JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Guitars and Guitarist Forum Spinal Tap Quotes/Lyrics!

I got this idea from another thread...Nearly every musician in the world has seen and loves the movie "This is Spinal Tap" {and if you haven't, what is WRONG with you?} Most of my musician friends can quote the entire dialogue word for word. {Which is even more amazing since 80% supposedly was ad-libbed.] What are your favorite lines/quotes/song lyrics?
My personal fave..."There was a STONEHENGE monument onstage in danger of being trampled by a DWARF!"

"I was only pointing..."

"Don't even point at it. You've seen enough of that one."

----

"It's in D... Minor. The saddest of all keys."

"It's lovely, what's it called?"

"Lick my love pump."

----

"Where do you go when you need that extra push over the cliff?"

"I don't know."

"Exactly. See when we need that push. This one goes to 11."

"Why not make 10 one louder and have that be the loudest?"

chewing gum...

"But this one goes to 11."

----

"It's that fine line between clever and stupid."

----

"It's mixed all wrong."

"Mixed wrong?"

"It's all mixed in doubly."

"It's what?"

"She means dolby."

----

"If you knew the fucking part you'd fucking play it!"

The last one is my personal favorite. But that whole movie rocks. Generally, I don't know if one can be a musician in this day and age and not have seen it or appreciate that movie.

I'll try to remember the quote, but it's in the guitar store and they're looking at the amps....

"...but this goes to eleven. That's one louder than 10."

"...Why don't you just make 10 louder?"

"...these go to eleven. All the knobs go to eleven."


Or how about:

"Dozens of people spontaneously combust every year, it's just not widely reported."

Remember the scene where they describe how all their drummers died. One died in a "bizarre gardening accident".

Sometime after Spinal Tap was released, Rob Reiner started working on "Princess Bride." Rob asked Mark Knopfler to do the soundtrack. Rumor is that Mark wouldn't do it unless there was "something" from Spinal Tap in the movie.
The baseball cap that Rob wore as Marty DiBergi appears in the bedroom of the sick boy - Knopfler did the soundtrack.

"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?'" (Read by Marty from a review)

Marty: "What would you do if the rock and roll thing had not worked out?"

Nigel: "I don't know. Be a habberdasher, I guess."

Marty: "A habberdasher?"

Nigel: "Yeah. You know, selling hats and such. See... Pretend that you're a customer."

Marty: "Okay. I would... Um... I'd like to buy a hat please."

Nigel: "What size, sir? You see I think that I would be very good at that.

Marty: "But... Um... Do you think that you would like that?"

Nigel: "I don't know. What are the hours?"

"They don't actually know whose vomit it was." "You can't dust for vomit."

Someone might know the exact quote, it's been a long time since I've seen it..but it's during the scene where Nigel is showing off his guitars. He tells the interviewer not to touch the guitar, not to motion at it, and not even to think about it.

Also, that scene about the sandwiches back stage...someone should add the lines!

For a send up movie there was more truth than send up.
Any musician who has ever been in a band can relate to it.
Come to think of it any musician who has never.........

My fav was the cocoon things they were put in. The concert started and they opened... out came the band except one it was stuck and he played the whole concert stuck inside it.

"Big bottom, big bottom, talk about mud flaps, my girl's got 'em."

"Do me a favor, okay? Just kick my ass!"--Artie Fufkin

Hey Larry that is nothing.....our guitarist used to have an amp where the knob went up to 13.

"The bigger the cushion, the better the pushing"
from "Big Bottom"

There really IS a St Hubbins...He's the patron saint of quality footwear.

Do you have ANY idea what it would COST to dress the band up as animals?

HELLO CLEVELAND!!!!!

Jim is correct, that movie is more fact than fiction, which makes it all the more hilarious. Many big-time rockers were bemused by it at first because it held the mirror up to them.
Steven Tyler said that when he first saw it he has strung out, Joe Perry had just left the band, and Aerosmith's new album had STONEHENGE on the cover.
Eddie Van Halen said he once got stuck in the pod.

The Scorpions were always getting in trouble for having album covers degrading to women.

