Movies - The Blues Brothers

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	Movies - The Blues Brothers

The Blues Brothers was a rhythm and blues/blues band fronted by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi in character. Belushi (as lead vocalist Joliet "Jake" Blues) and Aykroyd (as harpist/vocalist Elwood Blues) were both members of the original cast of NBC's Saturday Night Live
. The Blues Brothers' television debut was as the musical guest in the April 22, 1978 episode of Saturday Night Live, often cited as one of the best-ever SNL episodes.

The band's formation

The genesis of the Blues Brothers could be found in a January 1976 SNL skit. In it, "Howard Shore and his All-Bee Band" play the Slim Harpo song "I'm a King Bee", with Belushi singing and Aykroyd playing harmonica, dressed in the bee costumes they wore for the "Killer Bees" sketch.

In the January 4, 1979 edition of the Eugene Register-Guard, an article provides key details about the real origins of Belushi's serious interest in blues music. Belushi was in Eugene, Oregon, filming National Lampoon's Animal House
. In October 1977, he went to a local hotel to hear 25-year-old blues singer/harmonica player Curtis Salgado. After the show, Belushi and Salgado talked about the blues for hours. Belushi, interviewed for the article, found Salgado's enthusiasm infectious, saying: :I was growing sick of rock and roll, it was starting to bore me...and I hated disco, so I needed some place to go. I hadn't heard much blues before. It felt good. Salgado lent him some albums by Floyd Dixon, Charles Brown, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, and others. Belushi was hooked.

Belushi began to appear with Salgado on stage, singing the Floyd Dixon song "Hey, Bartender" on a few occasions. He used Salgado's humorous alternate lyrics to "I Don't Know" that Salgado used in his act. Salgado gave the innuendo-laden lyrics to him: :I said Woman, you going to walk a mile for a Camel :Or are you going to make like Mr. Chesterfield and satisfy? :She said that all depends on what you're packing :Regular or king-size :Then she pulled out my Jim Beam, and to her surprise :It was every bit as hard as my Canadian Club.

In the Blues Brothers debut SNL performance, he used the lyrics, and also borrowed Salgado's trademark sunglasses and soul patch for his Jake Blues character. Belushi made it a point to credit Salgado whenever he could, dedicating the first Blues Brothers album to Salgado and sending him a photo of Belushi and Aykroyd in character, writing on it "Without you, we'd still be just TV actors." They regularly used his name in the introduction of their live show.

First album

The Blues Brothers recorded their first album, Briefcase Full of Blues, in 1978 while opening for comedian Steve Martin at Los Angeles' Universal Amphitheater. The album went platinum, and featured Top 40 hit covers of Sam and Dave's "Soul Man" and The Chips' "Rubber Biscuit". Despite the name of the act, most of the songs performed by The Blues Brothers throughout their existence were soul music or R&B classics rather than actual blues music.

The Blues Brothers, along with the New Riders of the Purple Sage, opened for the Grateful Dead for the final show at Winterland, New Year's Eve 1978.

The Blues Brothers Band

The two "brothers" assembled what could have possibly been the greatest concentration of studio talent in the history of music; these men having played with Booker T. & the M.G.'s, Paul McCartney & Wings, Miles Davis, and everybody in between.

Their style was fresh and in many ways, different from prevailing musical trends: a very raw and "live" sound compared to the increasing use of sound synthesis and vocal-dominated music of the late 1970s and 80s.

While the music of the Blues Brothers is always said to be based on rhythm, blues, and soul, it also drew heavily on rock and jazz elements, usually taking a blues standard and bringing a rock sound and style to it. The band could be drawn into three sections: the four man horn section, the traditional rock instruments of the five-man rhythm section, and the two singing brothers. The sound of the band was an odd (but successful) synthesis of two different traditions: the horn players all came from the clean, precise, jazz-influenced sound of New York City; while the rhythm section came from the grittier soul and blues sound of Chicago and Memphis. The success of this meld was due both to Paul Shaffer's arrangements and to the musicians' talents.

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Movies - The Blues Brothers

The band's formation

First album

The Blues Brothers Band

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