BBC Radio 4 'Tusk' documentary tomorrow

[elle]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Guardian UK, Miranda Sawyer, May 26, 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-rad...?newsfeed=true

More music and money: on Radio 4, Pete Paphides continued Follow-Up Albums, his short series on difficult follow-up albums, with Fleetwood Mac's Tusk. After the enormous success of Rumours, which sold more than 40m copies, Tusk is known as "Fleetwood's folly": a sprawling double album that "only" clocked up 4m sales. Stevie Nicks was as cool as she always is – I worship that woman – and at the end of the programme Paphides managed to get both her and Mick Fleetwood to say, separately, that they'd be up for making another LP. The day Tusk was released was declared by the mayor of LA to be "Fleetwood Mac Day". That would never happen again. But they might get a bit of spare bunting.

no wonder old-fashioned papers are going down when idiots like this one write recaps...

[elle]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

As a Christine fan, I have to say I loved the bit where Stevie says, "Christine was in charge...She was the only one people would listen to."

I'm assuming she was speaking of the work atmosphere and not so much about the musical direction. The interview makes clear that Lindsey was the master of that. I didn't think he sounded like a pompous ass, either.

i don't know... "if i said it there must have been some wisdom behind it even though i can't remember any of it now"?

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

I also don't know why Stevie and Ken in particular think Lindsey looked strange with his hair cut. He looked 100 times better, in my opinion. Maybe that first homemade haircut was just badly done?

yeah it's funny how they focus and harp on that, isn't it? guess they have/had nothing better to think about ... actually, might be that they didn't like the message he was giving with that haircut - he left them behind or something... since LB makes it clear his hairdos were always a part of the overall direction / message he was going for at the time. and, i completely agree with you - Tusk = off the charts gorgeously hot Lindsey.

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

I disagree with Ken that the album should have had a brighter sound (like Rumours). Tusk's dark strangeness is its appeal.

lol. you don't think Tusk should have been "perky"?

[shackin'up]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

As a Christine fan, I have to say I loved the bit where Stevie says, "Christine was in charge...She was the only one people would listen to."

I'm assuming she was speaking of the work atmosphere and not so much about the musical direction. The interview makes clear that Lindsey was the master of that. I didn't think he sounded like a pompous ass, either.

I also don't know why Stevie and Ken in particular think Lindsey looked strange with his cut. He looked 100 times better, in my opinion. Maybe that first homemade haircut was just badly done?

I disagree with Ken that the album should have had a brighter sound (like Rumours). Tusk's dark strangeness is its appeal.

Exactly, And Chris' and Stevie's songs sound extremely good, and very ahead of time. Tusk sounds more nineties And 00's, than even eighties... Tusks production sounds fabulous...

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by elle

i don't know... "if i said it there must have been some wisdom behind it even though i can't remember any of it now"?

But to me that's common sense, rather than arrogance. No, I don't remember, but I'm sure I didn't do that just to be a jerk. It must have been prompted by some sort of audio necessity. I really don't think that's conceited. I mean, it didn't sound to me like he was saying, "I'm so great there must have been a brilliant reason." I think, especially based on what John Stewart said about him, that that was one of his regular ways of experimenting and tweaking and he knows it is something he might have done at the time, because it has worked for him to good effect before and, knowing himself, he didn't do it to be demanding and annoying, but probably had a reason.

I mean, I doubt he would also say that he must have had a brilliant reason for doing NGBA in the wrong key after Ken took all of that time changing each string repeatedly. If he'd said that, then I'd think he was being pompous.

Michele

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by elle

no wonder old-fashioned papers are going down when idiots like this one write recaps...

And they even got the info partially wrong: According to the interviewer, Tusk was called Buckingham's Folly.

In any case, if a comparison is being made with Seward's purchase of Alaska, then it is logical to assume what was once deemed folly is now seen as a remarkable example of foresight. I imagine Tusk has survived as well as it has because it DID NOT seem like a good idea at the time. Who really talks about The Eagles's The Long Run as an album? Sure a few of the tunes made it onto their Greatest Hits Vol.2, but as a follow up to Hotel California it was everything Buckingham didn't want Tusk to be for Mac.

[StephenC]

Of all the criticism that Tusk has received, it's an album that still divides people and is talked about decades after it's release. To me, that means it was a success on a few levels!

I like the album - especially Stevie's songs. It doesn't let you settle down and let the music flow over you; instead, it demands a careful listen. PERSONALLY, I think if they had dropped a couple of Lindsey's and Christine's songs, I think it would have been a killer single album.

The Radio 4 prog was OK, not much new to learn. Don't you just love the BBC iPlayer (sorry for those not in the UK!)

[Jondalar]

I really like Tusk a lot. I understand why many people consider it Fleetwood Mac's masterpiece. The album as one big mood swing—it doesn't really conform. There are snippets of brilliance everywhere, but to me, songs were left in rudimentary form. It was like lyrics were never perfected, sounds were fragmented. It was like the songwriters were just throwing out songs from different sides of their brains and seeing if anything stuck. Songs like Over and over, Honey Hi, Brown Eyes, the Ledge, Storms, That's all for everyone and Sisters of the Moon are just gems.

