David Kaff, who played keyboardist Viv Savage in Rob Reiner’s 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, has died. His band Mutual of Alameda’s Wild Kingdom shared the news to Facebook yesterday (July 13), writing “David always had a kind word and a quick wit that would slay you where you stand. Then he’d make you smile doing it!” A cause of death was not given, though the statement mentions that Kaff “passed away peacefully in his sleep.” He was 79.
Born David Kaffinetti in 1946, Kaff got his start as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock band Rare Bird. The group was among the first to sign to Charisma Records, later the label home of Genesis and Peter Gabriel, and put out five studio albums between 1969 and 1974. Rare Bird’s sole U.K. chart hit, 1970’s “Sympathy,” features a prominent organ line courtesy of Kaff. In 1972, Kaff also went into the studio with Chuck Berry for The London Chuck Berry Sessions, which yielded the No. 1 single “My Ding-a-Ling.”
In Spinal Tap, Kaff portrays the frizzy-haired keyboard player in fictional metal band Spinal Tap. Despite a smaller role relative to lead actors Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer, Kaff’s Viv Savage left his mark thanks to a combination of physical comedy (especially during the film’s staged concert footage) and quotable one-liners. At one point, asked by McKean’s David St. Hubbins if he’s able to play Nigel Tufnel’s (Guest) bass line on “Big Bottom,” Savage quips back, “I’ve got two hands, yeah I can do it.”
Kaff played on This Is Spinal Tap’s accompanying soundtrack and, in May 1984, performed in character alongside his co-stars on Saturday Night Live. He left the group by the end of the year and did not return for the recording of their subsequent studio albums—1992’s Break Like the Wind and 2009’s Back from the Dead—but continued to play music with Oakland’s Model Citizenz and, most recently, psych-rock outfit Mutual of Alameda’s Wild Kingdom.
Nonetheless, Kaff maintained his fondness for Viv Savage over the years, telling BAM in 2011, “I played him very close to my heart…just a little bit dimmer. If people like that character, chances are they’ll like me.” Kaff won’t appear in Reiner’s forthcoming Spinal Tap sequel, but forever holds the distinction of delivering the original film’s final line: “Have a good time all the time—that’s my philosophy, Marty.”
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