Monday, November 10, 2008

This Is Spinal Tap

From Mom:
So,
I decided to watch Spinal tap today. I had a pre-notion that i would enjoy it, because I loved Best in Show and enjoyed A Mighty Wind. But I wasn't prepared to actually believe that the performances weren't real!
Best in Show was really funny, and the characters in the movie were actors that became caricatures of the parts they played. I really believed that these guys in Spinal Tap WERE Spinal Tap!! They never seemed ridiculously too much.
The whole feel of the movie seemed real. Even Rob Reiner (who usually reminds me of his Meathead days) was completely the documentary director at all times.
The gigs they played were hysterical. The music and lyrics were very reminiscent of the Kiss/Pink Floyd/Bowie/Alice Cooper era. That glam, punk, reinvention of groups transitioning from the flower-power 60's, to the 70's and 80's hair bands.
The stonehenge gig was so funny, with the dancing druids, and the 18" structure!! Also the gig when Derek gets stuck in the creation pod. Elaborate theatrics like that were such commonplace in rock concerts of that era.
I was really glad that Nigel and David reconciled and that Janine(in the classic Yoko style) didn't ruin their long standing partnership. I think that Nigel was my favorite band member. He was so sweet and innocent. I thought I would keel over when he was playing that beautiful piano solo, and when asked what he called it he says, Lick my Love pipe!!
It was a sweet ending, Spinal Tap playing to a sold out crowd in Japan...like many other hair bands of days gone by are still doing as we speak!!

From Tony:
The genius behind Spinal Tap is exactly what you said, and what I warned you about, is that as outlandish as they are hair metal was so fucking weird that they do in fact become a real rock band. Lars Ulrich--the drummer of Metallica--has frequently referred to some of their backstage antics as "very Spinal Tap." The world they inhabit in the movie is so real and so well layered in that respect that you will always ALWAYS catch something new when you re-watch it. My most recent example is after like my fifteenth viewing I caught a fan at the very beginning of the movie yell "Do Stonehenge!" They don't actually start to talk about that song until halfway in.
I like that you mentioned Nigel's sweet innocence because after all, most rock and rollers are just man-children playing out some perverse teenage fantasy. It's all pretty gay and they even allude to that when they're discussing being up on stage "with armadillos in our trousers."
This is infinitely quotable. "Going to eleven" is as commonplace as any movie reference you'll ever come across. I even heard Gimme Some Money on a commercial a year or so back and I was pleasantly surprised to hear Hell Hole on some hair metal block the other morning before work. My favorite song is Tonight We're Gonna Rock You because of the lines "Your sweet but your just four feet and you still have your baby teeth/Your too young and I'm too well hung but tonight I'm gonna rock you."
Anotehr element of their genius is that this probably came out before hair metal hit its lowest point. You nailed it, they totally called these bands' decent into obscurity and chart topping success in the last place they ever expected.
What were some of your other favorite scenes and jokes? I personally loved the album cover for "Introvenous De Milo" and that David's family name, St. Hubins, comes from the patron saint of quality footwear. Also, anytime Viv is seen is a riot and when Mick Shrimptom explodes well after the audience has forgotten about the earlier joke about their laundry list of dead drummers...gold. Pure gold.
You should watch it again while you have it for these reasons:
1) To catch all the jokes you may have missed
2) To play Name That Celebrity! Did you catch Billy Crystal, Dana Carvey and Angelica Houston just to name a few?
3) Watch it with the commentary track. They do it in character, twenty years later, and their reflections on Marty DiBergi, the making of the film and even the stupid sweater Janine made for David is like a whole other movie.
p.s.
Not sure if this changes the joke for you at all, but that piano song was "Lick My Love Pump."

From Mom:
I did notice all of the celebrities you mentioned. One of my other favorite scenes is when the are trying to get onstage, and they are going in circles, and have to ask the maintenance man for
directions. Going to eleven was very clever. I bought it hook line and sinker.
I actually started singing along with Gimme Some Money, and I thought that it belonged to another hair band until I read the credits, and realized that I must have heard it somewhere. Do you remember what commercial it was?
I can't remember all of the songs like you do ,but one about a girl with a big butt, and I think they say something like,how can I leave this behind? Totally funny to hear being sung as a rock ballad. Oh yeah, when they're at Graceland at Elvis's grave trying to harmonize Heartbreak Hotel. I think I will need to watch it again to get the more subtle jokes, but the overall movie was fun, and very clever. Maybe this is one to watch together!

From Tony:
Yes. Big Bottom is a classic. "Talk about mud flaps my girl's got 'em." And they all play bass on that song...I heard a lot about it when I was taking bass lessons. And no, I can't recall what commercial the song was on. Probably some credit card with some sort of rewards deal or something.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i think a testament to Spinal Tap's accuraccy as a parody of rockstars and their lifestyle is when some guy on tv (i believe it was Dee Snider...not surprisingly) said "the longer you're in a rock band, the less funny Spinal Tap becomes"