Tenacious D - The Pick of Destiny
On November 14, 2006, "The Pick of Destiny", the second studio album by American comedy rock duo "Tenacious D", was released.
There's a thin, almost invisible line between musical greatness and utter stupidity, and "Tenacious D" not only walked that line in 2006, they crushed it with an acoustic guitar, a fried schnitzel, and a blazing Marshall amp. Five years after their debut album became a global cult phenomenon and proved that two chubby men from Los Angeles with acoustic guitars could sound heavier than half the metal bands of the era, Jack Black and his partner Kyle Gass decided to take the ridiculous mythology they had built around themselves one step too far, straight to the big screen. The result was the film and soundtrack album "The Pick of Destiny", a work that is at once a sweaty love letter to the history of heavy rock and a relentless parody of every cliché ever written about the genre.
The central idea behind the album and film, which was directed by filmmaker and musician Liam Lynch, is both absurd and brilliant. Black and Gass play extreme, narcissistic, and oblivious versions of themselves, who embark on a holy quest to steal a supernatural guitar pick from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum. According to the legend that has been told from their fevered minds, all the greatest guitar legends in history, from the first bluesmen to Van Halen, owe their talent to that mysterious green pick carved from a broken tooth of the devil himself. To turn this fantasy into a ringing reality, the duo entered the recording studios in Los Angeles with producer John King of the production duo "The Dust Brothers", equipped with electric guitarist John Konesky, bassist John Spiker, and above all the regular guest drummer and rhythmic engine of the project, Dave Grohl of the band "Foo Fighters".
(Photo: JonasPhoto)
The album opens with a theatrical storm that wouldn't put Broadway to shame if Broadway were run by the characters from Rocky Horror Picture Show, with the work "Kickapoo". It's an operatic opening song in which young Black receives a fiery moralizing speech from his conservative and religious father, played in his thunderous and dramatic voice by legendary rock singer Meat Loaf, who is trying to uproot the corrupting rock and roll germ from his son. In a moment of desperation, the boy prays to the poster on the wall in his room, and from the wall appears the spiritual godfather of the metal world, Ronnie James Dio, who gives him a royal blessing in a terrifyingly serious tone and sends him to the City of Angels. The fact that Dio and Meat Loaf agreed to participate in this circus with the utmost seriousness gives the album's opening a special weight that turns the joke into a magnificent hard rock celebration.
One of the great virtues of "The Pick of Destiny" is Black and Gass's absolute refusal to compromise on the musical side. Unlike comedy groups that rely on verbal jokes and neglect melody, the two reveal themselves here as gifted songwriters who know every corner of the catalog of "Led Zeppelin", the band "Black Sabbath" and the progressive heroes of the seventies. In the song "Classico" the two take the Bourrée in E minor by Johann Sebastian Bach, along with motifs by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven, and dress them with a wonderfully vulgar text about their musical superiority, with Black's virtuoso falsetto and Gass's incredibly precise acoustic playing. Immediately following comes "Baby", a short acoustic rock ballad that shatters comedic expectations with its simple melodic beauty, before the album dives back into the humorous gutters with "History", in which the duo claim with deep self-conviction that their historical achievements overshadow the work of the Wright Brothers.
The middle section of the album functions as a sort of psychedelic road trip musical packed with short passages, such as the half-hearted protest song "The Government Totally Sucks," alongside "Master Exploder," a track in which Black claims his voice is so powerful he doesn't need a microphone, and backs up the claim with high-pitched metal screams that could cause your vocal cords to rupture just listening to them. Alongside these stands out "Papagenu (He's My Sassafrass)," a forest-like hallucinatory piece in which Black encounters Bigfoot, voiced by actor John C. Reilly, in a hallucinatory musical session that proves that even when under the influence of imaginary mushrooms, the duo's vocal harmonies sound as tight as a Queen record on a particularly good day.
Although the film itself crashed at the box office upon its release in November 2006, leaving the production company with painful losses, its soundtrack bravely survived thanks to a series of short, polished gems in its second part. The song "The Metal" is undoubtedly one of the album's highlights, with a mechanical, heavy, and infectious riff by Konesky and Gass, over which Black declares with biblical pathos that punk rock, grunge, techno, and new wave have all tried to destroy metal and failed miserably. The humor here hits exactly the soft spot of fans of the genre, who take themselves abysmally seriously, but at the same time provides them with a riff worthy of being pogoed in stadiums.
The album's boiling point and dramatic climax comes on track thirteen, "Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown)", a life-and-death musical duel with the devil, played by Grohl on both the drum kit and in terrifying demonic vocals. For five and a half minutes, the devil and the duo trade blows of heavy thrash riffs, stormy drum passages, and honed dialogue in which the devil demands to take Gass to hell as a sex slave, until Black saves his friend through the power of courageous male friendship and questionable verbal improvisation. The next track is the title song "The Pick of Destiny", in which the two celebrate their victory over the forces of darkness after turning the broken devil's horn into a holy smoking bong. The album closes with "The Metal".
The iconic album cover, which depicts Black and Gass among the clouds in a parody of Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam, with the pick between their hands and the devil's arm reaching for it from below, completes the project's over-the-top artistic vision. Released on Epic Records, the album soared to number eight on the US Billboard 200 and reached platinum status in the UK, transforming the failed film into a timeless cult classic. "The Pick of Destiny" stands the test of time as one of the most successful and witty comedic rock operas of the 21st century, a record that reminds the music world that real rock and roll doesn't always have to wear a long face, and sometimes all it takes to defeat the devil is a good friend, an open, completely shameless chord.
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music
"Face/Off" - Israel's Rock Blog
Comments