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A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever: The Story of Spinal Tap
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
September 20, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever by Rob Reiner is, simply put, the funniest book I’ve read (and listened to) since Colin Jost’s A Very Punchable Face. OMG, this one is laugh-out-loud hilarious—I’ve literally had neighbors give me strange looks as I howl with laughter while walking the dogs!
This book is an absolute must for any Spinal Tap fan. I chose the audiobook version, which was a total treat since it featured Rob Reiner and the band themselves doing the reading. Their chemistry, timing, and delivery make the stories come alive in the best possible way. The mix of behind-the-scenes anecdotes from their careers, insights into the making of the film, and flat-out ridiculous rock-and-roll moments kept me grinning from ear to ear.
One of my favorite sections was hearing from real-life rockers who shared their own Spinal Tap moments—proof that truth is often stranger (and funnier) than fiction. Yes rockers really do get lost in the way to the stage! The story about Slash from Guns N’ Roses making a custom amp that really goes to 11 had me in stitches. And as Reiner and company remind us, this book doesn’t just stop at 11—it takes you straight to 12.
I can’t wait for the movie sequel coming soon. Until then, this book is going straight onto my “favorites” shelf. Comedy, music, and storytelling at its finest.
A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever by Rob Reiner is, simply put, the funniest book I’ve read (and listened to) since Colin Jost’s A Very Punchable Face. OMG, this one is laugh-out-loud hilarious—I’ve literally had neighbors give me strange looks as I howl with laughter while walking the dogs!
This book is an absolute must for any Spinal Tap fan. I chose the audiobook version, which was a total treat since it featured Rob Reiner and the band themselves doing the reading. Their chemistry, timing, and delivery make the stories come alive in the best possible way. The mix of behind-the-scenes anecdotes from their careers, insights into the making of the film, and flat-out ridiculous rock-and-roll moments kept me grinning from ear to ear.
One of my favorite sections was hearing from real-life rockers who shared their own Spinal Tap moments—proof that truth is often stranger (and funnier) than fiction. Yes rockers really do get lost in the way to the stage! The story about Slash from Guns N’ Roses making a custom amp that really goes to 11 had me in stitches. And as Reiner and company remind us, this book doesn’t just stop at 11—it takes you straight to 12.
I can’t wait for the movie sequel coming soon. Until then, this book is going straight onto my “favorites” shelf. Comedy, music, and storytelling at its finest.
September 18, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I mean, what’s there to say, this one goes to 11. That’s one louder, innit?
A book about the making of a movie that I deeply, and passionately adore - a film I can truly call “perfect”. Spinal Tap has a massive place in my heart as my comfort film, so reading about the friendships and love that went into making the film was very joyous and heartwarming.
I mean, what’s there to say, this one goes to 11. That’s one louder, innit?
A book about the making of a movie that I deeply, and passionately adore - a film I can truly call “perfect”. Spinal Tap has a massive place in my heart as my comfort film, so reading about the friendships and love that went into making the film was very joyous and heartwarming.
May 7, 2025
But this goes to eleven!
If you love This Is Spinal Tap, you will enjoy this behind the scenes look at how the principal players met, and how the movie evolved from a short skit to a movie, then concerts, and finally a sequel coming out later this year. I was pleased to find a new interview by Marty DeBergi with the members of Spinal Tap at the end of the book.
Fun fact: My band played a Halloween show last year as Spinal Tap. As the bassist, I was Derek Smalls. It was hilariously awesome. We covered seven Tap songs.
Thank you to Edelweiss, Gallery Books, and Rob Reiner for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
If you love This Is Spinal Tap, you will enjoy this behind the scenes look at how the principal players met, and how the movie evolved from a short skit to a movie, then concerts, and finally a sequel coming out later this year. I was pleased to find a new interview by Marty DeBergi with the members of Spinal Tap at the end of the book.
Fun fact: My band played a Halloween show last year as Spinal Tap. As the bassist, I was Derek Smalls. It was hilariously awesome. We covered seven Tap songs.
Thank you to Edelweiss, Gallery Books, and Rob Reiner for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
October 14, 2025
Loved it! Such a sense of nostalgia for me listening to this book. Spinal Tap forever!
September 16, 2025
This review first appeared in the Washington Independent Review of Books.
“This Is Spinal Tap” feels like the ultimate cult film: powerfully appealing to a select group of fans, baffling to everyone else. Studio executives found Rob Reiner’s 1984 “mockumentary” utterly unfunny. Test screenings in Dallas and Seattle were disastrous. Many theatergoers thought it was a serious documentary about a real band. Either you got the joke or you didn’t.
In fact, the jokes in “This Is Spinal Tap” weren’t really jokes. The humor was deadpan, and I suppose it was subtle, although I can’t imagine not laughing at it. Perhaps you needed some working knowledge of Yoko and the Beatles to find something funny in the overreaching band girlfriend who mispronounces “Dolby.” Maybe only Yardbirds fans got the merciless British Invasion parody “Gimme Some Money” and spotted the Jeff Beck pageboy mop atop Nigel Tufnel’s head. And maybe you had to be in a band yourself to grasp the ignominy of taking second billing to a puppet show on an amusement-park stage.
But we music heads love “This Is Spinal Tap.” We’ve spent decades wondering at the specific source of every shot in the film. Was the song “Stonehenge” a sendup of Led Zeppelin at its most pompous and Tolkienesque? Which real-life band lost the most drummers to bizarre gardening accidents? Did any actual bass player ever get trapped onstage inside a giant plastic pod?
