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The Blues Brothers (1980)

Started by DrGreggles, January 05, 2019, 11:14:51 PM

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Rizla

Of course the other thing about this film, like Spinal Tap, is if you've ever made music for a living you will quote lines from it whether you want to or not. "Like, when we first arrived, the barlady didn't charge us for the beers...". "My brother likes to write the checks on the glovebox with the engine running" "Pardon me but I don't think you'll find anything wrong with the action on this piano" etc

Endicott

They're good boys but they made a lot of racket at night.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Replies From View on January 07, 2019, 03:41:40 PM
I do think that the Blues Brothers was ruined a bit in the 90s by dickheads dressing up as them a lot and there were stage shows of it that were terminally unable to fuck off for about five years.

That whole culture of making it fashionable for pricks and show-offs took away the sense of the film as a fun, standalone romp.

Bit harsh. The temerity of these people! How on earth would a stage show you probably haven't seen affect your enjoyment of the original movie?

Reminds me of ushering in NYE 1994 at a local nightclub that had a Blues Brothers karaoke tribute act as part of the night's entertainment. It was a bit lame but the late teens crowd seem to love it. Me and my brother's miserable mate were leaning on the balcony watching the - *cough-spit* - 'fun' on the dance floor as these two geezers in black hats, shades and suits bopped up and down on stage singing to a backing track of Gimme Some Lovin'
My brother's miserable mate was faintly disgusted.

"This is OUR generation's music! Not theirs! Wankers! Why don't they leave it be and just listen to their own dance music shite!"

Bear in mind, we were only in our late-twenties ourselves and I had to remind him we were toddlers in the sixties, so really, It's not OUR generation's music either.  What a tit.



Sebastian Cobb

Deleted scene 18 has been in every version I've seen I think. It sticks with me, I like it.


famethrowa

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on January 07, 2019, 04:44:34 PM
Yeah, Alan "Mr Fabulous" Rubin is easily the best actor in the band, which is probably why he got the most lines. Matt "Guitar" Murphy, not quite so much.
Donald "Duck" Dunn's gibberish interjections are very funny too. "If the shit fits, wear it!"

When they're talking about prison food and Matt says "yeah, they were all pretty bad" it's one of the worst deliveries I've ever heard. Still funny though.

famethrowa

Quote from: Replies From View on January 07, 2019, 03:41:40 PM
I do think that the Blues Brothers was ruined a bit in the 90s by dickheads dressing up as them a lot and there were stage shows of it that were terminally unable to fuck off for about five years.

That whole culture of making it fashionable for pricks and show-offs took away the sense of the film as a fun, standalone romp.

A fella I know has been playing Jake in a tribute band consistently since 1985 and is still at it this year, it's amazing how this movie can direct and define a person's life like that. But hey, you do what you gotta do

marquis_de_sad

Regarding this idea that The Blues Brothers isn't a musical: in this scene they move in time to non-diegetic music.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on January 07, 2019, 06:33:18 PM
Bit harsh. The temerity of these people! How on earth would a stage show you probably haven't seen affect your enjoyment of the original movie?

Reminds me of ushering in NYE 1994 at a local nightclub that had a Blues Brothers karaoke tribute act as part of the night's entertainment. It was a bit lame but the late teens crowd seem to love it. Me and my brother's miserable mate were leaning on the balcony watching the - *cough-spit* - 'fun' on the dance floor as these two geezers in black hats, shades and suits bopped up and down on stage singing to a backing track of Gimme Some Lovin'
My brother's miserable mate was faintly disgusted.

"This is OUR generation's music! Not theirs! Wankers! Why don't they leave it be and just listen to their own dance music shite!"

Bear in mind, we were only in our late-twenties ourselves and I had to remind him we were toddlers in the sixties, so really, It's not OUR generation's music either.  What a tit.

