The Blues Brothers

When I grew up in the The Netherlands constant TV wasn’t all that ubiquitous yet and streaming video wouldn’t be around for another decade. What we did have though was a VHS recorder, and our recording of The Blues Brothers was one tape that I held onto. From my mid-teens until my early twenties, I watched The Blues Brothers at least once a year.

This book tells the story about the movie, and the main people that made it happen: mostly Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. The books covers their youths before they met, them meeting as part of the Second City improv troupe, coming up with The Blues Brothers characters on Saturday Night Live, the challenges faces in the handful of movies that Belushi played in, and his well-documented addictions and overdose death.

The book is subtitled “An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic” and whilst it covers the movie well - and also covers some of the other people involved - it could’ve been titled “The Rise and Fall of John Belushi” as it really focuses on his life and downfall more than anything else.

It was interesting to read the history of many of the people involved in the movie, and how many of the iconic scenes came together. It was also a real eye-opener to read how the movie revived the careers of many of the blues singers it featured, something I fully knew at the time but somehow had forgotten since. Just as I never fully realized that it was Carrie Fisher who played Jake’s crazy ex-girlfriend - I guess I wasn’t a big Star Wars fan back then. :-)

The Blues Brothers will forever be one of my favorite movies, and this book was a good read and reminder to watch it again (the extended version with 15+ more minutes of maniacal madness).