# Another question about the Blues Brothers: They drank $300 worth of beer??!! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** beer\ **Created:** [July 21, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513 "2010-07-21T21:34:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513/21 "2010-07-22T11:33:06Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > Jake Elwood is a man of large appetites. Jake _Blues_. Elwood Blues is his brother. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513/22 "2010-07-22T12:04:12Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > Jake Elwood is a man of large appetites. He orders five shrimp cocktails at a time, four fried chickens for a meal. And a Coke. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513/23 "2010-07-22T12:42:04Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > I’ve always wondered what else they played that night besides Rawhide and Stand by Your Man over and over. The Country Bunker patrons likely would have been receptive to some tasty selections like _I Can’t Stop Loving You_ (Ray Charles), _Cold, Cold Heart_ and _Hey Good Lookin’_ (Hank Williams), _Pistol Packin’ Mama_ (Al Dexter), _San Antonio Rose_ (Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys), and _Crying Time_ (Buck Owens), and I would not be surprised if Jake and Elwood knew all of them. They didn’t grow up in a vacuum. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513/24 "2010-07-22T12:56:05Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Could also be that the owner was deliberately screwing them, pulling a ‘company store’ type scam where the game is worked so his hired bands ALWAYS come out owing more than they made for the night. Yep. I used to run the soundboard for a friend’s band. His deal with the venue was cash plus free drinks. At one venue the owner wanted me to pay my bar tab since he didn’t consider me to be part of the band(and honestly, it _was_ sort of a scam on our part). He presented me with a grossly inflated bar tab. After many “fuck yous” shouted back and forth, the bar owner relented. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513/25 "2010-07-22T13:07:59Z")
Well, the bar lady never charged them for the first round, so they figured beer was like, complimentary, you know, for the band. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513/26 "2010-07-22T13:25:43Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > The Country Bunker patrons likely would have been receptive to some tasty selections like _I Can’t Stop Loving You_ (Ray Charles), _Cold, Cold Heart_ and _Hey Good Lookin’_ (Hank Williams), _Pistol Packin’ Mama_ (Al Dexter), _San Antonio Rose_ (Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys), and _Crying Time_ (Buck Owens), and I would not be surprised if Jake and Elwood knew all of them. They didn’t grow up in a vacuum. Plus any number of tunes by [Jimmie Rodgers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmie_Rodgers_%28country_singer%29), the “father of country music” (whose tunes were mostly just 12-bar blues). [Example](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYG9Q2oO_3Q). ---
**Author:** ![AndyPolley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@AndyPolley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndyPolley)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513/27 "2010-07-22T13:56:42Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Well, the bar lady never charged them for the first round, so they figured beer was like, complimentary, you know, for the band. So if the first round was free, that’s _23_ beers each! ---
**Author:** ![Stormcrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/0ea827/32.png) [@Stormcrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stormcrow)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513/28 "2010-07-22T14:05:51Z")
75 cent drafts of Bud in Carbondale back in the mid-80’s - I think the point of the joke is that it is a ludicrous amount of beer. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513/29 "2010-07-22T18:03:53Z")
> [@Stormcrow](#): > > 75 cent drafts of Bud in Carbondale back in the mid-80’s - I think the point of the joke is that it is a ludicrous amount of beer. It’s also probable that at least as much was spilled as was drunk. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513/30 "2010-07-22T18:13:53Z")
What is this “$3 beers = $1.50 beers back then” nonsense? The Blues Bros wouldn’t cotton to drinking anything but the cheapest COT(crap-on-tap) available. At a shit-kicker bar like that, they were probably guzzling 50 cent Schlitz or whatever passed for PBR back then. ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513/31 "2010-07-22T19:03:50Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > What is this “$3 beers = $1.50 beers back then” nonsense? The Blues Bros wouldn’t cotton to drinking anything but the cheapest COT(crap-on-tap) available. At a shit-kicker bar like that, they were probably guzzling 50 cent Schlitz or whatever passed for PBR back then. You’re mistaking a band for a band’s audience. The band was drinking Bud - you can clearly see the bottles all around them in the scene. Draft beer gets warm and gamey too fast for most bands to want to drink it on stage, but you can put three or four unopened cans or bottles to the side and not have to get a refill for a while. The crowd, on the other hand, was obviously downing whatever was cheapest on tap. (Schlitz, probably, going by the neon.) ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513/32 "2010-07-22T19:29:44Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Well, the bar lady never charged them for the first round, so they figured beer was like, complimentary, you know, for the band. [chuckling] Naw, nawnawnawnawnaw. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513/33 "2010-07-22T19:31:41Z")
