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DogGs & DogGesses, welcome to my 12th installment of Battle Of The Bands' Battle Of The Booze.
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This time we have The Blues Brothers going up against Van Morrison, or beer versus gin & vermouth (also known as a "martini").
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You probably recall that The Blues Brothers were "Jake" (John Belushi) and his brother, "Elwood" (Dan Aykroyd). What you may not have known was that their backing band included some really good musicians, such as Steve Cropper & Donald "Duck" Dunn (of Booker T & The MGs), and Matt Murphy, who had played guitar for Memphis Slim and Howlin' Wolf.
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Included in Van-The-Man's band was Pee Wee Ellis, who was nothing short of a beast on the tenor saxophone and who had been a member of James Brown's band! So, we've got some really hot musicians in this contest, and I am curious to see who will emerge victorious.
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Without further ado...
let's get on it! Let's get ON this thing!!
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Well jukebox girl is everything
All the cats began to sing
I heard somebody called and said
"Last round for alcohol!"
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I said, Hey bartender
Hey bartender
Hey bartender
Hey bartender
Draw one, two, three, four glasses of beer
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Hey Bartender
by The Blues Brothers
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| Message In A Bottle |
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I wouldn't want to cramp your style
But if you want to make it all worthwhile
You have to have your own breakthrough
If you only knew
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If you only knew what could happen to
A man for telling the truth
If you only knew all the scruples
That go down in gin and vermouth
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Remember: This is really about the songs and not the booze. So, in ye olde comment section, please vote for which song you liked better betwixt these two, and then please visit the other wonderful BOTBers and also drop your two cents in their comment sections.
* See the BOTBer links over there --->
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I'll return here on or about June 22nd with my own vote and the final tally.
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I'll return here on or about June 22nd with my own vote and the final tally.
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~ Stephen T. {*hick!*} McCarthy
Van Morrison
ReplyDeleteNANCY ~
DeleteThank you for checking in with a shot of Jameson for the BOTB punch bowl!
~ D-FensDogG
I like both songs, but give a slight edge to Van Morrison. Cheers and happy weekend! 🍹
ReplyDeleteDEBBIE D'DOGLADY ~
DeleteVan-The-Man appreciates your support. (He told me so. Sure, I had to use Google Translate to figure out what he was mumblin', but it worked, and that's the important thing.)
~ Stephen
(Man Of Great Decorum)
I'd call this a tie, but seeing as how Van Morrison already has two votes, I'll go with Jake and Elwood. Seriously, theirs just says "Biddy Mulligan's on Friday Night." (Biddy Mulligan's was a blues club on the far, far north side of Chicago, almost in Evanston. I used to go there a lot.)
ReplyDeleteSIR JOHN ~
DeleteI'm sure I would have really dug Biddy Mulligan's on Friday nights. And I would have behaved myself and drunk like a gentleman, too.
(One time while I was in Boston, after ordering a shot of whiskey & a beer, the waitress refused to bring them because, as she said, I should "drink like a gentleman". So I ordered just a shot of whiskey. When it arrived, I immediately downed it and then said, "Now, will you please bring me a beer?" I'll bet a gentleman could get a boilermaker at Biddy's!!)
~ D-FensDogG
Hello again!
ReplyDeleteI like them both, but Blues Brothers got my feet tapping just a little bit more than Van Morrison did.
Therefore I need to cast my sober vote for Blues Brothers
-MMQE
MMQE ~
DeleteI am so sorry, dear lady, but we don't accept "sober votes" here. Please visit your nearest watering hole, wet your whistle, and then try again.
~ D-FensDogG
In both songs - for me - my favorite aspect is the keyboards. The organ in If You Only Knew and the piano in Hey Bartender.
ReplyDeleteI have both these albums but have not listened in years. I liked the Blues Brothers but considered them a fun novelty act, and I love Van. I was certain that Van would get the vote before I listened today... but hearing this particular song by Van reminded me that it was not a favorite on the album. It is "fine," but between these two Elwood and Jake get my vote by a nose. Or a hair. Or a nosehair.
Sixgun McItchyfinger
SIR SIX-A-LOT ~
DeleteThank you for your continued support of BOTB's BOTB!
>>... hearing this particular song by Van reminded me that it was not a favorite on the album.
What I am about to write will not likely surprise you half an iota:
There was a time when Van Morrison was my favorite musical artist and I owned all of his albums up through and including 1995's 'Days Like This'. That's 23 compact discs.
'A Sense Of Wonder' was not my favorite, but it was felly high up-uh on my list of favorites. And guess which was my favorite song on that album?
Yip! You got it: 'If You Only Knew'.
However, 'A New Kind Of Man', 'Tore Down A La Rimbaud', and 'Let The Slave' were all pretty close to the top for me.
(Fun Fact: In 2000, some guy ran a red light and I had an auto accident while 'A New Kind Of Man' was playing in my truck. I LOVED that song! However, *something* about that song playing at the moment the crash occurred gave me a creepy feeling. I couldn't explain why... it was just a feeling. But one year later, I found myself tossing most of my Van Morrison CDs into a trash bin. Today, I still have only 6 of those 23 discs.)
~ D-FensDogG
Ha! No surprise there.
DeleteWhat IS often surprising to me are the times - and there are more than a few - when we do happen to really like the same artist but have widely varied favorites. With Van on this album, I really liked the album to listen to while doing something else like reading, and my favorites were "The Masters Eyes" and 'Tore Down A La Rimbaud." My sense is that typically I will like songs that might be universally popular and you the ones with some deeper meaning. For example, we both love Tom Petty, but I like his well-played songs more than you do, like Free Fallin and Learning to Fly.