Now, at last, we have answers tucked within the pages of A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever: The Story of Spinal Tap, penned by Reiner, the film’s director, with help from his fellow screenwriters (and the movie’s stars) Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer.
I read the book in an afternoon. My copy ran to fewer than 200 pages, not counting a faux, 60-page oral history that’s printed upside-down and backward at the end. (A B-side. Har.)
It was fascinating and depressing to learn how hard Reiner and company labored to convince anyone to make the film. How could so many aging studio execs have failed to find it funny? I guess you have to consider that it came together more than 40 years ago and to imagine how all that rock ‘n’ roll humor might’ve come off to someone old enough to have missed the whole arena-rock era. Even now, I suppose, you could find cinema patrons who have no reference point for the “Big Bottom” bassline, canker sores, or “Hello, Cleveland!”
The concept for “This Is Spinal Tap,” I can now reveal, began as a satiric mashup of “The Last Waltz,” Martin Scorsese’s cinematic farewell to the Band; “The Song Remains the Same,” Led Zeppelin’s cheesy-but-righteous concert film; “The Kids Are Alright,” the aerobic Who documentary; and “Don’t Look Back,” D.A. Pennebaker’s Bob Dylan doc.
Reiner and his co-writers had a gift for “schnadling,” a term evidently coined by Guest, which means settling into character and improvising stuff. Guest, in my mind, was the pivotal player in the project. He came out of National Lampoon, and for much of the 1970s, he and various collaborators had been writing and performing parody songs, first for “Lemmings,” the off-Broadway sendup of Woodstock, and later for the “National Lampoon Radio Hour” and a series of long-playing Lampoon records. Guest did a killer Dylan impression and a brilliant James Taylor. On the 1975 Lampoon album “Good-bye Pop,” he rolled out a Cockney accent, the template for Tufnel.
Spinal Tap, the band, first performed in 1979, on a network pilot titled “The T.V. Show,” in a sketch that parodied the old “Midnight Special.” Reiner played deejay Wolfman Jack. “This Is Spinal Tap,” the film, came together as a collection of funny ideas on index cards. Guest had once watched a British rocker stroll into a Bleecker Street guitar store with a prominent bulge in his crotch that later slipped to his ankle. Shearer remembered a promoter who prostrated himself after a dreadful convention show, beseeching the performers, “I’m not asking you, I’m telling you: Kick my ass.” Reiner had written a sketch with actor Bruno Kirby about a limo driver with a Sinatra obsession. All of those bits went on cards.
McKean’s lead-singer character, David St. Hubbins, was modeled on the blond-tressed ‘70s idol Peter Frampton. Shearer’s mustachioed bassist Derek Smalls was the quintessential “quiet one,” based on softspoken rock bassists John Entwistle and Bill Wyman, but with an onstage alter ego drawn from the S&M stylings of Judas Priest. And Reiner’s Marty DiBergi channeled Scorsese.
To prepare for the movie, Shearer embedded with a real touring hard-rock band, Saxon, taking copious notes. And he, McKean, and Guest all went backstage at an AC/DC show and saw how much of it really was a show. “Like, they had a huge wall of Marshall amps,” Guest recalled, “but if you walked behind them, they were not all plugged in.”
The umlaut over the “n” in Spinal Tap, which my computer refuses to print (probably because the letter doesn’t exist), was a nod to Motörhead and Blue Öyster Cult.
There never was a proper script for “This Is Spinal Tap,” just a rough treatment and a 20-minute reel that Reiner assembled featuring some of the best bits. None of the studios liked it. But pirated copies made the rounds in Hollywood, and some of them reached an appreciative audience. Reiner heard that one was found in the Chateau Marmont bungalow where John Belushi died.
Reiner shot the film as a series of improvised scenes based on the funny ideas on the index cards. Most of its immortal lines — “These go to eleven”; “You can’t really dust for vomit”; “It’s such a fine line between stupid and clever” — were apparently unscripted. Music videos depicted Tap’s past incarnations, first as a Yardbirds-style blues-rock band and later as a flower-power hippie band. DiBergi followed Tap on its ill-fated U.S. tour, although that footage, and indeed the entire movie, was actually shot in Los Angeles.
Even as the film came together, ideas continued to trickle in from real life. The writers read a Rolling Stone article about Van Halen and its absurd contract rider, which forbade brown M&Ms backstage. And Guest attended a Shakespeare production in Central Park where the wireless mics malfunctioned, broadcasting taxicab calls over the loudspeakers as the actors froze.
As Reiner relates it, “This Is Spinal Tap” opened on March 2, 1984, to small and mostly befuddled audiences. But the critics got it. In the weeks and months that followed, music heads found their way to theaters. Musicians, of course, loved it even more. For years after its release, it played on VCRs in tour buses across the nation.
A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever is a cult book about a cult film. If you’re in the cult, you know who you are. Enough of my yakkin’.
Daniel de Visé is the author of five books, including The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic.
“This Is Spinal Tap” feels like the ultimate cult film: powerfully appealing to a select group of fans, baffling to everyone else. Studio executives found Rob Reiner’s 1984 “mockumentary” utterly unfunny. Test screenings in Dallas and Seattle were disastrous. Many theatergoers thought it was a serious documentary about a real band. Either you got the joke or you didn’t.
