The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul
revivalist band founded in 1978 by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John
Belushi as part of a musical sketch on Saturday Night Live. Belushi and
Aykroyd, respectively in character as lead vocalist "Joliet" Jake Blues
and harmonica player/vocalist Elwood Blues, fronted the band, which was
composed of well-known and respected musicians. The band made its debut
as the musical guest on the April 22, 1978, episode of Saturday Night
Live.
The band began to take on a life beyond the confines of the television
screen, releasing an album, Briefcase Full of Blues, in 1978, and then
having a Hollywood film, The Blues Brothers, created around its
characters in 1980.
After the death of Belushi in 1982, the Blues Brothers have continued to
perform with a rotation of guest singers and other band members. The
band reformed in 1988 for a world tour and again in 1998 for a sequel to
the film, Blues Brothers 2000. They make regular appearances at musical
festivals worldwide.
Band members
Original lineup While not all members appeared in the original film, the full
band included:
"Joliet" Jake E. Blues – lead vocals
Elwood J. Blues – harmonica, vocals
Steve "The Colonel" Cropper – lead and rhythm guitar (former
Booker T & the M.G.'s)
Donald "Duck" Dunn – bass guitar (former Booker T & the M.G.'s)
Murphy Dunne – keyboards (brought in to act in the film due to Paul
Shaffer's commitment to perform with Gilda Radner in Gilda Live!, toured
with the band in the summer of 1980)
Willie "Too Big" Hall – drums, percussion (formerly of the Bar-Kays,
Isaac Hayes' band, appears in the movie)
Steve "Getdwa" Jordan – drums, percussion (Saturday Night Live Band,
appears only on the albums)
Birch "Crimson Slide" Johnson - trombone (Does not appear in movie)
Tom "Bones" Malone – trombone, trumpet, saxophone (Saturday Night Live
Band)
"Blue" Lou Marini – saxophone (Saturday Night Live Band) Matt "Guitar" Murphy – lead
and rhythm guitar (Howlin' Wolf, other artists)
Alan "Mr. Fabulous" Rubin – trumpet (Saturday Night Live Band)
Paul "The Shiv" Shaffer – keyboards, arranger
Tom "Triple Scale" Scott – saxophone (doesn't appear in the movie,
though his saxophone can still be heard on the soundtrack)
The band in the 1980 film performs "Jailhouse Rock" in prison, from
left, Steve Cropper, Matt Murphy, Elwood Blues, Willie Hall, Duck Dunn,
Jake Blues, Bones Malone, Alan Rubin and Blue Lou.
Other members At various times, the following have been part of the act:
"Brother" Zee Blues – vocals
"Mighty Mack" McTeer – vocals
Buster Blues – harmonica, vocals (acted by J. Evan Bonifant in Blues
Brothers 2000, actual harmonica recorded by John Popper)
Cabel "Cab" Chamberlain - vocals Cab Calloway – vocals sources
Larry "T" Thurston – vocals
Eddie "Knock on Wood" Floyd – vocals
Sam "Soul Man" Moore - vocals
Tommy "Pipes" McDonnell – harmonica, vocals
Rob "The Honeydripper" Paparozzi – harmonic vocals
Leon "The Lion" Pendarvis – piano, vocals, arranger
Danny "G-Force" Gottlieb – drums
Jimmy "Jimmy B" Biggins – saxophone
Anthony "Rusty" Cloud – keyboards
Birch "Crimson Slide" Johnson – trombone
Eric "The Red" Udel – bass
John "Smokin" Tropea – guitar
Lee "Funky Time" Finkelstein – drums
Steve Potts – drums
Anton Fig - Drums
Larry "Trombonius Maximus" Farrell – trombone
Alto Reed - saxophone
Jonny "The Rock & Roll Doctor" Rosch - vocals, harmonica
[edit]Band history
Origins
The genesis of the Blues Brothers was a January 17, 1976, Saturday Night
Live 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.
