This Is Spinal Tap : Favorite little details

Everyone remembers the big stuff, but there's the little stuff that makes the film work so well:

- David slipping in a Roger Daltrey-esque stammer ("You know what I n-n-n-n-n-n-need") as the band finds their way into "Gimme Some Money" (a song that would have been on the charts when "My Generation" was, after all) during the sound check.

- "This is Cindy's first mustache" as Derek, in the back of the bus, not too seriously bats the giggling groupie's hand away.

- Sticking your finger in your ear to hear yourself singreally, the whole Elvis Presley's grave sequence ("That sounds reggae" [pronouncing it "rahga"]).

What about you?

The Gumby figurine in Nigel's shirt pocket.

When they're talking about the differences between golf and miniature golf "The holes are smaller."

The interference that Nigel picks up on his amp during the final gig.

~

When they;re arguing with Ian about 'Smell the Glove' being delayed for release as they're still experimenting with the packaging and Derek says:

'What they have monkeys opening it?'

Classic.




"Smokey, this is not 'Nam. This is bowling. There are rules"

when the room service is getting delivered and as the drummer answers the door, it opens sending his cigarette falling onto his pants, and he jumps away in alarm, as the waiter minces in waving his hands and says "where do I put this?"

Near the beginning they're interviewing fans outside the stadium in Philadelphia, and there's a tall blonde chick going on & on about the band. Look behind her, and there's some dorky kid staring at her ass the whole time. Hilarious.

"Oh, thank GOD, Civilization! Where do I put this?"


"Have a good time. ALL the time. That's my philosophy Marty"

That wasn't his cigarette - it was a big ol' vial of cocaine. He freaked out because he spilled it all. I thought it was his cigarette the first time I watched it but if you watch again, it's cocaine. Guess it was his whole supply! Poor Mick.

The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.

i actually just burst out laughing at your golf quote that's amazing.

I liked the subtle details describing how different David and Nigel were about everything. Even when they described their individual backgrounds "David was in a band called the Creatures. I was in the Lovely Lads."



"Sit down Mr. Muckle, honey."

When Artie Fufkin is introducing himself around the hotel room, Derek is casually holding on to his groupie's boob, right up until the instant he shakes Artie's hand.

Bobbi Fleckman saying "If the first album had been a hit" Aren't Spinal Tap about 18 albums into their career at this point? What album is she referring to?

---

- Sticking your finger in your ear to hear yourself singreally, the whole Elvis Presley's grave sequence ("That sounds reggae" [pronouncing it "rahga"]).

---

I believe reggae and raga are two different things. I think raga is Indian music, but I could be wrong.

edit: corrected numerous typos.

Never defend crap with: "It's just a movie"
My work:
watch?v=uwRqc0KSkJ0
watch?v=z74-vDDDmTU

Robbmonster, I've heard the line: "If the first album had been a hit" and chuckled at it before, but tonight, I payed direct attention to it and like you, totally think it's a great and insanely funny quote! For the same reason you just posted!

Also, I noticed the "Derek holding the boob" part for 26 years, but I've also noticed Han Solo copping a feel on Leia for the last 27 years.


"Have a good time. ALL the time. That's my philosophy Marty"

---

Also, I noticed the "Derek holding the boob" part for 26 years, but I've also noticed Han Solo copping a feel on Leia for the last 27 years.

---

Are you talking about Return of the Jedi when Leia gets shot?

I have to admit I never noticed that until it was pointed out to be about 10 years ago :-)



Never defend crap with: "It's just a movie"
My work:
watch?v=uwRqc0KSkJ0
watch?v=z74-vDDDmTU

I still can't believe it took me over 20 years to pick up on that dumb little "Isle of Lucy" pun!

