John, We Really Loved Ye

25 years after his death, John Belushi is still on the scene.

Talk about going out at the top of your game. When a drug overdose killed him at age 33 on March 5, 1982, John Belushi was arguably the most influential comic actor on the scene. His was an influence felt not only on comedy and music but on the interface between the two. Without The Blues Brothers movie's blend of comedy, drama and music, "Dreamgirls" would not have been the movie it is.Nor would Jack Black have a reason to exist. Early on in his career Belushi made a point of doing his comedy on bills with rock acts. He became tight buds with The Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia penning "West L.A. Fadeaway" about Belushi's death. The Blues Brothers concept got to him in many ways, not least because it gave him the opportunity to spotlight the blues and r'n'b;a love shared with Blues Brother Dan Ackroyd. The movie featured performances by genre giants Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, James Brown and Cab Calloway and brought classic blues and r'n'b to a whole new generation. For the second Blues Brothers album, Belushi made sure there were songs on it from old school musicians who would appreciate the royalties. Nobody broke through like John broke through. From his early days at Chicago's Second City troupe in '71, it was plain his was a fast and high rising trajectory. In a hint of what was to come, Belushi's signature impersonation at the time was Brit blues interpreter Joe Cocker's gravelly voice and spazzoid body language. In 1978, on the eve of his 30th birthday, Belushi was King of the World. He had the No. 1 movie with "Animal House," the No. 1 record (with partner Dan Aykroyd), "Briefcase Full of Blues" and was the star attraction in TV's hottest show, Saturday Night Live. You won't get many arguments this was SNL's golden era, a wild and creatively exhilarating rollercoaster ride, white knuckles away from the timid bumper car game it is today. A year later, he was off to the movies Belushi would make four of them in his career, three, 1941, Neighbors, and most notably The Blues Brothers were made with Canadian SNL alumnus Dan Aykroyd, the closest thing he would have to a mentor. Already known in Canada for his TV roles, it was his work with local hero Akroyd which elevated him to Godlike status in Canadian hipster circles. At the time of his death, the roles of Dr. Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters and Emmett Fitz-Hume in Spies Like Us had already been written by Aykroyd specifically with Belushi in mind. On the set of the former,Aykroyd was known to joke that the green ghost Slimer in Ghostbusters was "the ghost of John Belushi", given they shared a similar party animal personality. John Belushi wore the traditional Comedia del Arte comedy and tragedy masks his whole career, and there's a Canadian connection to both those faces. Dan Akroyd's contributions to Belushi's career and fun quotient are well documented. To a more infamous degree, Belushi will forever be linked to Toronto native Cathie Smith, who confessed to feeding John the Frsico speedball which laid him low. Cathie may have fed John the junk but she didn't kill him. Success killed John Belushi, as it had so many lightning rod talents before him, and it had it in for him for a long time. Belushi is buried in Abel's Hill Cemetery on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. On his tombstone it says "I may be gone, but rock n roll lives on." So will his work. As to what may have been lost, SNL creator Lorne Michaels recently told a reporter, "I think John had a depth to his talent that would have allowed him to reinvent himself," Michaels said.. " I think he could have made the transition to more complex characters". Chances are Belushi's career would have ended up more Bill Murray than Chevy Chase. And that would have been something to see. Think I'll go get me a Pepsi and cheeseburger, cheesburger, cheeseburger. MirrorWarp.