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4Buck 03-13-2004 06:57 PM

Rolling Stone Reissue Review
 
From Rolling Stone Issue 945 April 1, 2004

Big Macs

Lindsey Buckingham’s three great albums – “FLEETWOOD MAC,” “RUMOURS” and “TUSK” – get a deluxe reissue. By Bud Scoppa

FLEETWOOD MAC/ Reprise/Warner Bros.



The one-time British blues band Fleetwood Mac had burned through five guitar players when the three remaining members took a chance on the barely known Californian Lindsey Buckingham and his singer-girlfriend Stevie Nicks. But an instant reaction occurred when Buckingham and Nicks first played with their new mates in an L.A garage. Buckingham, who’d never led a band, decisively took charge, leading Fleetwood Mac’s transformation from journeyman combo to rock royalty.

Buckingham blended Nicks’ nasal alto and ethereal songs and his own fold-rock guitar style with what was at hand – Christine McVie's elegant balladry and propulsive keyboards, her hubby John’s inventively melodic bass playing and Mick Fleetwood’s loping drum grooves. Making extensive use of celestial harmonies and foregrounding the rhythm section, Buckingham defined the Mac sound on 1975’s FLEETWOOD MAC, paced by Christine’s "Say You Love Me” and Nicks’ trippy “Rhiannon.” On the subsequent RUMOURS (1977), they transformed that sound into a song cycle inspired by the split-ups of the band’s two couples. Every song hit home, from smashes such as “Don’t Stop” to the angst anthem “The Chain.” Rather than picking up the pieces, as his ex had hopefully mused on RUMOURS’ “Gold Dust Woman,” Buckingham scattered them like confetti on 1979’s TUSK, his perversely brilliant million-dollar flip-off. At once the encapsulation and deconstruction of the California soft-rock ethos, TUSK revels in its bipolarity, as Buckingham’s ragged throwaways piss on what might’ve been the proper follow-up to RUMOURS.

Few albums recorded since then blast out of the speakers with such shimmering authority. And while only hard-cored Buckingham-philes will want to comb through the two discs’ worth of demos and outtakes that accompany RUMOURS and TUSK, they provide a fascinating glimpse into the wheelhouse of one of rock's most undervalued visionaries.

FLEETWOOD Mac ****l/2

RUMOURS *****

TUSK ****

shackin'up 03-13-2004 08:24 PM

holy sh*t.

Jason T. 03-13-2004 09:15 PM

Good Lord! I love this review. Surely the best one yet and provides for just more excitement about the Rumours and Tusk reissues. I can't wait!


Hawkeye 03-13-2004 10:12 PM

how was that the best review yet. It was quite possibly one of the worst yet. All it did was basically say ummm NOTHING. It was nice that reviewer raved over the albums, but the review freaking sucked. The best review was the one where they actually talked about the the reissues.

estranged4life 03-13-2004 10:16 PM

I agree...
 
Quote:

Originally posted by Hawkeye
how was that the best review yet. It was quite possibly one of the worst yet. All it did was basically say ummm NOTHING. It was nice that reviewer raved over the albums, but the review freaking sucked. The best review was the one where they actually talked about the the reissues.
This supposed review didnt talk about the tracks at all...But at least a mention in Rolling Stone is something considering how gawd awful that suck-ass magazine has become the past few years.

blinker12 03-14-2004 12:26 AM

Hello? *Lindsey Buckingham's* three great albums? Funny, I thought there were four other people in the BAND that recorded these albums.

DownOnRodeo 03-14-2004 01:36 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by blinker12
Hello? *Lindsey Buckingham's* three great albums? Funny, I thought there were four other people in the BAND that recorded these albums.
Get out! :laugh: Tell me more about this 'band' you speak of. :D

Maybe the reviewer was getting caught up in appreciating the remasters in terms of how the albums were produced, which wasn't exclusively Lindsey of course, but I think is something he deserves credit for if its given. And not that much is given.

For decades, reviewers' terms of reference seem to have been largely based around Stevie's input into the albums, or the band as a single entity, so now that Lindsey is getting more and more kudos for his role in the albums I think its a great thing. It may not seem even or fair in isolation, but taking into account the past thirty odd years, critical evaluations of the band are starting to resemble something more even and fair.

macfan 57 03-14-2004 06:45 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by blinker12
Hello? *Lindsey Buckingham's* three great albums? Funny, I thought there were four other people in the BAND that recorded these albums.
I agree. In my opinion, all five members of FLEETWOOD MAC deserve equal credit for these 3 great albums. I like the grades the reviewer gave these albums, but he got a bit carried away with the rest of the review. It's Fleetwood Mac NOT Lindsey Buckingham, or any other individual member for that matter.

shackin'up 03-14-2004 08:09 AM

Re: Rolling Stone Reissue Review
 
Quote:

Originally posted by 4Buck
[B]From Rolling Stone Issue 945 April 1, 2004

...they provide a fascinating glimpse into the wheelhouse of one of rock's most undervalued visionaries.



