Recounting reminiscences from John Belushi’s highschool classmates and Dan Aykroyd’s faculty theater pals, the guide paints an image of two very divergent upbringings leading to two wildly completely different performers whose concepts of comedy one way or the other overlapped sufficient to turn out to be lifelong mates. Their circuitous routes to Saturday Evening Dwell are dotted with a blinding ardour for genuine music (Belushi for heavy steel and finally R&B, Aykroyd for electrical blues), which inevitably made its manner into their performances (each onstage and off).
Whereas Aykroyd and Belushi had completely different outlooks, their yin and yang developed into a robust inventive partnership which pushed the envelope of what comedy on tv could possibly be, all of the whereas holding all-night events at Aykroyd’s secret blues bar the place Keith Richards and Francis Ford Coppola poured drinks behind the counter. Whereas the background of the 2 whirlwind comedians is compelling and well-told, the rubber actually hits the street because the function movie begins coming into focus. The guide recounts anecdote after anecdote concerning the course of, the characters, the stunts, and the visitor stars, every extra eye-gogglingly unattainable than the final.
A quick listing of discoveries from the guide:
• The identify “Elwood” got here from Elwood Glover, a chat present host whom Aykroyd thought was “essentially the most boring man on Canadian tv.”
• The signature Ray Ban sun shades had been worn out of necessity since Aykroyd’s insecurities made him reluctant to make eye contact and Belushi’s eyes had been at all times bloodshot as a result of his fixed debauchery.
• The SNL musicians would carry round little decoy “Belushi Bottles” of cocaine with solely a tiny bit remaining as a result of if Belushi acquired a maintain of their precise stash it might be hoovered up straight away.
• The Blues Brothers’ debut album Briefcase Stuffed with Blues listed the 2 comedy superstars’ precise names solely on the again of the document jacket as “very particular due to Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi” (and the album charted greater than precise post-war blues albums by B.B. King and Muddy Waters).
• Belushi had a behavior of repeatedly setting his mattress on hearth whereas falling asleep smoking. (Three packs of cigarettes a day, cocaine behavior, Quaalude dependancy, amphetamines, common doses of mescaline).
• Dan Aykroyd almost misplaced the one copy of the script as he was nonetheless ending it. After a frenzied search of the 30 Rock workplaces, he discovered the pages in a stack of outdated SNL scripts, meant for the shredder.
• The unique script was 324 pages lengthy (most film screenplays are between 95 and 125 pages in size) and he hand-delivered them to movie business executives wrapped within the torn-off covers of cellphone books.
• The movie’s authentic price range was $10 million however finally ballooned to $27.5 million, which was greater than Steven Spielberg spent on Shut Encounters of the Third Form.
• Landis wished B.B. King to be one of many Rhythm and Blues luminaries within the film, however King’s supervisor indicated that the guitar legend was too busy touring to seem within the movie. King later was crushed when he came upon his administration had handed.
• After the movie’s launch, Cab Calloway’s long-dormant profession was revived, resulting in a flurry of bookings for his new Huge Band, strutting round in a zoot go well with performing “Minnie the Moocher” effectively previous the age of 70.
• The rampant destruction of the deserted shopping center (which was filled with rotting produce and shortly full of automobile exhaust and burning rubber) resulted in just one small damage which required two stitches.
• Chicago’s new mayor, Jane Byrne, had confronted a lot vitriol and misogyny from staffers who had labored for her predecessor Richard J. Daley, that she gleefully gave permission for the movie crew to crash automobiles into his namesake Daley Plaza.
• In the course of the quiet elevator scene close to the tip of the film, a schmaltzy Muzak model of Antônio Carlos Jobim’s “The Woman from Ipanema” performs overhead as a type of retribution since director John Landis wished to make use of a parody model of the music in Animal Home however Jobim would not enable it.
• Landis initially wished to drop the orange Pinto pushed by the hated Illinois Nazis from a top of “I do not know, 5, six thousand ft?” however he finally agreed on twelve hundred ft (the peak of the John Hancock Constructing). Whereas this was decrease than the director initially wished, it was nonetheless so excessive that THE FAA HAD TO CERTIFY THE PINTO AS AN AIRCRAFT.
Along with the detailed biographical data and the behind-the-scenes movie analysis, the writer is a longtime music author (and occasional contributor to AllMusic), and delivers a wealthy stage of element about electrical blues, the music tradition of the ’70s (together with Disco Demolition Evening at Comiskey Park), and insights into the movie’s musical visitor stars (Cab Calloway, John Lee Hooker, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, James Brown and others). The guide lovingly tells the story of a high-speed trip that soars triumphantly and expectedly (assuming the reader is conscious of the destiny of John Belushi) crashes on the finish.
The Blues Brothers – An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Movie Basic is accessible now from Grove Atlantic and your native bookstore.