In fact, the jokes in “This Is Spinal Tap” weren’t really jokes. The humor was deadpan, and I suppose it was subtle, although I can’t imagine not laughing at it. Perhaps you needed some working knowledge of Yoko and the Beatles to find something funny in the overreaching band girlfriend who mispronounces “Dolby.” Maybe only Yardbirds fans got the merciless British Invasion parody “Gimme Some Money” and spotted the Jeff Beck pageboy mop atop Nigel Tufnel’s head. And maybe you had to be in a band yourself to grasp the ignominy of taking second billing to a puppet show on an amusement-park stage.
But we music heads love “This Is Spinal Tap.” We’ve spent decades wondering at the specific source of every shot in the film. Was the song “Stonehenge” a sendup of Led Zeppelin at its most pompous and Tolkienesque? Which real-life band lost the most drummers to bizarre gardening accidents? Did any actual bass player ever get trapped onstage inside a giant plastic pod?
Now, at last, we have answers tucked within the pages of A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever: The Story of Spinal Tap, penned by Reiner, the film’s director, with help from his fellow screenwriters (and the movie’s stars) Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer.
I read the book in an afternoon. My copy ran to fewer than 200 pages, not counting a faux, 60-page oral history that’s printed upside-down and backward at the end. (A B-side. Har.)
It was fascinating and depressing to learn how hard Reiner and company labored to convince anyone to make the film. How could so many aging studio execs have failed to find it funny? I guess you have to consider that it came together more than 40 years ago and to imagine how all that rock ‘n’ roll humor might’ve come off to someone old enough to have missed the whole arena-rock era. Even now, I suppose, you could find cinema patrons who have no reference point for the “Big Bottom” bassline, canker sores, or “Hello, Cleveland!”
The concept for “This Is Spinal Tap,” I can now reveal, began as a satiric mashup of “The Last Waltz,” Martin Scorsese’s cinematic farewell to the Band; “The Song Remains the Same,” Led Zeppelin’s cheesy-but-righteous concert film; “The Kids Are Alright,” the aerobic Who documentary; and “Don’t Look Back,” D.A. Pennebaker’s Bob Dylan doc.
Reiner and his co-writers had a gift for “schnadling,” a term evidently coined by Guest, which means settling into character and improvising stuff. Guest, in my mind, was the pivotal player in the project. He came out of National Lampoon, and for much of the 1970s, he and various collaborators had been writing and performing parody songs, first for “Lemmings,” the off-Broadway sendup of Woodstock, and later for the “National Lampoon Radio Hour” and a series of long-playing Lampoon records. Guest did a killer Dylan impression and a brilliant James Taylor. On the 1975 Lampoon album “Good-bye Pop,” he rolled out a Cockney accent, the template for Tufnel.
Spinal Tap, the band, first performed in 1979, on a network pilot titled “The T.V. Show,” in a sketch that parodied the old “Midnight Special.” Reiner played deejay Wolfman Jack. “This Is Spinal Tap,” the film, came together as a collection of funny ideas on index cards. Guest had once watched a British rocker stroll into a Bleecker Street guitar store with a prominent bulge in his crotch that later slipped to his ankle. Shearer remembered a promoter who prostrated himself after a dreadful convention show, beseeching the performers, “I’m not asking you, I’m telling you: Kick my ass.” Reiner had written a sketch with actor Bruno Kirby about a limo driver with a Sinatra obsession. All of those bits went on cards.
McKean’s lead-singer character, David St. Hubbins, was modeled on the blond-tressed ‘70s idol Peter Frampton. Shearer’s mustachioed bassist Derek Smalls was the quintessential “quiet one,” based on softspoken rock bassists John Entwistle and Bill Wyman, but with an onstage alter ego drawn from the S&M stylings of Judas Priest. And Reiner’s Marty DiBergi channeled Scorsese.
To prepare for the movie, Shearer embedded with a real touring hard-rock band, Saxon, taking copious notes. And he, McKean, and Guest all went backstage at an AC/DC show and saw how much of it really was a show. “Like, they had a huge wall of Marshall amps,” Guest recalled, “but if you walked behind them, they were not all plugged in.”
The umlaut over the “n” in Spinal Tap, which my computer refuses to print (probably because the letter doesn’t exist), was a nod to Motörhead and Blue Öyster Cult.
There never was a proper script for “This Is Spinal Tap,” just a rough treatment and a 20-minute reel that Reiner assembled featuring some of the best bits. None of the studios liked it. But pirated copies made the rounds in Hollywood, and some of them reached an appreciative audience. Reiner heard that one was found in the Chateau Marmont bungalow where John Belushi died.
Reiner shot the film as a series of improvised scenes based on the funny ideas on the index cards. Most of its immortal lines — “These go to eleven”; “You can’t really dust for vomit”; “It’s such a fine line between stupid and clever” — were apparently unscripted. Music videos depicted Tap’s past incarnations, first as a Yardbirds-style blues-rock band and later as a flower-power hippie band. DiBergi followed Tap on its ill-fated U.S. tour, although that footage, and indeed the entire movie, was actually shot in Los Angeles.
Even as the film came together, ideas continued to trickle in from real life. The writers read a Rolling Stone article about Van Halen and its absurd contract rider, which forbade brown M&Ms backstage. And Guest attended a Shakespeare production in Central Park where the wireless mics malfunctioned, broadcasting taxicab calls over the loudspeakers as the actors froze.