Following tapings of SNL, it was popular among cast members and the
weekly hosts to attend Aykroyd's Holland Tunnel Blues bar, which he had
rented not long after joining the cast. Dan and John filled a jukebox
with songs from many different artists such as Sam and Dave and punk
band The Viletones. John bought an amplifier and they kept some musical
instruments there for anyone who wanted to jam. It was here that Dan and
Ron Gwynne wrote and developed the original story which Dan turned into
the initial story draft of the Blues Brothers movie, better known as the
"tome" because it contained so many pages.
It was also at the bar that Aykroyd introduced Belushi to the blues. An
interest soon became a fascination and it wasn't long before the two
began singing with local blues bands. Jokingly, SNL band leader Howard
Shore suggested they call themselves "The Blues Brothers." In an April
1988 interview in the Chicago Sun-Times, Aykroyd said the Blues Brothers
act borrowed from Sam & Dave and others—"Well obviously the duo thing
and the dancing, but the hats came from John Lee Hooker. The suits came
from the concept that when you were a jazz player in the 40's, 50's
60's, to look straight, you had to wear a suit".
The band was also modeled in part on Aykroyd's experience with the
Downchild Blues Band, one of the first professional blues bands in
Canada, with whom Aykroyd continues to play on occasion. Aykroyd first
encountered the band in the early 1970s, at or around the time of his
attendance at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada and where his
initial interest in the blues developed through attending and
occasionally performing at Ottawa's Le Hibou Coffee House. As Aykroyd
has said of this time:
So I grew up (in Ottawa), in this capital city. My parents used to work
for the government, and I went to elementary school, high school, and
the university in the city. And there was a place on Sussex Drive
(Sussex Drive is where the Prime Minister’s house is, right below
Parliament Hill), and there was a little club there called Le Hibou,
which in French means 'the owl'. And it was run by a gentleman named
Harvey Glatt, and he brought every, and I mean every blues star that you
or I would ever have wanted to have seen through Ottawa in the late 50s,
well I guess more late 60s sort of, in around the Newport jazz
rediscovery. I was going to Le Hibou and hearing
James Cotton,
Otis Spann,
Pinetop Perkins, and
Muddy Waters. I actually jammed behind
Muddy Waters. S. P. Leary left the drum kit one night, and Muddy said
'anybody out there play drums? I don’t have a drummer.' And I walked on
stage and we started, I don’t know, Little Red Rooster, something. He
said 'keep that beat going, you make Muddy feel good.' And I heard
Howlin’ Wolf (Chester Burnett). Many, many times I saw Howlin’ Wolf. And
of course Buddy Guy, Buddy Guy and Junior
Wells, Sonny Terry and
Brownie McGhee. So I was exposed to
all of these players, playing there as part of this scene to service the
academic community in Ottawa, a very well-educated community. Had I
lived in a different town I don’t think that this would have happened,
because it was just the confluence of educated government workers, and
then also all the colleges in the area, Ottawa University, Carleton, and
all the schools—these people were interested in blues culture.
The Toronto-based Downchild Blues Band,
co-founded in 1969 by two brothers, Donnie and Richard "Hock" Walsh,
served as an inspiration for the two Blues Brothers characters. Aykroyd
initially modeled Elwood Blues in part on Donnie Walsh, a harmonica
player and guitarist, while John Belushi's Jake Blues character was
modeled in part on Hock Walsh, Downchild's lead singer. In their first
album as the Blues Brothers, Briefcase Full of Blues (1978), Aykroyd and
Belushi featured three well-known Downchild songs closely associated
with Hock Walsh's vocal style: "I've Got Everything I Need (Almost)",
written by Donnie Walsh, "Shotgun Blues", co-written by Donnie and Hock
Walsh, and "Flip, Flop and Fly", co-written and originally popularized
by Big Joe Turner.[3] All three songs were contained in Downchild's
second album, Straight Up (1973), with "Flip, Flop and Fly" becoming the
band's most successful single, in 1974.