Yep. I daresay that most of those Blues Brothers tribute shows are naff, but so what? That stuff is so ephemeral, it doesn't matter. Let people enjoy an evening of bopping about to a couple of shades-clad blokes singing shit cover versions of BB cover versions if they want to.

I also don't think that those shows have tarnished the reputation of the film, which, if anything, has become more revered as the years roll by. The reviews were pretty mixed at the time, but today it's widely regarded as a classic. Whether you agree with that assessment or not, it clearly managed to survive the '90s ubiquity of twats in hats murdering Sweet Home Chicago.   

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on January 07, 2019, 07:06:48 PM
Deleted scene 18 has been in every version I've seen I think. It sticks with me, I like it.



I love all the big musical numbers and crazy stunt set-pieces, but little moments like that make the film for me.

clarkgwent

Quote from: marquis_de_sad on January 08, 2019, 01:18:12 AM
Regarding this idea that The Blues Brothers isn't a musical: in this scene they move in time to non-diegetic music.

It is clearly to what Cab n the boys are playing (if I've got non-diegetic right) tho.

PS I was once in a small cafe when "Shake Your Tailfeather" came on 6Music. The two women running the place did the dance while waitressing/cooking. When it finished they just carried on working as usual, like it was the most normal thing in the world. Have any other readers had a similar experience?

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: clarkgwent on January 08, 2019, 07:30:52 AM
It is clearly to what Cab n the boys are playing (if I've got non-diegetic right) tho.

PS I was once in a small cafe when "Shake Your Tailfeather" came on 6Music. The two women running the place did the dance while waitressing/cooking. When it finished they just carried on working as usual, like it was the most normal thing in the world. Have any other readers had a similar experience?

In a cafeteria in Venice Beach. The waiters and waitresses all looked and acted like movie stars and kept bursting into impromptu dance moves to what came on the radio. Clearly, they were budding/ resting actors waiting to get spotted by that producer that happens to be passing through. Quite common over there.

I wonder if short order chefs behaved similarly in the greasy spoons down Wood Lane near TV Centre?

madhair60

I once slam danced to Puddle of Mudd in a Toby Carvery

Replies From View

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on January 07, 2019, 06:33:18 PM
Bit harsh. The temerity of these people! How on earth would a stage show you probably haven't seen affect your enjoyment of the original movie?

Eh, what.  I did see the stage show for some reason but that's besides the point.  The point was that for ages it was cool for people to dress in black suits and trilbies, and these people were often being drunken dickheads roaming around and yelling Blues Brothers quotes into the ether (or the ears of whoever was walking past).  It felt like half a decade of continuous stag nights, which just happen to not be my cup of tea.

Not sure why it's "harsh" to remark that this had a negative impact on my memories of the film and the associations I have of various lines and songs from it.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Replies From View on January 09, 2019, 12:22:19 PM
Eh, what.  I did see the stage show for some reason but that's besides the point.  The point was that for ages it was cool for people to dress in black suits and trilbies, and these people were often being drunken dickheads roaming around and yelling Blues Brothers quotes into the ether (or the ears of whoever was walking past).  It felt like half a decade of continuous stag nights, which just happen to not be my cup of tea.

Not sure why it's "harsh" to remark that this had a negative impact on my memories of the film and the associations I have of various lines and songs from it.

Fair enough, if that was your experience.

Christ knows where some of you people have hung out over the years, some of the stories you tell. I have knocked about in some real dives and been to many a rowdy pub night during that period and sure, you had the occasional group of dickheads in attendance but I don't recall all these blokes running around dressed as The Blues Brothers singing and quoting the film. But, if that happened to you regularly, then what a drag.