As Reiner relates it, “This Is Spinal Tap” opened on March 2, 1984, to small and mostly befuddled audiences. But the critics got it. In the weeks and months that followed, music heads found their way to theaters. Musicians, of course, loved it even more. For years after its release, it played on VCRs in tour buses across the nation.
A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever is a cult book about a cult film. If you’re in the cult, you know who you are. Enough of my yakkin’.
Daniel de Visé is the author of five books, including The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic.
September 24, 2025
Finished A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever: The Story of Spinal Tap by Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer. This book has just been published this year (2025) in anticipation of the Spinal Tap Movie Sequel.Spinal Tap II: The End Continues which has just been released. Somehow I never saw the movie but based on reading this book, I’m going to go back and watch it. Spinal Tap was Rob Reiner’s directorial debut (1984)t and he wrote the movie with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer who were actually talented musicians. They made an incredibly funny movie while inventing “the mockumentary.” The funniest part of the story is how accurately the movie captured the real life disaster that musicians experience while touring. A number of 80’s and 90’s musicians share their real life low points captured by a fake band of dimwits. I can’t believe that Spinal Tap made real albums, headlined concerts and appeared in a number of large venues. Interesting story
October 5, 2025
How much cooler could this behind-the-scenes book be? None. None more cooler.
A must for any fans of the original film. This book delves into the initial creation of the film's concept, the struggles to pitch it, the difficulties of striking the right tone and getting it made, as well as the initial disastrous screenings with shockingly low audience scores... all the way through the surprise cult status that the film achieved and the sometimes bizarre line-blurring that caused people to demand Spinal Tap performances at otherwise "real" venues, leading, down the line, to the demand for a sequel film.
The book contains a cheeky flip-and-reverse side with an "oral history" of the band, as told through an interview with the band members.
A must for any fans of the original film. This book delves into the initial creation of the film's concept, the struggles to pitch it, the difficulties of striking the right tone and getting it made, as well as the initial disastrous screenings with shockingly low audience scores... all the way through the surprise cult status that the film achieved and the sometimes bizarre line-blurring that caused people to demand Spinal Tap performances at otherwise "real" venues, leading, down the line, to the demand for a sequel film.
The book contains a cheeky flip-and-reverse side with an "oral history" of the band, as told through an interview with the band members.
October 8, 2025
A definite treat if you like the movie. Fun to see how it all came together and the success the band has had since the movie came out. The stories behind the songs (complete with lyrics) are hilarious. And the book includes a lengthy interview of the three main band members (in character) by Marty DiBergi. For the children of a wind sock maker, a luggage handle repairman, and a telephone sanitizer, they had quite a run!
Thinking about this further, the only thing I wish the book had addressed was how they chose the footage for the closing credits, which produced some of the funniest stuff in the whole movie.
Thinking about this further, the only thing I wish the book had addressed was how they chose the footage for the closing credits, which produced some of the funniest stuff in the whole movie.
September 14, 2025
Great read for Tap fans! Getting ready to go see the new movie, so this was a nice lead-up for that. Smell The Book has some really funny lines that I’m still chuckling about.
August 3, 2025
My thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy.
For starters, this book goes to 11. I feel that much is obligatory. I'm writing this review the same weekend that the new Naked Gun movie came out, a fitting double feature of things if there ever was one. If you're interested in how a short skit in a show that no one really remembers became a thing we can all still quote ad nauseam, this is truly the text that serves as the fine line between stupid and clever. I already have a copy pre-ordered as a gift for the person responsible for making me like both the previously mentioned films but it was good to read this in advance. I hope there's an audio book, but I imagine that would be hard for things like the Real Life Tap stories of other bands and the initial courtship of Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest.
Make sure to stay after the credits for the in-character Smell The Book.
For starters, this book goes to 11. I feel that much is obligatory. I'm writing this review the same weekend that the new Naked Gun movie came out, a fitting double feature of things if there ever was one. If you're interested in how a short skit in a show that no one really remembers became a thing we can all still quote ad nauseam, this is truly the text that serves as the fine line between stupid and clever. I already have a copy pre-ordered as a gift for the person responsible for making me like both the previously mentioned films but it was good to read this in advance. I hope there's an audio book, but I imagine that would be hard for things like the Real Life Tap stories of other bands and the initial courtship of Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest.
Make sure to stay after the credits for the in-character Smell The Book.
July 22, 2025
My thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for an advance copy of this dual look at the making of the classic documentary about a band, a tour, and the importance of knowing the differences between inches and feet, along with additional interviews with the band and the director, showing how their lives have been since the film.
Many a review for this book will probably start with "This book goes to 11." I am going to try not to do that. Comedy is hard. To make a person laugh is a skill, to be able to improvise something on the fly, to make a situation go from normal to abnormal to bizarre is a talent that few have. I remember watching the movie This is Spinal Tap with my Dad on HBO, just when I was starting my love of music, but before I was aware of the behind the scenes tales involving musicians. I know we laughed, the rock stuff might have gone over my head, but the verbal interplay, the physical comedy brought us both to tears. As I have gotten older and learned more about rock and or roll, I can see even more jokes, more Easter eggs in the story. Especially with all the different editions that have followed. Few movies hit so hard, and even more create their own movie genre, the mockumentary, one that has continued with many successes to this day. Spinal Tap was truly ahead of its time, and now we can learn about the difficult birthing of the film. Almost as if a the movie was trapped in a pod and couldn't get out. A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever: The Story of Spinal Tap by director Rob Reiner with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer, is a tale of a labor of love, one that might have sunk all their careers, but one that like a mighty phoenix, was burned super bright and gone to 11 in our hearts.
