Break Like the Wind

Has there ever been a rock band more unjustly maligned than Spinal Tap? Accused of everything from heralding the demise of heavy metal to being the very raison d'être for alternative rock, they suffered their greatest indignity at the hands of director Rob Reiner (cowardly hiding behind the moniker Marty DiBergi), whose 1984 "rockumentary," This Is Spinal Tap, muckraked its way through the band's courageous, tragedy-strewn history in service of a few mocking laughs. Reiner/DiBergi even stooped so low as to employ a heartless, mercenary band of Hollywood writer/comedians to burlesque the band's core members--David St. Hubbins (played by mendacious Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (callow Christopher Guest), and Derek Smalls (haughty Harry Shearer). But the great ones just won't be denied; Spinal Tap reached deep down in 1992 and let loose with Break Like the Wind, another potent blast of the very stuff that made their legend. Featuring an all-star supporting cast (the title track alone boasts Slash, Steve Lukather, Joe Satriani, and Tufnel look-alike Jeff Beck), the Tap gallantly tried to stem the tide of flannel and tattoos with thundering odes to gender enlightenment ("Bitch School"), mystic quests ("Clam Caravan"), and its own glorious rock-fest legacy ("Stinkin' Up the Great Outdoors"). Pop diva Cher and St. Hubbins share a vocal tryst on the uplifting ballad "Just Begin Again," while even Steely Dan's reclusive Walter Becker pens technical notes, praising the album's pioneering use of the Crosley Phase Linear Ionic Induction Voice Processor System. Sadly, they just don't make albums like this anymore. --J.D. Swift