Six
MR. SIXGUNSLINGER ~
DeleteYou make a valid point. Other than his duet with Stevie Nicks, 'Free Fallin'' was Petty's biggest hit, and I always felt "Eh" about it. I didn't *dislike* it, but neither did I like it. I felt it was just too formulaic sounding. I like 'Learning To Fly' a bit more, but it's still far, Far, FAR from being one of my favorite Petty songs. And two others that most Petty fans love, which I don't, are 'The Waiting' and 'Don't Come Around Here No More'.
Speaking of Petty, yet nevertheless off-topic now...
P(r)etty sure I've mentioned this before but, I still remember the first Petty song I ever heard was 'Breakdown'. I heard it a couple of times on L.A. radio in 1976. This must have been immediately after the debut album was released. I drove to a record store on Lincoln Boulevard and bought the album. I loved it... except... the version of 'Breakdown' was NOT the one that I'd been hearing on the radio, and so it disappointed me a bit.
The version I was hearing at first was obviously done live at a small venue - quite possibly done live in the studio with a small audience of perhaps family and friends. You could hear the audience at a certain point, and Petty kind of dragged the song out a little bit with spoken asides to the audience, such as, "It's alright??... It's alright!... Alright?... It's ALRIGHT!!"
I think maybe what I was hearing on radio at first was some limited promo copy of the song, or something like that. Because then later, it was the actual album rendition that started getting played on the radio, and I have never been able to locate the version I heard at first, which completely sold me on Petty from the very beginning. This is one of my small handful of "musical mysteries".
~ D-FensDogG
I have to admit, I have a soft spot for The Blues Brothers. It's not a particularly great movie, but it has some decent music, and a few lines that I still quote, like the Midwestern accented, "We're on a mission from God." Or, "What kind of music have you got here?" "We've got both kinds - country AND western."
ReplyDeleteAll of that is to say that I liked the Van Morrison song, but to echo Mary, Elwood and Jake got my feet tapping a little more. Give my bote to the BB.
~Chief Julio (on a mission from God)
6-B ~
DeleteI first saw 'The Blues Brothers' a hunnert and eleventy years ago (a.k.a. "the early '80s"), and I just didn't "get it". I couldn't understand what everyone thought was so great about that movie. (I had a similar experience with 'Animal House'.) In fact, I thought SNL was always lame. (Give me SCTV any day, and eleventy.5 times on Sundays!) I guess I just wasn't "cool" enough to dig SNL.
However, because I always have liked (and used) that line about being "on a mission from God", I decided to give 'The Blues Brothers' movie a second chance. This was maybe three years ago. It was on one of my free cable movie channels so I thought: What the helck!
About 30 minutes or so into the movie, I gave it "the Wally!" (as in Wally George -- "You're outta here!!")
Yeah, some of the music is pert-goot, but when I want to watch a movie, I'm more inclined to slap 'Mary Poppins' into my DVD player.
Thanks for stopping by with a little mescal for the punch bowl. (But next time, bring the worm, too. I'll not be cheated that way! ;-)
~ D-FensDogG
Good morning! It's early but I just know it' going to be a good one. I'm alive and anytime you wake up a new day then it's gotta be a good morning, right? This might be my favorite of your drinkin' song battles. The musicians in both are outstanding and the sound equally. The Blues Brothers' tune is a bit more upbeat and Van Morrison's seemed mellow. Each had a way of movin' me to the groove. I'm going with "If You Only Knew". I think the sax in Van's song did it for me in the end. Fun battle!
ReplyDeleteCAThy! It's That YOU!
DeleteI love your positive attitude! I wish I always woke up that sunny.
I'm pretty surprised - but pleasantly so - that this may be your favorite of my Booze Battles thus far.
Thanks for stopping by with something for the punch bowl. Yeah, that sax solo by Pee Wee Ellis - ain't he sumpin'?!
~ D-FensDogG
Van the Man has had me since "Brown-eyed Girl" ;-) Not much about him I don't like. Expect this song. Oh, I still loved the sax, but for today, at least, I'm going for the more upbeat sound of the Blues Bros.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back!
dEAR dIEDRE ~
Delete>>... Van the Man has had me since "Brown-eyed Girl"
Van used to be a brown-eyed girl?!
I had NO IDEA!
Thank you for stopping by with two cents for the two Blues Brothers. This Battle is not what I expected. And I love surprises!
Welcome back
Your dreams were your ticket out
Welcome back
To that same old place that you laughed about
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Yeah, we tease him a lot
'Cause we got him on the spot
Welcome back
~ D-FensDogG
Here I am! Both are so good and Van Morrison is the more accomplished musician but I have a soft spot for the Blues Brothers and love that Harmonica spotlight so they get my vote
ReplyDeleteHi, Hello & Howdy, BIRGIT!
DeleteThank you for traveling here all the way from Dudley Do-Right's country with a couple shots of Crown Royal for the BOTB punch bowl.
Van thought he was going to laugh all the way to the Winner's Circle. Not so fast, Belfast-boy!
~ D-FensDogG
Al Bondigas here. Very fun battle youse got goin on here. I figured Van Morrison would win this one quite easily. After listening to The Blues Brothers, now I can see why this one is so competitive. I remember working on that movie as an extra. It was a cattle call and everybody was there except the non cool people who were probably working on Mash or James at 16, or some such. Anyway, rulin' fer Van The Man ever so slightly. That's it, that's muh rulin'.
ReplyDeleteJUDGE AL ~
DeleteThank you for stopping by with a rulin' in my humble li'l Battle Of The Bands bit. It's always such an extra special occasion when one of the cool judges finds time to stray from a cattle call to drop two shots of almond milk into the BOTB punch bowl!
Now you know: The Blues Brothers ain't nothin' to sneeze at!
~ D-FensDogG