It's true that the whole band desreves credit for these albums. I justb think it's great that someone with a vision, gets credit for the vision, even in retrospect. And the mac didn't learn from it as a band: they did not accept the vision of a double-album for SYW. Give them credit for giving LB a position he deserves, although it sounds over the top, to call these albums "his" albums, he was hired as a guitarist and "musical art-director" of this band and he succeeded monstruously. So that he gets credit for that on these reissues is great: McVie had all the singles and made the band a brand. Nicks gave the band the "bigger-than-life image" and a (almost) human face. The rythm-section brought in the history and backbone of the band: musically AND concerning the Story....


and now.... the man with that vision: sometimes brilliant, sometimes destructive, sometimes selfish, sometimes idiotic, sometimes empathic....but always challenging and consequent in his vision gets the credit in RS, although that frickin' Mag is not such a icon anymore, I'm very glad with it..........


gerald

face of glass 03-14-2004 09:14 AM

Re: Re: Rolling Stone Reissue Review
 
I second everything Gerald said. And I don't have a problem if the reviewer fails to describe the contents of the bonus discs. He's writing from the viewpoint of an analyzer; someone who's describing the albums to those who haven't heard them (ok, two of them) yet; and I believe there's many out there who haven't. Does anyone here think that people who are not hardcore fans are even willing to hear all the differences between the alternate versions?

Seems like we're getting back to the good old Rolling Stone Buckingham Appreciation Society times. Or maybe this means that he has more teen appeal these days. :eek:

Gazza 03-14-2004 11:09 AM

Yay... Lindsey Buckingham's Fleetwood Mac :D

Undervalued visionary indeed.

dissention 03-14-2004 11:15 AM

Re: Re: Rolling Stone Reissue Review
 
Quote:

Originally posted by shackin'up
It's true that the whole band desreves credit for these albums. I justb think it's great that someone with a vision, gets credit for the vision, even in retrospect. And the mac didn't learn from it as a band: they did not accept the vision of a double-album for SYW. Give them credit for giving LB a position he deserves, although it sounds over the top, to call these albums "his" albums, he was hired as a guitarist and "musical art-director" of this band and he succeeded monstruously. So that he gets credit for that on these reissues is great: McVie had all the singles and made the band a brand. Nicks gave the band the "bigger-than-life image" and a (almost) human face. The rythm-section brought in the history and backbone of the band: musically AND concerning the Story....

I always thought that Lindsey and Chris gave the band a human face, not Stevie. Those two were grounded while Stevie was the ethereal, witchy poet, aloof and distant, but heartfelt and sincere. I think that Linds and Chris (especially Chris) were the ones who showed the public that the band was human.

And I agree that "Rumours" and the white album should be credited to the band as a whole, but "Tusk"? Hell no. That was Lindsey's album. :nod:

CarneVaca 03-14-2004 11:16 AM

What a stupid-ass review. It doesn't say anything about the quality of the reissues or the extra songs. Rolling Stone is a joke.

Besides, how much safer could they have played it? Four stars for Tusk, five for Rumours and four and a half for the white album. Boy, that took a lot of courage!

Bunch o buffoons.

CarneVaca 03-14-2004 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by macfan 57
I agree. In my opinion, all five members of FLEETWOOD MAC deserve equal credit for these 3 great albums. I like the grades the reviewer gave these albums, but he got a bit carried away with the rest of the review. It's Fleetwood Mac NOT Lindsey Buckingham, or any other individual member for that matter.
If the guy had said the albums were great because of Stevie's voice and her dreamy poetry, you'd be nodding so fast and furiously in agreement that you'd make yourselves dizzy.

This guy calls it what it is. Though he did a poor job of actually addressing the reissues, he had it right on Lindsey's influence.

wondergirl9847 03-14-2004 12:29 PM

I think...
 
Quote:

Originally posted by dissention
I always thought that Lindsey and Chris gave the band a human face, not Stevie.
I think Gerald meant that when you think of the band, who pops into most peoples' minds? Stevie Nicks. Is that right, Gerald? I'm not trying to put words in your mouth, but I read his post that way. :shrug:

I agree, it's not really a review, it's just an informative (not really tho LOL) ad.

I WANNA HEAR ABOUT THE DEALER!!!! (If it's on there!)


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