Spinal Tap A to Zed

Sun Never Sweats, The (Megaphone, 1975): A ponderous concept album that left Entertainment Weekly stunned. "Tap stumbles big," its reviewer wrote, giving the album a C rating. Included the debut of session drummer Peter "James" Bond and keyboardist Ross MacLochness. "A late-blooming concept album that only a Taphead could love, padded as it is with creaky period pieces (‘Daze of Knights of Old’), too-precious Donovan knock-offs (‘The Princess and the Unicorn,’ ‘The Obelisk’)," and twisted histories such as "Stonehenge." (IST) Derek: "The album was basically just saying that the empire was a good idea, that subjugating foreign peoples—there was nothing wrong with that." The title is a bastardization of old saying that "the sun never sets on the British empire." Derek, who wrote the title track, says he misheard it.