# "But this one goes to 11!" Spinal Tap appreciation and more. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 13, 2003, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202 "2003-03-13T23:01:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2016, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202/61 "2016-09-14T09:18:41Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > I asked had they seen it and they replied that they didn’t even know the band. The case gave no hint of the pleasures within. I told them it would make them legends if they took it back to their waiting friends, got really stoned and watched it. A brief recounting of Stumpy Joe’s death had them convinced. I suggested that they not let on that it was a spoof documentary and let their friends work it out. > > One of the next few Saturdays I bumped into them again and they rushed up to me like a long lost elderly uncle to recount tales of the night they and their friends discovered a classic they had no idea existed. Information was at a premium in those days. This is one of the great joys of life, discovering great art, and then sharing it with other people. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2016, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202/62 "2016-09-14T10:18:58Z")
I love Fred Willard’s quote: “We are such fans of your music and all of your records. I’m not speaking of yours personally, but the whole genre of the rock and roll.” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2016, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202/63 "2016-09-14T14:38:57Z")
Even Fred Willard, who IMHO has a comedic reverse-Midas touch, couldn’t bring down _Spinal Tap_. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2016, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202/64 "2016-09-14T14:42:00Z")
I was in college when it came out, an had not heard of the movie. But I was perusing the records in the student bookstore when I found this all black album. It said nothing except “This is Spinal Tap” on the thin edge. The band name screamed heavy metal (what with that umlaut and all). I commented that it seemed someone was taking the “dark side” of heavy metal to the extreme. We figured it was some poseur band like Motley Crue (also fans of the rock and roll umlaut). We all had a good laugh at the absurdity of that. The record was in the regular section, not soundtracks. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2016, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202/65 "2016-09-14T14:54:47Z")
> [@eunoia](#): > > I think it’s funny that a 35-post thread from 2003 has three contributors who were later banned. > > Maybe not such a good idea to be turning things up to 11. 😃 it’s like going to a national park or something where they preserve the moose. What’s what this thread is like. The moose. ---
**Author:** ![eunoia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eunoia/32/97_2.png) [@eunoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eunoia)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2016, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202/66 "2016-09-14T16:28:44Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Even Fred Willard, who IMHO has a comedic reverse-Midas touch, couldn’t bring down _Spinal Tap_. Noooooo! If a movie like Best In Show can be seen on a level of a competition where top comedians and improvisers try to crack each other up, I’m fairly certain Willard is both feared and revered among them. That’s why he gets to wear the bowtie, methinks. The reverse Midas touch is often the joke, the travesty within the travesty if you will, but with a combination of utter fearlessness and a mind like an heavily irradiated endless garden he’s the guy who’ll surprise even the most jaded. > [@msmith537](#): > > it’s like going to a national park or something where they preserve the moose. What’s what this thread is like. The moose. Mynd you, møøse bites Kan be pretti nasti… ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2016, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202/67 "2016-09-14T17:23:26Z")
I don’t think I have ever laughed at anything Fred Willard did or said. He is loathsome in my sight. ---
**Author:** ![Mavic\_Chen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mavic\_Chen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mavic_Chen)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202/68 "2016-09-15T15:48:28Z")
> [@4d3fect](#): > > Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy nod there, I think. > > Or is it the other way around? Ahh, extrapolated matter analysis. HHGTTG did it first I think. Fit the Eighth broadcast on BBC Radio 4, 21 January 1980 This Is Spinal Tap, released 1984 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202/69 "2019-02-16T22:39:54Z")
Bumped. Tiny dancing druids not included: [Stonehenge Garden Set | 2 Reviews | 5 Stars | Signals | HY9376](https://www.signals.com/cgi-bin/hazel.cgi?action=DETAIL&ITEM=HY9376) ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202/70 "2019-02-16T22:48:57Z")
Speaking of Spinal Tap and Stonehenge, [Derek Smalls](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-47069689) has come out against a proposal to build a tunnel/bypass near the site. It might have more weight if he only knew an English baron to support him. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202/71 "2019-02-16T22:50:05Z")
