues Brothers, there were now four. Instead of a chase across Illinois It was a chase all the way to New Orleans. Instead of Illinois Nazis, We get Russian Mafia oh and the KKK too, because why not?

If a joke was funny once in the original movie, it was basically remade in this movie. Only usually on a larger scale. Because the jokes weren't fresh, they weren't funny. And some things like, Aykroyd's famous skidding parking job were repeated as a running joke. The problem was, it just wasn't funny.

They introduced a cute kid into the mix, apparently to make the film appeal to a family market (?), yet the subplot of the Russian Mafia involved the long scenes inside a strip club. Kind of strange. Overall the movie is a bit of a wreck.

The Music

Still, the film is watchable, and that is mostly due to the excess that continued into the number of musical greats that were recruited to appear in the movie. This list from Wikipedia shows the amazing number of legendary blues performers showcased in the film:

The Blues Brothers Band

• Dan Aykroyd as Elwood J. Blues – harmonica and vocals
• John Goodman as "Mighty" Mack McTeer – lead vocals
• Joe Morton as Cabel "Cab" Chamberlain – vocals
• J. Evan Bonifant as Buster Blues – vocals and harmonica (harmonica recorded by John Popper)
• Steve Cropper as Steve "the Colonel" Cropper – rhythm guitar and vocals
• Donald "Duck" Dunn as Donald "Duck" Dunn – bass guitar
• Murphy Dunne as Murphy "Murph" Dunne – keyboards
• Willie Hall as Willie "Too Big" Hall – drums and percussion
• Tom Malone as Tom "Bones" Malone – trombone, tenor saxophone and vocals
• Lou Marini as "Blue Lou" Marini – alto saxophone and tenor saxophone and vocals
• Matt Murphy as Matt "Guitar" Murphy – lead guitar
• Alan Rubin as Alan "Mr. Fabulous" Rubin – trumpet, percussion and vocals

Musical guests

• Junior Wells as Himself
• Lonnie Brooks as Himself
• Blues Traveler as Themselves
• Jonny Lang as Janitor
• Eddie Floyd as Ed
• Wilson Pickett as Mr. Pickett
• Aretha Franklin as Mrs. Murphy
• Esther Ridgeway as Mrs. Murphy's Friend
• Gloria Ridgeway as Mrs. Murphy's Friend
• Gracie Ridgeway as Mrs. Murphy's Friend
• Sam Moore as Reverend Morris
• James Brown as Reverend Cleophus James
• Erykah Badu as Queen Mousette

The Louisiana Gator Boys

The Louisiana Gator Boys is a blues supergroup created for Blues Brothers 2000. They face The Blues Brothers in a battle of the bands. The band comprises:

• B. B. King as Malvern Gasperone – Vocals and guitar
• Jeff "Skunk" Baxter – guitar
• Gary U.S. Bonds – vocals
• Eric Clapton – vocals and guitar
• Clarence Clemons – vocals, tenor saxophone and tambourine
• Jack DeJohnette – drums
• Bo Diddley – vocals and guitar
• Jon Faddis – trumpet
• Isaac Hayes – vocals
• Dr. John – vocals and piano
• Tommy "Pipes" McDonnell – vocals
• Charlie Musselwhite – vocals and harmonica
• Billy Preston – vocals and synthesizer
• Lou Rawls – vocals
• Joshua Redman – tenor saxophone
• Koko Taylor – vocals
• Travis Tritt – vocals and guitar
• Jimmie Vaughan – vocals and guitar
• Grover Washington, Jr. – baritone saxophone
• Willie Weeks – bass guitar
• Steve Winwood – vocals and organ
• Paul Shaffer as Marco/Himself – keyboards

The music in movie saves some heavy handed production decisions and frankly lazy script writing. IMDB gives it 4.8 stars and generally it was panned by critics and fans, the Rotten Tomatoes audience score only being 38% thumbs up at the time of this Old Highway Note,

The Video Game

(Wikipedia)

A Nintendo 64 game was released in conjunction with the movie. It wasn't very popular either as the title of this YouTube Video attests, "Worst Game Ever".

