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Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Spinal Tap defined a real genre with a fake band
'It's such a fine line between stupid and clever.' If movies have a mantra, this bit of philosophizing by Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) and David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) is as good as any. Along with Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), and joined by a rotating band of musical collaborators that includes many drummers who suffered from calamitous outcomes, the members of Spinal Tap redefined the ridiculousness of rock 'n' roll while devoting themselves to reality. Considered by many to be the 11th greatest film ever made, Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap began its cinematic tour on March 2, 1984 and, like a bad case of tinnitus, has continued to resonate until it heads back into theaters July 5, and into the Criterion Collection later this year, ahead of its sequel. Culled from over 100 hours of mostly improvised footage, the film spoofs the hard rock genre by following this trio of gormless Brits as they attempt to conquer the U.S. on a tour, only to eventually find themselves playing as a warm-up act for a puppet show. Four decades later, the film's precise satire has lost none of its sting. At once preposterous and completely in keeping with the excesses of the rock star lifestyle, it's one of those rare parodies that ends up more truthful than their subjects. Given the vagaries of negotiating music rights clearances, gaining backstage access, or simply filming at a given venue, the history of popular music is often being written on film by those with a vested interest in maintaining the illusions of stardom. What makes Spinal Tap so brilliant is that it became an avatar for all those stories about performing artists that couldn't be told without resulting in career suicide. This only works if there's deep plausibility in the construction of the satire, a sense of reality opposing the highly polished portraits that bands are often treated to. This unvarnished comedy is buttressed by a band that can actually play, and songs written by the cast that rival almost anything from their targeted era. One need only look to the poorly animated black blob blocking the cocaine booger in Neil Young's nostril in The Last Waltz, or the members of Led Zeppelin solemnly riding boats and horses in The Song Remains The Same between carefully restaged 'live' performances, to see how even the most celebrated music films have always had a tenuous connection to the truth of the music and lifestyle. Meanwhile, some projects that dared to get too close to the actual debauchery of the lives of these musicians saw their projects shelved, the most famous case being Robert Frank's salacious Cocksucker Blues. Much of Spinal Tap's brilliance is found in its use of the tools of direct cinema documentary filmmaking, drawing its form from masters such D.A. Pennebaker and the Maysle Brothers. Their films (Dont Look Back, Gimme Shelter) helped define rock canon, while Reiner, Guest, McKean, and Shearer, along with an all-star cast of improvising comedians, helped see beyond it. By turning the tools of truthtelling upon themselves, the film laid the groundwork for generations of other mock-docs that took a similar tact. Spinal Tap's shooting script supposedly consisted of only a few locations and circumstances and little in the way of dialogue, allowing for the performers to inhabit their characters with deep verisimilitude. It's in this context that Reiner's filmmaker alter-ego Marty Di Bergi arrives. Festooned in a 'USS Ooral Sea' cap that provides one of the film's more subtly salacious jokes, Marty conducts a series of sit-down interviews with the musical trio as they reflect upon their career as they are about to set off on tour. Cinematographer Peter Smokler captured the proceedings with a documentarian's eye, his sweeping handheld aesthetic mirroring Pennebaker's lensing. Smolker, having worked on another celebrated film that skated on the border of truth and fiction, Peter Watkins' Punishment Park, captures the improvisations with the clarity of a seasoned documentarian, presenting the vérité nature of the conversations as truthfully as any non-fiction film. The same level of verisimilitude that Reiner and Smokler used in the filmmaking process was brought to the music. The central trio played their own instruments, and reshoots were done to ensure that the fingering of each guitar note was accurately portrayed. Like the songs of Tom Lehrer from a generation before, there's an astonishing balance between the profound and the silly in just about every note played, while standing as actual works of art themselves. Songs such as 