Customer Reviews

This Is Spinal Tap

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

Finally, here is a collection of sone of the greatest hits of one of Englands Loudest Bands, Spinal Tap. This is overall a great collection. It has 2 pre-tap songs, when David and Nigel were in the Thamesmen, and Spinal Tap's first, and only, international number one hit, Listen to (the flower people). It also has some of the fan favorites like "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You" from the classic Intrevenous De Milo album, and "Rock N Roll Creation" from my personal favorite tap album A Rock and Roll Creation (known to others as The Gospel According to Spinal Tap). Although many may disagree with me, they may be right, because I am a sucker for concept albums. Some of the other fan favoites are on here, like "Big Bottom" from their phenominal Brainhammer album, and "Sex Farm" from their rather disappointing Shark Sandwich album. ALthough the music is good, it seems that Tap was trying to recreated the magic they had during the Intrevenous De Milo period, and they didn't succeed. Despite some great songs on this album, there are some disappointments. There are no songs from their famous Blood to Let album. It may be because a young taphead was found dead while listening to this albums, and initial accusations were that they album made him commit suicide. However, authorities did and autopsy and found out the cause of death was boredom. It would also be nice to see the 19 minute live version of "Short N Easy" from their Silent but Deadly live album. There are also some old classics missing like "We Are All Flower People" "To Fly" "I Am Flight" "Get Me Away From the Ground" "The Incredible Flight of Icarus P. Anybody" and "All the Way Home". As well as the recent composition by Nigel entitled "Lick My Lovepump". Although this collection is missing some great songs which will never see the light of day since Megaphone has refused to release any of their albums due to "Lack of Talent", there are some great gems here, and this is a great introduction to Spinal Tap to any new Taphead.

It saddens me to see that so many reviewers at Amazon.com have so badly misunderstood what is perhaps England's most literate and intelligent band. Few popular musicians of the 20th century have had the intellectual firepower to so consistently subvert commonly received opinions on such a wide variation of academic topics.

Ladies and gentlemen, the evidence:

1) 'Sex Farm' is often misunderstood as some sort of sexist song drawing puerile analogies between barn animals and women. Tosh! As anyone familiar with the settlement of the North American continent can attest, the Tap are offering an insightful perspective on the objectification of women during the settlement of the American Prairie.

2) 'Big Bottom' is often misunderstood as an even more sexist song based on juvenile delight at sexualised female buttocks. Never. What people fail to understand is that the Tap are issuing a satirical howl of rage at the reification of pseudo-anorexic 'Cosmo Woman', and are instead urging us to consider the beauty of the fuller-figured woman in line with their understanding of the role of the Goddess Image in proto-historical Europe

3) 'Stonehenge' shows the Tap's awareness of broader archaeological issues by serving as an academic historiography of outdated interpretations of the function of British prehistoric sites - play it backwards, and you can hear the academic citations.

4) And 'Rock and Roll Creation' - here the subtlely of Tufnell, Smalls and St. Hubbins is truely revealed through their attempt to offer a syncretisation of Christian sources pre-dating St. Polycarp's letter to the Phillipians with non-Mediterranean creation myths. Ultimately, the Tap's magnificent ambition perhaps exceeds their grasp, and it cannot be claimed that they succeed - but surely they should be applauded for trying?

Perhaps it is because the Tap's genius is so wide-ranging that so many people have misunderstood the true meaning of the songs. But their legacy will live on, hewn into the living plastic of my CD collection.

They transcended their hippie-ish song origins to become the loudest, strangest metal band in Britain: Spinal Tap, the slightly insane band of Rob Reiner's mockumentary/rockumentary "This is Spinal Tap." And not mentioning their songs is like neglecting to say that the beach has water. Included are the goopy hippie anthem "(Listen To the) Flower People," the hilarious buttock anthem "Big Bottom" (so much for "Bootylicious"), the abortive semi-mystical "Stonehenge," the delicious "Gimme Some Money," and a bunch of others from the movie.

Technically, you don't have to have seen "This is Spinal Tap" to be amused by the songs, but knowing their context makes them about five times funnier. (Try to listen to "Stonehenge" without seeing that tiny replica being lowered to the stage, or hear "Rock 'N' Roll Creation" without seeing Derek trapped in his pod) If I didn't know better, I would actually think that Spinal Tap was a real band. (For your information, that is not a black cover -- it's a close-up of the black glove. Okay?)