Playlist Additions

Amazon Store

It's a crying shame, but the truth is I have not gotten around to adding the Blues Brothers 2000 Soundtrack to my music collection, so officially it can't be added to the playlist. Regardless of that technicality a look at the movie requires a listen to it's music. So here is as complete a playlist as possible using YouTube videos.

I do have a legitimate addition to the playlist to make though. When the movie was released a live album was also released and that DID make its way into my collection. It is a strong set of the Blues Brothers from that era.

Album: Blues Brothers & Friends: Live From Chicago' House Of Blues Blues Brothers & Friends

• Intro 3:18
• Green Onions 2:49
• Chicken Shack 0:52
• Sweet Home Chicago 2:42
• I Wish You Would 4:23
• Messin' With The Kid 4:17
• All My Money Back 3:22
• Born In Chicago 2:09
• Blues, Why You Worry Me? 4:47
• Groove With Me Tonight 4:14
• 634-5789 5:38
• All She Wants To Do Is Rock 2:34
• Flip, Flop And Fly 3:15
• Money (That's What I Want) 3:29
• Viva Las Vegas 3:58

Signing Off And Coming Attractions

Have you have seen Blues Brothers 2000? I would love to hear your opinion of the film. Just leave a comment at the bottom of the post where you are given that option. Also I would love it if you subscribed and told your friends about Old Highway Notes. Your positive feedback is what keeps me going. I am not making any money of this project, you know.

Next On Highway 101: San Diego, California: Leaving Sea World, we continue North through San Diego to Torrey Pines State Beach.

Next On Interstate 95: Vero Beach, Florida: Returning to the Interstate, we continue North heading towards our next Spring Training baseball stadium.
Next On Route 66: Chicago, Illinois: We continue to dig into music related to Chicago.

Mileage Stats

Route 66: 0 Miles/1 State/1071 Tracks/268 Videos/41 Posts

Highway 101: 26 Miles/2 Countries/1 State/641 Tracks/407 Videos/31 Posts

Interstate 95: 143 Miles/1 State/96 Tracks/156 Videos/16 Posts

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The House Of Blues/The Blues Brothers Part 3

House of Blues Chicago (Flickr user Michael/CC)

Jake and Elwood Blues: We're on a mission from God.


Part 1 Of A Series Of 4
The Blues Brothers:

• Origins and New Years Eve With The Grateful Dead
• The Blues Brothers Movie
• The House Of Blues
• Blues Brothers 2000

Jake and Elwood Blues had a good run, with a hit album, a hit movie and a growing iconic status. Then John Belushi died and Jake Blues died with him.  Life goes on. Dan Aykroyd continued his acting career. The Blues Brothers Band would still be called to perform some shows, minus the Blues Brothers themselves, releasing live albums in 1989 and 1992.

Meanwhile, Isaac Tigrett  was a restaurateur who had co-founded the Hard Rock Cafe in 1971. By 1988 he had sold off his interest in the Hard Rock Cafe. He was unhappy with the commercialism that had come to the chains brand and had planned to retire and lead a more spiritual life. His spiritual adviser, however counseled him to stay in business. A viewing of the 1980 Blue Brothers film inspired Tigrett  to go on a "Mission From God". From Reference for Business.Com:

He conceived the House of Blues concept as a way to preserve blues music, as an art form with more than 100 years of continuous development, by providing a forum for live performance of traditional and contemporary blues. He also viewed education about the history and social influence of the blues as a way to cultivate multiculturalism, hence the company's slogan, 'Unity in Diversity.'

Tigrett recruited as investor Dan Aykroyd along with Jim Belushi (brother of John Belushi), Aerosmith, Paul Schaefer, River Phoenix and, surprisingly, Harvard University Endowment Fund combined forces to create The House of Blues. Naturally Aykroyd was an active partner.

