Back in 1984, I was busy wearing rubber bracelets and Doc Martens. I was a freshman in college and desperately checking my map of Michigan State University to see where the hell my math class was. And in the meantime, of course I was going to movies.
This is Spinal Tap made my friend Kate and I laugh our butts off. It was right up our alley, film-wise. A crazy satirical spoof of rock and roll and our favorite band of the moment, The Beatles. To this day, when someone says something I don’t believe for a second, I can be heard noting that “dozens of people simultaneously combust each year.”
Brilliant movie. And most of it improvised? You betcha. Between ST and When Harry Met Sally, I’m a Rob Reiner devotee. I wish he’d do more stuff.
Enjoy the quotes! (And may I suggest mentally reading them in a bad British accent?)
[Nigel is playing a soft piece on the piano]
“It’s very pretty.” — Marty
“Yeah, I’ve been fooling around with it for a few months.” — Nigel
“It’s a bit of a departure from what you normally play.” — Marty
“It’s part of a trilogy, a musical trilogy I’m working on in D minor which is the saddest of all keys, I find. People weep instantly when they hear it, and I don’t know why.” — Nigel
“It’s very nice.” — Marty
“You know, just simple lines intertwining, you know, very much like — I’m really influenced by Mozart and Bach, and it’s sort of in between those, really. It’s like a Mach piece, really. It’s sort of … ” — Nigel
“What do you call this?” — Marty
“Well, this piece is called ‘Lick My Love Pump.'” — Nigel
[Nigel, introducing the Stonehenge theme concert]
“In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, an ancient race of people … the Druids. No one knows who they were or what they were doing …” –Nigel
[Asked by a reporter if this is the end of Spinal Tap]
“Well, I don’t really think that the end can be assessed as of itself as being the end because what does the end feel like? It’s like saying when you try to extrapolate the end of the universe, you say, if the universe is indeed infinite, then how — what does that mean? How far is all the way, and then if it stops, what’s stopping it, and what’s behind what’s stopping it? So, what’s the end, you know, is my question to you.” — David St. Hubbins
“We’re lucky.” — Derek
“Yeah.” — David
“I mean, people should be envying us, you know.” — Derek
“I envy us.” — David
“Yeah.” — Derek
“I do.” — David
“Me too.” — Derek
“As long as there’s, you know, sex and drugs, I can do without the rock and roll.” — Mick Shrimpton
[Reading a review of Spinal Tap’s latest album]
“‘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?'” — Marty
“You can’t really dust for vomit.” — Nigel
“Dozens of people spontaneously combust each year. It’s just not really widely reported. — David
“We’re very lucky in the band in that we have two visionaries, David and Nigel, they’re like poets, like Shelley and Byron. They’re two distinct types of visionaries, it’s like fire and ice, basically. I feel my role in the band is to be somewhere in the middle of that, kind of like lukewarm water.” — Derek
“We’ve got Armadillos in our trousers. It’s really quite frightening.” — Nigel
“Remember at Luton Palace we were talking about writing a rock musical based on the life of Jack the Ripper.” — Derek
“Yeah!” — David
[singing]
“You’re a naughty one …” — David
“Saucy Jack … ” — Derek and David
“You’re a haughty one, saucy Jack.” — David
“Fuck the napkin!” — Ian Faith
Clacked by Tara Shrodes
on Aug 13, 2012 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
