kudzurunner
4772 posts
Jul 08, 2014
9:59 AM
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Interesting to go back to the beginning and see what the Blues Brothers were about. As far as I can tell, they're about
--a great band, playing it straight
--Belushi, sweating and jiving, and singing decently
--Ackroyd, playing incredibly bad harp through a way-too-overdriven amp
--Ackroyd playing "stiff" straight man to Belushi's movin', groovin' white-boy-with-the-beat
--both men spoofing the sort of talentless white guys who get up in front of a great blues band and "get down."
It's a complicated satire, with some great backing music hardwired into the mix. I don't think most people really get the satire. Or rather, they actually LIKE blues that is part-burlesque.
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Jul 08, 2014 10:00 AM
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Harpaholic
481 posts
Jul 08, 2014
12:39 PM
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All due respect to a great act and band, I'm a huge fan of the B Brothers, but that was painful (harp and feedback)
Interesting fact, Steve Cohen performed in a Blues Brother act in 1992 as Elwood in Lake Tahoe (Caesar's Tahoe).
That is where I met Steve for the first time. The act was as close to the real thing as it gets, except his harp playing was at another level (Pro) compared to Akroyd.
Last Edited by Harpaholic on Jul 08, 2014 12:42 PM
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Ted Burke
58 posts
Jul 09, 2014
11:42 AM
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The Blues Brothers were a joke and they were painful to watch and listen to; I don't care how much Akroyd and Belushi said they loved the blues and blues musicians. That may be so, but the Blues Brothers were a minstrel show in the truest form; stripped of whatever layers of irony, intended (or imagined by blues fans who needed to believe that the BB were actually playing their music with heart and soul) , it reduced a vital and brilliant American art form and its creators to caricature. It was another case of the hubris of white entertainers presenting black music to larger white audiences by offering up tepid versions of the great songs by black performers. It was Pat Boon covering "Tutti Frutti" all over again. While I am glad that black musicians got more exposure due to the film, it still galls me that it took the white, relatively safe presence of the well intentioned but still white Akroyd and Belushi to get this movie made. It's my feeling that this movie ghettoized the blues more than ever, making it into something to be mocked, ridiculed, satirized.
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Pockets
61 posts
Jul 09, 2014
12:28 PM
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Ouch Ted!
But for what its worth... (and for as popular as the movie is) it does bring fans/interested musicians to the harmonica community.
To me, that's worth something.
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A440
181 posts
Jul 09, 2014
12:46 PM
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The Blues Brothers was a clever fabricated act. Lets not forget that the target audience for the movie and record was: white, teenage American suburban males. It was, for that demographic, a sort of sequel to Animal House. I think the positive thing is that it introduced the blues to a segment of the population who in 1978 had been only listening to stuff like Frampton, Boston, Fleetwood Mac and Jefferson Starship. It got kids interested in the blues and prompted many to discover the real blues. Despite the thin plot, boring car chases, and excessive swearing in the movie, the cameo appearances and singing by legendary blues artists was great, and introduced those artists to a new demographic.
Yes, Akroyd milked it, but he's in show business and it was an act that filled venues.... nothing wrong with that.
Last Edited by A440 on Jul 09, 2014 1:02 PM
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Frank
4783 posts
Jul 09, 2014
2:31 PM
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Funny, funny shiet...I "get" those guys, they crack me up...It is "some" of the knock offs that take the act and try to use it that leave me scratchin my head...comedy is harder then it looks... John and Dan are Masters and make it look easy :)
Last Edited by Frank on Jul 09, 2014 2:34 PM
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AW
163 posts
Jul 09, 2014
3:15 PM
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I also appreciated that Belushi said the name of the original artist before most songs.
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Barley Nectar
435 posts
Jul 09, 2014
6:49 PM
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This is my dinning room. A picture is worth........
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walterharp
1446 posts
Jul 09, 2014
8:08 PM
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That was the peak of culture then... loved that movie, and their act on SNL.
Did your idol play harmonica with their nose? Entertainment is what it is all about if you want to be a successful entertainer.
Comedy is often the balance between serious and farcical. Some of the best comedy now has a very serious streak (e.g. Daily Show and Colbert Report). I suspect that those guys were well aware of Lenny Bruce and the serious side of comedy.
They knew enough about the music, Ackroyd did, though it was Belushi that grew up in Chicago, to get a burning band and pick good old Chicago blues standards. They knew which part to be serious about. The movie had some absolutely top notch blues and soul musicians in it.
Try this one live from SNL, dammned if Ackroyd is not doing some dance moves that you would not be surprised to see in a hip hop video, and others that are pretty cheesy...
sorry embedding disabled on this vid.
http://youtu.be/y1ehMrK3itM
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groyster1
2632 posts
Jul 09, 2014
10:38 PM
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they were once backed by roomful of blues....when they asked the band members how they did one of them said you guys sucked....and yes akroyds harp playing did suck
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The Iceman
1809 posts
Jul 10, 2014
5:32 AM
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Maybe so, but one can't ignore that the band consisted of top notch players and a great arranger.
I always enjoyed the music.