The book begins with a man trying to be more than a Meathead. Rob Reiner had left a successful show, one that had made him familiar to many, but Reiner, like so many had a wish to direct movies. The only thing was he lacked the experience and an idea to get attention. During his time Reiner helped create a skit for a little watched television show featuring a band Spinal Tap, one that stayed in his mind. The idea that he fleshed out with co-writers Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer all of which were making their names in Hollywood was something like a fake documentary based on classic rock and roll films, like The Last Waltz or Don't Look Back. The movie would be a final tour, and it would be improvised, building on ideas the boys had developed, with no more than three takes to make it work. Funding wasn't easy, but enough was gained to film a demo reel, which got them the attention of a real studio. Who had no idea what they had. The movie came and went, but somehow built an audience. Rock stars were mad that their tour lives were being parodied. The English got it right away. And slowly a cult was begun, one that the members of Spinal Tap began to exploit, with further albums, tours, and shows, culminating in a planned sequel for 2025. In addition to the making of the book features a dual biography of the fictional band and fictional director, tying up some dangling issues from the movie.
I have read a lot of making of books about movies, and I can't remember any outside of Star Trek movies that features the director writing his own book. Reiner goes deep into the creation of the movie, detailing problems, money studio interference, law suits, and a lot of good times. There is plenty behind the scenes stuff, but even more a lot of how the movie was created. The sessions that gave them ideas. How actors were able to improvise so quickly, and the one actor that needed a script. Reiner looks at his fellow actors, sharing stories about their lives, marriages, and who dated who and when. Hints from the sequel are dropped, and the fictional follow-up interview with band and director is pretty funny.
Fans will enjoy this quite a bit. The jokes come fast, the stories are very good. I enjoyed this quite a bit, and hope the sequel will be better than I fear. Not just enjoyable but filled with lots of information about improvising, making a movie, Hollywood financing, and fighting for one's vision.
Many a review for this book will probably start with "This book goes to 11." I am going to try not to do that. Comedy is hard. To make a person laugh is a skill, to be able to improvise something on the fly, to make a situation go from normal to abnormal to bizarre is a talent that few have. I remember watching the movie This is Spinal Tap with my Dad on HBO, just when I was starting my love of music, but before I was aware of the behind the scenes tales involving musicians. I know we laughed, the rock stuff might have gone over my head, but the verbal interplay, the physical comedy brought us both to tears. As I have gotten older and learned more about rock and or roll, I can see even more jokes, more Easter eggs in the story. Especially with all the different editions that have followed. Few movies hit so hard, and even more create their own movie genre, the mockumentary, one that has continued with many successes to this day. Spinal Tap was truly ahead of its time, and now we can learn about the difficult birthing of the film. Almost as if a the movie was trapped in a pod and couldn't get out. A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever: The Story of Spinal Tap by director Rob Reiner with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer, is a tale of a labor of love, one that might have sunk all their careers, but one that like a mighty phoenix, was burned super bright and gone to 11 in our hearts.
The book begins with a man trying to be more than a Meathead. Rob Reiner had left a successful show, one that had made him familiar to many, but Reiner, like so many had a wish to direct movies. The only thing was he lacked the experience and an idea to get attention. During his time Reiner helped create a skit for a little watched television show featuring a band Spinal Tap, one that stayed in his mind. The idea that he fleshed out with co-writers Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer all of which were making their names in Hollywood was something like a fake documentary based on classic rock and roll films, like The Last Waltz or Don't Look Back. The movie would be a final tour, and it would be improvised, building on ideas the boys had developed, with no more than three takes to make it work. Funding wasn't easy, but enough was gained to film a demo reel, which got them the attention of a real studio. Who had no idea what they had. The movie came and went, but somehow built an audience. Rock stars were mad that their tour lives were being parodied. The English got it right away. And slowly a cult was begun, one that the members of Spinal Tap began to exploit, with further albums, tours, and shows, culminating in a planned sequel for 2025. In addition to the making of the book features a dual biography of the fictional band and fictional director, tying up some dangling issues from the movie.
I have read a lot of making of books about movies, and I can't remember any outside of Star Trek movies that features the director writing his own book. Reiner goes deep into the creation of the movie, detailing problems, money studio interference, law suits, and a lot of good times. There is plenty behind the scenes stuff, but even more a lot of how the movie was created. The sessions that gave them ideas. How actors were able to improvise so quickly, and the one actor that needed a script. Reiner looks at his fellow actors, sharing stories about their lives, marriages, and who dated who and when. Hints from the sequel are dropped, and the fictional follow-up interview with band and director is pretty funny.
Fans will enjoy this quite a bit. The jokes come fast, the stories are very good. I enjoyed this quite a bit, and hope the sequel will be better than I fear. Not just enjoyable but filled with lots of information about improvising, making a movie, Hollywood financing, and fighting for one's vision.