Kiss once got lost backstage at a show and couldn't find the stage entrance. and so on...

I've seen a few Spinal Tap moments myself....

I saw Triumph once where their huge TRIUMPH logo was flashing UPSIDE DOWN.

I saw Dave Hlubek of Molly Hatchett get his long hair tangled up in another guitarists macine heads mid-song, and he had to keep playing while a hapless roadie tried to untangle his hair.

I saw Foghat's road crew forget to remove the leather casing covering their flashing logo, and had to remove it during their first song.

Whats REALLY surreal about this, is that years later I actually OPENED for Rik Emmitt of Triumph AND The Southern Rock All-Stars featuring Dave Hlubek on separate occasions, and both could still recall those incidents! Rik told me the show in question was the last stop on their tour, and the roadies did it as a prank.

I've even had a few of my own...
Battle of the bands 1988 at Bogarts {a large club in Cincy} We did the "Hello Cleveland" scene. {Couldn't find the stage through the long and winding backstage tunnel.}

I didn't get locked in the pod, but got locked in the mens bathroom at a gig just as I was supposed to go onstage. {The door knob jammed} or maybe someone was trying to tell me something!

I roadied once for Alex Harvey and he had a brick wall painted at the back of the set. The highlight of the piece was he invited an audience member up to spray paint "Framed and Vambo Rules OK" as they played the songs. Vambo was his big hit at the time and so was Framed two great songs anyway. Well the band collapsed and fell about laughing near the end of the song as the guy sprayed in huge aerosol Vambo rules ko and Frammed.

O.K, Here's something to add to this thread...Lets hear your personal "Spinal Tap" moments!

Bass player had to call up another bass player from the audience mid-way through a song, to finish the number, as he went and did a Chunk Chunder over the side of the stage. Funny thong is, they didn't miss a note as they swapped the bass over from one player to the other.

Lead guitarist got so stoned, he strummed his lead breaks for a whole set. ( and didn't seem to care )

Someone, who shall be nameless, put too much dry ice in the smoke machine, and the seated audience found themselves up to their knecks in it ...... nice effect !

Band decided to go floating on wooden sun loungers, in the pool....at 2 AM.......clothed. Hotel security was not impressed.

cheers, niteshift

Does having your drummer run off with a female fan during the set break and then having to drum the 2nd set yourself count as a Spinal Tap moment? He did show up a day later pretty exhausted.
I think I was hoping he would spontaneous combust about that time

Oh, and for those of you who want to relive those moments:
Spinal Tap YouTube Videos

How about a last minute booking we once took to play a club we had not played before. It was, according to our agent, supposed to be a mixed audience and our normal set would cover it. We were running late and entered through the back door straight onto the stage and hurriedly set up behind closed curtains. The curtains opened and we started playing Gimme some Lovin. As we looked around the audience we saw very elderly couples suited and booted in full highland dress expecting a ceilidh band.
A great night was had by all......

Geez Steve, she must have been a honey.....but you weren't really pissed off, just envious.....

Jim, oh yeah, had that one too.....played a 'club' gig which was booked by our agent. The club turned out to be the 'Black Power Club', and as the only white guy in the band, I thought I was going to be killed. Didn't happen, that's music for ya, just play it right, and everyone's colour blind.....

cheers, niteshift

Here's some more..
St Hubbins to Ian {the band's manager]: "It's not your job to be as CONFUSED as Nigel!"

{From "Big Bottom"} "My baby fits me like a flesh tuxedo, I like to sink her with my pink torpedo"

Really guys, check out "Big Bottom" at Live Earth. I sware the first 1/2 of the song is introdusing the 30+ bass & guitar players that are playing with them. It's great!

They actually toured a few years back, and I caught their show in Cincy. They were backed by a couple of pro's on keyboards and drums, but did all their own vocals and guitar work. For a bunch of comic actors, they're actually competent musicians. Ironic that so many "real" bands use loops, sequencers,vocal enhancement ect, and the "fake" band was 100% real.

"It's a fine line between clever and stupid."