This album brims over with the good-natured "retarded sexuality and bad poetry" that people love. The lyrics range from almost normal to insanely bad. They rhyme "Monday" with "Bun-day" (from "Big Bottom"), to give one example. The good songs are pretty good, and the bad songs are so terrible they're brilliant. They includes such Shakespearean gems as "Getting out my pitch fork/And poking your hay" ("Sex Farm"), "Where the dew drops cry and the cats meow" ("Stonehenge"), and "You know what I want/You know what I need/Or maybe you don't" ("Gimme Some Money"). What's really amazing: They rate above the bands they parody, both in singing and musical quality.

Highly recommended, and not just for fans of the modern classic mockumentary. So crank your amps up to eleven and listen to Britain's loudest band. And ignore those dwarfs dancing around the tiny Stonehenge, okay?

The funniest being, of course, the review posted by the woman from Colorado, who indeed was disillusioned and fanatical enough to slam a parody of "white-male misogyny" as the real thing. Indeed Rob Reiner (not Riener, proving once again that this 14-year old male can spell better than the average woman [knowing this will not change anything, I state now that that was also a joke... but that didn't change anything for the aforementioned woman, did it?]) made a "documentary" about Spinal Tap. Incidentally, this is the funniest movie ever, and also just happens to be a parody. Back to the CD, the music is very good, and the lyrics are hilarious. They also influenced my thinking. I must end this review here, because I feel the urge to break into one hundred houses and stick every woman I see with my pitch-fork because I'm only a male with a one-track mind and recognize all women as inferior and spend all my time with my beer-swilling white male buddies scratching myself and watching football games while my brilliant, beautiful, intellectually superior, yet violently oppressed girlfriend does all the housework and makes my food. I thank this CD for guiding my life along this path.

***added July 25*** I just watched the movie a second time--it was much better this time around. Once you become more familiar with the music and watch the movie again, you notice more of the subtle humor which completely flew by my head the first time. I recommend both the music CD and the movie!

*** original post july 18 *** A musical parody that can pass itself as a legitimate heavy metal band. If you were to make a heavy metal fan with no idea who Spinal Tap is watch the movie, he would believe it was a real band. Just look at the interviews that bands such as Metallica, Ozzy, Motley Crue and Skid Row would make on MTV in the 1980's. While I found the movie to be not as good as I thought it was going to be, I was blown away by the music. I immediately recognized the musical references to my metal heroes from my teens: Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. My favorite song: "Rock and Roll Creation" by far!

Spinal Tap's movie soundtrack is, surprisingly, even better than their brilliant previous work. While devotees of the band may argue heatedly that 'Intravenus de Milo' or 'Smell the Glove' are pure samples of head-banging perfection, this reviewer believes that the band's latest compendium resounds on an even deeper, more emotional level than earlier oeuvres.

Listen with an open mind to the angst-driven 'Gimme Some Money', the bucolic 'Sex Farm', or the majestic 'Stonehenge' and you, too, will stand in awe of these rock pioneers. Insightful lyrics and mature sensibilities combine to make this a must-have album.

This album contains some of the funniest parodies of heavy metal rock songs that I have ever heard. Spinal Tap is a fictitious band featured in the hilarious movie "This is Spinal Tap," a mock documentary about a british rock group, directed by the very talented Rob Reiner. The album, which is actually the soundtrack from the movie, contains several outrageous songs, some of my personal favorites being "(Livin' in a) Hell Hole" and "Stonehenge". The lyrics are funny as hell. The four band members, including comic Harry Shearer of "The Simpsons", imitate the pretentious attitude, "retarded sexuality and bad poetry" of a real metal group to perfection. They even wrote and performed the songs themselves! If you enjoy parody comics such as Wierd Al, etc., buy this album! And if you ever get the chance, see the movie! The songs are even better when you see them performed. Hilarious!

