Somebody please explain the Blues Brothers phenomenon to me.  This is one bus that I missed...

  Is it a joke in the same vein as Spinal Tap, or are they serious?  Do you like 'em?  I'm listening to the top forty countdown from 1980 on Sirius and The BBs version of Gimme Some Lovin' was somewhere around #30 (and it wasn't half bad, I admit...)

  I've always thought, being that the stars are also comedians, that the BBs were a parody...

 Somebody please explain the Blues Brothers phenomenon to me.  This is one bus that I missed...

 Is it a joke in the same vein as Spinal Tap, or are they serious?  Do you like 'em?  I'm listening to the top forty countdown from 1980 on Sirius and The BBs version of Gimme Some Lovin' was somewhere around #30 (and it wasn't half bad, I admit...)

  I've always thought, being that the stars are also comedians, that the BBs were a parody...


Think of it as "Spinal Tap, but with respect, rather than just really good parody."

Watch the original movie - as an adult, you'll notice two things:  First, it's a musical with cameos from some big names in blues.  Second, it's pretty awesome when two talented actor/comedians (Aykroyd and Belushi were huge blues fans themselves) get to work with the people whom they admire in real life.

When I was a (non-blues-aware) kid, I enjoyed it as "a funny action movie about two guys smashing up a lot of cop cars".  Over the years, I've come to realize it was really a tribute to some great musicians, pretending to be a funny action movie about two guys smashing up a lot of cop cars.  

The best comedy is subversive.  I started appreciating the blues in college, and yet I had no idea why I enjoyed the blues so much until I rediscovered - pretty much by accident - the film.  When DVDs came out, I bought the DVD thinking it'd be fun to watch Jake and Elwood tear up Chicago for old time's sake... and wound up pausing and replaying the music scenes instead of the chase scenes.

The Blues Brothers aren't a parody of - they're a tribute to - a quintessentially American style of music.  

It started on SNL in 1978 as a music act, and was so popular, Atlantic Records offered them a deal, and the resulting 1978 album 'Briefcase Full of Blues' topped the US chart and the singles 'Rubber Biscuit' and a cover of 'Soul Man' both saw the Top 40

From their self titled movie in 1980, they hit the top 40 again with 'Gimme Some Lovin', and once more that same year with 'Who's Makin' Love' from their live album 'Made in America'

On that first album, Akroyd brought a piece of Canada with a cover of '(I Got Everything I Need) Almost' by the Downchild Blues Band and a version of 'Flip, Flop and Fly', that was based on the 1973 hit version by Downchild.

awesome tributes put into a great show.  love it

When I was a (non-blues-aware) kid, I enjoyed it as "a funny action movie about two guys smashing up a lot of cop cars".  Over the years, I've come to realize it was really a tribute to some great musicians, pretending to be a funny action movie about two guys smashing up a lot of cop cars.  




Same here!

It was actually a great introduction to Ray Charles, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, John Lee Hooker, and many other greats. 

The Blues Brothers as characters were anti-authority.  Not anti-authoritarian, just anti-authority.  Period.  I think we can all identify -- even if vicariously -- with saying f**k the system!

BB as musicians was fine as a novelty act, but I didn't find them remarkable musically speaking.

The big mistake was making the sequel.  John Belushi is Jake Blues.  John Belushi, not John Goodman.  That was worse than Val Kilmer playing Jim Morrison!
8)

John Belushi & Dan Aykroyd LOVED the blues. They did a blues number on SNL and the rest they say, is history.  :D ;D ;D  The audience reacted positive to the skit that they recorded an album, "Briefcase Full of Blues." Even though the Blues Brother's were sort of a novelty act, their album was far from a novelty. IMO, it is quite a good album (yes, I have a copy of it.) About the only novelty song they have on it is Rubber Biscuit which was one of the two single hits from the album (Soul Man was the other). With the success of SNL & "Briefcase Full of Blues," they figured in going the next step-making a movie. Yeah, the movie was cute but I didn't think it was anything great. As Max pointed out, the movie also included wonderful performers like Aretha Franklin & such.

My two favorite scenes in the movie are: 1. Cab Calloway singing Minnie the Moocher. 2. The Blues Brothers singing the theme from Rawhide. (BTW, the Blues Brothers singing Rawhide can be heard on the movie An American Tail: Fievel Goes West. )


I didn't see the second Blues Brothers movie but I think they should have stopped while they were ahead-especially AFTER John Belushi died. People in Hollywood never know when to stop. If they have a successful movie, they think that a sequel will do just as good-and then another, and then another one, etc. etc. That is why you end up with Rocky 150 and Friday the 13th 970. Enough is enough already. Don't they ever learn when wells dry up? 



