Elmore James was born on this date-

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

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1. "elmore james got nothing on this baby"

-- george harrison in "for you blue". if it weren't for that song i'd have had no idea who elmore james was....

[Docreed2003]

3. I learned about him through "The Blues Brother"

There's a line early in the movie when Jake and Elwood were at the orphanage talking to Cab Calloway and Elwood says "You and the penguin are the only family we got and you were the only one who was ever good to us. Singing Elmore James tunes and blowing harp for us down here"...that movie did more for my musical tastes than perhaps any on there. I met Dan Aykroyd a few years ago and had the chance to thank him for including that line and exposing people to a world of music they might otherwise have missed.

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4. cool!

i happened to run into dan aykroyd once randomly on the streets of manhattan maybe 25 years ago.

i've met a fair number of celebrities and have often been struck at how ordinary they look in real life. people often describe celebrities as "larger than life", and sure, when they're "on", they have that "star presence". but when they're out running errands or having dinner or whatever, they're just ordinary people.

not dan aykroyd. maybe he was wearing lifts or something, but he towered over me, lol! he really looked larger than life!

[Docreed2003]

7. He is definitely larger than life

I met him at a veterans charity event for which he was the featured guest. It was a charity that was dedicated to capturing WWII veterans stories on film and they had several current era veterans act as escorts for the WWII vets. It was somewhat surreal to be hanging out with Aykroyd, drinking his vodka, in a room full of vets. You are absolutely right though, he towered over me too!

[The Polack MSgt]

5. I completely agree. Although for me it was The Blues Brothers on SNL -

A couple years before the movie. I literally remember the exact moment I wanted to learn about the blues.

It was the moment when Steve Cropper dropped the first riff on B-Movie Boxcar Blues on SNL.

Then the Album came out then the movie - The Blues Brothers may have saved the entire genre from polka level obscurity

[Docreed2003]

6. Absolutely

I also found out back during the 40th anniversary of "Briefcase Full of Blues" that Belushi and Aykroyd were initially offer a 50% royalty on that album and all subsequent albums and they refused and actually fought and won to have those royalties given to the original blues artists. Floyd Dixon used his royalties to buy a house and said that check was the biggest royalty check he had ever received.

[Docreed2003]

2. Awesome...love Elmore James