# How much beer did the Blues Brothers' Band Drink? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** beer\ **Created:** [June 12, 2020, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553 "2020-06-12T18:27:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553/1 "2020-06-12T18:27:54Z")
I just re-watched the Blues Brothers movie (the 1980 one). In that scene at Bob’s Country Bunker (they have both kinds of music!), the band drinks $300 worth of beer. How much would a bottle of beer cost in a trucker bar like Bob’s Country Bunker? From memory, here are the band members: Jake Elwood Alan Rubin (Mr. Fabulous) (Trumpet) Matt Guitar Murphy (Guitar) The sax player who works with Matt (Sax) Murph (from the Magic Tones) (Keyboards) Willy Two Big Hall (Drums) Tom Bones Malone (Sax?) Donald Duck Dunn (Bass) The other guitar player, from Murph and the Magic Tones (Guitar) That’s 10 people, unless I missed someone. It seems like $2/beer would be a lot in 1980, but even at that price, it’s 10 beers each. Anyway, any estimates as to how much beer cost in 1980 in a place like that? ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553/2 "2020-06-12T18:51:16Z")
I think that’s the joke. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553/3 "2020-06-12T18:55:19Z")
did they get a union discount? 🙂 ---
**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:** [June 12, 2020, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553/4 "2020-06-12T19:01:39Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > did they get a union discount? 🙂 The got a five finger discount. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553/5 "2020-06-12T19:10:23Z")
10 beers a piece is doable. It’d have to be a lot more than that to be funny. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553/6 "2020-06-12T19:15:21Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > 10 beers a piece is doable. It’d have to be a lot more than that to be funny. I think $2/beer is the absolute most it could have been. When I was in college in the late 80s in Pittsburgh, one place had a 25 cent beer/$2 pitcher night. BTW, that second guitar player was Steve The Colonel Cropper. Any idea why they used Murph instead of Paul Shaffer? Better screen presence? Shaffer was on their Briefcase Full of Blues album. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553/7 "2020-06-12T19:15:28Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > Tom Bones Malone (Sax?) Trombone, hence the nickname. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553/8 "2020-06-12T19:17:06Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Trombone, hence the nickname. I thought that as I was writing it, but I didn’t remember a trombone in the movie. I guess I remembered wrong. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553/9 "2020-06-12T19:19:26Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > I think $2/beer is the absolute most it could have been. When I was in college in the late 80s in Pittsburgh, one place had a 25 cent beer/$2 pitcher night. > > BTW, that second guitar player was Steve The Colonel Cropper. Any idea why they used Murph instead of Paul Shaffer? Better screen presence? Shaffer was on their Briefcase Full of Blues album. > **[True Blue: The Band Behind the Blues Brothers](https://ultimateclassicrock.com/blues-brothers-band-members/)** > > A guide to the musicians who backed Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues in the Blues Brothers films, in the studio and on stage. > [@](#): > > Yet, for all his work putting the band together in 1978, Shaffer didn’t get to be in the John Landis-directed film because Belushi didn’t like that he was splitting his creative efforts between the Blues Brothers and Gilda Radner’s Broadway show. > > Read More: True Blue: The Band Behind the Blues Brothers | [True Blue: The Band Behind the Blues Brothers](https://ultimateclassicrock.com/blues-brothers-band-members/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral) ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553/10 "2020-06-12T19:20:17Z")
Cleveland Indians had 10 cent beer night in the 70s. You can pretty much guess what that led to. There was a riot and the Indians had to forfeit the game. ---
**Author:** ![SwissMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@SwissMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SwissMan)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553/11 "2020-06-12T19:22:18Z")
The beers might have been small, not full bottles. Plus, Cowboy Bob looks like the kinda guy who probably watered it down quite a lot. Also, the sax player from the BBB is “Blue Lou” Marini, also of Blood, Sweat, and Tears in real life. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553/12 "2020-06-12T20:03:50Z")
