Sweet Home Chicago

I like this rough, pure, authentic Mississippi Blues version of the tune best, too.

But let's not pile on the classic (if, some might agree, slightly inferior) Blues Bros. rendition. It only does what all of Chicago Blues does to Mississippi Blues - preforming the old standard with electrified instruments and a distinctly urban bombast.

On a mission from god

And with the original, Robert Johnson song as musician/blues aficionado Dan Aykroyd and natural born performer/Chicagoan John Belushi's sole source of inspiration, I'd say without a moment's hesitation that the 1980 effort to pay a broad shouldered homage to this fundamental component of our American culture - born of the joys and sorrows in the folkloric cauldron of the Deep South, and brought to northern cities on the rails of industry and technology that would become inseparably incorporated into the Chicago Blues sound - is worthy of its enduring success.

Robert Johnson

No less worthy, I suppose, than bands like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin who where in the vanguard of an especially lucrative period for the dearly departed American record industry known as the British Invasion of the 1960's. The unceasing succession of hit singles that created the soundtrack of the Baby Boomers' lives were all heavily influenced by that irresistible, down home Delta Blues.

They intentionally composed their music to be the most difficult levels to beat on Guitar Hero

The problem with subsequent and far too ubiquitous versions of "Sweet Home Chicago," versions awkwardly belted out as a surefire crowd-pleaser by "wailing fat white" hack bands on an open mic under the neon lights of Old Style signs at dive bars, or sung in drunken chorus by tailgaters reveling in victory or, more commonly, defeat in Soldier Field's parking lot, is the degradation of the "Xerox effect": a copy of a copy of a copy.

Significant degradation, in this case.

Because, like the kid who thought he'd just rent the movie to write his book report, the more commonly heard versions of the windy city blues tribute are treating the homage as source material.

Those fools are trying to sing it like Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues.

Even so, I argue that the Blues Bros. version, while not the pure and authentic expression of Delta Blues that is Robert Johnson's "Sweet Home Chicago," Aykroyd and Belushi's is undoubtedly a pure and authentic reaction to the original, with merit enough on its own to echo through the popular consciousness for nearly 3 decades to fulfill here, today, in this thread, on this website, what can only be its highest calling - serving as a bridge of familiarity and a gateway to the appreciation of a piece of crackling, 73 year-old audio otherwise destined to be a misplaced and forgotten national treasure.