Album #60 : Spinal Tap - This Is Spinal Tap

Spinal Tap

This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

This Is Spinal Tap is one of the great comedy movies of all time. Taking rock and metal cliches and combining them into one glorious whole, it is full of instantly recognisable in-jokes and references to a myriad of incidents in rock history. It also happens to be chock full of amazing quotes.

As is to be expected from a 'rockumentary' about one of England's loudest bands, it also produced a soundtrack album. Taking the cover that was assigned to the album Smell The Glove in the movie (how much more black can it get? The answer is....none. None more black), I expected the album to be a fairly stock standard churning out of the songs from the movie.

But I got more. A lot more.

But hey, enough of my yakking. Whaddya say? Let's boogie!

The Album

The nature of the movie means that most of the songs are pastiches of other musical styles. Largely, the style most heard is that of 70s hard rock, as well as hints of NWOBHM and early glam rock. Consequently, the songs are packed full of cheesy sex-related lyrics, blatant double entendres, monster riffs, wanky solos and overly loud rock style Hammond organ. 

For the most part though, the songs are pretty good, especially when you consider that the guitars and bass parts are played by three men who are better known for their acting skills - Michael McKean (as lead singer/rhythm guitarist David St. Hubbins), Christopher Guest (as lead guitarist/vocalist/composer of Lick My Love Pump, Nigel Tufnel) and Harry Shearer (as bassist/noted cucumber smuggler Derek Smalls). The three men (along with director Rob Reiner) also wrote all the songs on the album. All three display some admirable chops on their respective instruments at various times.

Standouts? Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight has, in no actual order, a talkbox solo, some kickarse riffery and a giant rock ending. It's a good slice of glam rock. Rock and Roll Creation has quite a dark, Sabbathesque riff for the most part. It's grand and epic in scale, even if not quite in execution at times. The comparatively brighter keyboard heavy bridge is a pleasant way to break up the dark riff, and the church organ style solo that runs for the last fifty seconds is classic self-indulgent rock wankery. America (the only song not in the movie) is a real sleeper; starting as a lush acoustic ballad, it suddenly shifts gear about halfway through. Cavernous toms beef up the sound, and then a cool dual guitar riff gives the song some real impetus. It's a song that should have been in the movie, it's that good.

Then, there's Stonehenge. I dare you to listen to this song and not picture the whole scene from the movie in your head. I totally had dancing dwarves on stage jigging around a tiny Stonehenge monument running through my brain. Having said that, it's a great taste of progressive rock, complete with heavy keyboard melody and a mandolin solo. Heavy Duty is an underrated track, with a sleazy riff played by both Guest and McKean and more huge-sounding drums. The last notable heavy-rock pastiche is the wonderful Big Bottom, packed full of sexually charged yet ridiculously immature lyrics (by far my favourite is the rhyming couplet, 'My baby fits me like a flesh tuxedo/I'd like to sink her with my pink torpedo'). It's notable also for being played by all three guitarists on basses.

There are however three other tracks that are a pastiche of other styles. Cups and Cakes is fairly forgettable but takes a decent enough stab at Kinks-style village green pop; Gimme Some Money covers the early Beatles rock and roll sound to perfection; and (Listen To The) Flower People, which is the best of the three, is a note-perfect pastiche of psychedelic pop, resplendent with dreamy backing vocals, blatantly obvious 'peace and love' themed lyrics....and even a sitar (or a guitar sounding like a sitar) solo. 

The focus though, as in the movie, is on the hard rock style that the band, in the movie, had evolved to. 

The Verdict

For a soundtrack album written by three actor/comedians, This Is Spinal Tap is good. They do a fantastic job of sending up many of the elements of hard/progressive rock, as well as a few other musical styles. 

Not only that, but the musicianship is sound (not whizzbang but pretty good nonetheless) and most of the songs are quite catchy. 

Would I recommend the album though? No. 

I recommend you watch the film. You'll hear the songs (some arranged slightly differently) and get all the classic comedy. Just listening to the album means you miss out on one of the funniest movies ever made, especially if you have a love of music. Doesn't make This Is Spinal Tap a bad album, though.

My rating: *** and a half

Standout Tracks

Stonehenge

(Listen To The) Flower People

Big Bottom

America

Tomorrow, a Thom Yorke side project. (Hey, it's technically not Radiohead!)