Editors’ Note: We’re always looking to branch out,
which leads us to a new feature. Message in the Music is about films in which
music plays a significant role, but the movies wouldn’t be considered musicals.
It’s kind of a musical non-musical. Unlike West
Side Story, Grease, Oklahoma! or an Elvis movie, actors in
these films don’t suddenly break into song. That is, unless they’re in bands –
real and fake. For starters, I’m reviewing one of my all-time favorite films,
and a documentary I recently saw that is pretty funny even though it’s about a
real band.
This
is Spinal Tap (Embassy Pictures, 1984) – Director: Rob Reiner. Starring Michael
McKean, Christopher Guest, Rob Reiner, & Harry Shearer.
I’ve seen This
is Spinal Tap close to 50 times, and I’ll likely see it 50 more. This
groundbreaking “mockumentary” has some of cinema’s funniest and most clever
lines – and many of them were ad-libbed. The film tells the story of fictitious
aging English hard-rock band Spinal Tap on a tour of the United States in
support of its latest album, “Smell the Glove.”
This is Rob Reiner’s directorial debut, playing
Marty DiBergi, a documentary director following and filming Tap’s tour. The
band’s three main characters are David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), the lead
singer and rhythm guitarist; Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), the lead
guitarist; and bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer).
The music plays a key role in the film, with McKean,
Guest, Shearer as well as David Kaff, who plays keyboardist Viv Savage, and
R.J. Parnell, who plays drummer Mick Shrimpton, all performing.
While the band plays a number of songs in their
entirety such as “Big Bottom,” about a woman with a, well, big bottom; “Hell
Hole,” “Stonehenge,” and “Sex Farm,” there are snippets of other songs supposedly
from years ago when they were somewhat famous. On the DVD, you can see complete
performances of several of those songs. The DVD also includes more than an hour
of scenes not in the movie, and commentary from McKean, Guest and Smalls in
their Spinal Tap characters. The soundtrack is excellent and I highly recommend
it. I’ve had the cassette since 1985.
The film has numerous running gags, including the
strange and funny deaths of their drummers. One dies in a “bizarre gardening accident”
that authorities said was “best (to) leave it unsolved.” Another died choking
on vomit – someone else’s vomit. “You can’t really dust for vomit.” And
everyone’s favorite: spontaneous human combustion. “Dozens of people
spontaneously combust each year. It’s just not really widely reported,” St.
Hubbins says matter of factly.
There is a delay in releasing “Smell the Glove”
because of the album cover. Bobbi Flekman, an executive with the band’s record
company and easily Fran Drescher’s best role (which isn’t saying too much),
tells the band’s manager, Ian Faith (Tony Hendra), the cover is “sexist,” and
stores won’t stock it for sale.
Flekman tells Faith: “You put 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. You don’t find that offensive? You don’t find that sexist?”
Faith responds: “Well, you should have seen the cover they wanted to do. It
wasn’t a glove. Believe me.”
(Later, Ian tells the band about the problem with
Nigel naively responding, “Well, so what. What’s wrong with being sexy?")
This results in the album being released with an
all-black record sleeve with no title or the band’s name to be found. The band
is deflated despite Ian trying to put a positive spin on it. Nigel kinds of
buys it, saying, “It’s like, how much more black could this be? And the answer
is ‘none. None more black.’”
Gigs get canceled, including one in Boston with
Faith telling the band, “I wouldn’t worry about it though. It’s not a big
college town.” At a show in Cleveland, the group tries to find its way to the stage
but gets completely lost. Several real bands have said over the years that’s
happened to them. Actually several bands have said a lot of the scenes in the
film really occurred and the movie hits a little too close to home.
A big production number with what is supposed to be
a replica of Stonehenge for the band’s song of the same name is priceless.
Instead of using feet, Tufnel draws the dimensions of Stonehenge on a napkin in
inches. Rather than not use the mini-Stonehenge, Ian hires two midgets to dance
around the replica with hilarious but embarrassing results. “There was a
Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a
dwarf.”
Finally, St. Hubbins’ girlfriend arrives, causing
Yoko-esque tension between St. Hubbins and Tufnel as well as with Faith, who
quits after Jeanine (June Chadwick) is recommended by her boyfriend to be the
group’s co-manager. The band is in disarray with the final straw being a gig at
an Air Force base that leads to Nigel quitting. The next stop is at an
amusement park in Stockton, California, where a puppet show is listed on a sign
above the band. Jeanine sees it and says, “If I told them once, I told them 100
times to put Spinal Tap first and puppet show last.”
The best parts are the free-flowing interviews
DiBergi does with the three Tap principals as McKean, Guest and Shearer are
wonderful improv comedians. Discussing reviews for their albums are highlights.
“The review for ‘Shark Sandwich’ was merely a two-word review which simply read
‘Shit Sandwich.’” For the “Rock and Roll Creation” album, a reviewer wrote:
“This pretentious ponderous collection of religious rock psalms is enough to
prompt the question, ‘What day did the Lord create Spinal Tap, and couldn’t he
have rested on that day too?’” “That’s a good one. That’s a good one,” Smalls
responds.
The most memorable scene has DiBergi in Tufnel’s
house looking at his collection of guitars. One guitar has never been played.