Derek's facial expression after David yells at him "NO, WE'RE NOT GONNA DO F-ING STONEHENGE!!!" He tilts his head and raises his eyebrows twice in succession - a look that seems to say "Well, yeah, that's a reasonable point - I kind of see where you are coming from" - as if the question of whether they are doing Stonehenge is still up for debate.

how do you think i feel, i didn't pick up on it until you just pointed it out

What is the Isle of Lucy pun?

Isle of Lucy = I Love Lucy

Know what I mean?

She's referring to their first Polymer album, "Shark Sandwich." (Which she mistakenly calls "Shark Salad.")

Makes sense :-)




Never defend crap with "It's just a movie"
http://www.youtube.com/user/BigGreenProds

---

I believe reggae and raga are two different things. I think raga is Indian music, but I could be wrong. - Robbmonster

---

No, you're right. Reggae is Jamaican; raga is Indian.

Now, it would have been cool to hear Ravi Shankar play a raga with a reggae backbeat.

"If life's for living, what's living for?" - Ray Davies

My favoire "little" moment which cracks me up every time I see it (including just a minute ago on TV) is

The look on Ian's face when Bobbi Fleckman says: "Money talks, and *beep* walks" off camera. Ian gives this WTF look that is SOOOO priceless! I've noticed it since I first saw the movie.

(Great thread by the way!)


"Have a good time. ALL the time. That's my philosophy Marty"

mine is when Nigel is giving this atonal noise metal machine music guitar solo and he picks up a violin AND TWISTS one of its tuning knobs!

Yeah the tuning part is hilarious!

60% of the time it works, every time.

The spaced out look on Nigel's face right before telling Marty 'It's one louder.' and my favorite scene in the whole movie, when he is describing the bone structure on his shirt is the exact same as his own, while Marty disputes his bones actually being green, Nigel gives the same look before exclaiming 'Well, I sleep in it sometimes.'


"There were few at the scene, but they all did agree, that the man who ran looked a lot like me."

So many . . .

The drummers are named in honor of the third member of Three Stooges: John "Stumpy" Pepys, Eric "Stumpy Joe" Childs, Joe "Mama" Besser (Curly Howard, Curly Joe (DeRita), Joe Besser)

Blues/jazz (or was it jazz/blues?) festival on the "Isle of Lucy"

Review: "The musical growth rate of this band cannot even be charted. They are adrift in a sea of retarded sexuality and bad poetry." Spinal Tap's response: "That's nit-pickin', innit?"

The graveside serenade at Graceland: "It kind of puts it all in perspective, though, doesn't it?" "It's too much . . . too much (bleep)ing perspective."

Honourable mention must go to Anthonyz20's shout on Ian's look at Bobbi after the "money talks and bull$hit" walks" comment..it's only about half a second long, but it creases me every damn time I see it!! Great shout mate!!!

I love Nigel's exasperated look and beckon to the roadie offstage to come help him up after he's done the classic tilt-back during his solo and can't get himself back upright. And also Dereks moment when he's finally busted out of his cocoon, approached the mic, realised he needs to get back in his pod and it shuts at the last moment trapping just his arm..his defiant turn and fist pump to the crowd just kills me!!!






I wanna fly like an eagle, I wanna sing like Sinatra..

someone in the tour bus played a video game and says, while staring at the screen, "computer magic". he is basically mocking the contemporary computer technology, without any intention.

While this detail is not from the film, it's to awesome not to post here
- Spinal Tap meeting Metallica, discussing who came up with the idea of a black album first and acknowledging that their album might have been a bit more succesfull, if they had come up with the idea of putting a snake on their cover too. and the name 'Metallica'..!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD94L7rzOm8

Lines from Ian whenever the band ask about the tour, or the album.

"I told you we are not going to saturate the New York market"
"The Boston gig has been cancelled. I wouldn't worry about it, its not a big college town"
"They're experimenting with new packaging material"

Isle of Lucy

another Ian linetrying to quote it from memorywhen he's whining about no sex and drugs for Ian..about

'do you have any idea how hard it is to find mandolin strings in Austin?'

being a big folk music and outlaw music town, it's one of the easist cities in the country to find mandolin strings innot sure how intentional that one was, though.

