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Fleetwood Mac's Tusk
by Rob Trucks

Tusk, the first record in history to cross the million dollar threshold in production costs, was the Fleetwood Ma's critically acclaimed, commercially disappointing 1979 double album. This book is an in-depth and "official" look at one of the most unusual albums ever released by a major rock band.

Imprint: Continuum
Series: 33 1/3
Pub. date: 11 Sep 2011
ISBN: 9780826429025
144 Pages, paperback

World rights
Translation Rights Available

$12.95

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After Rumours became the best-selling single album of all-time, Fleetwood Mac asked Warner Brothers Records to buy them a studio (the label refused, costing both Warner Brothers and the band significant cash in the long run) and then handed the reins to their guitarist and resident perfectionist Lindsey Buckingham, a fusion of factors that led Tusk to become the first record in history to cross the million dollar threshold in production costs.

Blame (or credit) Buckingham’s public perception as a punctilious performer and producer on this, the Mac’s critically acclaimed, commercially disappointing 1979 double album (it’s said that Warner Brothers executives could see their Christmas bonuses flying out the window upon finally hearing Tusk’s first rough cuts). But the 1975 addition of Buckingham and Stevie Nicks undeniably transformed Fleetwood Mac from a barely viable blues-based group into a radio powerhouse. Rumours, the second LP by the Mac reconfiguration of Buckingham, one-time paramour Nicks, drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John McVie and his wife and keyboardist Christine, sold more than 20 million copies. But during its creation, relationships within the band broke down — Buckingham split from Nicks, McVie from McVie — leaving the follow-up Tusk as a bizarre and fractious assemblage held together only by Buckingham’s much-documented, Brian Wilson–like obsession.

What remains is Fleetwood Mac’s Apocalypse Now, their White Album, the epic beginning of their ongoing end, a shotgun blast of musical spray. And, without question, the ballsiest venture in rock history.

“You know,” Buckingham told me when we met last October, “we had this ridiculous success with Rumours. And at some point, at least in my perception, the success of that detached from the music, and it was more about the phenomenon.

“We were poised to do another album, and I guess because the axiom ‘If it works, run it into the ground’ was prevalent then, we were probably poised to do Rumours II. I don’t know how you do that, but somehow my light bulb that went off was, ‘Let’s just not do that. Let’s very pointedly not do that.’ ”

This, then, was Buckingham’s crossroads: to follow his heart (a.k.a. the sounds in his head) or his wallet, knowing that he would bring rock’s most commercially viable act along with him. His decision to take the road less traveled, a path he still walks, is the most telling moment in his long career.

“Tusk,” he says, “is the most important thing, on some level, that I ever was involved with — for the music, but also because it was a line I drew in the sand.”

Author(s)
Rob Trucks,

Rob Trucks is a freelance music and sports writer based in NYC. He has published four books on baseball, and one collection of interviews with American fiction writers.

http://www.continuumbooks.com/books/...ubject2Id=1396