Old Enough to Forget

"Good Evening, Ladies and Gentlemen and welcome to the Universal Amphitheater. Well, here it is the late 1970's going on 1985. Y'know so much of the music we here today is pre-programmed electronic disco, we never get a chance to hear master blues men practicing their craft anymore. By the year 2006, the music known today as the blues will exist only in the classical records department of your local public library. So tonight, Ladies and Gentlemen, while we still can, let us welcome from Rock Island, Illinois, the blues men of Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues - The Blues Brothers." - Elwood Blues As a kid I remember seeing them on SNL and they were amazing. I was a tad perplexed as I thought there would be a punchline ... this wasn't a joke. This was reverence and it may have been wrapped in a performance piece, but this was serious stuff and it was delivered like a love letter. From what I've read it was Dan Aykroyd who was the music aficionado, and introduced Jo...

Money and Cigarettes , Eric Clapton's 1983 album is one of those neither fish nor fowl releases. As a kid Eric Clapton was one of those has beens who was a big deal in the late '60s and early '70s but his output through the rest of the decade to me was spotty. I actively disliked "I Shot the Sheriff" and thought "Cocaine" was stupid. I couldn't see the appeal to "Wonderful Tonight" although my buddy Gord loved it and it was his wedding song. I'm probably just strengthening the argument that I'm just an unwashed Luddite who has no idea which end of a telephone pole goes in the ground. I suppose I should have just said I wasn't really a fan of a lot of Eric's solo work and left it at that.  So why buy this at all? I found it for a buck, and I may not have been much of a fan, but come on - it's Eric Clapton and whether I'm a fan or not the guy is a legend. Besides I'll admit to really liking his late career resurgen...

You didn't have to love the blues, to love The Blues Brothers. When the movie dropped in 1980 it was a perplexing experience (in a good way) and so over the top it quickly became must see viewing among the cool kids. I wasn't one of the cool kids, but I still saw the movie. Trying to explain to kids how cool Jake and Elwood Blues were is like trying describe what water tastes like. I wasn't a big blues fan, but bow howdy these guys were the real deal, and while their personas were over the top there was a reverence and respect to the source material. While Dan Aykroyd's Elwood was played as the straight character, it was John Belushi's Jake who had the swagger and chops. Listening to the songs on the record it's Jake who delivers the goods. Whereas the concept and the movie was written by Dan and director John Landis. These boys loved the blues, and they surrounded themselves with the best of the best. I've seen the movie many times over the years, but this ...