Derek Smalls—Harry Shearer’s Character in “Spinal Tap”—Returns with His Solo Début

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2018

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Harry Shearer is known for doing many characters, including Mr. Burns and others from “The Simpsons,” but the most famous is Derek Smalls, the saturnine, epically muttonchopped bassist in the movie “This Is Spinal Tap.” Almost thirty-five years after the release of Rob Reiner’s mockumentary about a struggling metal band, Shearer has given Smalls a new lease on life. Although the character is fictional, the new solo album, “Smalls Change: Meditations Upon Ageing,” is real. Smalls tells The New Yorker’s Andy Borowitz that he produced the record with support from the British Fund for Ageing Rockers, and it contains songs about a toupee (which belongs to Satan) and erectile dysfunction. (You have to give the dysfunctional part, Smalls says, “a good, stern talking-to.”) And they discuss what is clearly a sore subject: the fact that Spinal Tap was never inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Plus, a New Yorker editor picks three favorites for a new parent.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	From One World Trade Center in Manhattan, this is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of the New Yorker and WNYC Studios.
0:10.0	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. For this episode, I'm just going to turn things over to my friend and colleague, Andy Borowitz, who's got something very special in store for us.
0:30.9	On the periodic chart of metal, one band is heavier than the rest.
0:36.1	Its atomic weight is 11. Its name is Spinal Tap.
0:42.3	Led by singer David St. Hubbins and guitarist Nigel Tufnell, Spinaltap made music history with their seminal 1984 documentary,
0:46.3	This Is Spinaltap.
0:48.3	But it was their bassist, Derek Smalls,
0:51.3	who left an unremovable mark with his tasty licks on Tapp's majestic hit, Big Bottom.
1:00.7	Flash forward 34 years. Whatever happened to Derek Smalls? Is he still alive? And more importantly, can he still rock?
1:13.7	Well, Derek Smalls answers those questions and some others that no one has asked.
1:18.1	On his first ever solo album, Smalls Change, Meditations Upon Aging.
1:23.5	Derek Smalls, welcome to the New Yorker Radio Hour.
1:26.1	Oh, thank you so much.
1:27.3	And you look fantastic.
1:28.4	You look alive to me.
1:29.9	I'm not a doctor, but you do look good.
1:32.8	Well, I feel good.
1:34.3	I had a little incident, which is why my chops, my facial hair is not what it used to be.
1:41.5	What was the incident, tell me?
1:42.8	I was a friend mine it's
1:44.5	an old friend eddie edie dregs and he's moved to scunthorpe england late summer early autumn
1:51.6	these strange gusts of wind will sometimes whip up in the in the countryside i mean scunthorpe's not
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WNYC Studios and The New Yorker, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.