'Stonehenge,' 'Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight,' or 'Hell Hole' are the equal, if not the better, of the Uriah Heep/Black Sabbath/Iron Maiden era of rock bombast that the band's aesthetic echoes. While the backstory of the band was fictional, that's really McKean, Shearer, and Guest tilling away during the sonic visit to 'Sex Farm,' making the border between real and fake band all the murkier. Spinal Tap floods this murkiness with jokes, balancing broad and subtle humor. While the jokes oscillate between the obvious and the cerebral, the sense of realism injects them with the natural absurdity of real-life situations, making their effect far deeper than more straightforward comedies meant to simply mine laughs. While 'mime is money' is an instantly quotable line, as is the immortal dialogue about dialing amps 'up to 11' or the licking of love pumps, some more atmospheric jokes are far easier to miss as they quickly go by. When their Boston show is cancelled, the band's manager Ian Faith (Tony Hendra, channeling everyone from Brian Epstein to Peter Grant) tells the band that they 'shouldn't worry about it, it's not a big college town.' It doesn't feel like a joke, more a funny throwaway that simply adds to the texture. Similarly, while 'Big Bottom' is the stuff of poetry, non-musicians may miss that this bottom-heavy track has each front-of-stage instrumentalist playing bass guitar, with Smalls donning the even more preposterous double-necked bass for no discernible reason other than it's awesome. Driving the point home even further, the band invited 18 additional bass players to join them on stage at their 2007 Live Earth concert, which surely produced a rumble that would have registered on local seismometers. The playful use of graphic design also makes the world of Spinal Tap that much more believable. There are lurid covers for the band's fake albums, as well as a poster on the way to the greenroom where the 'p' in 'Tap' has been omitted because the designer clearly ran out of room (poor planning being a running gag throughout the film). Even the gratuitous use of the umlaut above the n in 'Spin̈al Tap' takes a dig at Blue Öyster Cult. The most memorable image, though, comes after their label rep (Fran Drescher) describes the rejected artwork for Smell the Glove: a cover photo of 'a greased naked woman on all fours with a dog collar around her neck, and a leash, and a man's arm extended out up to here, holding onto the leash, and pushing a black glove in her face to sniff it.' Instead, Spinal Tap is forced to go with a plain all-black cover, an obvious allusion to the Beatles' White Album. It's this combination of visual and verbal humor—along with cleverly constructed lyrics and moments of almost contemplative normality that are surreal in context, be it the zombie-like shuffle of the dancers at the air base, or the solemn singing at Elvis Presley's grave—that define how seriously the film takes its comedy. There's a complete absence of mugging for the camera or milking a specific joke, revelling instead in what actually comes across as normal for this struggling, out-of-touch band. This truthiness provides the most acerbic satire, one that doesn't need to be underlined, and one that would be part of its lasting legacy. Following Spinal Tap, Guest would take the lead in this genre of improv-heavy mock-docs (Waiting For Guffman, Best In Show, For Your Consideration, A Mighty Wind) and in turn help firmly establish this genre of comedy. Other films followed Tap's music-themed path more literally. CB4 and Fear Of A Black Hat probed the excesses of hip-hop, the genre that would supplant heavy rock's dominance. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is as carefully constructed and glossy as its musical genre of choice, and the core members of Lonely Island, from 'Lazy Sunday' onwards, owe a debt to their Tap forefathers (and Saturday Night Live predecessors). Then there's Walk Hard, Jake Kasdan and Judd Apatow's exquisite take on the award-bait biopic that helped crush the genre for a decade. Poking fun at everyone from Johnny Cash to Jim Morrison, what makes the satire so stinging is the precision of the brilliantly crafted songs. Mostly written by Dan Bern and Mike Viola, they are tracks—like those in Spinal Tap—so lovingly produced that they feel like they were hits from a former era rather than contemporary creations. Spinal Tap came out as MTV was in ascendance, and the big hair and big sound of heavy metal was soon to take on an even more flamboyant image as the decade wore on, building upon the 1970s excesses to the commercial heights of the recording industry. The bands that would follow—R.A.T.T., Poison, Guns N' Roses, and Metallica to name a few—couldn't help but be seen through the vision that the fictional story brought to bear, and artists in particular found deeper