Word: belushi
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...John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, of NBC's Saturday Night and other fame, have released a gem of an album under the guise of the Blues Brothers, an act first spawned to warm up Saturday Night studio audiences a year or so back. Perhaps you have caught a couple of their subsequent appearances on the show, decked out in black suits, fedoras, and shades that would have done a G-man proud (circa 1962). Steve Martin, who guest hosted one show on which the Brothers performed, was sufficiently impressed to ask them to open eight shows...
...that, despite its comic appearances (for instance, the gloriously cheesy cover photos), it does not come across like Saturday Night, or Animal House, or even the National Lampoon's Lemmings. The music itself is, for the most part, surprisingly straightforward. With the immediate intention of recording the September concerts, Belushi and Aykroyd took the opportunity to assemble a band of stellar musicians who would back them up in thoroughly professional style. Their collective sound virtually overshadows the few attempts at genuine comedy, although this remains strictly a good-time album if there ever...
...songs themselves are fantastic. The first high spot is an absolutely perfect version of Floyd Dixon's "Hey Bartender." Belushi snarls, "Hey bartender, hey man, lookie here/Draw one, draw two, draw three, four glasses of beer," as the horn section, arranged by James Brown alum Tom Malone, blasts away behind him. Aykroyd has one of his better harmonica solos, followed by some ringing guitar by veteran bluesman Matt "Guitar" Murphy...
There really isn't a weak song on the rest of Side 1, either. "Messin' With the Kid" features some fine guitar work by Murphy and especially Steve Cropper, the legendary Memphis session man, producer, and mainstay of Booker T. and the MGs. Belushi smooths out his vocal delivery a bit in "Almost," and Tom Scott of the L.A. Express handles the sax break as the rest of the horn section punches away. Next comes Aykroyd's only solo number, a wonderfully obscure bit of nonsensical babbling called "Rubber Biscuit" which is, believe it or not, quite faithful...
SIDE 2 opens with an amusingly reggae-fied version of King Floyd's "Groove Me." Belushi does not do the most convincing Jamaican imitation in the world--he almost sounds Irish in some places--but the song succeeds nonetheless. "I Don't Know," which follows, is very funny and includes some extremely suggestive lines from Belushi ("Baby, you know when you bend over I see every bit of Christmas, and when you bend back I'm looking right into the new year."). On "Soul Man" Cropper delivers the same great riff he's been playing for years, and fellow...