I'm sure that the subtle jab was also at Jim Belushi.
But I gotta defend the Blues Brothers....at least the film. First of all,
Ackroyd and (particularly) Belushi were a fun act. They made for a good
party band doing decent versions of great songs. And I doubt anyone's
knocking the talent of the backing band.
But the film works on so many levels. Sure there's the comedy, explosions,
and car chases. But under all of that is a deep reverence for the roots of
Blues, and a very gritty perspective at times - at least the DVD version,
which takes a lot more time looking at the blue collar / working poor
aspects. From the silent opening shots of the steel mills before the camera
takes us to Joliet, to the focus on the Brothers as being orphans taught the
blues by gaslight in the boiler room by Cab Calloway's character, to the
extended street scenes by the diner and Ray's Music Exchange.....even though
the movie was successful for the cheap laughs, if you watch the "uncut"
version, you get a sense that there is more at the heart of the film.
This, of course, has nothing to do with the sequel, or the abberration that
has become the Blues Brothers "industry".......or the actors still
associated with it......
- Blake
On 10/4/07, Bob Cohen <bob@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Oct 4, 2007, at 11:34 AM, Buck Wolf wrote:
Really, what Carlin was talking about was white movie stars who
think their stardom automatically make them musical artists.
I know. But he touched on an issue that comes up around here and in
the blues world. People struggle for authenticity and confuse an art
form's roots with what happens to it when it becomes part of the
culture. Similar arguments about authenticity were made in ballet as
recently as the early 60s (and is perhaps are still advanced by some)
namely that black women couldn't dance ballet because they had the
wrong body shapes. And what about classical music? Isn't it
patently absurd to say that a black musician can't play Mozart
because he's not white? The list goes on and on. Sadly so many
forget that we're all human beings and have many more similarities
the differences. Are you old enough to remember the STAR TREK in
which there were people from a planet that were half black and half
white? Some were black on the left side, some on the right. And
that was cause for fighing. It's just silly.
Wasn't this just a not so subtle jab at Bruce Willis and Dan Aykroyd?
A not so subtle jab, I'd say. :-)
And say what you want about Aykroyd's harmonica playing. Still,
many blues players say that Aykroyd's done a lot of good for blues
players.
Well I'm not embarrassed to admit that the BLUES BROTHERS skits, the
movie, and the soundtrack were my on-ramp to Blues Highway. I always
liked the bluesier rock and roll but didn't really know that its
roots went deep into American culture. I thought that sound came
from England.
Bob
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