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cstack3 
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 Topic: Prog musicians who mention "Spinal Tap"
Posted: January 16 2015 at 16:35 |
For some time, I've noticed prog musicians often refer to the comedy movie "Spinal Tap" when retelling their own stories! Here are three:
a) Rick Wakeman, who actually claims that Yes was the inspiration for "Spinal Tap" (his story about Alan White onstage is priceless!)
"There are people who think the film "This Is Spinal Tap" is simply a very funny 'mockumentary'. Well, with Yes we lived it. Take the hilarious scene in the film in which the bass player is trapped in a giant pod - that actually happened to Alan one night."
b) Peter Banks, who famously said the breakup of the band Flash was like something out of Spinal Tap:
c) Most recently, I saw the Genesis documentary "Sum Of The Parts," and all of the collected musicians shared a laugh about how Genesis was like Spinal Tap during the "Lamb" tour!
"Spinal Tap" seems to be a common reference point for prog musicians in general, any other sitings?
Best, Chuck (in white, playing Tap's "Heavy Duty" in the band "Casual Crowbar," Tulsa Oklahoma 1988)
Edited by cstack3 - January 16 2015 at 16:38
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SteveG
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Posted: January 16 2015 at 16:39 |
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Great post Charles. But I think it's impossible for any musician not to have a Spinal Tap moment. What's funny to me is that they rarely realize it.
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ExittheLemming
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Posted: January 16 2015 at 17:03 |
Very good and very funny movie that spawned the immortal 'these go up to eleven' 'lick my love-pump' and 'sink you with my pink torpedo' etc. I've always suspected director Rob Reiner drew heavily upon Deep Purple, Sabbath and Zeppelin for his affectionate parody: Nigel Tufnel = Ritchie Blackmore  Trivia fans - keyboard player Viv Savage was played by David Kaffinetti from Rare Bird and both Keith Emerson and Steve Vai appear on their 2009 Back from the Dead album.
Edited by ExittheLemming - January 16 2015 at 17:11
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Stool Man
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Posted: January 16 2015 at 17:40 |
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The T-shirt I'm wearing at the moment depicts a volume control knob turned up to eleven.
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petewhit
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Posted: January 16 2015 at 21:18 |
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Sorry to hijack the thread but every time I try to start a thread it says "not allowed to start a thread". any ideas?
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The Dark Elf
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Posted: January 16 2015 at 21:55 |
 petewhit wrote:
Sorry to hijack the thread but every time I try to start a thread it says "not allowed to start a thread". any ideas?
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Perhaps because you have not yet learned that one shouldn't hijack threads.
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cstack3
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Posted: January 17 2015 at 00:40 |
Here's some more! Great read about the making & inspiration of "Spinal Tap" -
Steven Soderbergh made a documentary of British prog-rock band Yes in the mid-80s called 9012 Live. In an interview with Soderbergh, Observer journalist Andrew Anthony asked incredulously if the film was made after This Is Spinal Tap. Soderbergh replied: "Yeah. I took Jon Anderson to see it and he came back and told the rest of the guys about it. They started watching it, like, every day because it was so their world." |
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Gerinski
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Posted: January 17 2015 at 02:07 |
petewhit wrote:
Sorry to hijack the thread but every time I try to start a thread it says "not allowed to start a thread". any ideas?
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You need to have posted at least 5 (I think) posts in existing threads before you are allowed to start your own threads (except in Welcome Newbies and Welcome Artists where you can start threads anytime).
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unclemeat69
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Posted: January 18 2015 at 05:08 |
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Harry Shearer went on tour with british heavy metal band Saxon to prepare for his role as Derek Smalls.
The film might have been inspired by a specific band or specific incident but it ended up as a film that apparantly was painfully recognizable for many bands, especially the ones with elaborate stage shows (Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Yes, Venom etc).
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cstack3
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Posted: January 18 2015 at 23:30 |
unclemeat69 wrote:
Harry Shearer went on tour with british heavy metal band Saxon to prepare for his role as Derek Smalls.
The film might have been inspired by a specific band or specific incident but it ended up as a film that apparantly was painfully recognizable for many bands, especially the ones with elaborate stage shows (Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Yes, Venom etc).
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Thanks for the contribution! I actually saw Spinal Tap live, during their "Break Like The Wind" tour in the USA! They were excellent! The lead guitar was fantastic, and I'm thinking it might have been Steve Lukather! I read somewhere that he was on that tour!
According to one of the links I posted, Uriah Heep was very influential on the movie:
One of key bands who inspired the Tap, the long-lived and resolutely unfashionable Heep enjoyed commercial success, especially in America, for three decades, and plodded on despite critical indifference or scorn, enduring more than 30 changes in personnel (particularly with drummers) and two deaths. John Sinclair, the original keyboardist with Spinal Tap, had to leave the band when negotiations for the film were taking too long. He toured with Uriah Heep. When he returned to the project to contribute to the album, he told the band how Uriah Heep were once booked to play an air force base. Tap in turn play an air force base, where their sound system picks up military radio messages.