I used to dress in a black mod suit often in the eighties (2Tone).  Into the nineties (post-New Wave chic?) I continued and it certainly wasn't regarded as "cool" in any way shape or form. Then, it looked like I was trying to be a Reservoir Dog ( I wasn't) . Of course, Pete Docherty made that look fashionable ten years after that but I'd stop wearing them by that point.  I have since adopted the style again. (fat cunt)

madhair60

Quote from: Replies From View on January 09, 2019, 12:22:19 PM
The point was that for ages it was cool for people to dress in black suits and trilbies, and these people were often being drunken dickheads roaming around and yelling Blues Brothers quotes into the ether (or the ears of whoever was walking past).  It felt like half a decade of continuous stag nights, which just happen to not be my cup of tea.

Didn't happen though did it.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Replies From View on January 09, 2019, 12:22:19 PM
Eh, what.  I did see the stage show for some reason but that's besides the point.  The point was that for ages it was cool for people to dress in black suits and trilbies, and these people were often being drunken dickheads roaming around and yelling Blues Brothers quotes into the ether (or the ears of whoever was walking past).  It felt like half a decade of continuous stag nights, which just happen to not be my cup of tea.

They were quoting lines from the film? I'm not doubting your experience of pissed-up dickheads roaming around dressed as the Blues Brothers, that was undoubtedly a '90s stag night/lads phenomenon, but in my personal experience they were just twats who adopted an easily recognisable fancy dress disguise, as opposed to people - comedy nerds, if you like - who knew the film to such an extent that they'd quote dialogue from it.

Apart from, I guess, "We're on a mission from God", you'd really have to be a deep dish BB fan to quote lines of dialogue from what is essentially a cult, esoteric comedy film.

Apologies if that comes across as needlessly pedantic, but I'd be surprised if the people you're referring to had ever seen the film more than once (if at all).

Replies From View

They were quoting from the film, yeah, or doing vague impressions or whatever.  I only explained it in detail becaise upthread somebody took umbrage at me expessing that my enjoyment of the film was retrospectively marred; I wasn't expecting this to be quite so picked apart to be honest.

madhair60

Well, I mean, it didn't happen. You made it up.

Replies From View

Quote from: madhair60 on January 09, 2019, 05:34:07 PM
Well, I mean, it didn't happen. You made it up.

Sorry that I don't get this but I don't get it.

If I'd made it up I would have bothered saying something more entertaining.  Or I guess you're just doing some schtick.  I dunno; I'm tired.

madhair60

I thought it would be funny to just pointlessly doubt what you were saying. I still think it is somewhat funny in concept, but the execution is maybe lacking. I hope you feel better soon.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Replies From View on January 09, 2019, 05:23:42 PM
They were quoting from the film, yeah, or doing vague impressions or whatever.  I only explained it in detail becaise upthread somebody took umbrage at me expessing that my enjoyment of the film was retrospectively marred; I wasn't expecting this to be quite so picked apart to be honest.

I didn't take umbrage, just rather baffled by these hordes of blokes from Blues Brothers Island regularly marauding through pubs and parties in the nineties.

Replies From View

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on January 09, 2019, 06:55:55 PM
I didn't take umbrage, just rather baffled by these hordes of blokes from Blues Brothers Island regularly marauding through pubs and parties in the nineties. I just didn't encounter this.

Could it have been just a City of Bath thing somehow?  I've no idea but assumed it had been more widespread.

Sebastian Cobb

I've never seen it, but even the thought of people enjoying themselves is making me angry.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Replies From View on January 09, 2019, 07:01:39 PM
Could it have been just a City of Bath thing somehow?  I've no idea.

Ach, don't matter. I believe you and I understand a bit where you're coming from. For me, it was hearing the songs too often on the radio in 1990. Must've been a tenth anniversary thing? 

What I found odd hearing about the stage show was that The Blues Brothers had been relocated to the UK and were Northern apparently?

Here's a scathing review. Ouch.

When last I saw The Official Tribute To The Blues Brothers in the West End in 1996 (already five years into its life), "dreary farrago" was only the most succinct of my condemnations of it. Another five years on, it returns to the Whitehall Theatre for (please God) its final appearance, and I can't even muster the energy to be angry.