[David]

Originally Posted by StephenC

PERSONALLY, I think if they had dropped a couple of Lindsey's and Christine's songs, I think it would have been a killer single album.

Tusk has 18 songs. You're suggesting culling nine of them—all from LB & CN—to make a single album? While you're at it, why not replace Peter Beard's photography with that of Herbert Worthington? And all that nasty distortion, iridescent wobble, and fuzz-box gain on the guitar in the production—replace that with the radio-friendly sheen of late-70s Peter Asher or Barry Gibb.

Kiss Tusk bye-bye, kiddies.

[TrueFaith77]

^^Tusk has 20 songs.

[michelej1]

SYW has 18 songs.

David, do you confuse Tusk and SYW in your head?

Michele

[On Ice]

Thirty two years and seven months after buying Tusk, I still wouldn't change a thing about it. It was never meant to be a single album and the transcending moments in the band's history were too brilliant not to capture in music. Not a bad song on the album and contains some of the best vocals we've ever heard from the band. White and Rumours have their place in the band's history and Tusk does as well.

[CADreaming]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

I also don't know why Stevie and Ken in particular think Lindsey looked strange with his hair cut. He looked 100 times better, in my opinion. Maybe that first homemade haircut was just badly done?

I think it goes deeper than a personal preference between long or short hair. It was also symbolic of the changing of their relationship. When Stevie said it was like her little boy cut his hair, it explained a lot about the lingering emotions. Lindsey was defying her "moving away from him" and he acted out in ways that hurt her too. To us it's no big deal, but to her it must have been a visual reminder everyday of their rift and how he was becoming more and more someone she didn't know. That's a weird feeling when you've been so close.

[David]

Originally Posted by michelej1

SYW has 18 songs.

David, do you confuse Tusk and SYW in your head?

Michele

There is liquefaction of my memory, and all these albums have run together and then sunk into some synaptic mire.

[StephenC]

Originally Posted by David

Tusk has 18 songs. You're suggesting culling nine of them—all from LB & CN—to make a single album? While you're at it, why not replace Peter Beard's photography with that of Herbert Worthington? And all that nasty distortion, iridescent wobble, and fuzz-box gain on the guitar in the production—replace that with the radio-friendly sheen of late-70s Peter Asher or Barry Gibb.

Kiss Tusk bye-bye, kiddies.

It was just my view and I understand if you dont agree! If you read my posting, I said it was an album that divided people... as it is right now.

And I wouldn't change anything about the design or production. Dont put words in my mouth.

[elle]

http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showpo...&postcount=971 (thanks vivfox!)

Sometimes, the creative force behind a million-selling record doesn't just want to reinvent the style that earned a fortune – they want to tear it down.

In 1979, Fleetwood Mac were perhaps the biggest band in the world, having shifted more than 10 million copies of Rumours. The next album, their 12th, was Tusk, a wildly oscillating double LP that sounded like the work of separate solo artists, was packaged in what was surely a deliberately awful sleeve, and contained no obvious singles. To this day, non-aficionados only know Sara – it and the title track were modest hits at the time.

While the sound of Rumours was pristine and built for radio, Tusk was all over the show. Rumours had famously, fearlessly catalogued the bitter end of Lindsey Buckingham's relationship with Stevie Nicks, and Christine McVie's with John McVie, as well as several awkward dalliances that followed. On Tusk, Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks sounded all talked out, happy to submit tender, regretful fragments like Honey Hi and Beautiful Child. But they're punctuated by the songs of Lindsey Buckingham, which are best described as furious polkas, and dominate the record.

"Lindsey was a volatile, domineering personality and the rest just went with it," says Paphides. "People were worried about him. He turned up at the studio on day three and had cut all his hair off, standing in front of the mirror with a pair of scissors."

But while Buckingham stuffed his songs with multi-directional rage, and with the influence of punk and new wave, he had also become a skilled producer who could bring out the best in his bandmates' radically different compositions – even those of his ex, Stevie Nicks.

"There's still a lot of love between Stevie and Lindsey and she's happy for him that Tusk has become feted as a classic," says Paphides. "He never tried to inflict his scratchy, lo-fi, I'm-going-crazy production on her. The Stevie songs have lovely, luxuriant waves of elegant melancholy enveloping you. He knows exactly what she wants to achieve. It's the same with Christine McVie: Over and Over sounds just beautiful. As long as Lindsey could have his own way with his songs he'd do a good job for you."

Paphides spent four months tracking down Buckingham and scoring an interview, "Now Lindsey's very LA, very Zen, very 'I've been to therapy'. He's also very aware and proud of Tusk's reputation."

But in '79? "He was angry. If you have a Lindsey Buckingham character, there's a part of you that wants to destroy all you're best known for.

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-...welfth)-albums
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