Music of the Day, 1 January 2025

what do you want for nothing?

The new year was ushered in on a pretty high note for me: my daughter and I snuggled cozily and watched The Blues Brothers. It successfully drowned out and distracted us from the fireworks while also boosting our moods.

There’s so much that we enjoy in the movie. We’d lived in Wheaton, Illinois¹ for about a year and got to enjoy a few things in the Windy City while there; and I’d visited Chicago a few times in my younger days and enjoyed every minute there. We each have happy memories of the city, and we always love watching Illinois Nazis get their comeuppance.

Z (my daughter) and I are quite similar in many ways, but I don’t think our thinking processes could be more different. That’s partly due to the the very different times and environments that we grew up in, which was highlighted in our conversation about the movie. They observed that the movie was structured more like a cartoon than a straight narrative story, and also that Jake and Elwood’s lives were essentially a distillation of the blues. I generally don’t watch movies with a critical reviewer’s eye, and I can’t watch The Blues Brothers without getting caught up in all the great music and musicians² who appear in it, so their observations prompted some good discussion.

Anyway, I awoke this morning with another song by the Blues Brothers in mind and just had to hear it in full.

“Rubber Biscuit” is an improbable hit,³ but so much damn fun to listen to. It was the first single from the Blues Brothers’ first album, Briefcase Full of Soul. Contrary to popular belief, the Blues Brothers formed prior to their appearance in Saturday Night Live shows. Even though the sound starts off poorly in the video, the energy in the performance makes it a minor distraction. And it is pure joy to see the band playing and having fun with their cover of a song originally by the Chips.

Having written before about how The Blues Brothers widened my musical horizons, today I want to give a shoutout to Dan Aykroyd. Yes, he’s remembered for SNL, this movie, and a solid acting career, but even so, I don’t think he gets his full due. What an astounding, multitalented person he is.

1. that’s where they celebrated their first birthday, one month before 9/11

2. and actors, too: Carrie Fisher and Henry Gibson always bring a smile to my face at their first scenes

3. arguably not really a hit, as it peaked at #37 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, but it was all over the radio in 1978—and who would have expected such scatting to even chart then?