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The Iceman
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Harptime
63 posts
Jul 10, 2014
6:32 AM
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I did a set with this band in Tampa Florida in 1980. I was 22 and buzzed up. When they called me up they were expecting the worse and chuckling pretty good .... I ended up playing the last 6 songs of the set. Back stage was incredible....whatta party ... Matt Murphy started hitting on my sister :-)
This was the band that came out of the original Blues Brothers
The Original Shaboo Allstars :
Shelton Laster, Peev, Charles Calamese, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Harvey Brooks , Lefty Foster Jack Scarangella and George T Gregory
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Warren Bee
Marketing & Harmonica Raconteur
Last Edited by Harptime on Jul 10, 2014 6:45 AM
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markdc70
150 posts
Jul 10, 2014
6:39 AM
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I don't think that many people ever considered The Blues Brothers to be a legitimate band, and those that did are surely no more than a casual music fan at most. The feelings of some here that the movie lowered the world's expectation or definition of the blues is certainly NOT shared by me. It was a comedy after all, and if you can't laugh at yourself, then you're taking yourself way too seriously. This discussion reminds me of the conflict regarding Paul Simon's Graceland, possibly my favorite album ever, and another controversy that I don't understand or agree with.
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Harptime
64 posts
Jul 10, 2014
6:51 AM
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anyone that thinks the Blues Brothers hurt the blues in any way is mistaken in my opinion. they put the blues back on the map ... it helped expose the genre to mainstreamers and it made people smile.... great stuff in my book
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Warren Bee
Marketing & Harmonica Raconteur
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Hondo
299 posts
Jul 10, 2014
7:33 AM
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I had a lot to say about this but I will cut it down to agreeing with markdc70 and Harptime. I am really tired of this white guy topic. Yes, there are some really bad guys who think they are good BUT not everyone is Larry Bird and it doesn't hurt anybody to have a basketball goal in your driveway. You have good participation on your forum and I don't understand why you keep wanting to drag this topic through the mud Adam. See now you've got me going.
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kudzurunner
4775 posts
Jul 10, 2014
8:07 AM
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Hondo, I think you're confusing me with somebody else. So let me set you straight: I'm a college professor. What I do is to teach people to think critically--clearly, procedurally, objectively, with attention to detail. I don't vent or spout off. I haven't dragged any topic "through the mud." Other people may be doing that. I didn't do that.
What you're doing, on the other hand, is being irritable.
You're free to disagree with my descriptions of, and judgments about, the clip in question.
If you're "tired of the white guy topic," as you put it, then please don't contribute to this thread. Nobody wants to read the contributions of somebody whose chief contribution to the conversation is complaining about being tired.
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Jul 10, 2014 8:10 AM
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kudzurunner
4776 posts
Jul 10, 2014
8:23 AM
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A quick note to those who aren't (perhaps) careful readers: Please take another look at my final claim about the clip above:
"--both men spoofing the sort of talentless white guys who get up in front of a great blues band and "get down.""
The claim I'm making here for what Ackroyd and Belushi are doing is a complex claim, not a simple claim. I'm pointedly NOT saying that they are talentless white guys leading a great blues band. I'm saying that they are engaged in a complicated, double-edged burlesque. Ackroyd probably IS a talentless white guy; Belushi, on the other hand, has some talent. But both men are professional comics, and what they're doing in this Blues Brothers clip is burlesquing two kinds of talentless white guys who "get down" with the blues. One, played by Ackroyd, is stiff, soul-less. The other, played by Belushi, is energetic--indeed, over-energetic, somewhat frantic; a white guy driven slightly mad by the beat.
They're asking us to laugh at blues performance as a whole--which is to say, their performance somewhat burlesques black blues performance--but they're also more pointedly asking us to laugh at their own whiteness-trying-to-be-blackness.
What they are actually doing here is not the same, of course, as what the general public took away from their performance. We do know that in the long run, The Blues Brothers became a model for many white blues players. I know this because I've traveled widely, in Europe and elsewhere, and I've been to many jam sessions, in many countries, where two guys, or one guy, got up in a dark hat and dark sunglasses, with or without a sportcoat and narrow tie, and tried to approximate Blues Brothers schtick. I've seen buskers in Paris doing it. I've seen jammers in Italian blues clubs. There's actually a fair argument to be made that The Blues Brothers are the best known American blues duo around the world--more famous, these days, than Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.
You're free to make of that what you will. I'm not judging it. I'm just reporting it.
Last Edited by kudzurunner on Jul 10, 2014 8:24 AM
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Hondo
300 posts
Jul 10, 2014
8:28 AM
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I am not confusing you with anyone else, we know that you are a professor and although I may not be a professor, I am a college graduate and understand critical thinking skills. I never said that you vent or spout off!
My contribution was (if you could understand my weak analogy of basketball) is that I may not be Junior Wells and I may be a bad harp player but I am free to enjoy music and the blues, if that is the music that moves me. That in no way should be derogatory to the genre or it's innovators. Don't be quick to get upset Adam, it was just another opinion.