truths in its absurdity. Even indie darlings like Kurt Cobain were in on the joke, and Soundgarden would habitually perform Spinal Tap covers with only a small hint of irony. That blurry line would eventually be erased entirely, as Guest, McKean, and Shearer played stadium shows to massive crowds. Their second released record, 1992's Break Like The Wind featured legendary performers like Jeff Beck, Cher, Walter Becker, Joe Satriani, Slash, Nicky Hopkins, Waddy Wachtel, Dweezil Zappa, and Steve Lukather. The further away from the mid-1980s we get, the less Spinal Tap feels like insightful-yet-silly fiction and more like absurd-yet-prescient prediction. Both Metallica and Jay-Z would eventually copy the band's 'Black Album' aesthetic, and amid the brouhaha regarding Sabrina Carpenter's upcoming album cover was speculation that it was paying homage to the band's rejected album cover. Incurring a 'Spinal Tap moment' is shorthand to describe any concert mishap, with entire lists of similar debacles proving how often fact mirrors fiction. When Beyoncé gets trapped in a flying car as part of her stadium show it's impossible not to think of Derek Smalls trying to extricate himself from an errant egg, and when Slash yells out 'Hello Sydney!' in Melbourne, he apologizes for a 'Spinal Tap intro.' The music of Spinal Tap stands comfortably alongside the rockers that it both mocked and celebrated, while its filmmaking craft is the equal of the form-shaping documentaries it was in conversation with—all while asking why one should 'waste good music on a brain.' The separation between high and low art doesn't need to be there; great art is a delicate mix of stupid and clever. It's by navigating this supposed divide that legends are born, stadiums are rocked, audiences are wowed, and genres are changed forever. Like the lyrics they sing immortalizing the petroglyphs of Stonehenge, Spinal Tap's 'legacy remains, hewn into the living rock.' More from A.V. Club Duster's LaToya Morgan and Rachel Hilson on rooting a very '70s story in the here and now Spoiler Space: Jurassic World Rebirth once again makes dinosaurs everyone's problem Netflix is bringing back Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Solve the daily Crossword
The Advertiser
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Advertiser
McCartney, Elton feature in trailer for Spinal Tap II
Paul McCartney can be heard comparing a Spinal Tap song to "literature" in the first trailer for Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. The clip also features Elton John performing Stonehenge with the fictional band at their reunion concert, on a piano that rises from underneath the stage. Speaking in the trailer, McCartney says: "Pink Torpedo, that's literature, really." The film is a follow-up to This Is Spinal Tap (1984), and follows David St Hubbins (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) as they reunite after a 15-year hiatus. In the trailer, introduced by Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner), the band's members are seen to have launched their own cryptocurrency and worked in a shop during their time apart. Their reunion is revealed to take place in New Orleans as a replacement for "an evening with Stormy Daniels" which was cancelled at the venue, while a scene showing them going through merchandise for the show sees the band looking at branded Tap Water. The band are later asked whether one of them would be willing to die during the concert, with one of the members replying: "Would you settle for a coma?" Spinal Tap II: The End Continues will be released in cinemas on September 12. The original film followed the band from their beginnings as the skiffle group, The Originals, through to their time as a 1960s R&B group called The Thamesmen who had a hit with Gimme Some Money, before eventually becoming Spinal Tap, which begins as a psychedelic band before moving into heavy metal. The name Spinal Tap has become a derogatory term to describe bands who overindulge in rock cliches, while the film also gave birth to the phrase "turn it up to 11" after guitarist Nigel's amps were shown to have volume switches that go to 11 rather than 10 in the original movie. Paul McCartney can be heard comparing a Spinal Tap song to "literature" in the first trailer for Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. The clip also features Elton John performing Stonehenge with the fictional band at their reunion concert, on a piano that rises from underneath the stage. Speaking in the trailer, McCartney says: "Pink Torpedo, that's literature, really." The film is a follow-up to This Is Spinal Tap (1984), and follows David St Hubbins (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) as they reunite after a 15-year hiatus. In the trailer, introduced by Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner), the