I think you would be quite safe in assuming it was perfectly intentional.it was, you know, a joke.

The offhand bit that cracks me up is when they have the montage of Ian demonstrating the uses of his cricket bat, and, briefly, we see him shoving it into the throat of a teenage boy.
Also, with regard to the "if the first album had been a hit" line- I always presumed she was just referring to Tap's first album on Polymer records, rather than their actual debut record. I would imagine they've had a fair few record labels over the years!

i'm just as God made me sir


and after watching it again yesterday - Nigel's face once the roadie has got him back on his feet during his guitar solo

GREATEST LINE EVER

For you anal-retentive fans, a history of Tap's record labels

1965 - Abbey, released the lone Thamesmen 45.

1967-1977 - Megaphone, eventually sued the band for "lack of talent." The band had little input into their final Megaphone album 'Rock and Roll Creation,' which (title track aside) was a compilation of horrid tracks rejected from previous LP's. After leaving Tap, Ronnie Pudding also recorded for Megaphone.

1979 - Plutarch, released Nigel's solo album.

1980-1984? - Polymer. End date is approximate, as the TIST soundtrack was released on Polymer.

1983 - Metalhouse. Evidently a heavy metal equivalent of K-Tel; released the 'Heavy Metal Memories' compilation.

1992 - Dead Faith / MCA, released "Break Like The Wind." (I'm assuming 'Dead Faith' was a jab at their late manager??)

2009 - The Label Industry, released "Back From The Dead."

If I'm not mistaken, another label mentioned was Smegma, Duke Fame's home label.

dood, that isn't anal retentive, it's frightening and awesome it's an eleven in the post world there aren't many threads i bookmark but this is one amazing label list and you can't go wrong whenever you use the word 'smegma' if you just want to elicit ANYTHING from an audience (a groan, a laugh, a spit-take, disgust, etc) it is absolutely the 'go-to' word

and mrannah, i always assumed that was an 'on-purpose' line perhaps not but being a long-time guitarist, both electric and acoustic, and having been a huge fan of the 'austin city limits' pbs live music show (which granted doesn't only feature folk/country/acoustic but does have a decided lean toward that way over the years) i laughed out loud the first time in the theatre at that line since i was thinking it like you it would be one of the easiest places to find madolin strings pretty much any hour of the day lol perhaps nashville (TN not Indiana tho you'd have a good shot there too) or memphis tho still, somehow i think austin would be a sure bet even walking into an open bar with a live band and asking around might get you your set of madolin strings as fast as any other way lol

Save_A_Lemming yep, the artie fufkin gag was great and then the little 'label' in case we missed it is just the cherry on top and paul schaffer doing artie was perfect just a perfect over-the-top sincerity and excitement that just makes you believe he loves that band ;) and the amount of time it takes for him to even NOTICE a film crew on the opposite side of the bed from where he's standing shaking everyone's hand a cameraman (the camera itself back in those days would would have been VERY noticeable one gag that unfortunately these days isn't inherently available) and a bank of blazing bright lights and as he's shaken everyone's hand he then finally turns to the camera crew and looks surprised and his eyes get big and his smile even bigger and cheesier and intro's himself again and then the big ol' ID stamp on the screen really a great scene little scene start to finish

also i'm guessing that some of the group gathered here in this thread has seen Sam Dunn's documentary work on the heavy metal genre (serious rockumentaries), 'Metal: A Headbanger's Journey', and it's funny that he can't avoid parts of his films reflecting Tap no matter what not just that of course we all think of Tap now watching such films but that well, metal isn't always known for being filled with high SAT scores so to speak but he has fun with it, admits and isn't ashamed to admit the 'dumbness' of it at times, but just goes right on rockin and lovin it i mean when a filmmaker admits as a teenager to once doing air guitar to 'Number of the Beast' some two dozen times in one day whilst doing leaps off his parents front porch, you have to know he's taking it in the right spirit

