Credit is often given to Quentin Taranteno for re-inventing the movie score by using old pop songs mixed with contemporary artists, most noticeably on ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and then on the hugely successful ‘Pulp Fiction’. However, back in June 1980 an album was released that was revisiting old classics with just a hint of tongue and cheek about it.
The soundtrack to the ‘Blues Brothers’ movie was in fact the second release by The Blues Brothers Band. Their first was a live album entitled ‘Briefcase Full of Blues’. As a band and blues review act they’d built up a huge following in America due to their tight live shows and ‘Saturday Night Live’ appearances, so naturally when they made a movie an album had to follow.
The eleven track album doesn’t dip at any point. From Taj Mahal’s opening track ‘She Caught the Katy’ recorded for his 1968 album ‘The Natch’l Blues’ the listener is taken on a journey of musical classics that form an affectionate tribute to music of a past era. Mostly sequenced in a similar order as the songs appear in the film, Henry Mancini’s ‘Peter Gunn’ follows and is given a full on horn section that adds an extra depth to the pounding riff.
‘Shake A Tail Feather’, ‘Think’ and ‘That Old Landmark’ see the album and film’s credibility given a big boost by Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and James Brown all lending their vocal talents to the Blues Brothers Band.
The Blues Brothers Band were no slouches either. Featuring the legendary Steve Cropper on guitar and the late Donald “Duck” Dunn on bass the band were already seeped in Stax blues history and more than qualified to belt out the blues classics. While the front men of John Belushi and Dan Akroyd were never the greatest of vocalists, stage antics mixed with gravelly voices more than made up for their vocal deficiencies.
The fan favorite ‘Everybody Needs Somebody To Love’ is a slightly different mix from the movie. The album version features additional female backing vocals whereas the movie version sticks to the stripped back.
Without doubt the favourite around the Folk & Tumble office is the often covered Washington/Tiomkin classic ‘Rawhide’. We all know and fondly remember the scene from the movie where the band end up at Bob’s Country Bunker.
However, the fun doesn’t stop there. Quickly followed by a big band version Cab Calloway’s drug laden tale of misfortune ‘Minnie The Moocher’ the record keeps pumping out the classics. Robert Johnson’s ‘Sweet Home Chicago’ and Leiber and Stoller’s ‘Jailhouse Rock’ the album ends on a foot stomping high.
Thirty five years later and the movie and the record have become cult classics. In many ways it seems only fitting to pay tribute to something that in itself was a tribute to classics.