July 22, 2025
More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/
There are many interesting tidbits here but mostly it feels like a publicity piece for the next Spinal Tap movie. Rob Reiner likes to stay in the character of Marti Debergi often and there are even whole sections of conversations with the band that mostly serve to set up the next movie. It's a nice, if shallow and padded, piece that fans will enjoy. But at the same time, it felt like there could have been so much more said.The book goes into the history of the actors, how they met up and their unique comedic traits that were used so effectively in the movie. As well, we get some understanding of how hard it was to get made, the leaps of faith from friends and colleagues that enabled such a silly movie, and the surprise of its popularity after release. A lot of time is spent on the effect the movie had on pop culture and how its cult status developed rather quickly. Perhaps the best part of the book were quotes by other musicians who either enjoyed the satire or perhaps felt it was a bit too close to home.
A lot of what made the movie so good is explored here - the ability of the actors to ad lib the comedy on the spot. But I also appreciated that Reiner goes a lot into Harry Shearer's contributions: he seems to be the one person from the movie most forgotten. But the side actors are also given their time: from discussions of how Tony Hedra's "band manager" stints were developed to June Chadwick's turn as a Yoko Ono band wrecker who mispronounces Dolby as doubly. The most fun the book has is in Reiner detailing how so many of the great lines came about.
In all, an enjoyable if inflated read. It does set you up nicely for the next movie though. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.
September 16, 2025
If you don’t know what Spinal Tap is, I’m not sure where you’ve been (or why you're thinking of reading this!), but they’re a fake rock band created by Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, and This is Spinal Tap was the first mockumentary. It’s the thing that all the others are based on and the source of various pop culture reference to the point where if you see it now it’s hard to imagine how different it was.
Most of this book is the history of how the film got made and what happened next - when a fictional band started become real - from appearing at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert to putting out albums. Rob Reiner has done most of the work on this part of the book and it is to tie in with the fortieth birthday of the movie (last year), the fact that the quartet have got the rights back to the movie and property again and that there’s a sequel which is in movie theatres now. We can gloss over whether the sequel was good idea or not (the reviews suggest maybe not) but it’s a really fun read to see how the movie got made - but also what a collaborative effort it was and what a pivotal role in all of the stars lives.
Now flip the book over and the other end is a mock oral history of the band written by the quartet in their characters. This has some funny moments, but it’s not as good as the other end is. But it’s also less than half the length of the other bit so it doesn’t outstay its welcome!
Most of this book is the history of how the film got made and what happened next - when a fictional band started become real - from appearing at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert to putting out albums. Rob Reiner has done most of the work on this part of the book and it is to tie in with the fortieth birthday of the movie (last year), the fact that the quartet have got the rights back to the movie and property again and that there’s a sequel which is in movie theatres now. We can gloss over whether the sequel was good idea or not (the reviews suggest maybe not) but it’s a really fun read to see how the movie got made - but also what a collaborative effort it was and what a pivotal role in all of the stars lives.
Now flip the book over and the other end is a mock oral history of the band written by the quartet in their characters. This has some funny moments, but it’s not as good as the other end is. But it’s also less than half the length of the other bit so it doesn’t outstay its welcome!
July 31, 2025
A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever, by Rob Reiner, is so much more than just a "making of..." book, it gives personal backgrounds as well as behind the scenes stories.
I did leave one thing out of the opening paragraph, and it took this from a very good book to an awesome book. Reiner, in character as Marty DiBergi, interviews the members of Spinal Tap, in character. You can hear the voices as you read it and some lines just cracked me up.
But the main part of the book is wonderful, told in a casual tone and with a lot of respect for everyone involved. I also found the interlude to be nice, hearing what some rock stars thought of the film and for a couple comparing their view of it before major touring then their appreciation after realizing how spot on it was.
If you're a fan of the film, you will love this book. If you're one of a handful who aren't fans or haven't seen it, I think you'll still enjoy the book and it will make you rethink your opinion or your decision to have not watched it yet. For fans like me, it will make you watch it yet again.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
I did leave one thing out of the opening paragraph, and it took this from a very good book to an awesome book. Reiner, in character as Marty DiBergi, interviews the members of Spinal Tap, in character. You can hear the voices as you read it and some lines just cracked me up.
But the main part of the book is wonderful, told in a casual tone and with a lot of respect for everyone involved. I also found the interlude to be nice, hearing what some rock stars thought of the film and for a couple comparing their view of it before major touring then their appreciation after realizing how spot on it was.
If you're a fan of the film, you will love this book. If you're one of a handful who aren't fans or haven't seen it, I think you'll still enjoy the book and it will make you rethink your opinion or your decision to have not watched it yet. For fans like me, it will make you watch it yet again.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
September 14, 2025
This is two books in one. The first part is a legit history of the making of the original film. While Rob Reiner tells the story of the actual actors, producers, and himself, the director, he works in the fictional story of Spinal Tap, the band, and its members. While the whole thing is funny because of the absurd nature of This Is Spinal Tap, it is something of an actual memoir with commentary from the various players involved. By the end of the first part of the book, which is most of the book, Reiner is reflecting on the cultural impact of the project which is fascinating. I thoroughly enjoyed all of this behind-the-scenes story telling.
In the brief second part of the book, Smell the Book, Reiner, and the band jump back into character for an oral history. If you find Spinal Tap amusing, you'll love this. The 40 pages or so are filled with Tappisms and only the logic a touring rock band can articulate with the assurance of priests of the highest order. The whole package is very funny while providing real insight into the life and times of the creators as well as the fictional characters we love. And so I say, tap into this book! And then go see the new movie.
