Some may call it divine intervention. Others call it fate. Still others may refer to it as chance, and many believe there’s no such thing as coincidence. Others attribute the twists and turns of life as simply luck, both good and bad. Often there is no substitute for being in the right place at the right time.
One such event took place back in late 1977 when the movie, “National Lampoon’s Animal House” was being filmed locally. The star of the movie, John Belushi, living with his wife Judy in a rented house to limit his access to drugs and alcohol, grew bored with autumn in Eugene. One of the local crew members suggested checking out the blues music scene at the Eugene Hotel on Monday nights.
On the Blue Monday event that Belushi attended, Willamette High graduate and local blues man Curtis Salgado was performing with Robert Cray. (Cray played a bit part in “Animal House” as the bass player in the scene where Otis Day and The Knights are playing at the Dexter Lake Club.
As Salgado recalled in January 1979 interview in the Register-Guard, Belushi encouraged Salgado to school him on the blues. Salgado brought blues records to Belushi’s house and gave his student a crash course in the legendary music. Belushi even took the stage with Salgado’s band, The Nighthawks, several times during his stay in Eugene.
Belushi, who was one of the stars on the Saturday late night television show “Saturday Night Live”, talked up his musical education with co-star Dan Aykroyd, who was already a fan of the blues, and they dreamed up a skit for SNL, featuring themselves as Jake and Elwood, The Blues Brothers.
This segment on SNL was a hit, and soon Belushi and Ackroyd hired the best studio musicians, true legends in the business, and cut an album, “Briefcase Full of Blues”, which is dedicated to Curtis Salgado. The album was immensely successful and led to bigger and better things, including touring and a movie appropriately titled the “Blues Brothers” with a production budget of $30 million, and that led to more touring and success. The character in the movie portrayed by the legendary Cab Calloway was named Curtis as a further tip the hat to Salgado.
In the same newspaper interview, Salgado admits he had a mixed reaction to the success. While he was pleased for the increased exposure to the music he loved, he was naturally disappointed that it wasn’t him that made the breakthrough. “Those guys aren’t blues people to me. They’re just guys putting on,” Salgado remarked. “Anyone who can carry a tune could have sung in front of that band and sounded pretty good” was Salgado’s reaction to the All-Star lineup that backed up the two comedians.
Salgado himself has had, and still has, a stellar career as a musician. Since his departure from the Robert Cray band in the early 80s he has organized several blues festivals, fronted several of his own bands, served a stint as lead singer for Santana, and has won several handfuls of national blues music awards.
He is still a highly sought after performer at live shows, particularly throughout the northwest. In 2012 he was officially noted by the State of Oregon as a State Treasure, recognizing his lifetime of dedication and achievement.
Fast-forward nearly 40 years from the initial meeting of Belushi and Salgado. On the spur of the moment one Friday evening in August 2015, my friend Sue and I attended the Northwest Art and Air Festival in Albany. The Curtis Salgado band was performing and of course I tried my hand at photographing the performance.
As dusk fell, the hot air balloons did a “nightglow” – the balloons hover several feet off the ground, and when the burner lights up to keep the craft afloat, the balloons glow from the light of the flame. I took many photographs of that as well.
I was really inspired from the evening of audio and visual treats I witnessed and tried to create a photographic image that captured what I felt afterwards. I created a blended image that I’ve called “Blues in the Nightglow” that shows the band playing while appearing to hover in the night sky over the balloons.
I was quite pleased with the results and had a couple of prints made, one to present to Sue as a housewarming gift and the other for me. As fate would have it, in October the Curtis Salgado band was playing at Mac’s at the Vets in Eugene. I thought it would be pretty cool to see if we could get Sue’s copy of the photograph autographed by the band, and maybe present the other copy to Salgado himself. As the evening played out, we got the autographs and gave Salgado a copy. They all seem to be pleased with the image, and several band members expressed interest in obtaining their own copy.
So I think to myself, if John Belushi hadn’t encountered Curtis Salgado back in 1977 while filming “Animal House”, if Belushi hadn’t expressed such an interest in the blues, if we hadn’t decided to attend the hot air balloon show in Albany all these years later, if we hadn’t gone to the concert, if we hadn’t got Salgado to autograph the photo — well, you might be reading a different story right now.
Perhaps the stars lined up just right or any of the other countless possibilities, but one thing is certain to me. As much as we might plan for and desire something, there’s simply no way to know what’s coming around the next bend as we navigate our way through life.
Published 2016
It Happened in Oregon... 