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barbequebob
2641 posts
Jul 10, 2014
10:16 AM
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To a white audience, this is all comedy, but to many of the old black bluesmen I've ever gigged with, this was sheer blasphemy and ridiculing a music near and dear to their hearts but it won;t surprise me one bit if many of you can't understand that viewpoint at all but to them, blues was like their religion and anyone with a brain in their head knows you NEVER mess with anyone's religion unless you don;t give a crap about asking for trouble.
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Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
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Ted Burke
61 posts
Jul 10, 2014
10:30 AM
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I read your post carefully, Adam, and I appreciate your perspective and the point you make. Still, the fact that Ackroyd and Belushi are making fun of stiff white guys attempting to play music that requires the performer to feel the vibe and to at least be animated while doing so ,ironically, is ,in fact, the very music these guys seek to make fun of, stiff white versions of great blues performances. The music is a drag; when I say that this has done more harm than good for the blues, I mean that it has become the standard by which millions judge the blues to be. It's not that I am against a movie of black master musicians and white apprentices getting together and making something new in an established, venerated tradition; we need a better story. I vote that someone make a movie of Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf and Willie Dixon meeting the likes of young Butterfield, Bloomfield and the like in Chicago, and call it Fathers and Sons. That is a story worth telling.
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arzajac
1421 posts
Jul 10, 2014
10:31 AM
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I would say Ackroyd has talent as a blues performer. This may be satire or burlesque, but it's a very challenging vocal. And he does an impressive job.
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Custom overblow harps. Harmonica service and repair.
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Honkin On Bobo
1210 posts
Jul 10, 2014
11:23 AM
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Love 'em or hate 'em, they sure could think on their feet
P.S. - I love 'em
Last Edited by Honkin On Bobo on Jul 10, 2014 11:30 AM
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Goldbrick
523 posts
Jul 10, 2014
11:31 AM
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I feel about the blues bros about the way i feel about guys who put on a stupid hat with fake dreads and play reggae, Its a joke to them but denigrates the music.
However-thats just me and I understand lots of people play blues ' cause they think its easy and mindless and you can make some faces and do a little minor pentatonic thing and you are cool
I like the movie -its funny ( in its day ) and a sendup of nuns, nazis, police etc,
However I wish the act ended there and didnt continue past the movie. They are not like a steve Martin who has respect for the CRAFT of music .
I know Belushi and ackroyd respected the music and musicians personally. but their act is a disservice and when you have some of the greatest R and B musicians backing you up and you still suck-that says somethin,
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Harpaholic
482 posts
Jul 10, 2014
12:18 PM
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"The music is a drag; when I say that this has done more harm than good for the blues, I mean that it has become the standard by which millions judge the blues to be.
You don't know that to be true or factual!
I'd be willing to bet they did more good than harm to the blues and harmonica.
It was a parody, people know that and view it as such. There albums where pretty good and I enjoyed listening to them for a good laugh/good music.
Last Edited by Harpaholic on Jul 10, 2014 12:19 PM
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walterharp
1447 posts
Jul 10, 2014
12:54 PM
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from http://bluesbrothersofficialsite.com/n-9837-http-www-bluesmatters-com-current-issue.html
An early test of their integrity came when they were invited to produce their first album, Briefcase Full Of Blues. Dan Aykroyd recalls, “When we went to make Briefcase Full of Blues, the record company suggested we contact the writers of songs by people like Floyd Dixon and Donnie Walsh from The Downchild Blues Band and Isaac Hayes and Steve Cropper - and cutting in fifty per cent on the publishing royalties. John and I refused, which was pretty unusual at the time. We’ve had no share in any of the songwriting royalties on the eight records. We have a little for the mechanical royalties, the voice work, but that’s a pittance since Steve Jobs and Apple ratcheted down the value of music and it’s all digital. All the publishing royalties went to the original artists. We could have owned a part, but we did not grab a share of it. That’s not right.”
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The Iceman
1811 posts
Jul 10, 2014
1:22 PM
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I'm a big fan of funny movies that are even funnier if you are a musician - i.e., Blues Bros, Once, Spinal Tap, A Mighty Wind, etc.
Of course mainstream audiences enjoyed them, but if you are a musician, there is a sly wink of the eye in the dialogue or situations that relate to you more than the average citizen.
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The Iceman
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Slimharp
348 posts
Jul 10, 2014
2:05 PM
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It's a joke, maybe a bad joke, they knew it was a joke, but one thing that was not a joke - MONEY ! However, all said and done I agree with Theo's comments. When you deal with the movie business,big business, all the tables get turned.
My god, Butterfield isn't even in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame yet. He was beaten by Heart. Go figure. That's what you get when you play in those waters.
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groyster1
2633 posts
Jul 10, 2014
11:02 PM
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I saw blues bros movie when it came out....most hokey movie ever even more so than smoky and the bandit
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Komuso
346 posts
Jul 10, 2014
11:22 PM
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Don't diss Belushi.
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Paul Cohen aka Komuso Tokugawa
HarpNinja - Your harmonica Mojo Dojo
Bringing the Boogie to the Bitstream
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