The first time you saw it, you knew you’d have to see it again.
You were obsessed with the comedy. You couldn’t get enough of the music. You still remember the first-third-fifth time you saw the movie, alone or with friends, in a theater or on TV. And in the new book, “The Blues Brothers” by Daniel De Visé, yours wasn’t the only addiction that took hold.
As the audience quietly fidgeted and cameras readied on the night in April 22, 1978, no one was sure how the opening skit of Saturday Night Live would be received. Its stars, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi had talked about starting a band together for years. This would be their debut. It would have to work.
And it did: the audience seemed slightly unimpressed by the Blues Brothers at first, says De Visé, but they were “stirred to jubilation” by the skit’s end.
Born in early 1949 to immigrant parents, John Adam Belushi grew up skirting discipline by making his mother laugh at his antics and his wit. He deflected problems at school in the same way but his clowning belied a straight-laced aversion to drugs and alcohol.
That lasted until he discovered a love of the stage, and he was introduced to “weed.”
With a father who worked for the National Film Board in Canada, it’s almost no surprise that Daniel Edward Aykroyd, born in 1952, would be drawn to the limelight. A talented mimic, Dan began classes at a local Ottawa community playhouse at age twelve; briefly, he considered becoming a priest because his parents seemed to want it.
Eventually, because he was rather impish, the Aykroyds were told “that perhaps Dan wasn’t suited to the priesthood.”
It was just as well. Comedy was always his thing; in fact, he was working with Second City Toronto in the early 1970s when an “oddly proportioned, white-scarfed Albanian” joined the troupe. Aykroyd liked the guy, and he introduced Belushi to the blues…
The sarcasm and wit are still there. The music sings to your youth. Stream the movie this weekend and enjoy, but even if you’re a long-time fan, you may be surprised to read the back-story of that iconic movie in the book that bears its name.
Indeed, though he leans heavier on Belushi’s story than he does on Aykroyd’s, author Daniel De Visé has a nice variety of obscurities to share in “The Blues Brothers,” and they extend well beyond both big and small screens. As explanation, he starts by introducing readers to Aykroyd’s and Belushi’s earliest influencers, blending in other Second City and SNL alumni and relevant people when appropriate. This absolutely invites reminiscing. Yes, the seed-to-screen timeline for the movie can be lengthy and sometimes overly-detailed here, but the narrative seems fresh despite its age.
With the feel of a class reunion or like paging through your high school annual, this book will very much appeal to readers who can still quote the movie or sing its songs. Start “The Blues Brothers,” and you’ll be hooked.
“The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic” by Daniel De Visé
c.2024, Atlantic Monthly Press
$28.00
386 pages
