Smell the Glove

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Smell the Glove
Studio album (fictional) by Spinal Tap
Released	1982
Genre	Heavy metal
Label	Polymer Records
Spinal Tap chronology
Shark Sandwich (1980) Smell The Glove (1982) Break Like The Wind (1992)

Smell the Glove is the name of a fictional album by the mock heavy-metal band Spinal Tap in the movie This Is Spinal Tap.

Contents 1 Cover sleeve art 2 Concept and impact 3 Other black sleeves 4 Track listing 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Cover sleeve art

In the mockumentary, the original cover featured "a greased, naked woman on all fours with a dog collar around her neck and a leash, and a man's arm extended out...holding on to the leash and pushing a black glove in her face to sniff it." The production company, Polymer Records, ultimately refused to release the cover because of pressure from retailers such as Sears and Kmart and gave the album a solid black cover instead. Upon learning of the concerns of Polymer, David St. Hubbins said, "You know, if we were serious and we said, ‘Yes, she should be forced to smell the glove,’ then you’d have a point, but it’s all a joke." Bandmate Nigel Tufnel replied, "It is and it isn’t. She should be made to smell it, but..." which David clarified with the statement, "But not, you know, over and over."

Spinal Tap manager Ian Faith claimed to have censored the album himself, saying "You should have seen the cover they wanted to do. It wasn't a glove, believe me." The black sleeve prompted guitarist Nigel Tufnel to utter the now-famous quote, "It's like, 'how much more black could this be?' and the answer is none. None more black." In an early piece of publicity for the film, a 1982 ad in Billboard magazine plugged the album and displayed the original "naked woman" cover. Tap returned to this idea in 1992 with the picture sleeve from the promo CD of Bitch School, which pictured a woman dressed in black vinyl with a mortarboard. [2]

[edit] Concept and impact

The cover art - or more specifically the controversy surrounding its imagery - was inspired by Whitesnake's 1979 album Lovehunter.^[1]

[edit] Other black sleeves

Real-life albums which feature a completely black (or partially black) cover include Status Quo's Hello!, Prince's The Black Album, AC/DC's Back In Black, The Damned's The Black Album, and Peter Hammill's A Black Box . The three latter examples were released in 1980 and were successful around the time the film was being developed - it is possible therefore that they are the inspiration for the film cover. However, The Velvet Underground's 1968 release White Light/White Heat was probably the first album to spark this trend. Another example is Metallica's self-titled album (often referred to as "the Black Album"). The members of Spinal Tap made pointed references to this when they appeared in Metallica's long form video A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica. In the scene, they tell the members of Metallica, "We need to talk about the black album." In another scene in the Metallica video, the band members are shown working in the studio when the test graphics for their album art arrive for their approval. James Hetfield can be heard muttering the words, "None more black."

[edit] Track listing

1. "Hell Hole"
2. "Smell The Glove"
3. "Sex Farm"

Note: Tracks 4-? are unknown

[edit] See also

• A comprehensive Spinal Tap discography

[edit] References

1. ^ [1]

[edit] External links

• The Ultimate Spinal Tap Discography - an illustrated guide to Tap's albums (both real and imagined)
• The actual first Smell the Glove cover, low resolution

v • d • e Spinal Tap Nigel Tufnel · David St. Hubbins · Derek Smalls Studio albums This Is Spinal Tap · Break Like the Wind · Back from the Dead Feature film This Is Spinal Tap Cast and crew Christopher Guest · Michael McKean · Harry Shearer Related articles "Up to eleven" · Loudest band in the world · "The Otto Show"