Is there anyone who doesn't love This is Spinal Tap?

I seem to have an anthology on hard rock/metal or two around here in which a member of Uriah Heep, probably Hensley, proudly takes some credit. Status Quo and the Heep fit more closely than Saxon if there's any -fit-. They both started out as kind of lame and flailing psychedelic bands, although the Quo had an actual hit. Status Quo didn't have any members die. Heep had personnel problems early on, a bassist actually being electrocuted onstage. Later he died in a bathtup or something. Quo match better in the UL label's regard for them. Despite a big splurge for a feature in Billboard at the time of "Blue for You," Quo were treated with great disrespect in the US. Uriah Heep had it much easier, being arena head-liners for a short time.

They all make nice stories.

In the latest Entertainment Weekly there's a feature with Rob Reiner talking aboot each of the films he's made, and for the Spinal Tap blurb he says their keyboardist, John Sinclair, was hired away by Uriah Heap before he could be in the movie. He would call the filmmakers from the road, saying things like "We're playing a military base" and they would put it in the film. Reiner also credits Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as the inspiration for getting lost on the way to stage.

i will take you there. i will show you how

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/player.html?channel=1804&category=24333&title=05392_00

"these go to eleven"

prefer 'a mighty wind'

Heresy.

yeah no lie

"he was the patron saint of quality footwear"

"It's called 'Lick My Love Pump'"

The 'Majesty of Rock' video was on VH1 the other night...This makes me CRY laughing every time I hear it:

The darning of the sock,
The scoring of the goal!
The farmer takes a wife
The barber takes a pole.

Also: I always say "Dobly" instead of Dolby. That never stops being funny

So I finally picked up The Return of Spinal Tap on DVD over the weekend for cheap -- bootleg DVD from all appearances, the original video was released back in 1992 or 1993 or so. It's not a sequel to the film outside of a few sketches but it's fun to see the live show they did in London in 1992; I was at the Los Angeles performance of the tour. Meanwhile the various 'where are they now' bits are good, and Nigel Tufnel's skill with inventions and helping ferrets travel wins on the comedy front.

Meanwhile they played Wembley Arena the other week -- "Big Bottom" with (apparently) Justin Hawkins and Andy Scott from Sweet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fWDumg3qeQ

have you guys read "Yes I Can" by Sammy Davis Junior?

Kerrang! reviewed the Wembley gig in this week's issue and gave it 1 out of 5. There's an astonishing bit at the end where the writer names the nadir of the evening being when "[a Tap member] throws a solitary cucumber into the audience," this being indicative of the poor effort made at a stage show

Hard to work out the level of ironing going on there.

i take back what i said about loving the rutles on here. i watched it again a while ago and didn't laugh once. i guess it was better when i was a kid. kinda wish i had the album though. still don't love spinal tap though i should see it again to make sure. i saw it, like, 20 years ago.

scott this is the weirdest most inexplicable opinion I have ever heard you express wtf dude

I don't love it either.

well, like i said, i should watch it again. i've only seen it once. i just don't remember laughing that much when i saw it. maybe i was in a bad mood. i kinda remember thinking: oh, i get it, they're dumb. and that was that. i'll get some good weed and watch it.

i did laugh when i saw guffman and the dog one. i remember laughing. maybe spinal tap just needed catherine o'hara for me to love it.

i take back what i said about loving the rutles on here. i watched it again a while ago and didn't laugh once. i guess it was better when i was a kid. kinda wish i had the album though. still don't love spinal tap though i should see it again to make sure. i saw it, like, 20 years ago.

― scott seward, Wednesday, July 8, 2009 6:29 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

rutles is unbelievably shit. i only saw it last year. dire.

tap is immortal though, wtf!

UK ilxors, how good are their accents? If they are bad, is that another level of hilarity we are missing?

I love this movie, but "Some Kind of Monster" is almost as good, and in many ways even better and funnier.

It was awesome when I showed my ex-hippie mom-in-law the Rutles and she kept going like 'OH those days were so AMAZING it was SO GREAT being there' and I had to keep reminding her 'uh this is a fake movie of a fake band' and then she'd say 'oh but you weren't THERE it was so different if you LIVED it.'

Did she drink a lot of tea?

UK ilxors, how good are their accents? If they are bad, is that another level of hilarity we are missing?

The accents are bad, but bad like old rock bands who've spent too long in the US wd have, i.e. really good.

Rutles isn't really funny at all but the songs make up for it.

UK ilxors, how good are their accents? If they are bad, is that another level of hilarity we are missing?

Accents are a bit shit bar Guest imo.

I don't love Spinal Tap. I enjoy it and "none more black" is one of the funniest things ever but I just like it really.

i love the movie but i really have no desire to hear or see anything spinal tap besides that one original thing.

Yeah I'm pretty much the same, the movie is perfect on its own.

Their appearance on the Simpsons was pretty funny. "We salute you, our half-inflated evil lord!"

That was fun but the rest of the episode with Otto was the really hilarious part.

"I had mustard?!"

They have a new CD out. I listened to some of it but couldn't really work out what the point was. Maybe it's a contractual thing where they don't have the rights to the original recordings? There are re-recordings of some classics. Hellhole sounded pretty good, Cups and Cakes was way worse. Also some new stuff, including three different takes of Jazz Odessey (didn't listen to them) and some other new pastiches that I didn't recognise. I was prepared to enjoy it because I'm one of the few who purchased and love "Break Like The Wind". But this seemed redundant. Just get the OST, and BLTW too if you are a maniac.

'Jazz Odessey' is defs my favorite part of the movie.

Maybe it's a contractual thing where they don't have the rights to the original recordings?

there is some contractual stuff behind a lot of their present-day activities. christopher haden-guest is immensely wealthy and doesn't need to do it and doesn't want to, iirc.

In which case that makes Spinal Tap even more of an appropriate portrayal.

i think they are also all kind of assholish tbh

irl?

lol isn't it de rigeur to just assume all actors are jerks? I mean, who cares how they are irl? I'm never going to meet/have to deal with them.

Spotted the "new" album ... Back from the Dead I believe? ... yesterday. Agreed -- what's the point?

I'm a big Waiting for Guffman fan, so one day (probably 10 years ago) I rented Spinal Tap and found myself largely underwhelmed. I don't remember specifics, but I do remember thinking that heavy metal was already such an obviously ridiculous spectacle that it didn't really need to be parodied. Possibly also, though, I didn't know enough about metal or hard rock to get some of the more subtle jokes, whereas I cracked up in Guffman over not-even-jokes like "now you sing BLAY, leave off the N" because it reminded me of my high-school theater days.

Possibly also, though, I didn't know enough about metal or hard rock to get some of the more subtle jokes

Eh, when I first saw it in 1985 or so, my knowledge of heavy metal/hard rock consisted of Def Leppard, Motley Crue and the general 80s commercial hits out there. Thought it was hilarious then and knowing more about what's being parodied makes it funnier over time.

It's also just an amazingly well-edited movie. Very little drags about it.

yep. wall-to-wall jokes

I watched the three (four?) hour version once. It dragged a bit, but still very hilarious.

jaymc i feel like if you haven't seen it until now you might be already fatigued of the jokes and style that have osmosized into pop culture.

just that style alone, so imitated, seemed like SUCH a comedic breakthru at the time