The story goes that many real-life bands refuse to see the movie<\/p>\n
This Is Spinal Tap<\/i>, simply because the parody of the touring
\nheavy-metal band is too set in reality, to the point where it
\nalmost could be a documentary of their own bands. The movie is
\nhilarious, and I’m proud to have a copy in my own video
\nlibrary.<\/p>\n
But the soundtrack to the movie has one little problem: the
\nmusic, while a tad simplistic, is pretty damned good. I don’t know
\nif Michael McKean, Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest knew it, but
\ntheir parody of the metal scene in 1984 was actually better than
\nsome of the sludge that real bands were putting out.<\/p>\n
Actually, the band (whose members included keyboardist David
\nCaff and drummer R.J. Parnell in 1984) had to know they were on to
\nsomething; why else would they “reunite” to put out
\nBreak Like The Wind<\/i> in 1991? Granted, none of the three
\nactors would be giving people like Eddie Van Halen a run for their
\nmoney when it came to solos (though Shearer turns out to be quite
\ngood on the bass), but all things considered, they’re better than
\none might have expected.<\/p>\n
Supposedly chronicling the history of the fictional British band
\nfrom the ’60s to 1984,
\nSpinal Tap<\/i> cranks out melodies that you’ll be surprised at,
\nas they stick with you for a long time. “Hell Hole” is a
\nsurprisingly catchy number with a killer chorus, though the premise
\nof the song – discovering your squallid lifestyle is better than
\nthe high life – is a little weak. (“Hell Hole” could also have been
\nthe documentary of my first bachelor apartment in River Grove,
\nIllinois.)<\/p>\n
“Big Bottom,” a perfectly raunchy track that is sure to make
\nmembers of the PMRC squirm in discomfort, is too funny to be taken
\nseriously, and has a powerful bass riff that will burrow its way
\ninto your head. Likewise, “America” and “Rock And Roll Creation”
\nhave the catchy riffs and solid songwriting necessary to make these
\ntracks work. And this is supposed to be a parody? Even “(Listen To
\nThe) Flower People,” a track supposedly from Spinal Tap’s
\npsychedelic phase, is a pretty accurate rendition of what some of
\nthe music was like at that time.<\/p>\n
Still, not everything on
\nSpinal Tap<\/i> works that well. “Sex Farm” is a track I could
\nnever warm up to, despite the fact I’ve seen the movie and listened
\nto this album at least a dozen times each. And one “early” track,
\n“Gimme Some Money,” has enough of the early ’60s kitsch to it, but
\nboth the lyrics and the guitar solo needed more than a coat of
\npaint.<\/p>\n
McKean, Guest and Shearer might be actors in their real
\nprofessions, but
\nSpinal Tap<\/i> shows that their musical abilities are nothing to
\nlaugh at. For a comedy work, this album is seriously good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5729],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-39205","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-soundtrack","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39205"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}