release date: Nov. 28, 1978
format: cd (remaster - 7567-82788-2)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,84]
producer: Bob Tischler
label: Atlantic - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Opening: I Can't Turn You Loose" - 2. "Hey Bartender" - 3. "Messin' With The Kid" - 5. "Rubber Biscuit" (other live performance) - 6. "Shot Gun Blues" (other live performance) - 9. "Soul Man" (from SNL) - 11. "Flip, Flop & Fly"
Album debut by The Blues Brothers is a live album of 12 tracks with a running time just below 40 mins. It's the live recording of a concert Sep. 9, 1978 at the Universal Amphitheater, L.A. when the band opened for Steve Martin.
It's the collection of traditional blues and rhythm & blues compositions from the 1950's, 60's and 70's. The band, The Blues Brothers, feature the two actors John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as the band's main singers with Belushi as lead vocalist - they are supported by the true musicians of The Blues Brothers' band: Steve 'The Colonel' Cropper and Matt 'Guitar' Murphy on guitars, Donald 'Duck' Dunn on bass guitar, Paul 'The Shiv' Shaffer on Hammond organ, Wurlitzer electric piano, acoustic piano, backing vocals and as the band's musical director, Steve 'Getdwa' Jordan on drums & backing vocals, and the horns' section with Alan 'Mr. Fabulous' Rubin on trumpet & backing vocals, Lou 'Blue Lou' Marini and Tom 'Triple Scale' Scott both on tenor & alto saxophones as well as backing vocals, and Tom 'Bones' Malone on tenor & baritone saxophones, trombone, trumpet and backing vocals. This whole constellation works like a longtime relationship, and the two newbies, Belushi and Aykroyd mingle in rather neatly. Belushi has the rusty vocal that works quite nice in the traditional blues and rhythm & blues arrangements they mostly cover and then Aykroyd fills in and takes the lead on the more unusual tracks like the Otis Redding song "I Can't Turn You Loose" and he simply shines on the fine and crazy "Rubber Biscuit" 1956 doo-wop and comedy song originally by The Chips, and then Aykroyd also plays the harmonica.
It's a typical misconception that the band of The Blues Brothers was created in the aftermath of the film's popularity, when instead the idea of the pair had been created for comedy sketches for the Saturday Night Live Show, Belushi's widespread popularity from the show and his most recent leading part in the film "National Lampoon's Animal House" (1978) together with Aykroyd's comprehensive knowledge about the roots of the music led to the actual formation with the above-mentioned musicians in the fall of 1980 and a script for a full-length comedy film about the two brothers and the soundtrack for the film: The Blues Brothers (Jun. 1980) by John Landis, which again led to a third and final album, Made in America (Dec. 1980).
The album became a spectacular success peaking at number #1 on the Billboard 200 in the US and it remains one of the best-selling blues albums ever.
