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Decayed Harvey, Illinois Mall Used in Blues Brothers Chase Scene Torn Down After 30 Years of Abandonment (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 weeks ago by to c/interestingasfuck@lemmy.world
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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.

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[+] -11 points 4 weeks ago (5 children)

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.

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  • [–] 25 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 17 points 4 weeks ago* (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 12 points 4 weeks ago*

    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.

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