The House Of Blues Boston (Wikimedia Commons)

In 1992 across the street from Fenway Park they opened House of Blues. It seated 200 for dining or 280 as a concert hall. Again from Reference for Business.Com

The interior design of the restaurant-blues club presented a contemporary variation of the old southern juke joint like the ones Tigrett had enjoyed as a native of Tennessee. Artistic touches included African-American folk art and the plaster relief portraits of 80 renowned blues artists, such as Muddy Waters and B.B. King, embedded in the ceiling panels. A retail store--Take It Easy, Baby--offered recorded blues on audio and video, blues magazines, musical instruments, and a full line of clothing.

The Blues Brothers performed at its grand opening with Jim Belushi taking on the role of Zee Blues, Jake's brother. This clip features Elwood and Zee Blues with special guest Carly Simon getting a little funky.

The concept proved successful and grew to a chain of 13 locations. The blues Brothers Band, often featuring Elwood Blues and one of the other many stand in brothers he has used throughout the years. More on those other brothers later. Before that, here is a promo video from the House of Blues twentieth anniversary year, 2012

The House Of Blues Myrtle Beach (Wikimedi Commons)

The difference between the blues and gospel is the difference between Saturday night and Sunday morning. The House of Blues acknowledges that and is well known for its Sunday Morning Gospel Brunch that features live Gospel artists performing while brunch is served.

In 1993, The House of Blues created the House Of Blues Music Forward Foundation. Through benefit concerts at the various venues the foundation has raised over 20 million dollars since its founding funding music programs in nearly 5000 schools, funded over 600 youth music recitals and generated donations of over 6000 instruments used to further the growth of youth music education.

Hollywood's House OF Blues on the Sunset Strip (Wikimedia Commons)

Playlist Additions

Amazon Store

The House Of Blues record label has released over 100 albums. A few of them made their way into my collection and our playlist.

Album: House of Blues Winter Sampler  Various Artists

• Cut You Loose Angela Strehli 3:52
• I Can't Get You Out Of My Mind Bernard Allison 4:04
• Any Place I'm Going (Beats Any Place I've Been) Otis Rush 4:38
• Preachin' Blues The Derek Trucks Band 5:00
• Sunny Monday Larry McCray 6:07
• Got A Broken Heart Walter Trout 6:10
• It Takes A Lot To Laugh , It Takes A Train To Cry Phoebe Snow ( featuring Michael McDonald ) 4:01
• A Stand By Your Woman Man Angela Strehli 3:35
• Part Time Love Otis Rush 5:52
• Look-Ka PyPy The Derek Trucks Band 4:11
• If You Want Me To Stay Bernard Allison 4:51
• She's Fine Luther Allison 5:44

Album: Essential Blues Piano  Various Artists

Disc 1

• Chicago Breakdown Big Maceo 2:57
• Chicken Shack Boogie Amos Milburn 2:50
• Slow Leake Lafayette Leake 3:02
• Didn't He Ramble, Closer Walk With Thee Dr. John 6:34
• Otis Blues  Otis Span 4:21
• 44 Blues Roosevelt Sykes 2:43
• San Francisco Blues Floyd Dixon 3:02
• Twos And Fews Albert Ammons & Meade "Lux" Lewis 4:34
• Willie Fugal's Blues   Professor Longhair 2:07
• Going Down Slow Pinetop Perkins 5:52
• Pop's Dilemma James Booker 3:30
• Sporting Life Blues Champion Jack Dupree 3:54
• The Ma Grinder Robert Shaw 4:13
• Four O'Clock Blues Speckled Red 4:44
• All Night Long Skip James 2:55

Disc 2

• Frances Johnnie Johnson 4:12
• The Rattler Omar Sharif 3:06
• Got Lonesome Here Eddie Boyd 3:21
• Atlanta Bounce Piano Red 2:56
• Introduction To The Blues/That's All Right For You Booker T. Laury 7:03
• The Fat Man Fats Domino 2:39
• Late Afternoon Blues Memphis Slim 4:38
• Your Family Detroit Junior 3:33
• Arkansas Blues Tuts Washington 3:13
• Bartender's Bounce Blind John Davis 2:13
• Going Back To Froggy Bottom Whistling Alex Moore 3:07
• Johnson Machine Gun Blues Sunnyland Slim 3:03
• C.Q. Boogie Katie Webster 2:40
• Chica Boo Lloyd Glenn 2:22
• Swingin' The Boogie Hadda Brooks 2:51
• Vicksburg Blues Little Brother Montgomery 3:15

Signing Off & Coming Attractions

I thought this week would wrap up the story of the Blues Brothers, but there is still more to come, We will be looking at that our next installment. Until then, have you been to a show at one of the Houses of Blues? Which one? Who did you see? Have you been to more than one location? I'd love to hear you represent in the comments.