i highly recommend his work if you haven't scene it 'headbanger's journey' is a history of metal as he's and his little film crew go all over interviewing some of the biggest names (alice, ozzy, iommi, dio, lemmy, etc) and the most infamous, Death, who was in the first wave of norwegian black metal and whose lead singer blew his own head off with a shotgun other members of the group broke into the singer's apartment before the cops got there, collected bits skull fragments, and made necklaces out of them to wear as an homage to their fallen comrade one of the most incoherent, off-the-wall, and just-plain-nuts interviews ever put on film (to which dunn clearly confesses)

he did a short follow-up to this film with a piece on the burning of lutheran churches in norway by black metal fans as it was only lightly covered in the first documentary (he does mention you couldn't have a six hour documentary to include every bit he wanted to) this is interesting and has an audience of locals etc

'Iron Maiden: Flight 666' covers iron Maiden's history and their 2008 tour on their own jet, custom painted (very cool), and flown, in part, by the lead singer Bruce Dickinson who believe it or not is a licensed commercial jet pilot this is Dunn's all time favorite band and he is pretty worshipful in the making of this film but still very well done and lots of fun

'Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage' is his 2010 film on the history of Rush (and is probably what finally got this band rightly into the rock and roll hall of fame) again, Dunn is a bit of a fanboy (he's canadian and being a rush fan is a requirement for keeping your citizenship) but like Dunn, the band is fun and open and has lots of fun doing the project

he's got a tv series out which i haven't seen but it is i am told focused specifically on the bands he outlines in the very cool chart of 'evolution' he uses in the first movie show you how metal bands evolved and branched off into other areas (glam, death, black, etc) i'm sure it'll be worth it

Like 5 minutes into the movie, when talking about how the first drummer died.

"The police said it was just one of those cases that are best left unsolved."

I immediately knew I was going to love this movie.

I find it really funny when at the end of the 'Hell Hole' concert, you can hear someone yell 'Do Stonehenge!' This is really funny as you would only notice it if you have already watched the movie.

3 words

"Mime is money"


Didnt even notice that on my first few viewings. OR Billy Crystal saying the line.


I broke down laughing.

One I just noticed tonight that made me laugh: When Artie Fufkin of Polymer Records first meets the band, he introduces himself, 'Artie Fufkin, Polymer Records' to Derek, then again ('Artie Fufkin, Polymer Records') to Nigel, and again ('Artie Fufkin, Polymer Records') to Derek and Nigel's new special friends. Then when he sees the cameraman, he yet AGAIN introduces himself ('Artie Fufkin, Polymer Records') and finally, with this fifth introduction, he gets a subtitle establishing him as 'Artie Fufkin, Polymer Records' just in case we missed it.

One little detail I love is the bands cardboard cutout at the "Smell The Glove" record store promotion.

Their poses crack me up every time, particularly Davids sly smile and punching the air pose meant to depict their champion status, but ultimately looking like he's doing a "wanker" hand sign.

I cracked up just now at the subtitle for Artie..I never really noticed it before even though I've seen it 100 times!

When they have the cold sores at the record release meeting.

The Joe Besser reference with the replacement drummer.

have a nice life!

That's far more than a little detail. in fact, it's the only remnant of a LONG sub-plot that disappeared.

Watch the five-hour workprint version - to Tap's dismay, they are stuck with a lousy new wave opening act called the Dose, who they immediately warm to when they see the hot blond lead singer. This girl, however, turns out to have herpes (which she insists is just a cold sore), and eventually spreads it to everyone in the band except Mick. In the end, they have a band meeting telling Ian that the Dose isn't working out as their opening act, and unanimously vote them off; except for herpes-free Mick, who can't understand everyone else's issue with them.

Yes so funny, and the way they get worse!