The shades are on, the thin tie is knotted, and the fedora is perched. Dan Aykroyd is able to look again.
The actor-comedian is revving up the Bluesmobile to reminisce concerning the years he teamed up with John Belushi because the Blues Brothers, taking Hollywood and the Billboard charts by storm.
Aykroyd writes and narrates the Audible Original “Blues Brothers: The Arc of Gratitude,” which begins with him assembly Belushi one freezing night time in Toronto in 1973 and takes us to immediately, with gigs nonetheless lining up. The documentary drops on Thursday.
“It’s cool to keep doing it after 40-some years,” Aykroyd says from his summer home in Canada. “It’s as a result of it’s based mostly on the honesty of African American tradition and the music and two white guys who simply cherished it a lot that we needed to emulate it and do it on this method.”
The documentary traces their appearances on “SNL” and their breakthrough album “Briefcase Full of Blues” to the 1980 film and its hit soundtrack, the loss of life of Belushi and Aykroyd’s dedication to hold on the custom with a brand new accomplice – Belushi’s brother, Jim – with the creation of House of Blues nightclubs and the “Blues Brothers 2000” film sequel.
The two-hour lookback consists of interviews with Jim Belushi, band chief Paul Shaffer, singer Curtis Salgado, director John Landis, drummer Steve Jordan, widow Judy Belushi Pisano, saxophonist Lou Marini and extra, in addition to a beforehand unheard interview with John Belushi himself.
“I provided the structural skeleton to a lot of really strong organic material there,” says Aykroyd. “I believe it actually introduced again the time vividly.”
Listeners will be taught that “SNL” creator and producer Lorne Michaels wasn’t a fan of the fictional brothers’ act and that their rise was one thing of a disruption for report labels and film studios. Key moments got here when Willie Nelson after which Steve Martin invited them as opening acts.
The idea was admittedly a bit odd: Two white comedians fronting a first-rate blues band with the specific objective of celebrating a musical kind that had grown dusty.
The Blues Brothers – Aykroyd’s Elwood and Belushi’s “Joliet” Jake – wore black suits and black string ties inspired by comedian Lenny Bruce and snap-brim fedora hats and shades borrowed from the album cover of John Lee Hooker’s “House of the Blues.”
In the audio documentary, Aykroyd says that the pair noticed a possibility for one thing contemporary, enjoyable, and basic “in that tiny orbital skip of an electron in the course of the seconds between disco and New Wave.”
After profitable activates “SNL,” – first as a warm-up act, then as performers – they released an album “Briefcase Full of Blues” – with the hit cowl “Soul Man” – after which a cult film because the pair lead police, some Nazis and a livid nation act on spectacular chases by way of Illinois to boost $5,000 to avoid wasting their childhood dwelling. It had cameos by Carrie Fisher, Chaka Khan, Twiggy, Joe Walsh, Paul Reubens and Frank Oz.
Listeners will be taught that probably the most memorable strains was a collaboration. Aykroyd wrote, “It’s 106 miles to Chicago. We’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes.” Landis added: “It’s darkish and we’re carrying sun shades. Hit it.”
The film was additionally crammed to the brim with blues stars – like Donald “Duck” Dunn, Steve Cropper, Matt Murphy – and performances by Aretha Franklin, James Brown and Ray Charles, who have been struggling by way of fallow intervals.
“You may say appropriation. We did, but we preserved as well,” says Aykroyd. “That is what we have been at all times about. We wished, without end on movie, to point out you what these artists might do and what they gave the impression of.”
But exhibitors within the South – notably Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida and Georgia – balked. “The consensus was, by these guys, ‘‘This is a Black movie and no white people would see it,’” Landis recollects. “I bear in mind going, ‘It has Princess Leia in it!’”
Ultimately, the Blues Brothers – the movies, information, skits and music venues – helped fill jukeboxes throughout the globe with classics and revived the careers of Franklin, Brown and Charles, creating a brand new love for the blues.
“I’m blissful that we have been in a position to re-stimulate curiosity in these folks that we cherished,” says Aykroyd, who cites dancing with Brown, singing with Little Richard, and appearing with Franklin as profession highlights.
He and Jim Belushi nonetheless tour – together with an upcoming gig this August at Blues Brothers Con on the historic Joliet Prison in Illinois – and Aykroyd sees the enterprise as like a regulation agency.
“Jake and Elwood based it. And now it’s acquired new companions and new associates. It has nice endurance. The motive is as a result of the music is actual. The songs are actual.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com