My mistake last time was in assuming that there would be even the slightest vestige of a dramatic component to the evening. If you just go in expecting a workmanlike but mediocre R&B revue, your opinion of it might be a high as zero. Even the "police raid" has gone, though the rap version of "Two Little Boys" inexplicably remains. Simon Foster and Brad Henshaw as Elwood and Jake (more or less) do some in-character patter between songs, but it's really all about the music. So does the music cut the mustard?

Yes and no. Foster has a nice line in Dan Aykroyd-like bass vocals and poker face, and also blows a mean blues harp. Henshaw has stopped trying vocally, and sings the songs the way he wants to rather than the way the late John Belushi did (or would have done); he still does the moves and wears the suit, shades and (oddly misshapen) hat, but there's no real attempt at character in his singing. The band are younger than ever (like policemen) and are clearly proficient, but turn in a disturbingly slow, jackhammer arrangement of "Riot In Cell Block #9", and probably the most soulless "Do You Love Me" I've ever heard. The trio of Bluettes on backing vocals – Mike Henry, Alana Maria and Joe Speare – are hot, but (with the exception of Maria's powerful rendition of Aretha Franklin's "Think") their turns are entirely gratuitous and unrelated to canonical BB-dom.

The big selling point of this incarnation is the guest appearance of Antonio Fargas, better known as Huggy Bear from Starsky And Hutch. He grins and capers a treat, but knows that he can't really sing: he delivers as much of "Minnie The Moocher" as he can get away with in a kind of jive Sprechgesang, and sings as little of the encore of "Living In America" as he can get away with, full stop.

But the thing about this show is that it is explicitly an imitation of an imitation: an announcment before Foster and Henshaw abseil onto the stage declares that they are wanted for impersonating Elwood and Jake. It's like a forgery of a Warhol Brillo box, and what's the point of that except to make money? Even a normally enthusiastic press-night audience gave up on every clapalong within eight bars of the performers stopping their chivvying. Director David Leland must have fallen on hard artistic times indeed to have continued his association with the show for so long. Maybe "dreary farrago" isn't so wide of the mark after all.

Written for the Financial Times.

Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights reserved.


Replies From View

Yes, that sums up my memory of that show.  Brings it all back, as well.  I'd forgotten about the "impersonating Elwood and Jake" aspect until just then.

The rap version of Two Little Boys went "Two little, HA HA; two little... BOYS" over and over again.

Replies From View


non capisco

Quote from: Replies From View on January 09, 2019, 10:31:56 PM
Here it is (audio only):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfIDeAJlneU

Jesus christ. That is a Bromley high street "busking entertainer" level of dreadful.

Phil_A

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on January 09, 2019, 07:10:19 PM
The big selling point of this incarnation is the guest appearance of Antonio Fargas, better known as Huggy Bear from Starsky And Hutch. He grins and capers a treat, but knows that he can't really sing: he delivers as much of "Minnie The Moocher" as he can get away with in a kind of jive Sprechgesang, and sings as little of the encore of "Living In America" as he can get away with, full stop.

Fuck me, I saw a Blues Brothers live show in the mid 2000s (the same one, I assume) and Fargas was still in it then, I thought at the time he'd just turned up for a guest spot as he wasn't busy that evening or something. Was he really in the show that long? Desolation.

There was no Two Little Boys rap though, for which it sounds like we should've been grateful.

notjosh

Think I must have seen that show about 3 times at Darlington Civic Theatre as a kid and I had a cracking time. In '90s North Yorkshire a dreary farrago was a great Saturday night.

Brundle-Fly

What possessed the producers to include an electro pop version of Two Little Boys when they had such a rich source of soul music to tap from? If the show was 'A Tribute To Cannon & Ball Are The Boys In Blue'  I'd cut them some slack but fuck me!  I wonder if Antonio Fargas would have made a cameo in the Eric Sykes role?