• Next Week: We drive North on the Old Highway 101 from Old Town through modern San Diego, California.
• Two Weeks: Our visit to Vero Beach, Florida continues before we return to Interstate 95 Northbound.
• Three Weeks: Yep, still in Chicago, Illinois and the start of Route 66 with more Blues Brothers. 

Mileage Stats

Route 66: 0 Miles/1 State/1055 Tracks/268 Videos/41 Posts

Highway 101: 22 Miles/2 Countries/1 State/625 Tracks/363 Videos/30 Posts

Interstate 95: 143 Miles/1 State/89 Tracks/144 Videos/15 Posts

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The Blues Brothers Movie/The Blues Brothers Part 2

(Wikipedia)

Mrs. Tarantino: Are you the police?
Elwood: No, ma'am. We're musicians.


Part 1 Of A Series Of 4
The Blues Brothers:

• Origins and New Years Eve With The Grateful Dead
• The Blues Brothers Movie
• The House Of Blues
• Blues Brothers 2000

The story of Blues Brothers early days entertained us on our last stop on Route 66 in Chicago, Illinois. Today we move forward in the story of the group and look at the famous 1980 film and take a look at that car chase I mentioned in our last post.

In early 1979, a second John Landis film with John Belushi, 1941, was closing production. Belushi was ready for a new project, as he was also in his last season with Saturday Night Live. Big stars can get pet projects made and Belushi was given a green light to begin producing a movie based on the characters.

John Belushi wanted to work with John Landis again. Aykroyd had written a screenplay and gave it to Landis. Akroyd had never written a screenplay before and it was excessive by Hollywood's standards. It was over 300 pages long, when most scripts are closer to 120 pages. It was typical of the excess involved with the production.

John Landis said that the script was too long. He began chopping away, bringing it down to a reasonable length. Several scenes of back story were removed. Finally Landis had a script of manageable size to work with.Wikipedia summarizes the plot:

The story is a tale of redemption for paroled convict Jake and his brother Elwood, who take on "a mission from God" to save from foreclosure the Catholic orphanage in which they grew up. To do so, they must reunite their R&B band and organize a performance to earn $5,000 needed to pay the orphanage's property tax bill. Along the way, they are targeted by a destructive "mystery woman", Neo-Nazis, and a country and western band—all while being relentlessly pursued by the police.

The concept of the film was unusual and many involved weren't sure if they were making a musical, a comedy, or a car chase movie. It was all of those things. In the course of rounding up the band members, audiences are treated to several Blues Brothers songs as well as cameo performances by James Brown, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and John Lee Hooker.

As much as this movie was about music at seemed to be about the car chase. As parody artists, Landis, Akroyd and Belushi carried the parody of the chase to scene over the top. Again, excess.

The chase begins when Elwood is pulled over after running a yellow light, the police finds he has a suspended license and he tries to drive away and lose them, the follow and chaos ensues. For most of the movie the Brothers were being chased. The car chase scenes were remarkably impressive in scale with a lot of vehicles involved in imaginative crashes.

The Bluesmobile was the non-human co-star of the movie. It was a 1973 Dodge Monaco, Actually it was 13 of them, purchased from the LAPD at auction. They were repainted to look like the same beat up Mount Prospect police car and they were each individually customized for performance. Some were modified for speed and others for cornering or jumping. One was even rigged to fall apart on command.








A closed mall was rented and raced through with much destruction in at the beginning of their ever expanding epic chase.

