|
contents | blues | |||||||||||||
| The Best of John Belushi Released on DVD John Belushi could say more with an eyebrow than most performers can with their entire body, and was unarguably the first rock'n'roll comedian. Hugely talented as a comic, mimic, and singer, he battled repeatedly off-stage with the addictions to food, drink, and drugs that would eventually lead to his untimely death in 1982. Despite these demons in tow however he still achieved global movie fame in two of the biggest comedy hits of the late-Seventies and early-Eighties – Animal House and The Blues Brothers. It was as a leading-light in the original 1970's Saturday Night Live cast though where he can be seen at his most creative. NBC's live weekly satirical show broadcasting out of New York – often seen as America's answer to Monty Python - proved the perfect vehicle for Belushi's inspired lunacy. Whether impersonating Joe Cocker, or participating in seminal sketches such as "Samurai Delicatessen", "Godfather Therapy", or the infamous NBC-baiting "Star Trek" parody; this Best-Of compilation, released for the first time on DVD in the UK on 4th September 2006. Of Albanian descent, Belushi got his first break in 1971 when he joined Chicago's Second City Comedy Troupe, with his fledgling Joe Cocker turn leading to a part in a National Lampoon stage production and subsequent national radio show. It was here that Belsuhi first worked with other future Saturday Night Live luminaries such as Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, and Bill Murray. SNL's ground-breakingfirst season aired in 1975 and it was during this time that Belushi developed the passion for Blues and Soul music that would inspire arguably his and Ackroyd's most famous creations - Jake and Elwood Blues, aka The Blues Brothers. Originally performed as a warm-up act for SNL live audiences, Jake and Elwood would eventually become regulars on the show proper and subsequently make a highly lucrative transfer to the big screen in 1980. Around this time however, as Belushi's fame escalated, so did his activities as an off-screen party animal and in March 1982 the troubled Belushi died at the age of 33 in the Chateau Marmont Motel on Sunset Boulevard after a lethal speedball injection of heroine and cocaine. Belushi's tombstone reads 'I may be gone but rock 'n' roll lives on.' write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Jazz News :: home page |