band's members are seen to have launched their own cryptocurrency and worked in a shop during their time apart. Their reunion is revealed to take place in New Orleans as a replacement for "an evening with Stormy Daniels" which was cancelled at the venue, while a scene showing them going through merchandise for the show sees the band looking at branded Tap Water. The band are later asked whether one of them would be willing to die during the concert, with one of the members replying: "Would you settle for a coma?" Spinal Tap II: The End Continues will be released in cinemas on September 12. The original film followed the band from their beginnings as the skiffle group, The Originals, through to their time as a 1960s R&B group called The Thamesmen who had a hit with Gimme Some Money, before eventually becoming Spinal Tap, which begins as a psychedelic band before moving into heavy metal. The name Spinal Tap has become a derogatory term to describe bands who overindulge in rock cliches, while the film also gave birth to the phrase "turn it up to 11" after guitarist Nigel's amps were shown to have volume switches that go to 11 rather than 10 in the original movie. Paul McCartney can be heard comparing a Spinal Tap song to "literature" in the first trailer for Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. The clip also features Elton John performing Stonehenge with the fictional band at their reunion concert, on a piano that rises from underneath the stage. Speaking in the trailer, McCartney says: "Pink Torpedo, that's literature, really." The film is a follow-up to This Is Spinal Tap (1984), and follows David St Hubbins (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) as they reunite after a 15-year hiatus. In the trailer, introduced by Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner), the band's members are seen to have launched their own cryptocurrency and worked in a shop during their time apart. Their reunion is revealed to take place in New Orleans as a replacement for "an evening with Stormy Daniels" which was cancelled at the venue, while a scene showing them going through merchandise for the show sees the band looking at branded Tap Water. The band are later asked whether one of them would be willing to die during the concert, with one of the members replying: "Would you settle for a coma?" Spinal Tap II: The End Continues will be released in cinemas on September 12. The original film followed the band from their beginnings as the skiffle group, The Originals, through to their time as a 1960s R&B group called The Thamesmen who had a hit with Gimme Some Money, before eventually becoming Spinal Tap, which begins as a psychedelic band before moving into heavy metal. The name Spinal Tap has become a derogatory term to describe bands who overindulge in rock cliches, while the film also gave birth to the phrase "turn it up to 11" after guitarist Nigel's amps were shown to have volume switches that go to 11 rather than 10 in the original movie. Paul McCartney can be heard comparing a Spinal Tap song to "literature" in the first trailer for Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. The clip also features Elton John performing Stonehenge with the fictional band at their reunion concert, on a piano that rises from underneath the stage. Speaking in the trailer, McCartney says: "Pink Torpedo, that's literature, really." The film is a follow-up to This Is Spinal Tap (1984), and follows David St Hubbins (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) as they reunite after a 15-year hiatus. In the trailer, introduced by Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner), the band's members are seen to have launched their own cryptocurrency and worked in a shop during their time apart. Their reunion is revealed to take place in New Orleans as a replacement for "an evening with Stormy Daniels" which was cancelled at the venue, while a scene showing them going through merchandise for the show sees the band looking at branded Tap Water. The band are later asked whether one of them would be willing to die during the concert, with one of the members replying: "Would you settle for a coma?" Spinal Tap II: The End Continues will be released in cinemas on September 12. The original film followed the band from their beginnings as the skiffle group, The Originals, through to their time as a 1960s R&B group called The Thamesmen who had a hit with Gimme Some Money, before eventually becoming Spinal Tap, which begins as a psychedelic band before moving into heavy metal. The name Spinal Tap has become a derogatory term to describe bands who overindulge in rock cliches, while the film also gave birth to the phrase "turn it up to 11" after guitarist Nigel's amps were shown to have volume switches that go to 11 rather than 10 in the original movie.