In the brief second part of the book, Smell the Book, Reiner, and the band jump back into character for an oral history. If you find Spinal Tap amusing, you'll love this. The 40 pages or so are filled with Tappisms and only the logic a touring rock band can articulate with the assurance of priests of the highest order. The whole package is very funny while providing real insight into the life and times of the creators as well as the fictional characters we love. And so I say, tap into this book! And then go see the new movie.
October 3, 2025
What a fun read!
The main part of the book details how the movie came to be and how it became a cult favorite. I also learned that all of the guys who played the members of Tap are quite talented musicians. I knew that they'd played their own instruments, but didn't realize how extensive their musical background was. In one of the funniest chapters, various legendary rock stars talk about their own horrible experiences on the road and their "tiny Stonehenge" moments. They virtually all said that "This is Spinal Tap" really was more of a documentary of life on the road than a spoof.
The companion book (a short one on the flip side) is "Smell the Book," with the four main characters (Marty DiBergi, David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel, and Derek Smalls) reminiscing about the formation of Tap and their early years as Marty interviews them. They are all comedic geniuses in my book and there were moments that made me genuinely laugh out loud.
A must for anyone who loves the original movie as much as I did, and I'm happy to report that the follow-up movie is pretty hilarious, too. But hey...enough of my yakkin'. Read the book and let's boogie!
The main part of the book details how the movie came to be and how it became a cult favorite. I also learned that all of the guys who played the members of Tap are quite talented musicians. I knew that they'd played their own instruments, but didn't realize how extensive their musical background was. In one of the funniest chapters, various legendary rock stars talk about their own horrible experiences on the road and their "tiny Stonehenge" moments. They virtually all said that "This is Spinal Tap" really was more of a documentary of life on the road than a spoof.
The companion book (a short one on the flip side) is "Smell the Book," with the four main characters (Marty DiBergi, David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel, and Derek Smalls) reminiscing about the formation of Tap and their early years as Marty interviews them. They are all comedic geniuses in my book and there were moments that made me genuinely laugh out loud.
A must for anyone who loves the original movie as much as I did, and I'm happy to report that the follow-up movie is pretty hilarious, too. But hey...enough of my yakkin'. Read the book and let's boogie!
September 29, 2025
This was a fun book to read if you’re a big fan of the film ‘This is Spinal Tap’.
However, despite being a decent sized hardback, the content is a bit thin. I was hoping for a bit more on the trials and tribulations, the techniques, sounds, and smells of a hard-working rockumentary filmmaking group on the road. It didn’t quite go to eleven.
There’s a fun bit in the back where Nigel, David, and Derek are interviewed about various things, and that was almost like having a DVD/book commentary - I could clearly hear their voices in my head.
I’m not sure what people coming to this book who have not seen the film will get from it though. It doesn’t really express a life like Frank’s. I mean, when you've loved and lost the way Frank has, then you know what life's about.
One for the fans only I think.
However, despite being a decent sized hardback, the content is a bit thin. I was hoping for a bit more on the trials and tribulations, the techniques, sounds, and smells of a hard-working rockumentary filmmaking group on the road. It didn’t quite go to eleven.
There’s a fun bit in the back where Nigel, David, and Derek are interviewed about various things, and that was almost like having a DVD/book commentary - I could clearly hear their voices in my head.
I’m not sure what people coming to this book who have not seen the film will get from it though. It doesn’t really express a life like Frank’s. I mean, when you've loved and lost the way Frank has, then you know what life's about.
One for the fans only I think.
October 14, 2025
Too much fun and great for laughs, just like the movies. I started with the B-side of this book: Smell this Book and laughed at how Marty DiBergi kept interjecting himself into the process. "I know you want to know what I was doing at this time." No, Marty, we want to hear from the band members.
The A-side was interesting, informative, and funny. The early roots to the movie were lost on me, not being a media/cinematic/SNL/Lampoon/TV-watching person but I did notice a pattern developing. Luckily that pattern kept on developing and eventually turned into the cult classic movie that Spinal Tap is today. I love that a fake real band made a real fake movie and a real album (albeit, not Smell the Glove) that turned into a real band with a real following, complete with fans who misspell their name: Spaniel Tap, indeed! Rock on, my friends!
The A-side was interesting, informative, and funny. The early roots to the movie were lost on me, not being a media/cinematic/SNL/Lampoon/TV-watching person but I did notice a pattern developing. Luckily that pattern kept on developing and eventually turned into the cult classic movie that Spinal Tap is today. I love that a fake real band made a real fake movie and a real album (albeit, not Smell the Glove) that turned into a real band with a real following, complete with fans who misspell their name: Spaniel Tap, indeed! Rock on, my friends!
September 17, 2025
A really interesting behind the scenes look at how the comedy mockumentary classic This is Spinal Tap was made, written (supposedly) by director Rob Reiner, with interviews with the three main cast members/creators. No surprise, this was a movie that just barely got made, that the studio hated, and that got no support whatsoever, but when it turned out to be a cult hit, the studio clung to the rights and the creators had to eventually sue to get them back. Now a sequel has come out.
The best part of the book is all the detailed info on how the movie got made—but eventually Reiner (or his ghost writer) runs out of material, and there is a lot of filler, including "interviews" with the characters of Nigel, David, and Derek. Print interviews aren't nearly as funny as film ones.
