This Is Spinal Tap Quotations

This is Spinal Tap is a 1984 "rockumentary" about the world's loudest band, the British heavy metal group Spinal Tap.

Directed by Rob Reiner and largely improvised by the main players Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer.

Does for rock and roll what "The Sound of Music" did for hills

David St. Hubbins

[Asked what his epitaph should be]: "Here lies David St. Hubbins... and why not?"
[After the disastrous "Stonehenge" concert]: I do not think the problem was that the band was "down". I think the problem was that there was a Stonehenge monument on stage that was in danger of being crushed...by a dwarf!

Mick Shrimpton

I used to say "sex, drugs, and rock and roll" As long as there's sex and drugs, I can do without rock and roll.

Dialogue

[Nigel plays the piano]

Marty DiBergi: It's pretty.

Nigel Tufnel: Yeah, I like it. I've been fooling around with it for a few months now. Very delicate.

Marty DiBergi: It's a bit of a departure from what you normally play.

Nigel Tufnel: Yeah, well, it's part of a trilogy, a musical trilogy that I'm doing in D... minor, which I always find is really the saddest of all keys, really, I don't know why. It makes people weep instantly to play [plays and sings]

Nigel Tufnel: It's a horn part.

Marty DiBergi: It's very pretty.

Nigel Tufnel: You know, just simple lines intertwining, you know, very much like — I'm really influenced by Mozart and Bach, and it's sort of in between those, really. It's like a Mach piece, really. It's sort of...

Marty DiBergi: What do you call this?

Nigel Tufnel: Well, this piece is called "Lick My Love Pump."

Marty DiBergi: Why don't you make ten a little louder, make that the top number and make that a little louder?

Nigel Tufnel: [pauses] These go to eleven.

Marty DiBergi: David St. Hubbins... I must admit I've never heard anybody with that name.

David St. Hubbins: It's an unusual name. Well, he was an unusual saint. He's not a very well-known saint.

Marty DiBergi: Oh, there actually is, uh... there was a St. Hubbins?

David St. Hubbins: That's right, yes.

Marty DiBergi: What was he the saint of?

David St. Hubbins: He was the patron saint of quality footwear.

Songs and lyrics

Big Bottom:

My baby fits me like a flesh tuxedo. I love to sink her with my pink torpedo! Big bottom, big bottom, talk about bum-cakes... my girl's got 'em. Big bottom, drive me out of my mind. How can I leave this... behind?

The larger the waistband, the deeper the quicksand

Cast

Rob Reiner - Marty DiBergi
Christopher Guest - Nigel Tufnel
Michael McKean - David St. Hubbins
Harry Shearer - Derek Smalls
R.J. Parnell - Mick Shrimpton
David Kaff - Viv Savage
Fred Asparagus - Joe "Mama" Besser
Ed Begley Jr. - John "Stumpy" Pepys
Danny Kortchmar - Ronnie Pudding
Tony Hendra - Ian Faith
June Chadwick - Jeanine Pettibone
Bruno Kirby - Tommy Pischedda
Fran Drescher - Bobbi Flekman
Patrick Macnee - Sir Denis Eton-Hogg
Billy Crystal - Morty the Mime
Dana Carvey - Mime Waiter
Howard Hesseman - Terry Ladd
Paul Shaffer - Artie Fufkin
Anjelica Huston - Polly Deutsch
Fred Willard - Lieutenant Hookstratten

Quoternity