This is the soundtrack to the documentary (or "rockumentary", if you will) This Is Spinal Tap. The film chronicles hard rock band Spinal Tap, as they tour the US in support of their album "Smell the Glove" (circa 1982). But the soundtrack doesn't include any of the live performances featured in the film. Instead, the original studio versions of the songs the band plays in the film are featured. So in a way, the album functions as sort of a "greatest hits" album (not that they had very many hits). The earliest songs here stretch all the way back to 1965, back when the band was a Merseybeat group called the Thamesmen. Then we move forward a few years, when the band changed it's moniker to Spinal Tap and recorded the hippie anthem "(Listen to the) Flower People". The rest of the material on the album is of more recent vintage, after the band had evolved (devolved?) into it's final incarnation as a hard rock band. While this version of the band didn't have much commercial or critical success, they were quite influential on many of the "hair" bands of the 1980s. Until all of Spinal Tap's old albums are re-released (which seems unlikely), Tapheads will have to be satisfied with this CD. Turn it up to 11 and give it a listen.

"Smell The Glove" is Spinal Tap's seventeenth album, and probably their finest to date. However, don't bother buying this newly digitally remastered, ultimate, gold edition, strictly numbered, black edged C.D unless you have a suitable player which will go to 11 on the volume control, or you will miss the point of this masterpiece of Big Hair music. What first attracted me to this music was the fantastic artwork that had gone into the cover. I mean you cannot get more black than this (forget parody band Metallica's Black album, the cover was actually just dark grey). Mott is the proud owner of an original Vinyl copy of this 1982 release, signed by the members of the band. Although you do have to hold it at a forty five degree angle to catch a glimpse of them as the band signed in black marker pen. Well, at least I think it was the band, it was a bit dark at the time.

But what of the music? Well, it's good, in fact "Very Good". But I will not leave you with a two-word review as my competition from Rolling Stone did when reviewing "Taps" tenth album "Shark Sandwich", which, whilst very succinct, was completely misunderstood by the general public.

What you get from "The Tap" here is full throttle Rock & Roll, firing on all seven cylinder's (not six.... seven!), where all five Taps play as loud as they can, except for the quiet bits.

Co-founder David St. Hubbins (who looks nothing like actor Michael McKeen) plays the best air guitar ever recorded, and you can hear the Dandruff fly on Rockers like "America". Nigel Tufnel (who does actually look very much like actor Christopher Guest), the band's lead guitarist, excels on all the solos here, especially whilst playing with his feet, or the breathtaking solo spot playing his Stradivarius electric guitar with a Renoir violin. Bassist Derek Smalls (who doesn't care if he looks like actor Harry Sheoer) made famous the Gibson flying triple bass, the instrument designed to give real "Bottom" end to some of Taps better known songs. The other two musicians on the album were Vic Savage, who joined the band on the condition he had so many keyboards that neither the band nor the audience could actually see him, so he may still be a member of the band or not, nobody knows, and drummer I.C.N.O Evil. Unfortunately he is not with us anymore due to a nasty moment involving a horse, a game of water polo, a rubber ring and an old World War One Torpedo. No suspicious circumstances were found.

These days you can hear "Taps" influence on many of Hard Rocks top bands, including Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, The Wombles, and Fat Boy Slim. But none can live up to the true glory of Tap at their best, losing their way to the stage, the echoes of a dwarf trampling all over Stonehenge, Derek Smalls caught in a cocoon, or Nigel throwing his back out on stage.

For the purist, a wee hit of Trivia for you. The album cover is not just black but actually a very very close picture of a lady's black leather glove.

For those of you that haven't seen the movie, I apologize (but get out and see it).
Mott The Dog

In addition to being the most brilliant parody of rock 'n' roll (or just about anything, for that matter), TIST is the most damn fun you will ever have on vinyl. A lot of the jokes will go over the heads of those who don't know the difference between Judas Priest or Saxon, the band that Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer say that Tap was modeled after. The music may not resonate as much if you haven't seen the movie, but it is still hilarious. No matter how many times you play it, no matter how well you know the lyrics, it still makes you laugh out loud.

Even though the musicianship is sometimes shoddy--intentionally so--I'll take "Tonight I'm Going To Rock You (Tonight)" or "Stonehenge" over anything Sabbath or Judas Priest ever recorded. The 60s tunes ("Listen To What the Flower People Say," "Gimmie Some Money," "Cups and Cakes") are as on-target as the heavy metal.

The truly amazing thing about TIST (both the soundtrack and movie) is that if you didn't know any better, you'd think this was a real band.