Don’t touch it! Don’t even look at it!
I went to a modern guitar music performance two years ago with a bunch of old people in their suits and fancy dresses and I was endlessly amused by the fact one of the songs was called “This goes all the way to 11”. My dad didn’t know where it was from, though.
Well I’m 40, and British, and had no idea what you were talking about. But then I’ve always thought that memorizing and reciting lines from films is a bit of a boy thing.
Are you serious or are you whooshing us (me?)by ironically quoting a film?
One of my all time favorite stories.
Most people don’t remember that This is Spinal Tap wasn’t a big success at the movies and back in the 80s cult video releases were few and far between. Mostly when I mentioned it to people they had never heard of it.
One Saturday night I was at the video store renting stuff and a bunch of high school guys, with long hair, stoned were checking out the music videos. They skipped past This is Spinal Tap and I said to them, “So you know about Stumpy Joe?”
They looked puzzled and I asked if they had ever seen This is Spinal Tap. They hadn’t because they didn’t know who *Spinal Tap * were. I excitedly explained that they weren’t a real band and gave them a hint of what the movie was about and promised them that if they left it to be watched when everyone was really stoned, they were in for the time of their lives.
The next week I was back in the store and the teens were there. They came over to tell me how much fun they had and how they too were spreading the word.
When I was in college, one of our roommates hadn’t heard of Spinal Tap. The rest of us decided to prank them. For about a week, we really played up the band. Then one of us mentioned the documentary, and mentioned that we should watch it. We all pretended to be surprised that made a documentary, and we went to the video store and rented it.
Guess you had to be there, but it was funny as the prankee realized that the whole thing was a farce.
I didn’t touch it… I was just pointing!
Due to curcumstances too convoluted to explain just now I once got to show This is Spinal Tap and The Song Remains the Same to a captive audience of not particularly rock savvy guys. I don’t think they could tell them apart*
- Of course I can, Spinal Tap is the one with Fran Drescher
“It’s pure evil!”
Wait, I think I have my films mixed up…
Too much fucking perspective for me in this thread…
I used to think TSRTS was the coolest thing ever. Then I saw Spinal Tap a bunch of times. Then I saw TSRTS again. It looked so ridiculous.
Apparently it made a lot of rock stars feel pretty foolish.
See?? I have no idea what you’re talking about !
The best part of the movie is the stuff they made fun of that hadn’t happened yet. Like the drummer dying in a tragic gardening accident. (Jeff Porcaro, Toto)
Or the perfectly black cover of an album. (Metallica, ‘Black Album’)
Or getting lost backstage. (Also Metallica, IIRC.)
All right, wise guy, enlighten my wee brain.
Good point. I remember when the “Anvil!” commercials were in heavy rotation and once I realized it wasn’t a mockumentary I was kind of surprised they’d even make such a movie.
It’s so funny that so many people remember this movie. But how many remember the sequel?
All I remember is David talking about having to take a job coaching a girls soccer team. “I don’t get paid money, I get paid a stipend, which is like money, only… less.”
I just did a poll of all the Realtors in my office at the moment. All 3 of them hadn’t the slightest idea what “It goes to 11” meant. One said she had heard about the movie, but the name sounded too gory. Realtor #2 said he hadn’t heard of the movie or the group, and the last said, “Does it mean the movie lasts until 11PM?”
I guess my coworkers don’t blend well with the SDMB crowd.
Wow. That sounds like industrial-strength ignorance, but that’s from my assumption that everyone in the world knows this movie.
Gory?
I think “gory” came from the movie’s title only, in the absence of any knowledge of anything else. A true spinal tap isn’t a walk in the park on a fine Spring day, or so I’ve heard.
I’m in the UK, I’m 46, and I’m struggling to think of anyone that wouldn’t get the reference.
When the biggest music festival in Scotland (T in the Park) had its 11th year, the advertising slogan was “Turn up to 11!” with a graphic of an amp dial.
Pure, a manufacturer of digital radios, produced a special edition shaped like a mini Marshall amp, with logo and everything. It had a dedicated button for the classic rock station Planet Rock. And the volume control was numbered - and went up to 11.
It’s got to be up there with “I am your father”.
Although my favourite quote from the film is actually “Lick my love pump”.
Oh, and beware slagging The Song Remains the Same in my presence. 