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Decayed Harvey, Illinois Mall Used in Blues Brothers Chase Scene Torn Down After 30 Years of Abandonment
(lemmy.world)
The mall featured in the iconic Blues Brothers chase scene was located in Harvey, Illinois. It had recently closed and was left to decay for 30 years before being torn down.
I hate that movie. The idea of Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin singing backup while Dan Aykroid blows into a harmonica is too gross to contemplate. George Carlin called it a sacrilege.
I’m curious about Carlin’s thoughts here.
Jake & Elwood had their own songs, sure, but at no point in the movie were Charles, Franklin, Cab Calloway, James Brown or John Lee Hooker ever “singing backup”. In fact, all their on-screen time and songs appeared to be explicit showcases of the real musicians, with Jake & Elwood only dancing in the background.
I grew up with the tv edit of the movie and saw it a ton. It did a lot more to help expose my young suburban-white-kid ears to those musicians rather than disgrace them IMO.
It's definitely a love letter to black music and culture in general. Putting two goofy white guys in front of it all made it palatable to white audiences. Also, the big villains were racist hicks and white supremacists.
Illinois Nazi's... I hate Illinois Nazi's
It was also music the two of them grew up with, and loved.
Total homage to the genre. Besides, what's not to love? Aretha belting it out, Cab putting on his big show. Bad. Ass.
Hell, the big Cab number near the end is Cab like he was 50 years before! Incredible.
They introduced multiple generations to music and artists from decades before.
I believe it was Cab Calloway who told John to not be a cover artist, and to be himself on stage, that he "had the blues".
It's nothing like you describe. John and Dan both lamented the deprecation of the Blues and these fabulous artists, and wanted to showcase the Blues (and Motown).
If it weren't for them, and that movie, I wouldn't know of half the artists whose music they used in the movie, and a bunch of others that weren't well-known (or largely forgotten) by the 80's.
That movie, and John and Dan, are credited with re-invigorating Blues and Motown in the 80's and later.