> [@SwissMan](#): > > The beers might have been small, not full bottles. Plus, Cowboy Bob looks like the kinda guy who probably watered it down quite a lot. > > Also, the sax player from the BBB is “Blue Lou” Marini, also of Blood, Sweat, and Tears in real life. How do you water down bottles of beer capped at the brewery? Was that a thing in the…ever? ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553/13 "2020-06-12T20:42:35Z")
I love how this thread is taking the “physics” of the Blues Brothers movie seriously. Now, let’s see, if Jake was doing those backflips in his 30s (Belushi’s age at the time of the movie release), would he have needed help getting up, or even a walker, after his acrobatics? And hey, what about the aerodynamics of driving off that unfinished bridge? (Being from Milwaukee, we all cracked up… that bridge was half-done and hanging out in space like that for years). Next, the quantum mechanics of Bill & Ted… ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553/14 "2020-06-12T20:52:56Z")
OK, but how much would a bottle of beer (import or domestic) have cost in 1980 in a bar like Bob’s Country Bunker? I was only 13, and I lived in Queens, so my experience wouldn’t count. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553/15 "2020-06-12T20:57:46Z")
According [to this](https://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/the-price-of-a-beer-1952-2016/), the average price of a pint was $1.42 in 1980. So, with today’s average being $4, according to that chart, the cheap bars here have beer at $2 a bottle, so I’d guess maybe 75 cents a bottle at a place like that? Maybe 50 cents if you’re lucky? ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553/16 "2020-06-12T21:03:15Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > According [to this](https://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/the-price-of-a-beer-1952-2016/), the average price of a pint was $1.42 in 1980. So, with today’s average being $4, according to that chart, the cheap bars here have beer at $2 a bottle, so I’d guess maybe 75 cents a bottle at a place like that? Maybe 50 cents if you’re lucky? Man, you’re all kinds of helpful today. First, you confirm that I’m not insane about the tempo of Dazed and Confused, then you provide a beer price cite! So, at $0.75/bottle, $300 comes to an impressive 40 beers per person! Maybe they were 3.2 beers. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553/17 "2020-06-12T21:23:58Z")
This thread prompted me to read this great Vanity Fair piece about the history and making of The Blues Brothers. Belushi and his cocaine habit; Lew Wasserman and his rage at spiraling costs; racist theater owners…Im looking at you Mann Brothers. What a fun read. > **[Making Blues Brothers With John Belushi and Dan Akroyd—“We Had a Budget for...](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2013/01/making-of-blues-brothers-budget-for-cocaine)** > > How the classic comedy—and first-ever Saturday Night Life movie—found its way to the screen, including photos from the set. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553/18 "2020-06-12T22:00:24Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > This thread prompted me to read this great Vanity Fair piece about the history and making of The Blues Brothers. Belushi and his cocaine habit; Lew Wasserman and his rage at spiraling costs; racist theater owners…Im looking at you Mann Brothers. What a fun read. > > [Making Blues Brothers With John Belushi and Dan Akroyd—“We Had a Budget for Cocaine” | Vanity Fair](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2013/01/making-of-blues-brothers-budget-for-cocaine) Good read, thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553/19 "2020-06-12T22:22:30Z")
According to Bob, those boys drank _a lot_ of beer. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2020, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553/20 "2020-06-12T22:44:06Z")
Some other things to consider: _What date did they play Bob’s Country Bunker?_ Early June. That means a long day, and the band arrived well after sundown. Call it 9:30-10pm. _When was mandated closing in Illinois in 1980?_ 2am? That’s a maximum of 4.5-5 hours of beer drinking. That’s a beer per person every 7.5 minutes for 5 hours straight. Then subtract performance time. Hard to drink while you’re playing. At least 4.5 hours of that set were playing. So the band basically killed $300 worth of beer in 30 minutes. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-beer-did-the-blues-brothers-band-drink/855553.md?page=2)