Briefcase Full of Blues - The Blues Brothers

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.

The Best of Sam & Dave - Sam & Dave

Track list:

1. A Place Nobody Can Find
2. Good Night Baby
3. I Take What I Want
4. Sweet Home
5. You Don't Know Like I Know
6. Hold On, I'm Comin'
7. Said I Wasn't Gonna Tell Nobody
8. You Got Me Hummin'
9. When Something Is Wrong With My Baby
10. Small Portion Of Your Love
11. Soothe Me
12. Soul Man
13. May I Baby
14. I Thank You
15. Wrap It Up
16. Still Is The Night
17. You Don't Know What You Mean To Me
18. This Is Your World
19. Can't You Find Another Way (Of Doing It)
20. Soul Sister, Brown Sugar
21. Come On In

Running time: 56 minutes
Released: 1969

Old school now, going back to a decade before I was born when Rhythm and Blues was still a meaningful term. I grew up watching the Blues Brothers regularly, and my favourite piece of music from that film - Peter Gunn theme aside - was not on the soundtrack (here). It is, of course, Hold On, I'm Comin', leading up to the drive-through destruction of a shopping mall. I think its fair to credit my appreciation for this era and genre of music to my youthful exposure to that film.

Whilst close to an hour, this album is made up of a lot of shorter songs and I expect it to fly by. In that it is a product of its time - its funny how the attitude of broadcasters to song length changed, gradual creep in tolerance to now. Pity decisions can't just be taken on the basis of taste/quality rather than a secondary characteristic like duration, but still. That paragraph has taken pretty much all of the first song, one I don't know well. To be honest it was nothing special, and I expect that to be a trend here through the lesser known tracks. That said unless something really bad stands out I am not even going to consider cuts here. As a change up from my normal fare these tunes are welcome even if I am not loving each and every one. Aesthetically they are a world apart from much of my library and they are appreciated on that level for the change of tone and mood. There is a relaxed air associated with listening to these tunes in the modern world, at least for me.

That seems odd in that they are packing quite a bit into a short runtime, but they speak of a much different life. The pressures for people back in the 60s, particularly African Americans, are a world apart from the pressures of anyone in the first world in the 2010s and this was how they wound down and enjoyed themselves. In some ways I long for that sort of detachment from this world... this electronic milieu we find ourselves in, and the sheer pace of day-to-day life in the internet age.

It really doesn't hurt that the harmonies are so good, voices complementing each other so well that you are drawn to that and almost ignore the often very simple and repetitive arrangements. I love the fact that they can get away with calling themselves simply Sam & Dave - that would never fly in 2015. I can't think of a duo so concisely named since the awful Mel and Kim in the 80s (but I am sure there are plenty in scenes that I am not aware of). When the backing picks up, with a bit more energy, volume or other additions to the arrangement, the quality soars. You Don't Know Like I Know is the first tune on the album that I really fall into digging, and it is followed immediately by my favourite. The hook that opens the track and forms the chorus just kills me, and the staccato behind the vocal in the verse is almost as good. Hold On is just sheer cool and it can't help but make me smile. The end of the weekend is almost upon me, but with a long drink to hand and music like this to enjoy it feels like it will last a long while yet.

The simplicity of the formula is remarkable. Now and again it gets more involved, but as a base it really is limited. The short length of the tracks is a real boon in that sense, each on ending before the patterns are fully internalised and dissected as too repetitive. The downside is that most of the songs, if not all, end on an annoying fade out, denying proper closure. Ah, Humming. There is a certainty to this track, a purpose, driven by that bass. It's easy to say with a detached air, separated by 50 (!) years, but this one of the the essences of cool.

I am less enamoured by the more ballad-like When Something Is Wrong With My Baby, also the longest number on this listen at 3.18. It just seems to lack something in comparison. Perhaps with my slightly alcohol-addled brain I need a bit more pace, a bit more bass, and a little more groove. I think it is just a bit too sparse, as the following track immediately appeals more despite some similarities in the vocal approach. It is that touch faster and the arrangement a bit more interesting. Still a fairly significant drop in perceived quality from the high points of Hold On and Humming. Soul Man still to come should reach those heights again though, as does Soothe Me. The opening is underwhelming but once it gets into the swing, there is just something essential about it. I find putting words to what appeals here difficult - there is just something magic in the combinations that make the song significantly greater than the sum of its parts. Pretty repetitive, uninspired lyrics and simple arrangement shouldn't necessarily make for a classic but they do here.

The opening refrain from Soul Man is a classic, and this song is up there with my all time favourites, the chorus sax just magic, the lyrics relate-able the groove innate. I have The Blues Brothers version of the song, which probably resonates more for me for familiarity's sake but the song itself is so amazing and the difference between the versions small. The preference is simply exposure. I am always associating the song with Otis Redding for some reason, but I have no version from Redding, and no idea if his performing it is figment of my imagination or not.

I Thank You is another classic that I only recognise by music, not by name. The insistence of the bass really working here. Oh, man - a bit more modernism injected later on through some sort of organ and a guitar line that sounds fresher and the song is lifted to another level. I love finding little things that I don't recall when going through these listens. I also just love finding myself compelled to listen to things that I would normally overlook. The horn section on Wrap It Up is like Hold On... all over again and the song is just so darn cool, but it is not one I was at all familiar with at all. Finding a real gem only to lose it in the depth of my library again is a little disappointing but at the same time the sheer joy of the pleasant surprise of finding it in the first place is hard to exaggerate.

Generally the faster tracks resonate more than the slower ones. Ballads prey on my loneliness a bit, speak to companionship I don't have, relationships I don't understand on a visceral level but simply end up envying. I think there's more to the difference than that - the harmony maybe doesn't work so well with a slower, sparser support too - but it is hard to look too far past the colour my situation brings to the interpretation. I'm not complaining though, to go by the ballads, being able to relate may not always be a good thing!

The life and love in these pieces is a cut above the John Lee Hooker numbers I listened to yesterday. Even though there are similarities with regards to how formulaic the output can be, Sam & Dave's material has something more vital, a little more pep that makes it that much more accessible, more desirable and more immediately lovable. For all that this disc is just a best of, it is a little gold nugget that I really should polish and show off more often. It is so hard to feel sorry for yourself or negative in any way when you hear music as vital as this. It may be almost half a decade old (and some of these songs no doubt more than that) but it still feels young and relevant to me - I reckon a lot of modern musicians could do a lot worse than hark back to this sound, and harking back has been a big thing recently.

Coming to the end now, and I suspect it might be quite a crash back to reality. Listening to this has transported me away from my sofa for an hour, wrapped me in a blanket that felt like social company. A little injection of joy, pumped out by horn section. More of this, please!

I can't help but hear "light sabre" instead of "life saver" on Come On In though, which ends the listen on a farcical note. Oh well.