In Ancient Times, Hundreds of Years Before the Dawn of History…

 

…lived an ancient race of people, the Druids.
No one knows who they were or what they were doing
But their legacy remains, hewn into the living rock of Stonehenge…

‘Tis May, when our thoughts turn to parody. And what is the greatest parody of all time? Oh there are many that rate a 10 on the Gossamercat-o-meter. Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, The Rutles, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, A Mighty Wind. But only one rates an 11. That’s right: This Is Spinal Tap, the original mockumentary. The hard rock masterpiece featuring David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel and Derek Smalls, the rocking and clueless alter egos of Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer. Not even the presence of Rob Reiner can diminish its place as the pinnacle of parody. The movie was released in 1984, back when he was amusing and not insufferable.

And give yourself an 11 too if you recognized the title as the intro to their magnum opus “Stonehenge,” “where the demons dwell, where the banshees live and they do live well.

The first time I saw it in 1984, I laughed so hard my jaw hurt and my stomach muscles were sore the next day. They captured everything absurd about Rock’n’Roll. The hair, the history, the music, the clothes, the accents, the bombast, the tenuous tenures of drummers, the “bits and pieces of every Eastern religion.” And, of course, those classic lines:

  1.  “I believe virtually everything I read, and I think that is what makes me more of a selective human than someone who doesn’t believe anything.” — David St. Hubbins
  2. “It’s written in D minor, which I always find the saddest of all keys…it makes people weep instantly.” — Nigel Tufnel
  3. “I’m really influenced by Mozart and Bach, and it’s sort of in between those, really. It’s like a Mach piece.” — Nigel Tufnel
  4. “David and Nigel are like poets, you know, like Shelley or Byron, or people like that. The two totally distinct types of visionaries, it’s like fire and ice, and I feel my role in the band is to be kind of the middle of that, kind of like lukewarm water.” — Derek Smalls
  5. “It’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.” — David St Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel
  6. “Well… don’t point! It can’t be played.” — Nigel Tufnel on his guitar collection
  7. “We say ‘love your brother.’ Well, we don’t say it literally. We don’t mean it literally. But we’re not racists.” — David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel on why their audience is predominantly white.
  8. “I don’t want this. I want large bread.” — Nigel Tufnel on his mystifying hors d’oeuvres
  9. “It’s like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black.” — Nigel Tufnel on their all-black album cover
  10. “I do not, for one, think that the problem was that the band was down. I think that the problem may have been, that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf. Alright? That tended to understate the hugeness of the object.” — David St. Hubbins
  11. “Well, it’s one louder, isn’t it?” — Nigel Tufnel on his custom amplifier (it goes to 11!)

Apparently, all of these lines were improvised, as Rob Reiner and the others early on gave up on writing a screenplay and just provided the actors with a general outline for the scenes. None of the actors knew what questions were going to be asked, according to an interview in 2019. In order to do this successfully, they had to create a detailed history of the band so that all the actors knew the same things. (Quick, what was their original name? Answer: The Originals, until they became the New Originals then the Thamesmen). They made a 20-minute short to shop to the studios in lieu of a screenplay. There were no takers at first, but eventually Norman Lear agreed to back the film.

You have to love Rock’n’Roll to love the movie. But you also have to get the joke. The actors were so spot-on in their characterizations and their songs, that many people didn’t quite get the film, thinking it was a real film about an obscure band. A really bad obscure band. And who is to say it wasn’t?

The cinematographer on the film, who had worked on documentaries of Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones, didn’t find it particularly funny because “These things really happen.” In fact, many of the funniest scenes in the film were based loosely on real-life incidents.

The “complete catastrophe” of the hors d’oeuvres provided to Nigel was based on a story about Van Halen supposedly asking for all the brown M&M’s to be removed from their dressing room. According to Rob Reiner, Black Sabbath accused them of stealing the Stonehenge idea, as they started a tour with that theme just before the movie was released. It didn’t occur to them that it takes a while to shoot and edit a film. But in a case of life imitating art  — and I actually find this hard to believe — Black Sabbath also experienced an epic prop malfunction in their tour according to this article. Only their Stonehenge was too big rather than too small. And just as in the film, units were to blame, with Black Sabbath specifying 15 meters instead of 15 feet. But generally the film is beloved by rockers — Sting apparently weeps when he sees it, both from laughter and nostalgia (Vanity Fair).

