Nigel Tufnel’s Clam Caravan (Plutarch, 1979): Nigel’s hard-to-find solo album, featuring the neo-classical "Lick My Love Pump." The guitarist began work on the album nearly a decade before its release, while the band recouped following their 1975 lawsuit against Megaphone. Rolling Stone describes the work as "a kind of gumbo of African music, Polynesian music and even the obscure sounds of the [Pei-Pei Islands] off Micronesia." (RS2) David describes the album as containing "percussive overkill" because of Nigel’s affection for strange instruments. "He likes to go to these out-of-the-way places and say, ‘What have you got in the way of rock ’n roll?’ They look at him and say, ‘What are you talking about? We play this here.’ Then they play a bit of that, and he turns on the tape recorder and basically steals it. But it’s not copyrighted, so it’s all right." (NYT) Album rated C- by official band biographer. The album title was originally going to be Calm Caravan, but as Nigel explains, there "was an unfortunate printing error, and people have been asking me, ‘Where are the clams?’ And you can search all you want, there are no clams in there. Ten years ago, I would have screamed at someone, ‘You mucked this up!’ Now I really don’t care. It adds to the mystery of rock ’n roll." (CT) Describes period after the album’s release as "maybe the very worst" of his career. "It sold none. I was quite depressed." (MH3) Reportedly working on second solo effort, tentatively titled "Pyramid Blues." (HS) Sample lyrics: "Get me out of the desert/I’m tired of looking at all these wedges." In 1990 he submitted demos of some "very loud acoustic music" to Windham Hill, but the label turned him down. (GW2) See also Lick My Love Pump; Windham Hill.