So fascinating! Thanks for sharing LTOS!!!!
ANOTHER True Story From ML’s Memory Banks:
How The Blues Brothers Lived My Gig
Recently, I was searching the Internet for old friends and I came across 36 pages of people with the same name as the Lead Guitarist in my first band, “Best Blues”. I checked all the profiles, and finally found someone who seemed the right age and description, a Biker who is also a session musician in Maryland. I messaged him, and was delighted to find out that he is indeed R. C.
It reminded me of our first gig which was later immortalized in the movie “The Blue Brothers”, which is my all-time favorite flick. None of us ever had any contact with John Belushi or Dan Ackroid, so this must be something that “just happens” to happen to Blues bands!
I first met Rick and Gary (The Bass Player) at a place in Somerville, MA, called The “Club III”. It was open-mike night, and we clicked right away. We got a drummer named John, and began to rehearse together as a quartet named “Best Blues”, after Gary & Rick’s duo.
I landed our first gig at The Club III, but when we got their, everything had changed! The decor now had a distinct BARNYARD ambiance, there was a picket fence around the stage, the waitresses all had cowboy hats, and the name of the place had been changed to “Kevin’s Kountry Korner” (KKK?????). Blues seemed to have been banished from their bill of fare, but we figured that we were SO good they would LOVE us no matter WHAT we did!
We opened with Gary (an AUTHENTIC BLUES MAN, in every sense of the word) singing “Knock on Wood”, with him and me fronting the band and Ricky shredding his Telecaster like Jimi Hendrix. Immediately, the denim-clad crowd began to boo, hiss, yell racial epithets, and throw things.
I threw down my flat pick, began finger-picking open chords, and yelled, “Gary, root and fifth, key of G, NOW!” and started singing every FOLK song I knew. Ricky joined in, playing sweet pentatonics on his Telecaster and wearing a sh*t kickin grin. We made it last for FOUR hours and actually did a few encores.
At the end of the night, we got $200.00 which went right into a new Peavey Sound System, (made in Mississippi,USA!).
Years later, when I saw the “Bob’s Kountry Bunker” scene in the Blues Brothers Movie, I could not stop laughing! I practically yelled out in the movie theater, “I LIVED THAT! I’VE BEEN THERE! I’VE DONE THAT! THAT’S MY LIFE UP THERE ON THAT SCREEN!!!!!!”
Gary, John, if you’re out there, get in touch, will you?
Maybe They are FReepers and will recognize the story?