We're Putting the Band Back Together

Happy 40th birthday to the Blues Brothers!

There are 106 miles to Chicago, we have a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses.

This summer marks forty years since cult classic The Blues Brothers came out and it's still as terrific as ever. With comedy kings Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi at the helm, the film is hilarious—of course! Throw in an outstanding supporting cast of world-class musicians and some serious earworms for the soundtrack and the result is cinematic gold. Though there were definitely some hiccups on the road to success. Delays and complications significantly stretched the film's budget and extended the production schedule. But ultimately the magic of the winning ingredients came together, creating a film that still ranks in the all-time top ten in in several genres.

Elwood Blues

We're on a mission from God.

Dan Aykroyd was one of the creators of what began as a Saturday Night Live skit with his friend and costar John Belushi. He cowrote the screenplay after first finding success in 1978 with both the sketches and an actual recording and touring musical group, a crew of serious blues musicians that he assembled with the help of SNL bandmember Paul Shaffer. Many of the original band members also appeared in the film.

In all likelihood, the concept originated with Aykroyd who had long been a fanatical fan of blues and R&B music. Elwood's Blues compiles a set of entertaining and informative conversations drawn from Aykroyd's popular syndicated radio series The House of Blues Radio Hour, including a discussion with the great John Lee Hooker who also appeared in the movie.

"Joliet" Jake Blues

I hate Illinois Nazis!

The late John Belushi was the bigger star when the Blues Brothers was made and he was paid twice as much as Aykroyd for his participation. But Belushi's drug use threatened to derail the production at times. He died of a drug overdose at age 33, just two years after the movie was released.

In Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi, Bob Woodward applies his trademark narrative journalistic style to the brilliant comedian's life, from childhood in a small town outside Chicago through his meteoric rise to fame. Drawing from interviews with those who knew him best, including Aykroyd, Carrie Fisher, and his widow Judith, the book provides a poignant portrait of a comic genius who gave so much of himself and died too soon.

Mystery Woman

So for me, for my mother, my grandmother, my father, my uncle, and for the common good, I must now kill you, and your brother.

The 24-year-old Carrie Fisher was a rising star when she appeared as the homicidal Mystery Woman in The Blues Brothers. She, Aykroyd, and Belushi were already friends, but her relationship with both deepened during filming. In fact, she and Aykroyd briefly got engaged after he saved her from choking on a brussels sprout. Of the incident the actress commented, "So he had to give me the Heimlich maneuver. He saved my life, and then he asked me to marry him. And I thought...wow, what if that happens again? I should probably marry him."

Fisher, who passed away in 2016, was a self-declared bookworm and she turned out to be an excellent writer as well, publishing several books. In Wishful Drinking, a memoir adapted from her one-woman stage show, she describes her Hollywood childhood (as the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher) and early adult years as she became a celebrity in her own right.

Reverend Cleophus James

Have you seeeen the light?

James Brown delivers a rousing sermon and a blistering musical performance as Reverend Cleophus James of the Triple Rock Baptist Church. In his autobiography, James Brown: The Godfather of Soul*, Brown recalls that he had reservations about appearing in the film before reading the screenplay. But he was pleasantly surprised by the level of respect that was shown to African American culture in the script.

Of his experience, he said, "My sequence, with all the dancing and with John somersaulting down the aisle, took about three days to shoot because it was so detailed. It's funny: With all the gospel I'd sung in my life, I'd never heard of the song they picked for me to sing, but it was a genuine old gospel number. Danny found a recording of it from the thirties that was done at a tempo as fast as the one we used in the movie."

Mrs. Murphy

Don't you blaspheme in here, don't you blaspheme in here! Now this is my man, my restaurant. And you two are gonna just walk right out that door without your dry white toast, without your four fried chickens, and without Matt "Guitar" Murphy.

Aykroyd reportedly had to fight the producers to secure Aretha Franklin's part in the film. They were pushing to replace her with a newer act, but Aykroyd stuck to his guns and the great diva's flagging career was reinvigorated by her impassioned performance and electrifying vocal. This is lucky for us because it meant many more thrilling years of hits from the Queen of Soul.

I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You by music journalist Matt Dobkin documents the process of making the groundbreaking 1967 album that made her a star. The book not only charts the creation of this pivotal album, but it also tells Aretha's story as an artist more complex and determined than was often publicly reflected.

Ray

Excuse me, I don't think there's anything wrong with the action on this piano.

Ray Charles was 50 when he appeared in the movie as the owner of Ray's Music Exchange. This glorious scene is another of the movie's many highlights. As he sits down to a used keyboard to demonstrate that the instrument still has some life in it, a huge flash mob of a dance party erupts both in and outside the store. It's pure joy!

Like Franklin, Charles was another star whose career was stalling at the time of the film. Declining interest in R&B and Soul music during this era meant reduced radio appeal. But the legendary artist had already overcome many more difficult hurtles in life, including poverty, blindness, racism, and addiction. In Brother Ray, he tells his complex and dramatic story.

A Few More Fun Facts

This place has got everything!

• The epic car chase through a mall was filmed in an actual mall! The facility had recently been closed down due to high crime in the area. Director John Landis fixed it up for the scene and, afterwards, the wrecked building was left to fester for twenty years before it was finally demolished.
• Aykroyd had never written (or even read) a screenplay before and subsequently didn't know how. His attempt was 324 pages, three times longer than most screenplays. As a joke, he had the draft bound to look like an L.A. phone book.
• The movie held the record for Most Cars Destroyed (103!) in the course of production for 18 years.
• In addition to the stellar musical cast, several big name stars make cameos in the film, including: Twiggy, Steven Spielberg, Joe Walsh, Chaka Khan, and Frank Oz.
• After injuring himself while playing with a kid's skateboard, Belushi required emergency attention from a local orthopedist to film the closing scene's cartwheels and high-octane dance moves.

Well, we know what we're watching tonight! BTW, you can get your own copy here* while supplies last.

*Items noted with an asterisk in this blog have a limited stock at the time of posting, be sure to add to your wish list if they are not available!

Read more by Ashly Moore Sheldon