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| Track list: 1. Opening: I Can’t Turn You Loose 2. Hey Bartender 3. Messin' With The Kid 4. (I Got Every Thing I Need) Almost 5. Rubber Biscuit 6. Shot Gun Blues 7. Groove Me 8. I Don't Know 9. Soul Man 10. “B” Movie Box Car Blues 11. Flip Flop and Fly 12. Closing: I Can't Turn You Loose Running time: 39 minutes Released: 1978 |
So I loved the movie, I still loved much of the soundtrack, and I certainly used to love a fair number of the tracks on this collection, too. Comedians they may have been, but Belushi and Ackroyd clearly had a love for the material and that always carried across these recordings. I wonder if, not having listened to them for a while, that sense is something I still get.
A ripple from a live audience and a short opening ditty. The bass of I Can't Turn You Loose is pretty iconic - like the skyline out of my window. I am in Hoboken, looking across at NYC at night. Quite a view. This listen is to keep me up long enough that I might sleep in past 5am.
The first proper song here is Hey Bartender, blaring moments punctuated by pauses, harmonica solos, too much going on... this track has them all, but not quite the appeal it used to have. I don't know if that is my tiredness or the lacklustre song... the energy is certainly there in the performance. Messin' With the Kid starts small, riff and percussion, the horns only arriving a little later. Its a more effective number because of the more limited approach, a tighter structure; but "more effective" does not translate to any particular love for it. This album was always back-loaded for me (and even then it was really just 2-3 songs).
I could really do without the "introduce the whole band" section; I've seen the film, I know who they all are. Its a trick that works on stage for a live audience who can respond and cheer the individuals (and lord knows I've seen Bellowhead - there's a tag pairing I'd never have expected - have to introduce all 11 members enough times to cheer along with it), but on record it just eats up time. Oh well. Almost follows up and this has more of the big band sound to it, a more obvious keyboard part and a happier feel. Going into the song I thought "oh, alright" but actually its better than the two before it, and the one that follows. Rubber Biscuit is a comedy song, but since its being performed by comedians I'll let them off. Musically it's incredibly forgettable, but Ackroyd's vocal performance carries it through and I have to admit a soft spot for the stupidity of the wish sandwich and the ricochet biscuit.
We return to more standard fare next. Shotgun Blues is pedestrian and unengaging but- being a Blues standard structure - has a familiarity to it that means you can just shut your eyes and let it wash over you, pretend the players are more iconic blues guitar men and move on. Or you could, but for the fact it is comfortably the longest track on the disc and stays well past its welcome. I really don't have much else to say about it, other than it isn't as problematic as the next track. When I was younger I loved Groove Me, but it trips my problematic content filter these days, with the bad accents and culturally stereotyping, if not outright racist, talk of "Babylon" at the end of it. The music has a nice groove to it, and any point it crescendos it's a great sound, but those accents... ugh! And the screaming that I didn't recall wasn't welcome either.
We're now into the ones that I used to really like. I Don't Know starts the run with a horn-heavy chorus that still makes me smile. I like the structure in the verse too, the little punctuating horn blasts that frame the vocal. I am less keen on the vocal itself or the lyrics these days though. The real heart of this album was always Soul Man. This tune is a bone fide favourite; that bass, that riff, that chorus. Everything about this song stands up really well. I am surprised I only have one other version of it (on The Best of Sam & Dave). I love both; Sam & Dave's version is more pure, but this version... this is the first one I had available to play on demand.
The final track I really got on with was B Movie... The riffy opening is one thing, but its the transition into the longer riff that supports the verses, and the combination with the vocal that really sold me. Listening now the vocal doesn't sound so hot, but the backing hasn't lost its lustre. Guitars are the be all and end all of this tune, the horns, keys, percussion all exist to support, even in the lead out when they gain prominence they can only do that because of what the guitar laid down before.
The rest of the disc is incidental now. Flip Flop and Fly has a pretty standard structure, a nice enough timbre and tempo but has never been a song that I considered seriously... it always felt like a lighthearted closer before the lead out track that closes the album. I guess I have soured a little on sax solos from when I was a teen, too; I was mad keen on them then, loved Baker Street and all that stuff. Now... right place, right time please.
