Smell The Glove (alternate package) I'm afraid you'll miss the joke without a graphical browser. Well, press on anyway. Our opposition leader just described this as a black day...he was not kidding.
Smell the Glove (Polymer, 1982): The band's 14th album, rated B+ by
Entertainment Weekly. The U.S. tour to support the album was the basis of
Marty DiBergi's documentary, "This is Spinal Tap." Also known as the Black
Album after Polymer bowed to demands from retailers such as Sears and K
Mart to block out the "sexist" cover. The original cover depicted, in the
words of Polymer rep Bobbi Flekman, a "greased, naked woman on all fours
with a dog collar around her neck, and a leash and a man's arm extended out
up to here holding on to the leash and pushing a black glove in her face to
sniff it." The band had considered the cover a gag, with Ian noting that
their original concept included something much more provocative than a
glove. David: "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." Nigel: "It is and it isn't. She should be made to smell it, but..."
David: "But not, you know, over and over." After seeing the Black Album for
the first time in Milwaukee during a sound check, the responses ranged from
Ian's "simple, beautiful, classic," to Nigel's "It's like a black mirror"
to David's "It looks like death" to Nigel's "How much more black could this
be? and the answer is 'None. None...more black' " to David's "This is
something you put around your arm. You don't put this on your fucking
turntable." Ian, nevertheless, declares the album as a "turning point." The
black cover has often drawn comparisons to the Beatles' "White Album," as
well as their infamous "Yesterday and Today" butcher cover. See also
America; Japanese tour, 1982; Metallica; Tap Into America; Zappa, Frank.