Cat

Loved them on SNL and loved the (first) movie. One my favorites and I never get tired on watching it.

A couple of my favorite BB scenes had no music at all.  Scenes such as the scenes with Carrie Fisher as Jake's explosives-crazy ex-fiance!

Oh, and I gotta mention the restaurant scene in which they go back to recruit Mr. Fabulous, who was matre'd!
:D

A couple of my favorite BB scenes had no music at all.  Scenes such as the scenes with Carrie Fisher as Jake's explosives-crazy ex-fiance!

Oh, and I gotta mention the restaurant scene in which they go back to recruit Mr. Fabulous, who was matre'd!
:D



Best line: We play BOTH kinds of music, Country AND Western.



Cat

The opening scene for Blues Brothers 2000 was filmed in my hometown.  My friend's brother plays the guard who lets Akroyd out of the prison.  I razzed him about that big time saying he was a big shot movie star because he had a big 10 second cameo lol

  A couple of years ago I watched this flick on the boob tube, no doubt edited for content.  I was unmoved.  One person's tribute is another person's insult, I guess, but you guys (and gals) love this movie because it's a great movie, or do you claim to love it out of a sense of obligation..?

  Tanks for the replies...
 

The Good Ole Boys?  We're the Good Ole Boys!

Jake: My name is Jacob Stein. I'm from the American Federation of Music. I've been sent to see if you gentlemen are carrying your permits.
Tucker McElroy: Our what?
Jake: Your union cards. May I see your cards please?
Tucker McElroy: Well, suppose we ain't got no union cards and go in there and start playin' anyway? Whatcha gonna do about that? You gonna stop us, Stein? Ha. You're gonna look pretty funny tryin' to eat corn on the cob with no f**kin' teeth!
From IMdb.


Country Bob: Oh yeah, your pay -- fifty dollars, plus you guys drank three hundred dollars worth of beer.
Elwood: Well, the waitress served us our first round for free, so we thought it was, you know, on the house.
Country Bob:  No, no, it doesn't work that way.
Elwood: Well, I'll go and take up a little collection from the boys.
Country Bob:Well, I sure would appreciate it.
Elwood:  Okay, I usually sit in the car when my brother writes out the check to cosign.
(You know what happens, of course!)
From memory.
;)

Later, down the road, Tucker McElroy and Country Bob in hot pursuit.

Black Cop:  I don't believe it.  It's that '74 Dodge!

Cop peals out to go catch the Blues Brothers and slam right into Country Bob's truck.  Perhaps my favorite car crash in any movie!

Black Cop: (to Country Bob and Tucker McElory who are spitting out radiator water)  Boys, you're in a lotta trouble!

Apparently, there's another remake in the pipeline...

http://resources1.news.com.au/images/2010/07/06/1225888/345337-queen-in-3d-glasses.jpg

Can't see it working out, myself...but be nice, she needs the money!

Apparently, there's another remake in the pipeline...

http://resources1.news.com.au/images/2010/07/06/1225888/345337-queen-in-3d-glasses.jpg

Can't see it working out, myself...but be nice, she needs the money!




http://www.labnol.org/assets/images/YahooSmileys/smileys7.gif


Karma for making me laugh.



Cat

Apparently, there's another remake in the pipeline...

http://resources1.news.com.au/images/2010/07/06/1225888/345337-queen-in-3d-glasses.jpg

Can't see it working out, myself...but be nice, she needs the money!



Who the hell is that?
???

Best line: We play BOTH kinds of music, Country AND Western.


So many candidates, so little time.  I'm calling yours as third.

For me, the best line in the movie was "I hate (your state here) Nazis."  (Except I haven't used it in real life.)
Second-best line in the movie: I have actually used "xxx miles to (destination)..." in real life, so it was the most useful line in the movie for me.
Third:  Yeah, "We play BOTH kinds of music, Country AND Western" pretty much owns.
Fourth:  (after doing something spectacularly embarassing while you still don't have any idea what went wrong)  Don't you say a f*bleep*kin' word...

"Illinois Nazis.  I hate Illinois Nazis!" 

The "Illinois" was significant in 1980 because of that is where the National Socialist Party of the United States was headquartered, Chicago.  He didn't say "Chicago" Nazis because the most offensive threat was a proposed march through the Jewish suburb of Skokie in 1977.  Their illustrious leader, Frank Collin was convicted of child molestation in 1979 and sent upstate.
By 1980, everybody had enough off of those clowns.
::)

Can't see it working out, myself...but be nice, she needs the money!


We are amused.


Who the hell is that? ???


It's 106 miles to London, we've got a full tank of gas, a half a pack of cigarattes, it's broad daylight, and We are not amused!