Briefcase Full of Blues
Artist: Blues Brothers
Label: Atlantic Records
Released: 1978
Number of Tracks: 12
Duration: 35:45
Website: https://bluesbrothersofficialsite.com/
Review by Charles "Dutch" Metzker
Briefcase Full of Blues is the debut album by the Blues Brothers released on November 28,1978 by Atlantic Records. It was recorded live on September 9,1978 at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles. The album consists of covers of blues and soul songs from the 1950s to 1970s.
The band consists of eleven musicians: John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Paul Shaffer, Steve Cropper, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Donald “Duck” Dunn, Steve Jordan, Lou Marini, Alan Rubin, Tom Scott, and Tom Malone.
“The Blues Brothers came off as a genuine article because we had Cropper and Dunn and Matt Murphy — those three magnificent Memphis guitar players,” Dan Aykroyd later told Blues Blast magazine. “Murphy played with James Cotton, and Duck and Steve played on all those Stax/Volt records. That combination was a powerhouse that was not to be duplicated, a Chicago/Memphis fusion band. That’s what the Blues Brothers was and that’s what really made it work.
“We had to keep this music alive, to educate a younger generation on this music,” Steve Cropper said. “Soul and blues and jazz, those are the greatest staples that the American people have invented. But there’s more to it than that. Eddie Floyd [who continued as a touring member of the Blues Brothers Band for decades] and [the late Stax drummer] Al Jackson, they told me a long time ago: It is also about entertaining people. You are not going to be interesting to people just standing up there. They can hear that on the radio. You’ve got to get them swinging and swaying with you.”
Side 1
Track 1 – Opening: I Can’t Turn You Loose 1:17 (Otis Redding)
Track 2 – Hey Bartender 2:46 (Floyd Dickson)
Track 3 – Messin’ with the Kid 2:46 (Mel London)
Track 4 – I Got Everything I Need Almost 2:36 (Don Walsh)
Track 5 – Rubber Biscuit 2:41 (C.Johnson)
Track 6 – Shotgun Blues 5:13 (Don and Rick Walsh)
Side 2
Track 1 – Groove Me 3:32 (King Floyd)
Track 2 – I Don’t Know 4:07 (Willie Mabon)
Track 3 – Soul Man 2:54 (David Potter-Isaac Hayes)
Track 4 – “B” Movie Boxcar Blues 3:57 (Delbert McClinton)
Track 5 – Flip Flop Fly 3:35 (Charles Calhoun Lou Willie Turner)
Track 6 – Closing: I Can’t Turn You Loose 0:28 (Otis Redding)
The soundtrack from the very popular movie exposed viewers to a variety of different styles of music and hopefully generated more interest in this genre of music. I think it’s stood the test of time. I’m 7/10 on this album.