> [@filling\_pages](#): > > You’re mistaking a band for a band’s audience. The band was drinking Bud - you can clearly see the bottles all around them in the scene. Draft beer gets warm and gamey too fast for most bands to want to drink it on stage, but you can put three or four unopened cans or bottles to the side and not have to get a refill for a while. The crowd, on the other hand, was obviously downing whatever was cheapest on tap. (Schlitz, probably, going by the neon.) So what was the price of a bottle of Bud in a shitkicker dive in 1980? ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513/34 "2010-07-22T19:43:27Z")
The ability of some musicians to put it away is astonishing. I remember the Jazz Lives series on NPR a couple of years back mentioning Oscar Pettiford being capable of playing brilliantly in a condition where it was a small miracle he could even _hold_ the bass, let alone play it. There are many similar stories about Dexter Gordon, Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie, Bird, among many others. Paul Quarrington writes about consuming a stunning quantity of alcohol and drugs in his rock career in the 70s and early 80s, and I don’t see any reason to doubt him… That being said, I doubt the writers meant that to be taken literally so much as taken as a passing reference to the band’s phenomenal capacity for self-indulgence. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513/35 "2010-07-22T19:59:31Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > I’ve known regular sized **women** that could polish off a case of Bud in 4-6 hours. I don’t have any problem imagining musicians doing 2 cases. i have a bit of a problem imagining someone being able to drink 48 beers in an evening. in fact, i have a bit of a problem imagining a “regular sized woman” drinking 24 in a day. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513/36 "2010-07-22T20:13:02Z")
Folks here have brought up all these points, but I think its the combination thats supposed to make the situation more than the sum of its parts. They drank a shitload (but not impossible amount) of beer. The owner of the dive was trying to shaft them by charging them in the first place (or even overcharging). The Blue Brothers were stupid/desperate enough to work for such a dive with a sleazy owner in the first place. And they were also dumb enough to not really understand/verify the terms of the contract. All this was combined to make everyone look bad, get some laughs/reactions, and set up a situation that lead to conflict, even more problems, and just generally moved the story along. ---
**Author:** ![justrob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9adbd/32.png) [@justrob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justrob)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513/37 "2010-07-22T20:30:48Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > The Blue Brothers were stupid/desperate enough to work for such a dive with a sleazy owner in the first place. And they were also dumb enough to not really understand/verify the terms of the contract. I don’t think they had a contract with the bar at all. As I remember the scene they are driving around with Jake telling them they have a gig. As the band is getting fed up Jake sees Bob’s Country Bunker and says that’s where they are playing. ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513/38 "2010-07-22T20:44:31Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > So what was the price of a bottle of Bud in a shitkicker dive in 1980? Well, having looked over [a few menus from that time period](http://www.lapl.org/resources/en/menu_collection.html), I’m going to say between $1 and $2. Especially on a weekend night, when you wouldn’t expect a special, after happy hour. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513/39 "2010-07-22T20:48:44Z")
Could _very_ well have been a literal memory of a bartab from a music gig. Don’t forget, half the actors were professional musicians, and the stars were talented amateurs. And SNL had a sort of collaborative writing routine at the time anyhow. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513/40 "2010-07-22T20:49:42Z")
> [@justrob](#): > > I don’t think they had a contract with the bar at all. As I remember the scene they are driving around with Jake telling them they have a gig. As the band is getting fed up Jake sees Bob’s Country Bunker and says that’s where they are playing. Yes. That doesnt really change the basic point does it? It actually makes it even more. Jake is a real screw up, probably always has been, and yet the band members STILL trust this dude. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-question-about-the-blues-brothers-they-drank-300-worth-of-beer/547513.md?page=3)