Chasing Through The Mall (Wikipedia)

Illinois Nazis begin chasing the Blues Brothers later in the movie. In a memorable scene the Nazi leader's Pinto station wagon went of the edge of a very high overpass that was under construction. To shoot the scene a Pinto station wagon was filmed as fell after being dropped from a helicopter from over 100 feet in the air. This  required special clearance from the FAA.



Chicago and places in the greater area were mentioned and prominently featured in the movie. Akroyd commented in an interview that the city was one of the main characters of the film. It was the largest production in the cities history with 3.5 million being spent for the city to cordon of large chunks of downtown on Sundays during the summer of 1979. The result were car chase scenes filmed.in the downtown Chicago with two 100+mph runs under the El train and an impressive number of destroyed police cars.



Production began to run over budget and behind schedule almost from the beginning. The budget was 17.5 million dollars, but when it was done 27.5 million had been spent. Obviously the cost of all of those cars and permits for road closures and FAA clearance were going to add up. Not to mention the amount of crew involved. The star blues musicians that made cameos also had expenses and record label clearances that required entertainment lawyers and contracts.

The biggest expense, not so much directly, but indirectly came from 1970's Hollywood culture and its obsession with cocaine. During the filming of The Blues Brothers it was everywhere, They had set up a bar for the cast to use during filming and reportedly the bartenders could get anything needed in the way of intoxicants and cocaine was the drug of choice. The white powder was even included in concealed lines in the films budget.

A Costly Kick (Flickr User Valerie Everett/CC)

Belushi in particular was quite strung out through the filming, His binges would often cause delays , further driving up the expenses on the production. He was becoming so unreliable that Landis would beg visitors to the set not to share any drugs with Belushi. The trouble was Belushi was in many ways one of the biggest stars in the late 1970's drug culture and everyone wanted to be able to brag that they had "turned on" Belushi. Near the end of the filming an intervention by Aykroyd and Belushi's wife was held and Belushi cleaned up enough to finish production.

Troubles kept coming though, Just before they were to film their big concert scene at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, John fell off a skateboard seriously injuring his knee. That was a big problem since his character danced intensely and even did cartwheels as part of his act. One of Los Angeles top orthopedic surgeons was called in and his leg was numbed up enough to film the scene as intended,

Filming was finally over. but still the film had challenges. it was long. It clocked in at 2 and a half hours with an intermission. After viewing an initial screening, the Universal executive Lew Wasserman who had approved the project demanded the film be shortened. With Wasserman already furious at the production delays and extensive budget over runs, there was no argument.

Racism reared it's ugly head when Ted Mann, owner of Mann Theaters, the largest theater chain in the Western United States decided that he would only show the film in theaters in black dominated areas, Mann had concerns that Belushi might be dropping in popularity as Belushi's last film 1941 was not tremendously successful. His also had the racist reasoning that whites would not be drawn to a film featuring aging black musicians and he was concerned that blacks would drive in to white neighborhoods to see the film if it was shown there.

History shows that Mann was acting like a moron. The Blues Brothers was released in 594 theaters on June 20, 1980. It took second in box office gross that week, being beat only by the Star Wars sequel, The Empire Strikes Back. At the end of the year it was the 10th most successful film of 1980. Grossing over 150 millions dollars in domestic and international releases it is the 9th highest grossing musical and the 10th highest grossing comedy of all time.  Mann was quite wrong about the films demand.

Other facts about the film include that it was the first American film do better overseas than in the United States. Maybe that had something to do with Mann's obstructive distribution? There have been a lot films based on Saturday Night Live sketches over the years. The Blues Brothers is the second most successful one, only Wayne's World did better,

A record at the time, 103 cars were destroyed making thew movie.  The current record is 300 cars used up in The Matrix Reloaded. Ray Ban glasses experienced a huge surge in sales that they attribute to the the success of the film.

To this day the film is still popular. Frequently shown on syndicated TV, it is also a popular midnight movie cult film. In one theater in Australia fans act out scenes from the film at its showings a la Rocky Horror Picture Show. At Halloween, Blues Brothers costumes are a perennial favorite.

