Michael McKean takes on the songs of This Is Spinal Tap
The comedy vet goes behind the (funny) music with Decider
From left to right: Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer.
A few years ago, moviemaker Christopher Guest—the brains behind This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting For Guffman, and A Mighty Wind—was asked to speak at a retrospective on his films. So he phoned his co-stars, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, and asked them to show up to play a few Spinal Tap songs—acoustic, and not in costume. The songs were well-received, and now the trio has launched the Unwigged & Unplugged tour that features low-key versions of songs from Tap, Guffman, and Wind, sung by the comedic masterminds who originally penned them. In advance of their show Saturday at Riverside Theater, Decider asked McKean, free from the faux-British accent, to share the stories behind the satirical ditties of Spinal Tap.
“Hell Hole"
Michael McKean: “Hell Hole” was pretty much all of us. Chris came in with the opening lick. We were just looking for hooks—looking for big hard-rock hooks—and he came in with that. And where you hear the words “hell hole,” it originally said “time code.” We're not sure why, except that it just sounded like maybe we'd do that. And we tried to write a lyric around the phrase “time code,” and it wound up being way too smart. So we went with “Hell Hole.” And we made this story about this guy who hits the top and starts missing being poor. It's fictional.
Michael McKean: “Hell Hole” was pretty much all of us. Chris came in with the opening lick. We were just looking for hooks—looking for big hard-rock hooks—and he came in with that. And where you hear the words “hell hole,” it originally said “time code.” We're not sure why, except that it just sounded like maybe we'd do that. And we tried to write a lyric around the phrase “time code,” and it wound up being way too smart. So we went with “Hell Hole.” And we made this story about this guy who hits the top and starts missing being poor. It's fictional.
Decider: So “Time Code” was just a thing that felt natural?
MM: It was one of those things, like “Scrambled Eggs,” which was the original title to [The Beatles'] “Yesterday”—it was just a mnemonic way of doing things. My wife and I wrote a song called “Potato's In The Paddy Wagon,” and it was in A Mighty Wind. Originally, “Potato's In The Paddy Wagon” was just a way to remember the tune. But we wound up liking it so much we decided to write the lyric about a girl named Potato and that she's in the paddy wagon and why. So that's how things happen. But “Time Code” had to go.
“Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight”
MM: We needed an opening number. I wanted to write something which was not exactly heavy metal, but a hard-rock shuffle feel to it. And lyrically, something that would trumpet the astounding manhood of the singer.
MM: We needed an opening number. I wanted to write something which was not exactly heavy metal, but a hard-rock shuffle feel to it. And lyrically, something that would trumpet the astounding manhood of the singer.
D: There's a borderline pedophile vibe.
MM: Yeah, tell me about it. "You still got your baby teeth.” That's a pretty horrible line. But it may be my wife's favorite line. No, no, no: “You're too young and I'm too well-hung” is my wife's favorite line.
"Rock 'n' Roll Creation” and "The Majesty Of Rock"
MM: “Rock 'n' Roll Creation” is something we all pretty much wrote together. We just wanted something big and pretentious and pompous, and that seemed to fill the bill. It's actually an “in the beginning there was the beat” kind of thing, which we repeated later with a song called “The Majesty Of Rock" … [which] I just thought it would be a nice, big, pretentious, grand song. So I sat down, fired the whole thing off, and then brought it in to the boys. I had a great guitar lick in mind, and as I played it for them they looked at me like, “That's not that great.” So we actually developed a different one, which worked a lot better.
MM: “Rock 'n' Roll Creation” is something we all pretty much wrote together. We just wanted something big and pretentious and pompous, and that seemed to fill the bill. It's actually an “in the beginning there was the beat” kind of thing, which we repeated later with a song called “The Majesty Of Rock" … [which] I just thought it would be a nice, big, pretentious, grand song. So I sat down, fired the whole thing off, and then brought it in to the boys. I had a great guitar lick in mind, and as I played it for them they looked at me like, “That's not that great.” So we actually developed a different one, which worked a lot better.
“Big Bottom”
MM: It was probably inspired by the “Fat Bottomed Girls” tune by Queen. It seemed certainly worth another look by a lesser band than Queen, which we certainly were. [On this tour], we're going very minimal with it. We got up to 19 bass players onstage when we were at Wembley Stadium two years ago. And we figured, "Let's go in the other direction."
MM: It was probably inspired by the “Fat Bottomed Girls” tune by Queen. It seemed certainly worth another look by a lesser band than Queen, which we certainly were. [On this tour], we're going very minimal with it. We got up to 19 bass players onstage when we were at Wembley Stadium two years ago. And we figured, "Let's go in the other direction."
D: What's the Spinal Tap mentality towards women?
MM: Uh, a necessary evil. It's funny, we don't get too specific in the film, except, of course, this groupie Janine. There is kind of another angle that can be spotted on some of the extra material if you look in the DVD releases and alternate takes, etc. You'll see a lot of footage of Derek, Harry's character, on the phone with his lawyer about how his ex-wife is cleaning him out. And Nigel, you just figure the total free spirit who will do it with whatever casts a shadow. But I think David is a serial monogamist, but also fancies himself an intellectual kind of monk. As far as the attitude, it's probably not too far from your average rock 'n' roll moron.
“Cups And Cakes”
MM: If there's one that I'm a little sentimental about, it's this, which is on the first album and it was kind of like their string-laden “Eleanor Rigby” kind of sound. It was actually closer to a Kinks song than anything else. We just re-recorded all the original songs in order to make them sound better, and instead of a string quartet, it just starts with me on the piano, and then everyone joins in bit by bit with Chris on the guitar, Harry on the bass, C.J. on keys, and by the end of it we're all singing along. And it's kind of this boozy little tea party. It's really sweet. It's certainly not textbook Spinal Tap.
MM: If there's one that I'm a little sentimental about, it's this, which is on the first album and it was kind of like their string-laden “Eleanor Rigby” kind of sound. It was actually closer to a Kinks song than anything else. We just re-recorded all the original songs in order to make them sound better, and instead of a string quartet, it just starts with me on the piano, and then everyone joins in bit by bit with Chris on the guitar, Harry on the bass, C.J. on keys, and by the end of it we're all singing along. And it's kind of this boozy little tea party. It's really sweet. It's certainly not textbook Spinal Tap.
D: Where does the sentimentality come from?
MM: It's innocent. It's a look at innocence written by a person who's not that innocent. It's make-believe. It's “let's play that we're kids playing."
“Rainy Day Sun”
MM: This is one of my favorite songs. As often happens, the titles came from Harry. We needed a flip side for “Listen To The Flower People” and Harry just said, “Rainy Day Sun.” And I said, “That's a great song title,” and we used it.
MM: This is one of my favorite songs. As often happens, the titles came from Harry. We needed a flip side for “Listen To The Flower People” and Harry just said, “Rainy Day Sun.” And I said, “That's a great song title,” and we used it.
D: The song shows off the silly side of the band. Is it tough to give satirical characters a sense of humor? To make them aware?
MM: I think a band that doesn't have a sense of humor can come up with their own take on whimsy. Kind of lead-footed and ham-handed, but I think just all the better for that. These guys singing about how the sun is like a moppet at a birthday party. That's pretty lame.