Belushi's budding interest in the blues solidified in October 1977 when
he was in Eugene, Oregon, filming National Lampoon's Animal House. 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 found Salgado's enthusiasm infectious. In an
interview at the time with the Eugene Register-Guard he said:
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, and using Salgado's humorous
alternate lyrics to "I Don't Know":
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
These lyrics were used again for the band's debut performance on SNL.
Band formation With the help of pianist-arranger Paul Shaffer, Belushi and
Aykroyd started assembling a collection of studio talents to form their
own band. These included SNL band members, saxophonist "Blue" Lou Marini
and trombonist-saxophonist Tom Malone, who had previously played in
Blood, Sweat & Tears. At Shaffer's suggestion guitarist Steve Cropper
and bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn, the powerhouse combo from Booker T and
the M.G.'s and subsequently almost every hit out of Memphis' Stax
Records during the 1960s, were signed as well.
Belushi wanted a powerful trumpet player and a hot blues guitarist, so
Juilliard-trained trumpeter Alan Rubin was brought in, as was guitarist
Matt Murphy, who had performed with many blues legends.
For the brothers' look, Belushi borrowed John Lee Hooker's trademark
Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses and soul patch.
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.
[edit]Sound
While the music of the Blues Brothers is based on R&B, 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 a 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 Shaffer's arrangements and to the
musicians' talents.
In Stories Behind the Making of The Blues Brothers, a 1998 documentary
included on some DVD editions of the first Blues Brothers film, Cropper
noted that some of his peers thought that he and the other musicians
backing the Blues Brothers were selling out to Hollywood or using a
gimmick to make some quick money. Cropper responded by stating that he
thought Belushi was as good as (or even better than) many of the singers
he had backed; he also noted that Belushi had, early in his career,
briefly been a professional drummer, and had an especially keen sense of
rhythm.
Albums, early gigs, character backgrounds The Blues Brothers recorded their first album, Briefcase Full
of Blues, in 1978 while opening for comedian Steve Martin at Los
Angeles' Universal Amphitheatre. The album reached #1 on the Billboard
200, went double platinum, and featured Top 40 hit recordings of Sam and
Dave's "Soul Man" and The Chips' "Rubber Biscuit".
The album liner notes fleshed out the fictional back story of Jake and
Elwood, having them growing up in a Roman Catholic orphanage in Calumet
City, Illinois[and learning the blues from a janitor named Curtis. Their
blood brotherhood was sealed by cutting their middle fingers with a
string said to come from the guitar of
Elmore James.
The band, 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.
With the film, came the soundtrack album, which was the band's first
studio album. "Gimme Some Lovin'" was a Top 40 hit and the band toured
to promote the film, which led to a third album (and second live album),
Made in America, recorded at the Universal Amphitheatre in 1980. The
track "Who's Making Love" peaked at No 39. It was the last recording the
band would make with Belushi's Jake Blues.
Belushi's wife, Judith Jacklin, and his friend, Tino Insana, wrote a
book, Blues Brothers: Private, that further fleshed out the Blues
Brothers' universe and gave a back story for the first movie.
In 1981, Best of the Blues Brothers was released, with a previously
unreleased track, a version of The Soul Survivors' "Expressway to Your
Heart", and alternate live recordings of "Everybody Needs Somebody to
Love" and "Rubber Biscuit"; this album would be the first of several
compilations and hits collections issued over the years. A 1998 British
CD compilation, The Complete Blues Brothers, exclusively features Lamont
Cranston's "Excuse Moi Mon Cheri", from the L.A. Briefcase recordings,
originally available only as the b-side to the Soul Man 45 rpm single.
On March 5, 1982, John Belushi died in Hollywood of an accidental
overdose of heroin and cocaine.