The Blues Brothers Are Frequent Halloween Party Guests  (Flickr User Isaac Wedin/CC)

The chase scenes in the movie have become a cliche for excess in movie destruction. YouTube reveals fan recreations in Lego and and video gaming formats.







After the success of film and it's soundtrack, the group hit the road in a promotional tour. This led to another Universal Amphitheater concert that would be released under the title Made In America. The track Who's Making Love from that album would peak at number 39 in the charts.

Belushi took some down time while his wife collaborated with family friend Tino Insana to write the book Blues Brothers Private, which expanded upon the story of the the Blues brothers as depicted in the movie.

A greatest hits record was released in 1981 with hits from their first three albums. It should have been a time to regroup and begin a second (or third) stage to the bands career. It was a time when some great changes were about to occur.

Sadly, those changes were not to come from creative achievement. On .March 5, 1982 John Belushi finally partied too hard. He was found dead from an overdosing on speedballs, a lethal combination of heroin and cocaine.

Jake Blues was no more. The story of the Blues Brothers did not end there, however. It continued on and that will be the subject of the next post in this series.

Playlist Additions

Amazon Store

The obvious addition here is the Soundtrack to the film. It was the first album the duo recorded in the studio and for some reason it did not do as well their live albums, The cameos are included and that alone makes it worth the price of admission.  As I considered video playlist additions I realized that many songs in the film were not included in the soundtrack album. Also, the soundtrack album does not match the order in which the songs appeared in the movie. In the video playlist I used the musical numbers from the film in order.

Album: The Blues Brothers Soundtrack Various Artists

• She Caught The Katy The Blues Brothers 4:10
• Peter Gunn Theme The Blues Brothers 3:4
• Gimme Some Lovin' The Blues Brothers 3:08
• Shake A Tail Feather Ray Charles 2:51
• Everybody Needs Somebody To Love The Blues Brothers 3:22
• The Old Landmark James Brown 2:59
• Think Aretha Franklin 3:17
• Theme From Rawhide The Blues Brothers 2:39
• Minnie The Moocher Cab Calloway 3:24
• Sweet Home Chicago The Blues Brothers 7:51
• Jailhouse Rock The Blues Brothers 3:20

Signing Off and Coming Attractions

We have not finished the story of the Blues Brothers and Chicago continues to be a bottomless vein of musical lore. Luckily we have been putting some miles in on the other routes. Speaking of putting on some miles, do you have a favorite line or chase scene from the movie? I know that "We're on a mission from God" has been heard many times in my life,

Next Week: Its back to Highway 101 in California, where we approach the end of our visit to Old Town San Diego
Two Weeks: A drive North on Interstate 95 in Florida brings us to Vero Beach and a major stop on the Spring Training trail.
Three Weeks: Our Route 66 trip remains stalled in Chicago, Illinois where we will see what happened to the Blues Brothers after the death of John Belushi.

Mileage Stats

Route 66: 0 Miles/1 State/1012 Tracks/303 Videos/41 Posts

Highway 101: 22 Miles/2 Countries/1 State/614 Tracks/319 Videos/29 Posts

Interstate 95: 123 Miles/1 State/87 Tracks/139 Videos/14 Posts

Don't Miss Out On an Old Highway Note. Subscribe Now! It is free and new Notes will be emailed to you when they are posted. Enter your email address:


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Origins and New Years Eve With The Grateful Dead/The Blues Brothers Part 1

(Flickr User amika san/CC)

Elwood: It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses.
Jake: Hit it.


Part 1 Of A Series Of 4
The Blues Brothers:

• Origins and New Years Eve With The Grateful Dead
• The Blues Brothers Movie
• The House Of Blues
• Blues Brothers 2000

The history of movies has quite a few contenders for "best car chase". Since we are in Chicago, Illinois at the start of Route 66,, I'm reminded of  my favorite car chase. That would be the over the top destructive chase through the streets of Chicago and its neighboring communities in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers. We'll talk about that film later, but the story of the Blues Brothers began long before the movie was filmed.