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richardh
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Posted: January 19 2015 at 01:48 |
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It is funny that just about every rock band from the seventies seems to think it was about them. I haven't watched for years and would rather watch the funnier (imo) Still Crazy which is sort of the 'British Spinal Tap' about a band called Strange Fruit that is looking to reform. Timothy Spall and Bill Nighy are two of the actors in it. Its a much more affectionate look at the ageing rock scene. People have to like Spinal Tap because its 'cool' and came along post punk.
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ExittheLemming
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Posted: January 19 2015 at 05:08 |
richardh wrote:
People have to like Spinal Tap because its 'cool' and came along post punk. |
I don't have to like anything least of all by dint of when it appeared. What particularly appealed to me about 'This is Spinal Tap' is that it invariably strikes a raw nerve with wannabe white collar hippies who are more 'bean counter' than 'counter culture'.
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thwok
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Posted: January 24 2015 at 08:16 |
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I think one of the things that makes "This Is Spinal Tap" such a great movie, like most comedy, is that it is based on reality. I'm sure that the events in the movie have happened to 1000's of bands. Also, I can't listen to Iron Maiden, one of the greatest bands in history, without thinking of Spinal Tap! Does anyone else share in my predicament?
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ExittheLemming
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Posted: January 24 2015 at 08:20 |
thwok wrote:
I think one of the things that makes "This Is Spinal Tap" such a great movie, like most comedy, is that it is based on reality. I'm sure that the events in the movie have happened to 1000's of bands. Also, I can't listen to Iron Maiden, one of the greatest bands in history, without thinking of Spinal Tap! Does anyone else share in my predicament? |
I have the same problem with Ozzy era Sabbath. Lurking at the back of my mind is that scene where Nigel berates the backstage catering because the meat doesn't 'fit the bread'
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micky
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Posted: January 24 2015 at 09:27 |
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let's do it....but make it bit harder... lets go 3 degrees of separation from Spinal Tap.
I'll start!
Colosseum?
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LearsFool
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Posted: January 24 2015 at 11:25 |
^ Played at the Supershow, as it was called, which was a two day jam session that included several bands.
Led Zeppelin was one of those bands.
And of course Zep was a major inspiration for Spinal Tap.
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Toaster Mantis
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Posted: January 24 2015 at 12:52 |
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I always thought Spinal Tap were based on Uriah Heep.
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cstack3
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Posted: January 24 2015 at 13:04 |
Toaster Mantis wrote:
I always thought Spinal Tap were based on Uriah Heep.
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I've read that as well! Uriah Heep had many of the classic "Spinal Tap" elements = musicians who died while in the band (RIP Gary Thain), bombastic stage presentation, long-time holdouts (Mick Box is still at it I think).
It seems likely that many bands influenced "Spinal Tap" - Yes with their evolution from hippy-dippy band to prog touring monster, who's props devoured members onstage; Led Zep with their "skiffle group" origins; and metal groups like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest etc.
It was a great movie that managed to skewer many aspects of popular music at once, a rare feat! I do enjoy reading about others who have had "Spinal Tap" moments, any other quotes? Just search your favorite band/musician with "Spinal Tap"!
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CPicard
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Posted: January 24 2015 at 16:05 |
Toaster Mantis wrote:
I always thought Spinal Tap were based on Uriah Heep.
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I guess they were based on A LOT of bands: the evolution from 60's rhythm'n'blues to 70's heavy metal through psychedelic rock had been common to most of the English bands at some point (the Who are a good example). Even their songs come from an ecletic inspiration: "Big Bottom" is nearly a rip-off of Cheap Trick's "Big Eyes".
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Progosopher
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Posted: January 24 2015 at 20:15 |
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A friend of mine once said he thought Spinal Tap was Uriah Heep, but I don't know if he read that somewhere or determined it himself. Me, I have long used "Spinal Tap moment" as a phrase to describe what I think when a band does something ridiculous. You can hear multiple sources for parody: Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull, Yes, etc. Both in stage settings and music. The first time I saw a photo of Iron Maiden with a monstrous Eddie shooting flames from his eyes my first thought was Spinal Tap. Like all great bands, they cannot be reduced to merely one source. From the very first time I saw the movie I recognized what they were doing (as opposed to the little people of Stone'enge) and they hit it spot on. It seems a lot of professional musicians have recognized the same thing.
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The world of sound is certainly capable of infinite variety and, were our sense developed, of infinite extensions. -- George Santayana, "The Sense of Beauty"
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Prog musicians who mention "Spinal Tap"
