This Custom Card Goes to Eleven

Isn't it interesting when a song you haven't heard in years just suddenly comes to mind?

I couldn't tell you just how many times that's happened to me over the years, but the latest instance was a good one. Here are some of the lyrics:

 

Stop wasting my time

You know what I want

You know what I need

Or maybe you don't

Do I have to come right flat out and tell you everything

Gimme some money

Gimme some money

I know, I know. If you're familiar with the tune, it means I've just shared an earworm. And that's a big no-no for some people. But come on, it's hilarious.

Anyhow, I got to thinking about the band, and the mockumentary of the band, and the fact that there are three iconic members of said band. It seemed the perfect subject matter for another "Future Stars" custom card.

If you're still unsure of the song or the band or the mockumentary to which I'm referring, here's the card:

 

 

 

It's Spinal Tap!!

 

The film, titled This Is Spinal Tap, was released in 1984, so I suppose St. Hubbins, Smalls, and Tufnel could have been labeled Future Stars in 1982.

 

Now of course the personnel for a mega-rock band like Spinal Tap also includes a drummer. However, a drummer is not pictured on the card simply because the band has always had a string of poor fortune with those guys, losing one after another to comically bizarre circumstances. As an example, one of them spontaneously combusted—and we can't risk the same thing happening on a custom trading card.

For those who haven't seen the film, I recommend it. Not only are the actors who portray those three main characters highly talented, funny, and well known in the industry, but they also played their own instruments throughout the film and even composed the songs. Very cool.

Here's a little more about each actor:

These days I know Michael McKean (David St. Hubbins) as the host of an informative show on the Cooking Channel called Food: Fact or Fiction? If you're a fan of Comedy Central's Drunk History, you may have seen him act out a few characters there as well. Going back a little further, he played Morris Fletcher on The X-Files, Gibby Fiske in HBO's Dream On, and perhaps most famously, Lenny Kosnowski on Laverne & Shirley. 

 

Harry Shearer (Derek Smalls) has been in the industry since childhood. One of his earliest appearances goes back to 1957, when he played the role of "Street Kid" in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents called "The Night the World Ended". Interesting if not random, he was an uncredited beachgoer in the 1977 blockbuster film Jaws, and in the late 1970s and early 1980s he spent some time on Saturday Night Live. However, you might best know Shearer from The Simpsons. Over the years he's voiced many familiar characters, including Montgomery Burns, Ned Flanders, Principal Skinner, Otto the bus driver, Mr. Smithers, Lenny, Kent Brockman, Reverend Lovejoy, and Rainier Wolfcastle.

Christopher Guest (Nigel Tufnel) has played some memorable characters in big films: Count Rugen in The Princess Bride, Dr. Stone in A Few Good Men, Ivan the Terrible in one of the Night at the Museum films, and Harlan Pepper in Best in Show. Also of interest, he married Hollywood star Jamie Lee Curtis in 1984, and they're still together. You're the man, Christopher Guest.

 

As a trio, the guys have made appearances as Spinal Tap on just about all of the late-night shows, including The Late Show with David Letterman, The Arsenio Hall Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. 

 

And naturally, they've hosted Headbangers Ball on MTV.

 

So here's to a legendary rock band, three fantastic actors, and a custom card that definitely goes to eleven.