In 1971 a 22 year old John Belushi had made the leap from his college improv group to join Chicago's famed Second City comedy troupe. This rare footage from 1972 shows a very young John Belushi in action. The tape begins very roughly but by about the three minute mark the sound improves.

Belushi was a success with the Second City. In 1973 he began to work with National Lampoon Searching for talent for the new National Lampoon Radio Hour and a Lampoon road show, he visited Toronto, who also had a Second City sketch comedy club.

One of the Canadian comics he had come to see was 20 year old Dan Aykroyd who had been making a name for his impersonations. Aykroyd had also heard about Belushi's success in Chicago and following a performance at the Toronto club they were introduced to one another backstage.

A deep friendship began to take hold quickly. Going out for drinks, Aykroyd invited Belushi to the unlicensed speakeasy he had been managing after hours called the 505 Club. As they talked, blues music was playing in the background. John was intrigued but did not know very much about blues music, having been more of a fan of heavy metal rock like Cream and Deep Purple.

Dan Aykroyd was a blues fan, as well as an outlaw spirit in general. He had a encyclopedic knowledge of the blues and running an illegal speakeasy certainly gave him outlaw cred.He took Belushi's interest and began sharing with him his favorites blues music. At one point, they were listening to an album by John Lee Hooker. He was decked out in sunglasses and a hat. Belushi joked that if they ever started a blues band that would have to be their look.

John Belushi in 1973 (Source: Wikipedia)

When Saturday Night Live was being cast Belushi encouraged Aykroyd to audition. The pair would be key parts of the original Not Ready For Prime Time Players. The show debuted in late 1977 and was an immediate smash and required viewing for 1970's hipsters. It was original only to intended to be a six episode series featuring young comics. Due to its popularity, its run was extended and is still going strong today, 47 years later.

At the same time that Saturday Night Live was being created, Belushi was dipping his toes into the world of feature films.First he had a part in a Jack Nicholson film Goin' South. He used that role to gain experience for another film he would make in early 1978. It was National Lampoon's first feature film so naturally Belushi, a key early Lampoon member, was included in the cast.

The movie, which turned out to be a massive hit comedy. was Animal House. Directed by John Landis, the film was a spirited tale of college fraternity life in the 1960's, Belushi playing the degenerate slob fraternity member Bluto Blutarski. While the movie being was filmed with Eugene and the University of Oregon playing the role of the films Ivy League Faber College, Portland blues star Curtis Salgado worked on the production and met Belushi. When Belushi expressed an interest in blues music, Salgado took it as an opportunity to teach the comedian how to sing blues music, teaching him a ton of classic blues music.

Belushi and Aykroyd assembled a look derived from that John Lee Hooker album cover. They appeared as the Blues Brothers in front of Willie Nelsons Band and Roomful Of Blues at the Lone Star Cafe in Texas, The duo had a dress code that would become a trademark. Wearing black hats and Wayfarer sunglasses in tribute to John Lee Hooker. They wore Men In Black suits because, Aykroyd reasoned, blues players were still considered outlaw in the 1940's and 1950's and a suit would help to blend in with straight society,

A back story was created that these were not actual brothers but were both orphans who were raised in an orphanage. Taught to love the the blues by the orphanage janitor, at one point they cut their fingers with guitar strings. Rubbing the cuts together they became blood brothers and living the lives of drifting blues men from Chicago, the Blues Brothers.

In addition to their matching CIA man suits the Blues Brothers had worked up a classic stage revue. With stage voice over introductions reminiscent of James Brown, they would erupt in quick burst of high stepping or choreographed dance moves including Belushi's well known cartwheel. Musically they had an upbeat jump blues sound. Belushi generally sand lead which Aykroyd complimented with his bass background singing or his wailing on the harmonica.

They were as much a visual show as a musical one. Belushi as Jake Blues would be the emotional side of the duo sweating and dancing and contorting his face as he belted out his vocals. Aykroyd as Elwood Blues was a perfect counterpoint, When not in a choreographed dance step he would be a deadpan emotionless performer that could wring a lot of sound out of a harmonica. They were fun to watch, but they really could play the blues.