The film didn’t do that well when first released. I did my part, seeing it three times. But it soon gained a cult following and in 2002, This is Spinal Tap was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress, and was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry. This is Spinal Tap was described as “one of the single most influential movies of the past thirty-five years” by critic Jeremy Arnold as it “effectively launched a new genre—the mockumentary” (quoted in Wikipedia).

And of course, Tap lives! As the actors have so successfully blurred the line not only between stupid and clever, but fact and fiction, they have frequently gone on tour in character over the years. They conducted a world tour in 2009 (but with only one date). And in another case of life imitating art, they’ve gone through a few drummers, but as far as I know, not because of bizarre gardening accidents or spontaneous combustion. I was fortunate to see them in a concert in Southern California in the early 2000s. I believe it was sponsored by Depends Adult Diapers.

So like the Druids, Spinal Tap’s legacy will live on, hewn into the living farce of my favorite parody of all time.

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  1. Dotorimuk Coolidge
    Dotorimuk
    @Dotorimuk

    And the scene where they all suddenly have “cold sores”…

    The lyrics to “Tonight, I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight.” Oh my….

    The deleted scenes on the DVD are also hilarious. 

    You all made we want to get the DVD out.

     

    • #31
  2. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Dotorimuk (View Comment):
    You all made we want to get the DVD out.

    Mission accomplished.

    • #32
  3. Gossamer Cat Coolidge
    Gossamer Cat
    @GossamerCat

    The Scarecrow (View Comment):

    Barfly (View Comment):

    Gossamer Cat: You have to love Rock’n’Roll to love the movie. But you also have to get the joke. The actors were so spot-on in their characterizations and their songs, that many people didn’t quite get the film, thinking it was a real film about an obscure band. A really bad obscure band. And who is to say it wasn’t?

    I recall a bunch of kids I was working with discovering Spinal Tap when they released an album – it was probably late in the 80’s. One, I remember being amused that they weren’t aware of the joke. Two, I remember it was pretty ok rock and roll. Are they any more of a joke than, say, Alice Cooper? Do not try to tell me Alice Cooper isn’t rock and roll.

    One tiny little spot in this movie I always loved was when they’re being interviewed about their beginnings. They laughingly dismiss their first attempt at songwriting, a song called “All the Way Home”. They throw together a quick acapella version on the spot, snapping their fingers to the rhythm, then shake their heads at their naivete. But it’s the best song they do! A completely non-ironic, catchy pop song. I hope to God this was intentional and not my imagination.

    It was good!  I found the same with a lot of the Folkmen songs.  I genuinely liked them as folk songs, even though they were written to parody a particular type of song.   

    • #33
  4. Bishop Wash Member
    Bishop Wash
    @BishopWash

    JosePluma (View Comment):

    …What would they say to us if we were here today?

    Every time someone mentions Boston, I say “It’s not a big college town.”

    My daughter, a librarian in Massachusetts, is not fond of that particular joke.

    On a recent podcast hosted on Ricochet, a guest (maybe the host) mentioned that he didn’t realize how many colleges are in Boston until he moved there. Pretty sure Spinal Tap was brought up and the two guys wondered how many of the smaller schools are going to survive the coronacrisis.

    • #34
  5. Bishop Wash Member
    Bishop Wash
    @BishopWash

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Vance Richards (View Comment):
    And if I remember correctly the name of that sweet tune was “Lick My Love Pump”

    That does sound like something by Mozart…

    Isn’t all metal played on a pipe organ Bach?

    • #35
  6. Gossamer Cat Coolidge
    Gossamer Cat
    @GossamerCat

    Bishop Wash (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Vance Richards (View Comment):
    And if I remember correctly the name of that sweet tune was “Lick My Love Pump”

    That does sound like something by Mozart…

    Isn’t all metal played on a pipe organ Bach?

    If only it were in D minor, I’d be crying.

    • #36
  7. thelonious Member
    thelonious
    @thelonious

    I didn’t know about spontaneous combustion until I saw this movie. 

    • #37
  8. Gossamer Cat Coolidge
    Gossamer Cat
    @GossamerCat

    thelonious (View Comment):

    I didn’t know about spontaneous combustion until I saw this movie.

    No wonder, apparently “dozens of people spontaneously combust every year. It’s just not widely reported.”

    • #38
  9. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Do your part to share a bit of humor, dry or rich, high or low brow. Stop by and sign up for a day in “A Merry Month.” 

    Interested in Group Writing topics that came before? See the handy compendium of monthly themes. Check out links in the Group Writing Group. You can also join the group to get a notification when a new monthly theme is posted.

    • #39
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