The best part of the book is all the detailed info on how the movie got made—but eventually Reiner (or his ghost writer) runs out of material, and there is a lot of filler, including "interviews" with the characters of Nigel, David, and Derek. Print interviews aren't nearly as funny as film ones.
September 15, 2025
"We saturated, we oversaturated..." A movie many know by heart is always worth a book, even if it feels like an overreach (or afterthought) as the Story of Spinal Tap comes out to coincide with the sequel opening in movie theaters. There's also a fine line between paying homage to something enduring and feeling like a nostalgic cash crab. There's some fun stuff here (I am a fan), but most of it feels regurgitated and unnecessary. While there's joy to be had in spending time with these characters again, there's not much humor in it.
September 17, 2025
I wish I could give this a 4.5. And that’s only because goodreads dropped the ball on being able to rate this book out of 11.
Two books in one. The main book is Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer talking about the history of Spinal Tap, how the band came to be and its ongoing legacy. I just watched the new sequel on Sunday, so I was pretty excited to read this one.
I highly suggest going the audiobook route on this one, especially for the Smell the Book section in which Marty DiBergi and Spinal Tap detail their humble beginnings.
Two books in one. The main book is Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer talking about the history of Spinal Tap, how the band came to be and its ongoing legacy. I just watched the new sequel on Sunday, so I was pretty excited to read this one.
I highly suggest going the audiobook route on this one, especially for the Smell the Book section in which Marty DiBergi and Spinal Tap detail their humble beginnings.
September 23, 2025
4.5
Like the book about the making of Airplane, this is another great peak into what it took to make a comedy classic. Spinal Tap holds a very important place in my heart and this book did not disappoint. And the audiobook is the way to go with Rob Reiner doing most of the heavy lifting but Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer participating as well. Along with several others. There is also background on each actor’s career path and tons of reveals about how many of the hilarious scenes came to be. For Tap fans, this is a must read.
Like the book about the making of Airplane, this is another great peak into what it took to make a comedy classic. Spinal Tap holds a very important place in my heart and this book did not disappoint. And the audiobook is the way to go with Rob Reiner doing most of the heavy lifting but Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer participating as well. Along with several others. There is also background on each actor’s career path and tons of reveals about how many of the hilarious scenes came to be. For Tap fans, this is a must read.
October 14, 2025
It's entertaining. It's actually two books. The main thing is the actual book, where Rob Reiner goes over how the movie came about, how it was filmed, and how it became part of the culture. The years when the movie shifted from cult favorite, to part of the overall mass culture of rock'n'roll make the book's best part.
Then you flip the book over and you see "Smell the Book" - a 60-ish page series of interviews where Rob Renier's character interviews the three lads in their Spinal Tap characters. It's cute, but it works better when you can see and hear them.
Then you flip the book over and you see "Smell the Book" - a 60-ish page series of interviews where Rob Renier's character interviews the three lads in their Spinal Tap characters. It's cute, but it works better when you can see and hear them.
September 25, 2025
Right book at the right time. Hilarious anecdotes from Rob Reiner and the cast—for this reason I highly recommend listening to this one rather than silently reading on your kindle. It made me feel like I was part of a really strange, weird and bizarre conversation—one of those conversations that you can only have with good old friends. The type of friend that you haven’t seen in a long time but that you can meet up with and it’s like no time has passed. Laugh out loud fun.
September 11, 2025
Interesting and funny memoir of Spinal Tap. A quick read but entertaining. Note that the book is about half a real recollection of Tap, and the remainder of the book is an imagined “oral history” of Tap by the characters themselves. Needless to say, familiarity with the movie and Tap lore is needed to really enjoy the book.
September 15, 2025
Funny and informative
Well written and chock full of information that has been obscure until now. The first half of the book is the real behind the scenes story of This is Spinal Tap and its four principal creators. The second half is in character and structured as an oral history with Marty DiBergi, David, Nigel, and Derek.
Well written and chock full of information that has been obscure until now. The first half of the book is the real behind the scenes story of This is Spinal Tap and its four principal creators. The second half is in character and structured as an oral history with Marty DiBergi, David, Nigel, and Derek.
September 21, 2025
The non fictional side abut the making of the movie and the continued success of the band was fine. Nothing revelatory but at least entertaining. There were a couple times where I felt like Reiner was a little too proud of himself.
But the other 70 pages of the book? The in character oral history of the band? Every single page was laugh out loud hysterical and the reason you should read this.
But the other 70 pages of the book? The in character oral history of the band? Every single page was laugh out loud hysterical and the reason you should read this.
October 5, 2025
Spinal Tap, a parody and satire of rock bands from the 1980s, is gently, satirically eulogized in this book. Rob Reiner does the Spinal Tap members great service documenting the history of the group. You’ll enjoy this book, which is itself a parody of real history, with some amusing movements thrown in.
October 11, 2025
Such a fun book/tie-in for the movie! I managed to get an autographed copy even after all the stupid political fall-out. So glad I did!
This book is basically a long interview with the characters from the band talking about their extended history from childhood to the most recent New Orleans concert. Nothing really new if you are familiar with the movie saga but it's still a fun read.
This book is basically a long interview with the characters from the band talking about their extended history from childhood to the most recent New Orleans concert. Nothing really new if you are familiar with the movie saga but it's still a fun read.
September 25, 2025
What are you going to do, not listen to the audiobook in which Guest, McKean, Shearer and Reiner all narrate, alongside a couple guest voices? Without question the way to go. Best enjoyed if you've just rewatched the film.
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