Near the end of the first season of Saturday Night Live, in 1978,  Belushi suggested to the shows producer, Lorne Michaels, that the Blues Brothers should perform a number on the show, Michaels was skeptical, but Belushi stardom, as well as his key role in recruiting much of the shows cast, gave him some privileges. Michaels allowed the to play song as the credits scrolled by. But he wanted them to dress as bees and perform the song King Bee as Howard Shore and his All-Bee Band, which they did with the Saturday Night Live band,



Belushi and Aykroyd realized that if they wanted the show to take their music seriously, that they would have to create a band, and come on the show as a musical guest. At the suggestion of Paul Schaffer they pulled together an all star band of blues session men, SNL band members, saxophonist "Blue" Lou Marini and trombonist-saxophonist Tom Malone, who had previously played in Blood, Sweat & Tears. Guitarist Steve Cropper and bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn, the powerhouse combo from Booker T and the M.G.'s were also recruited. On trumpet they brought in Alan Rubin as well as guitarist Matt Murphy. It was a stacked combo.

Briefcase Full Of Blues-The Blues Brothers (source Wikipedia)

The group began touring around the country mostly playing colleges with a fair amount of success. A recording of their set, opening for Steve Martin at the Universal Amphitheater, was released as Briefcase Full of Blues. It was the same time that Animal House was filling up theaters, Belushi was red hot and Aykroyd was along for the ride. The album shot to the top the Billboard Hot 200 with the songs Soul Man and Rubber Biscuit rising onto the top 40 singles charts. The duo finally got to make that appearance on Saturday Night Live as a band late in 1998.



Riding the wave of success, the Blues Brothers were notably asked to open for the Grateful Dead at an emotional performance in the Dead's career. The Winterland Ballroom had been a home turf concert hall for the Grateful Dead for many years and it was closing. On the last show, New Years Eve 1978, Jake and Elwood Blues would get the crowd moving before the Grateful Dead took the stage for a farewell concert still prized by Deadheads.



With 1979, our story is about to catch up with that car chase I mentioned as we began. But that will be in our next episode in three weeks,

Playlist Additions

Amazon Store

This week I have to begin by saying Briefcase Full Of Blues is sorely lacking from my collection. Getting a copy is on my to do list as budget allows (tip: to help the cause visit my amazon store). Look for it in my year end wrap up for 2015.Until then, I was happy to find that Blues Brothers Central.com has a bootleg of the New Years Eve show available for mp3 download, You can get it HERE

Album: Live On New Year's Eve The Blues Brothers

• Intro 1:34  
• Hey Bartender 3:18  
• Messin' With the Kid 3:33  
• Almost (I Got Everything I Need) 2:47  
• Band Introduction 1:07  
• Rubber Biscuit 3:18  
• Shotgun Blues 5:44  
• Groove Me 3:51  
• I Don't Know 5:07  
• Band Introduction 2 0:53  
• Soul Man 3:04  
• Band Introduction 3 0:48  
• B Movie Boxcar Blues 4:44  
• Flip, Flop, Fly 4:01  
• Jailhouse Rock 5:01  
• Outro 1:21  

Signing Off & Coming Attractions

The Blues Brothers could sing, and their stage show was pretty entertaining. But then again Belushi and Aykroyd were both pretty funny guys. Do you have a favorite character from either of them? I'd love to hear about in the comments.

Next Week: San Diego's Old Town has many buildings from the civic institutions in the early days of San Diego, California.We will explore as we continue our stop on old Highway 101.

Two Weeks: Moving North through Florida on Interstate 95, we will visit some more Spring Training baseball sites.

Three Weeks: The next chapter in the story of The Blues Brothers will be their film. That will be our highlight of Chicago, Illinois, the start of Route 66.

Mileage Stats

Route 66: 0 Miles/1 State/1001 Tracks/270 Videos/40 Posts

Highway 101: 22 Miles/2 Countries/1 State/594 Tracks/301 Videos/28 Posts

Interstate 95: 123 Miles/1 State/87 Tracks/139 Videos/14 Posts

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