When it comes to citable efforts, rock and roll doesn’t rank very high on the list, but strangely enough, one rock and roll movie, 1984’s This Is Spinal Tap, is highly cited. Probably the most quoted line is from a scene where Spinal Tap lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) demonstrates to documentary filmmaker Marty DeBergi (Rob Riener) just how much more powerful his amp is than his. other bands. The amps volume control ranges from a setting of 0 to a maximum of ten, but Nigel’s custom amp has volume knobs that go to eleven. “These go to eleven” has been quoted many times by musicians over the years and not just to brag about how loud they can get, but for a wide variety of things and activities where more is better.
When Spinal Tap manager Ian Faith (Tony Hendra) throws a sexually derogatory term at a hotel clerk (Paul Benedict), he calmly replies, “I am as God made me,” invoking the argument of nature versus the upbringing One of my personal favorites occurs when the band runs into an acquaintance played by Howard Hesseman in the same hotel lobby and is told, “We’d love to stop and chat, but we have to sit in the lobby and wait for the limo.” In other words, I prefer to do nothing and wait and then continue talking to you. This line clearly demonstrates the brotherhood among professional musicians. Told by their record label that the album cover choice was rejected due to its inappropriateness, Nigel and his bandmate David St, Hubbins (Michael McKean) reflect on the observation that “it’s a fine line between stupid and stupid.” intelligent”.
When I was in high school, Columbia Studios shot a low-budget movie at my school that had the filming title; The Young Graduates. Several of my friends and I appear as extras in the film playing high school students, as I am a Method actor. One of the film’s stars was a young Bruno Kirby who appears in This Is Spinal Tap as his rudely ignored limousine driver. He takes his lack of interest in his personal hero, Frank Sinatra, in stride, explaining to Marty DiBergi, “When you’ve loved and lost like Frank has, then you know what life is all about.” By the way.
One of the last notable quotes from the film and one of the greatest rock and roll quotes of all time is drummer Mick Shrimpton’s (RJ Parnell) brutally honest confession; “As long as there’s, you know, sex and drugs, I can do without rock and roll.” This is especially poignant if you’re a rock musician, as many of the drummers you’ll meet will invariably tell you that they really like to play jazz. Sex and drugs are fine, but if that was all I wanted and I didn’t care about music, I’d become a pimp.