I just saw Jamie Lee Curtis interviewed on Graham Norton. She told a great story about buying a Tesla and a friend calls while she’s driving to insist she turn the controls all the way up! It seems that the air con and volume controls (if I’m remembering correctly!) go up to eleven. Just because Elon Musk is a big fan of Spinal Tap! (And she’s married to that guy from the film!) ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2019, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202/72 "2019-02-16T22:52:05Z")
Happy to report that BBC volume sliders still all go up to 11, across all platforms. The “It’s one louder!” ethos seems firmly embedded in the design guidelines now. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2019, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202/73 "2019-02-17T00:02:58Z")
For those who haven’t seen it, the British TV film [Bad News](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_News_(band)), which stars most of the Young Ones at the height of their powers plus Lily Allen’s dad, is another excellent mockumentary in which a film crew follows the travails of a struggling heavy metal band on the road. It was actually released _before_ Spinal Tap, in 1983, and although the later Spinal Tap enormously overshadowed Bad News, the almost simultaneous production of two such similar films was pure coincidence. [It’s almost available in its entirety on Youtube.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awxrMOvVAIc) > [@](#): > > I could play “Stairway To Heaven” when I was twelve. Jimmy Page didn’t actually write it until he was twenty-two. I think that says quite a lot. ---
**Author:** ![neofishboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/neofishboy/32/444_2.png) [@neofishboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neofishboy)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2019, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202/74 "2019-02-17T00:55:35Z")
I had to read through the thread to make sure I hadn’t commented on the original or after the bumps, but I think I’m good. Anybody who’s been in a working rock band knows what it feels like to get a gig where you’ve got an hour or more to fill and eight songs to your name … and anybody who’s been in that situation since this movie came out knows that at some point the phrase “Jazz Odyssey” is going to come out of somebody’s mouth. I also love the little bits of musical verisimilitude that turn up periodically. During the “Rock and Roll Creation” scene where Derek gets stuck in the pod … I’m not sure if Harry Shearer was actually playing live on the soundtrack, but whenever he’s using his hand to pound on the walls of the thing, the bass cuts out.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2019, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202/75 "2019-02-17T04:27:49Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > For those who haven’t seen it, the British TV film [Bad News](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_News_(band))… Thanks for the recommendation! Watching the first episode now; they’re on tour and the scene starts with a camera pan across the kitchen of some roadside greasy spoon. They really should’ve tried to get The Kink’s [Motorway](https://youtu.be/Pag7W5dy3xY) as background music for that. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2019, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202/76 "2019-02-17T17:40:16Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > Thanks for the recommendation! Watching the first episode now; they’re on tour and the scene starts with a camera pan across the kitchen of some roadside greasy spoon. They really should’ve tried to get The Kink’s [Motorway](https://youtu.be/Pag7W5dy3xY) as background music for that. Can I have half a sausage for a quid? ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202/77 "2019-02-18T12:56:10Z")
I one of the Guitar hero games, at the end of winning one of the levels the drummer in the band blows up. It also looks like they are [going on and ‘World’ tour](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7985487.stm) this year. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202/78 "2019-02-18T15:05:15Z")
Goodnight Springton! There will be no encores! ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202/79 "2019-02-18T15:35:35Z")
_This Is Spinal Tap_ is prophecy: [ul] [li]The government of Fairfax county in Virginia once commissioned a mahogany conference table costing several thousand dollars. When delivered, it was discovered that the specifications had been drawn up using inches instead of feet (’ vs. ", as with the Stonehenge arch prop). A spokesperson tried to assuage concerns by noting that they were using the table as a projector stand. Makes about as much sense as having tiny Druids dance around it.[/li][li]Toto’s Jeff Porcaro was said to have died of an allergic reaction to a pesticide. A drummer dying in a bizarre gardening accident. This has since been [refuted](http://articles.latimes.com/1992-09-04/local/me-6355_1_jeff-porcaro), which may be why the authorities said it was better left unsolved.[/li][/ul] Any others? ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2019, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202/80 "2019-02-18T20:42:12Z")
I can still watch that movie and die laughing at the cold sore that hops from band member to band member in each new scene. So many background jokes like that make repeat viewings enjoyable. Saturday: Spinal Tap Sunday: Puppet show [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-this-one-goes-to-11-spinal-tap-appreciation-and-more/161202.md?page=5)