Spinal Tap - This Is Spinal Tap
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Music CD Cover Artist: Spinal Tap Composer: Christopher Guest Composer: Harry Shearer Composer: Michael McKean Composer: Rob Reiner Edition: Music CD Audio: English (Original Language) Format: Extra tracks, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered CD Release Date: 2000-08-29 Music Label: Polydor / Umgd Soundtracks:
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Free Music Notes for This Is Spinal Tap Album
Free Music Review: A Bit of Clarity
Hit: 3 Stars
After reading a great deal of these reviews, it appears that there is some confusion as to what is real and what is a joke concerning Spinal Tap. After watching the movie, listening to this soundtrack, reading mostly everyone's commentary, and doing plenty of background research on the subject, I feel I am able to put the whole situation in a much clearer light.
First of all, people who are confused, you must understand there are three separate and completely different groups of people. There is the actual band, the band in the movie, and the band who recorded this soundtrack. It seems much of the confusion lies in the fact that many people think all three of these groups are the same set of performers. As you will see, this is not the case at all.
The band, Spinal Tap, was actually a band in England in the 1980s. The movie, This Is Spinal Tap, was a spoof in which actors played the parts of the real band members - the movie was a parody both on the band and on 80s rock. The album, which serves as a soundtrack to the movie, more or less parodies everything which had already been parodied, and was put together by a group of session players who enjoyed both the band and the film... and why not? After all, The movie alluded to a black album, and obviously, the band Spinal Tap had not released such an album to date.
Of course, upon releasing the album, these session players came under an extreme amount of legal pressure, both by Spinal Tap the band, and the production company holding the rights to This Is Spinal Tap. Both parties sent the makers of the soundtrack similar notices, saying that the writing party was in fact the owner of the copyrights for these songs, and that the session players had recorded them illegally. Of course, you can see both the problem lying therein and the next logical move for the makers of the soundtrack...
Both the filmmakers and the band thought they owned the songs! Once the soundtrack group realized this, they simply informed both groups of the other claiming the legal rights. This set off a completely new legal battle, the band vs. the filmmakers, a battle which is still ongoing today. As any litigation process worth its weight in aluminum scrap metal will do, both the band's and the filmmakers' complete financial resources are tied up fighting each other, and has allowed the third party, the soundtrack group, to "slip under the radar," more or less, and distribute and sell the product you are reading about today, abstained from legal complications.
Anyways, I give the soundtrack 3 stars. Call me "old-school" if you like, but I think the original band got it right the first time (I gave the documentary 4 stars. The actors portrayed the band amazingly well, but they were still a step down from the original. This soundtrack is just one star below one star below the originals, who I would rate as 5 stars. If some kind of media comes out as a parody of the album, which is already a parody of a parody, I would most likely give it 2 stars).
Hopefully this made things more clear for everyone! In case it didn't (and I don't want to get everyone TOO excited), I've heard celebrated filmmaker Martin DeBergi, famous of course for the previously mentioned "mockumentary," This Is Spinal Tap, is preparing another documentary on this very subject - the legal struggle surrounding the recording and release of the soundtrack. As the subject is an ongoing one with no end in sight, neither I nor Mr. DeBergi have any idea when the documentary can be expected to be released.
Hope this helped!