Greetings and salutations Hivers. Today let's go into another Three Tune Tuesday post.
As always, thanks to @ablaze for making this series. Lots of people participate in it! Follow the tags to find a ton of good music recommendation.
Today... the Blues Brothers! Some time ago, @raymondspeaks shocked us all in the Bro discord server when he admitted that he had never seen The Blues Brothers. We were all speechless. I think @stickupboys about had a heart attack. How could anyone our age have not seen this movie??
For those few unaware (like Ray), The Blues Brothers were a blues and soul band founded by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. Belushi loved rock music and Aykroyd loved Blues. They had fast become best friends on SNL and a skit where they appeared as singing bees led them to combine their interests and form a band. It was half gag, half serious at first. They opened for one of Steve Martin's comedy shows, then they moved the act to SNL, and from there they released an album of Blues covers, followed by other albums. They soon opened for real bands like the Grateful Dead. A movie soon followed. The movie is a comedy but all the singing is performer seriously. Their popularity kept growing until Belushi unfortunately died of an overdose of heroin. The band did keep going, replacing Belushi with a rotating guest singer. But it was never the same.
Like I said, they did a few albums, so there is actually a lot of material to go with. But I'm going to go with songs from the movie for this list. They actually didn't sing lead that much in the movie, actually. Instead they choose to highlight soul and blues singers that they loved in an attempt to get them more attention. They hired James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. The blues brothers did sing backing on most songs, but these R&B singers did the lead vocals. The studio didn't want them because none had had any hits in a while, but Aykroyd insisted. It was a nice gesture and really works well in the movie.
But anyway, let's cover some Blues Brothers!
Everybody Needs Somebody to Love / Sweet Home Chicago
For this first pick, we'll go with their in-movie concert, which was limited to only two songs because the police were after them (watch the movie to find out why).
Theme to Rawhide
At one point, the band finds themselves booked at a rural bar. They quickly realize that their blues songs aren't going to be well received, so they change to any country sounding song that they can think of.
This is a funny scene and as a bonus, the song isn't too bad!
Ray Charles - Shake a Tail Feather
Ray Charles takes the lead on this one, but the Blues Brothers band does the backing and the Blues Brothers themselves give backing vocals. It's a fun scene and a good song.
Ah great stuff. Makes me want to watch the movie again.So what's your favorite?
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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon. |