An archival recording of the original Blues Brothers — John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd — performing live, The Lost Recordings, will arrive this October. The release coincides with a new graphic novel, The Blues Brothers: The Escape of Joliet Jake, written by Aykroyd’s daughter Stella, Luke Pisano (son of Belushi’s …
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In the history of Saturday Night Live, was anything as secretive and anticipated as the moment this season right before Timothée Chalamet appeared onstage to sing the first of three Bob Dylan numbers? Which songs would they be? How would he sound? For me, it was all strangely familiar — …
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Near the end of the 50th anniversary Saturday Night Live special on Sunday night, original cast member Garrett Morris sat on a chair at the show’s primary stage (a.k.a. home base) to introduce “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” a 1978 SNL short that imagined an elderly John Belushi as the …
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Before he arrived at the Old Joliet Prison south of Chicago, now the Joliet Area Historical Museum, Erik Devereux made sure his ensemble was in appropriate Blues Brothers order. The basics weren’t a stretch: The 61-year-old teacher at the University of Illinois-Chicago already owns a black jacket and pants, a …
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It was never going to work. They couldn’t give enough tickets away to fill the seats. There were sound issues, lighting issues, drug issues, ego issues. Some of the crew walked out. A key cast member wouldn’t sign his contract, then went missing right before the show was supposed to …
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Backstage at an Illinois festival last weekend, two children of pop culture legends were hashing out a set list. “We’ll do ‘The River’ and then ‘Good Morning Sun’ and then ‘Bones’ last,” says Ben Taylor, the rugged-looking son of James Taylor and Carly Simon. Luke Pisano — whose mother was …
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As Dan Aykroyd reminds us in his enjoyable new Audible Original, Blues Brothers: The Arc of Gratitude, there was a moment in 1978 when his friend and collaborator John Belushi was at the center of a smash-hit album, movie, and TV show, all at once. The album in question was …
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