Tufnel freaks out when he thinks DiBergi is going to touch it, telling him to
not even point or look at it. In the room is an amp that goes to 11 rather than
10. Tufnel goes into an explanation about it being “one louder.” DiBergi asks
why not just make 10 be the loudest. Tufnel looks at him completely confused
and says, “These go to 11.” Many musicians since then have had amps that go to
11 in honor of the scene.
The film ends with the band getting back together to
tour Japan where “Sex Farm” has hit No. 5 on that country’s singles chart. Shrimpton
dies on stage, a victim of spontaneous combustion. What are the odds?
The movie is a perfect parody of rock-and-roll
excess with great music and excellent acting. Guest, McKean and Shearer have
done several other improv films over the years. While many are wonderful, none
can touch their first collaboration.
Anvil!
The Story of Anvil (Abramorama, 2008) – Director: Sacha Gervasi. Starring Steve
“Lips” Kudlow & Robb Reiner.
Around the same time This is Spinal Tap was released, a heavy-metal band, Anvil, was at
their peak. In the early to mid-1980s, the Canadian band played at rock
festivals with this documentary initially focusing on a 1984 show in Japan that
also included Bon Jovi, the Scorpions, Whitesnake and the Michael Schenker
Group (though the latter and significantly less successful band isn’t mentioned
in this documentary).
While Bon Jovi, the Scorpions, Whitesnake and other
hair/metal bands of the time – including Metallica and Motorhead – enjoyed
commercial success, Anvil didn’t. Director Sacha Gervasi, who grew up an Anvil
fan and was a roadie during the band’s peak years, frames the film that members
of other bands – including Metallica, Motorhead, Guns N’ Roses, Anthrax, Slayer
and Megadeath - all greatly admire Anvil and are shocked more than two decades
later that the group never made it.
After years of the disappointment and poor sales of
12 albums, Steve “Lips” Kudlow, the band’s singer and guitarist, and drummer
Robb Reiner are the only original members left. While they both have mundane
jobs - Reiner’s naïve simplicity parallels Christopher Guest’s Niles Tufnel -
they haven’t given up their dream of being rock stars. The two other members of
the band from the early 80s have moved on, replaced by others.
When you listen to them play, though, it’s obvious
why they never reached that top level. Despite the musical shortcomings of Bon
Jovi and Whitesnake, for examples, Anvil is even worse. One scene in which
Kudlow is in the studio singing is unforgettable as he is terrible. But that’s
not the point of the film. Also ignored is that the band made some bad business decisions and Kudlow had an opportunity to play guitar with Motorhead,
but opted to stay with Anvil.
Kudlow and Reiner, longtime friends from childhood,
have problems similar to Spinal Tap, except Anvil is a real band. Anvil gets
booked for a European tour, which turns out to be an absolute disaster. You may
feel bad for the band, but you will also find yourself laughing at what
happens.
The European tour starts out well with the band
playing at the Sweden Rock Festival and they run into Michael Schenker and
former Vanilla Fudge drummer Carmen Appice, who comes across as having no idea
who they are. (In the mid to late 70s, Appice was Rod Stewart’s drummer and
with Rod co-wrote “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” and “Young Turks.”) It’s similar to
when Tap run into Duke Fame, a famous musician, in a hotel lobby and he doesn’t
know who they are.
That festival show is the highpoint of the tour.
They get lost in Prague trying to find the bar where they are to perform. At
least Spinal Tap got lost inside a concert hall in Cleveland. They show up two
hours late, perform to a near-empty audience and get into an argument, that
becomes a little physical, with the bar owner who won’t pay them. The band
misses train connections, runs out of money, has gigs canceled and when they
actually perform there’s hardly anyone there to listen. Reiner is ready to quit
and go home, but Kudlow convinces him to stay.
The last show of the tour is akin to Tap’s airbase
and amusement park concerts. Anvil plays at a Transylvania show in a
10,000-seat arena. They play in front of 174 people.
“Everything on the tour went drastically wrong. But
at least there was a tour for it to go wrong on,” Kudlow says.
Despite one disaster after another, Kudlow and
Reiner decide to give it one last shot by hiring the producer of what they
considered their best-sounding album. They believe they just haven’t been
produced properly and that’s why they keep failing to make it big. But without
a record label, they’ve got to come up with the money, about $20,000, to make
the album. To raise the money, Kudlow works for a telemarketing company selling
sunglasses. It’s an epic failure. His sister, Rhonda, gives him the money. They
end up making the album in England and the frustration of the project and
decades of failure leave the two of them arguing and Reiner quitting again.
Once more, Kudlow convinces Reiner to finish the album.
They love the end result, but can’t get any label to
sign them despite sending it everywhere. Kudlow is proud of the record even
though no one wants to hear it. Like Spinal Tap, Anvil is asked to go to Japan.
They’re under the impression they are to be headliners, but it turns out they
are the opening band for a three-day rock festival. They anticipate yet another
letdown, but the movie ends on a high note as they get to play in front of a
decent and excited crowd.
Based on this film, Anvil received a few
opportunities to open for some bigger bands, most notably AC/DC, play some
festivals and appear on a handful of television shows.
As a film, Anvil!
The Story of Anvil is interesting and shows how much the principals in This is Spinal Tap know
about the music industry. The quality of the documentary is excellent, even
though it does ignore some of the band’s shortcomings, and you do feel bad for
Kudlow and Reiner as they face one obstacle after another. Their misadventures
are so tragically funny that you can’t help but laugh at their repeated
failures and inability to recognize that they’re never going to make it.
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