Spinal Tap Is Back From the Dead

Some time ago, watching TV, I saw the trio, “Derek Smalls,” “David St. Hubbins,” and “Nigel Tufnel,” who together compose Spinal Tap – not as the rock band in spandex that they are, but as themselves in real life, Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, and Michael McKean, respectively, looking old and gray in laidback shirts, carrying their acoustic guitars, singing Spinal Tap songs unplugged and country-style. They were insistent, in an interview, that while there is some clamor for their return as the now Legendary Losers of Rock, it isn’t going to happen, though of course they’ll see.

And they did see, and so shall we, on June 16, when Back from the Dead, a new album from Spinal Tap is scheduled for release, and on June 30, when they are scheduled to perform in the Wembley Arena of London.

It’s hard to imagine how I would personally receive this album beyond the music. After all, the movie This is Spinal Tap was a remarkably precise mockumentary / rockumentary of an ageing British rock group touring in America.

We enjoyed the music in 1984, but more importantly, we laughed our heads off. Why the hell not? The music, the staging, the backstage bantering, the debauchery, and the philosophizing are on target, as if you’re watching either some hugely popular rock group or some serious documentary about rock. The film irreverently poked fun on the demigods of rock, with oblique references to Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendix, Judas Priest, Deep Purple, to name a few – and, my oh my, how we enjoyed laughing at all of them.

In important ways we are freed from them, from the hold they think they have on us rock fans, and, more importantly, the hold that we don’t know they have on us. Watching This is Spinal Tap we are finally able to separate the music from the faces, the craft from the oddities, if not stupidities.

Now, 25 years later, Spinal Tap is back. The get-up of the guys has changed since I last saw them on TV; or, has not changed, if you look at the old movie poster – it all depends on where you’re coming from or from what era. Looking at a recent photo, the hook, the laugh seems to be still there. The eponymous title track also sounds groovy. But gone are the days of glam rock and spandex. So who will be the joke on?

If anything, the idea will only be a kind of nostalgic revisiting, and the first buyers will be the oldies. Spinal Tap, in 1984, were already growing old and growing to be nobodies; the rest of them are gone past growing old now. Let’s see how the young ‘uns will buy it.

*Spinal Tap Dolls photo by Dmason @ Flickr

Checkout the writeup and song stream on Billboard:
Exclusive: Spinal Tap Debuts Song, Comes 'Back From The Dead' For Album

Carnival Song by Tim Buckley

I have just discovered Tim Buckley and am at a loss for words. I will let the music sink in first, but here's a sampling of his poetry.

Carnival Song

The singer cries for people's lies
He will sing for the day to bring him night
The circus burns in carnival flame
And for a while you won't know my name at all
But sing and dance and love for pennies and gold

The juggling clown smiles to me
And every frown we agree is glad
The nighttime comes to bring the bums
From Bowery heat to crimson streets of wine
But magic lands will never touch our sands

Your children smile in single file
They learn mistakes that others make
They see although they cannot know
The needs they'll need to have their greed grow wild
But dance and sing, for others bring the shame
And for a while you won't know my name

*My Name is Tim photo by BLEXBOLEX @ Flickr.