It's nowhere near as good as all that, really, but for what it is - a side project for a couple of comic actors - it's pretty darn good still. I find myself unable to hold it to high standards because music was neither of our principles first careers. Sure, the supporting case were all music pros but this was a vehicle for the Blues Brothers themselves. I'm glad I still have it, even if Soul Man is the only song I want to hear again and again.
A ripple from a live audience and a short opening ditty. The bass of I Can't Turn You Loose is pretty iconic - like the skyline out of my window. I am in Hoboken, looking across at NYC at night. Quite a view. This listen is to keep me up long enough that I might sleep in past 5am.
The first proper song here is Hey Bartender, blaring moments punctuated by pauses, harmonica solos, too much going on... this track has them all, but not quite the appeal it used to have. I don't know if that is my tiredness or the lacklustre song... the energy is certainly there in the performance. Messin' With the Kid starts small, riff and percussion, the horns only arriving a little later. Its a more effective number because of the more limited approach, a tighter structure; but "more effective" does not translate to any particular love for it. This album was always back-loaded for me (and even then it was really just 2-3 songs).
I could really do without the "introduce the whole band" section; I've seen the film, I know who they all are. Its a trick that works on stage for a live audience who can respond and cheer the individuals (and lord knows I've seen Bellowhead - there's a tag pairing I'd never have expected - have to introduce all 11 members enough times to cheer along with it), but on record it just eats up time. Oh well. Almost follows up and this has more of the big band sound to it, a more obvious keyboard part and a happier feel. Going into the song I thought "oh, alright" but actually its better than the two before it, and the one that follows. Rubber Biscuit is a comedy song, but since its being performed by comedians I'll let them off. Musically it's incredibly forgettable, but Ackroyd's vocal performance carries it through and I have to admit a soft spot for the stupidity of the wish sandwich and the ricochet biscuit.
We return to more standard fare next. Shotgun Blues is pedestrian and unengaging but- being a Blues standard structure - has a familiarity to it that means you can just shut your eyes and let it wash over you, pretend the players are more iconic blues guitar men and move on. Or you could, but for the fact it is comfortably the longest track on the disc and stays well past its welcome. I really don't have much else to say about it, other than it isn't as problematic as the next track. When I was younger I loved Groove Me, but it trips my problematic content filter these days, with the bad accents and culturally stereotyping, if not outright racist, talk of "Babylon" at the end of it. The music has a nice groove to it, and any point it crescendos it's a great sound, but those accents... ugh! And the screaming that I didn't recall wasn't welcome either.
We're now into the ones that I used to really like. I Don't Know starts the run with a horn-heavy chorus that still makes me smile. I like the structure in the verse too, the little punctuating horn blasts that frame the vocal. I am less keen on the vocal itself or the lyrics these days though. The real heart of this album was always Soul Man. This tune is a bone fide favourite; that bass, that riff, that chorus. Everything about this song stands up really well. I am surprised I only have one other version of it (on The Best of Sam & Dave). I love both; Sam & Dave's version is more pure, but this version... this is the first one I had available to play on demand.
The final track I really got on with was B Movie... The riffy opening is one thing, but its the transition into the longer riff that supports the verses, and the combination with the vocal that really sold me. Listening now the vocal doesn't sound so hot, but the backing hasn't lost its lustre. Guitars are the be all and end all of this tune, the horns, keys, percussion all exist to support, even in the lead out when they gain prominence they can only do that because of what the guitar laid down before.
The rest of the disc is incidental now. Flip Flop and Fly has a pretty standard structure, a nice enough timbre and tempo but has never been a song that I considered seriously... it always felt like a lighthearted closer before the lead out track that closes the album. I guess I have soured a little on sax solos from when I was a teen, too; I was mad keen on them then, loved Baker Street and all that stuff. Now... right place, right time please.
It's nowhere near as good as all that, really, but for what it is - a side project for a couple of comic actors - it's pretty darn good still. I find myself unable to hold it to high standards because music was neither of our principles first careers. Sure, the supporting case were all music pros but this was a vehicle for the Blues Brothers themselves. I'm glad I still have it, even if Soul Man is the only song I want to hear again and again.
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