After John Belushi's death, updated versions of the Blues Brothers have
performed on SNL and for charitable and political causes. Aykroyd has
been accompanied by Jim Belushi and John Goodman in character as "Zee"
Blues and "Mighty Mack" McTeer. The copyright owners have also
authorized some copycat acts to perform under the Blues Brothers name;
one such act performs regularly at the Universal Studios Florida theme
park in Orlando, Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood.
In 1997, an animated sitcom with Jake and Elwood was planned, but
scrapped after only eight episodes were produced.
To promote Blues Brothers 2000 (1998), Dan Aykroyd, James Belushi and
John Goodman performed at the halftime of Super Bowl XXXI, along with ZZ
Top and James Brown. The performance was preceded with a faux news
report stating the Blues Brothers had escaped custody and were on their
way to the Louisiana Superdome.
Aykroyd has continued to be an active proponent of blues music and
parlayed this avocation into foundation and partial ownership of the
House of Blues franchise, a national chain of nightclubs.
John Belushi's brother, James Belushi, toured with the band for a short
time as "Zee Blues," and recorded the album, Blues Brothers & Friends:
Live from House of Blues, with Dan Aykroyd but he didn't appear in Blues
Brothers 2000. It's rumored he was approached to play not the role of
"Mighty Mack" (played by John Goodman), but the role of the local
Sheriff "Cab" Chamberlain (which eventually went to Joe Morton). Jim
would later reunite with Aykroyd to record yet another album, not as the
Blues Brothers but as themselves: Belushi/Aykroyd - Have Love Will
Travel (Big Men-Big Music).
In 2004, the musical, The Blues Brothers Revival, premiered in Chicago.
The story was about Elwood trying to rescue Jake from an eternity in
limbo/purgatory. The musical was written and composed with approval and
permission from both the John Belushi estate (including his widow,
Judith Belushi-Pisano) and Dan Aykroyd.
The Blues Brothers featuring Elwood and Zee regularly perform at House
of Blues venues and various casinos across North America. They are
usually backed by James Belushi's Sacred Hearts Band. The rest of the
Blues Brothers Band tours the world regularly. The only original members
still in the band are Steve Cropper, Lou Marini, and Alan Rubin. The
lead singer is Jonny "The Rock & Roll Doctor" Rosch, and they are
frequently joined by Eddie Floyd.
Aykroyd currently reprises his character, Elwood Blues, as the host of
the weekly House of Blues Radio Hour, heard nationwide on the Dial
Global Radio Network.
[edit]Films
The Blues Brothers
Main article: The Blues Brothers (film)
In 1980, The Blues Brothers, directed by John Landis, was released.
Featuring epic car chases involving the Bluesmobile and musical
performances by Aretha Franklin,
James Brown,
Cab Calloway,
Ray Charles and
John Lee Hooker, the story is set
in and around Chicago, Illinois. It is a tale of redemption for the
paroled convict Jake Blues and his brother Elwood as they decide to take
on a "mission from God" and reform their blues band in order to raise
funds to save the Catholic orphanage where they grew up. Along the way,
the brothers are targeted by a "mystery woman" (Carrie Fisher) and
chased by the Illinois State Police, a country and western band called
the Good Ol' Boys, and "Illinois Nazis." The film grossed $57 million
domestically in its theatrical release, making it the 10th highest
grossing movie of 1980, and grossed an additional $58 million in foreign
release.[8] It is the second-highest grossing film based on a "Saturday
Night Live" sketch (only 1992's Wayne's World grossed more) and
ninth-highest grossing musical film.
Blues Brothers 2000 With Landis again directing, the sequel to The Blues Brothers
was made in 1998. It fared considerably worse than its predecessor with
fans and critics, though it is more ambitious in terms of musical
performances by the band and has a more extensive roster of guest
artists than the first film. The story picks up 18 years later with
Elwood being released from prison, and learning that his brother 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, 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.
