I got Phoenix Suns fans riled up when I decided not to compare the Blues Brothers to the Phoenix Suns in a message board/column post two weeks ago. Apparently they thought the Blues Brothers band and the Phoenix Suns basketball team should be linked together forever. But I disrespectfully disagree. The Blues Brothers were hits and critically acclaimed. The Phoenix Suns were shits and critically acclaimed. Hits:Shits. The ratio lies more on Hits for the Blues Brothers and on Shits for the Phoenix Suns.
Still, I owe it all to everyone my own blog post that sort of intertwines the Blues Brothers and Phoenix Suns. Let’s roll.
As I mentioned quite accurately, the Suns weren’t a thing like the Blues Brothers. But y’know what? They compare to John Belushi. They are the John Belushi of the NBA. Thrilling, extravagant, creative, envigorating, inventive and loved by all, but ultimately, they couldn’t sustain what they were doing for more than a couple of years, and by the time it came to a screeching halt, we were already wishing that things could return to the way they were three years before. Like Belushi, the Suns were [like the BB's, too] were critically acclaimed. Like Belushi (drugs), the Suns had some demons of their own (Robert Sarver). Like Belushi, we will remember the Suns fondly, and every time we seen one of their old classics (for John, Blues Brothers’ Saturday Night Live episodes (Samauri Warrior too, anyone?) or the 1978 movie Animal House), we watch them, or well, for the Suns, we’ll probably watch them.
National Lampoon’s Animal House, scene with Bluto (Belushi) and Co. getting down to the song Shout performed by the fictional “Otis Day” band (song sung by DeWayne Jesse):
But the comparison stops right there, as Joliet Jake Blues and Elwood Blues serve up no comparison to the Phoenix Suns; only the man behind Jake Blues does, in some ways.
[John] Belushi and [Dan] Aykroyd as Jake and Elwood Blues in the November 1978 (or ‘79?) Saturday Night Live that featured ‘Soul Man’:
The Blues Brothers still go on today, for as far as I know, but Dan Aykroyd (Elwood Blues) is 75 pounds heavier, and can no longer dance like he could back in the late 70s and early 80s. Yet they still go on tour, and John’s brother Jim was going on tour with them in the late 90s, but unlike his brother, couldn’t sing worth shit.
The initial Blues Brothers movie in 1980 was a smashing box office hit. Racking up and instigating cash flow from largely the watching crowd of Saturday Night Live. However, years after the movie released and after John Belushi’s untimely death on March 5, 1982, the movie became even more known to the public. But when Blues Brothers 2000 released in, well, 2000, it plummeted and was touted as a bust (and deservedly so). The premise was awful, and the only cool thing about it was seeing Aykroyd coming back as Elwood. Other than that it was distasteful and utterly stupid. But, hey, the video game for the Nintendo 64 wasn’t too bad, though. But that’s not saying it’s any good, either.
As for the Suns, they were widely rooted for by the public during their time in the Seven Seconds or Less era, but you will never be able to debate with me in the future that they’ll be more anointed as time goes on. Sure, they will be remembered, but not as heavily in sports fans’ eyes as the original Blues Brothers were known in the pop culture critics’ eyes. I’m a sports fan and pop culture critic, so I find myself torn between the comparison of Belushi and Phoenix, but not between the Blues Brothers and Phoenix — there’s not a chance, people.
4 Comments
May 21, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Better to compare the Phoenix Suns to Villi Manilli … here today, gone tomorrow … built on smoke & mirrors … critically acclaimed, until KABOOM … and the bottom fell right out … like quicksand.
So, you’re a Sports fan and a Pop Culture Critic … sweet.
Where to do I sign up for that?
May 21, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Khandor, I stand corrected.
May 21, 2008 at 7:44 pm
“Louis (Troy), I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.”
May 22, 2008 at 2:59 pm
The Suns are not like the Blues Brothers.. the Blues Brothers never had a cheap owner who wouldn’t pay the luxury tax to win a title.
The Blues Brothers didn’t have a manage trade/push away players who fit the band perfectly (Joe Johnson, Quentin Richardson) for the above mentioned reason.
The Blues Brothers didn’t have draft picks, but if they did, they wouldn’t have traded 1st rounders with guarunteed salaries to avoid the luxury tax. Passing on a chance to have Rajon Rondo backing up Steve Nash rather than throwing 26 Mill at Marcus Freaking Banks!!! I mean why spend money on this failure?!?!
The Suns COULD have been the Blues Brothers, keeping the best players for their team/band and giving it their all for one big payoff, but they do have an owner/manager unlike the Blues Brothers and he ruined the 7 seconds or less era with his cheap miserly ways..