Back in 1980, I recall going to the cinema to see a new film, The Blues Brothers. Music and car chases…..what wasn’t there to love? The critics hated it because….ya know….that’s what they’re paid to do. A few years after initial release, it became THAT cult film that everyone watched – on TV, on video or at late night cinema screenings (in Melbourne, it became an audience participation phenomenon similar to Rocky Horror). The question is how did the film get made?
Welcome to episode 115 of See Hear Podcast.
Kerry, Tim and I welcomed to the show journalist and author Daniel De Vise. He’s written a great new book called “The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic”.
As the title implies, it’s not just about the making of the film (although a large part of it is devoted to that subject). Daniel did extensive research to talk about the early lives and characters of Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. They were a part of the new North American comedy movement Second City, National Lampoon and Saturday Night (later Saturday Night Live), so he writes much about those institutions. There’s talk in the book about Aykroyd’s love of blues and how he (and Robert Cray’s harmonica player) made Belushi a blues fanatic. There’s stories of 70s cinema, addiction, egos, friendship, men in bee costumes, and origin of The Blues Brothers.
We were rapt that Daniel came on the show to talk about his book and about the blues, the accusations of racism thrown against the comedians who wanted to bring brilliant blues and soul musicians back to the spotlight, the comedy movement as the new rockstar, how rock musicians started taking themselves too seriously…..and a TON of other things. Yeah, we even talk about The Blues Brothers movie. The environment that led to the film is hugely important and it would be impossible to talk about it without telling the wider story as to how the film got made. Daniel has done a terrific job in doing this. I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation even half as much as we did having it.
You can follow his goings on at danieldevise.com, and you can pick up the book in both physical and e-book formats wherever you usually get your reading material.
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You can download episode 115 from here.