CNN
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- CNN
Hollywood Minute: ‘Apollo 13' heads to IMAX screens for its 30th anniversary
'Apollo 13' to screen in IMAX for its 30th anniversary, a look at 'Percy Jackson' season 2, and the first trailer for the 'Spinal Tap' sequel. David Daniel reports.
Leader Live
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Leader Live
Paul McCartney describes Spinal Tap song as ‘literature' in first sequel trailer
The clip also features Sir Elton John performing Stonehenge with the fictional band at their reunion concert in the film, on a piano that rises from underneath the stage. Speaking in the trailer, Sir Paul says: 'Pink Torpedo, that's literature, really.' The film is a follow-up to This Is Spinal Tap (1984), and follows David St Hubbins (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) as they reunite after a 15-year hiatus. In the trailer, introduced by Marty DiBergi (played by real life director Rob Reiner), the band's members are seen to have launched their own cryptocurrency and worked in a shop during their time apart. Their reunion is revealed to take place in New Orleans as a replacement for 'an evening with Stormy Daniels' which was cancelled at the venue, while a scene showing them going through merchandise for the show sees the band looking at branded Tap Water. The band are later asked whether one of them would be willing to die during the concert, with one of the members replying: 'Would you settle for a coma?' Spinal Tap II: The End Continues will be released in cinemas in the UK on September 12. The original film followed the band from their beginnings as the skiffle group, The Originals, through to their time as a 1960s R&B group called The Thamesmen who had a hit with Gimme Some Money, before eventually becoming Spinal Tap, which begins as a psychedelic band before moving into heavy metal. As Spinal Tap, the film follows the group as they release the album Smell The Glove, which retailers refuse to sell due to its sexist cover, and plan a large-scale, Druid-themed glam rock show, but a replica of Stonehenge which was supposed to be 18ft high, ends up being 18 inches after they get the measurements wrong. The name Spinal Tap has become a derogatory term to describe real bands who overindulge in rock cliches, while the film also gave birth to the phrase 'turn it up to 11' after guitarist Nigel's amps were shown to have volume switches that go to 11 rather than 10 in the original movie.
BreakingNews.ie
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- BreakingNews.ie
Paul McCartney describes Spinal Tap song as ‘literature' in first sequel trailer
Beatles star Sir Paul McCartney can be heard comparing a Spinal Tap song to 'literature' in the first trailer for Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. The clip also features Sir Elton John performing Stonehenge with the fictional band at their reunion concert in the film, on a piano that rises from underneath the stage. Advertisement Speaking in the trailer, Sir Paul says: 'Pink Torpedo, that's literature, really.' The film is a follow-up to This Is Spinal Tap (1984), and follows David St Hubbins (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) as they reunite after a 15-year hiatus. In the trailer, introduced by Marty DiBergi (played by real life director Rob Reiner), the band's members are seen to have launched their own cryptocurrency and worked in a shop during their time apart. Their reunion is revealed to take place in New Orleans as a replacement for 'an evening with Stormy Daniels' which was cancelled at the venue, while a scene showing them going through merchandise for the show sees the band looking at branded Tap Water. Advertisement The band are later asked whether one of them would be willing to die during the concert, with one of the members replying: 'Would you settle for a coma?' Spinal Tap II: The End Continues will be released in cinemas in the UK on September 12. The original film followed the band from their beginnings as the skiffle group, The Originals, through to their time as a 1960s R&B group called The Thamesmen who had a hit with Gimme Some Money, before eventually becoming Spinal Tap, which begins as a psychedelic band before moving into heavy metal. As Spinal Tap, the film follows the group as they release the album Smell The Glove, which retailers refuse to sell due to its sexist cover, and plan a large-scale, Druid-themed glam rock show, but a replica of Stonehenge which was supposed to be 18ft high, ends up being 18 inches after they get the measurements wrong. Advertisement The name Spinal Tap has become a derogatory term to describe real bands who overindulge in rock cliches, while the film also gave birth to the phrase 'turn it up to 11' after guitarist Nigel's amps were shown to have volume switches that go to 11 rather than 10 in the original movie.
