Why Tusk is the "Perfect" Album [Archive]

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GreenMagic

08-04-2012, 09:56 PM

On a more positive note, I would like to share why I think Tusk is a timeless, best album by the Mac. And most importantly, why it is superior to Rumours.

As I've already stated ad nauseam, my musical background was more in singer-songwriters like Mr. Dylan, Industrial like Ministry, and NIN, Brian Eno Talking Heads stuff, REM, etc. It wasnt till getting into albums like Pet Sounds, Forever Changes, Revolver, #1 Record/Radio City, Notorious Byrd Brothers that I started appreciating the Buckingham-Nicks lineup's first couple of albums.

Anyway getting back to my original point, Tusk was the first gateway drug into me liking BuckingHam Nicks. I used to think they were just corporate rock. Then a friend recommended Tusk to me and I thought he was out of his mind. With the first Christine song it sounded par the usual course, although I did like it.

But hearing the Ledge, I was like WTH? But in a good way. This was something completely different to what I ever heard from them. I understood Tusk turned off a huge amount of white album/ Rumour fans wanting more of the same.

But it appealed to me because it wasnt like that. Plus it helped that I listened to a ton of new wave stuff. So the musical direction did not bother me. Anyway here's my reasons -

1. Songs from the album with the exception of Sara or Think About Me hasnt been beaten to death by mainstream or classic rock radio. Every single song off Rumours has.

2. The songs have a quality about them where like Sara even if you heard the thing 20 times, it is not a bother. Whereas Rumours you cringe everytime Dont Stop comes on. They just dont hold up to repeated listening like Tusk.

3. The album have more of a jagged live edge. The production makes the songs sound timeless. Whereas Rumours places them in a certain period of time.

4. Christine, Lindsey and Stevie has their best work songwriting-wise on the album. Especially Christine who honestly I did dismiss at first. But on this album her songs have some teeth to them. As does Stevie's. Sister of The Moon beats Gold Dust Woman for me any day of the week. Lindsey's is just sheer genius. His non-specific surreal, subject matter adds to over-all quality of songs.

5. There's so many songs. You can listen to this album forever and not get tired of it based on that fact alone. You learn new layers about the songs each time hearing them. Especially those who have the DVD audio, I envy you intensely.

6. The music was groundbreaking. They were doing some new stuff arrangement-wise that even some new wave bands weren't doing at the time.

7. It proves to doubters/hipsters that FM did have artistic value to them. And were wrongfully labeled as corporate rock.

That is all I can think of at the moment. For the record I do like the White Album and Rumours. Just burnt out hearing most of the songs from them. But to be fair I'm also burnt out from hearing The Beatles and AC/DC as well. Those are bands I love.

MikeInNV

08-04-2012, 10:37 PM

Think About Me has been beaten to death by radio? I wish I listened to the same stations you do. :wavey:

michelej1

08-04-2012, 10:45 PM

Think About Me has been beaten to death by radio? I wish I listened to the same stations you do. :wavey:

I know. I think I've heard that song once on the radio in the last decade. Actually, I remember I was in Michigan visting and I'd gone to the movie with my mother and she went to the restroom and that song came on over the speaker and when she came out and was ready to leave, I wouldn't leave until it ended. She was miffed and said, "You can't even hear it over the crowd. Let's go!"

Michele

GreenMagic

08-04-2012, 11:12 PM

Dont get me wrong, I love Think About me. I could listen to that 20 times over hearing You Make Loving Fun (even though it is a good song)

I think it depends on the state/area you are in. I used to hear Think on classic rock stations here in Texas all the time. I've also heard it in grocery stores on regular rotation.

Luckily it's one of those tunes you hear a million times and never get tired of.

elle

08-05-2012, 12:30 AM

2. The songs have a quality about them where like Sara even if you heard the thing 20 times, it is not a bother. Whereas Rumours you cringe everytime Dont Stop comes on. They just dont hold up to repeated listening like Tusk.

i don't know, i never could stand Sara. maybe b/c lyrics are usually not what i focus on in a song, and Sara just goes on and on - and on - with not much melody to it :shrug:. on the other hand, unlike what the popular opinion seems to be, when Don't Stop comes on the radio, to me it still has so many enjoyable parts in it.

but back to the Tusk -

other than Sara, i love SN's songs on it. SOTM, Angel, BC, Storms - love them all!:)
other than TAFE and SMAP, i adore LB's songs on it. Ledge, WMYTYTO, NTF, IKINW, Tusk, That's Enough For Me... and did i mention Walk A Thin Line? :xoxo: adore them!
other than Think About Me (which i've never heard before buying the CD), i just cannot get through CM's songs on it :sorry:. maybe they are musically great, i don't know... but they are just. so. slow.

question back at you:

seems so many people who say they love Tusk at the same time severely dislike SYW. to me, these two albums have a lot of similarities, and i could never understand how the same person can love Tusk and hate SYW. what are your thoughts on this?

Ulpian

08-05-2012, 05:34 AM

I never really thought I'd get to like Tusk. Too many of Lindsey's songs seemed (and some still seem) bizarre and impenetrable to me. But, with age, I am really starting to appreciate them, and I think that 'What Makes You Think You're The One' now ranks in my top five Lindsey songs.

Christine, for me, still shines brightest on Tango In The Night; that will always be her album (and Lindsey's). I don't love any of her Tusk songs, though I am happy to listen to them.

On Ice

08-05-2012, 09:08 AM

I couldn't agree more with Green Magic's observations, Tusk is Fleetwood Mac's best album and it's greatness is most noticeable when you listen to it from start to finish. Songwriting wise it doesn't get much better for Nicks and she has not reached this level of brilliance since, all of her 5 tracks are stellar. McVie's Over and Over is by far her best composition and Brown Eyes is also sheer brilliance. Buckingham proves you can pack a lot of punch into a 2 minute track with the Ledge and That's Enough for Me. I can't understand why the band wants to focus so much on Rumours when it could delve into the delicious material here, which always translated well to the stage. To me, today's tours should only have max 3 Rumours tracks and at least half of Tusk ought to be in the set list.

mikephxaz

08-05-2012, 09:52 AM

i
seems so many people who say they love Tusk at the same time severely dislike SYW. to me, these two albums have a lot of similarities, and i could never understand how the same person can love Tusk and hate SYW. what are your thoughts on this?

great question! the similarities are there and I like SYW and I LOVE Tusk..both cds are experimental...the two major differences are the absence of Christine...her tempo, her lightness is missed on SYW, secondly (and more importantly) Lindesy's over production was in full swing on SYW...what started with the songs on Tango In The Night with his "family man" obscure, over production continued on with Say You Will where Tusk represents the BEST of Lindsey's funky, honest, earthy approach to music...(which was brilliant for Stevie's songs on Tusk) I wish he could get back to that place.

wetcamelfood

08-05-2012, 10:13 AM

Villavic

08-05-2012, 12:03 PM

1. Songs from the album with the exception of Sara or Think About Me hasnt been beaten to death by mainstream or classic rock radio. Every single song off Rumours has.

So you blame it on the (Rumours)album?? Then the perfect album would be Harry Minfo's White Album. I mean there are lot of albums that were kind of spoiled because the oversaturation at medias, but we shouldn't blame it on the actual work, the actual album. Same happens with movies.

5. There's so many songs. You can listen to this album forever and not get tired of it based on that fact alone. You learn new layers about the songs each time hearing them. Especially those who have the DVD audio, I envy you intensely.

Is there a Tusk DVD audio?? WHERE!!!?

michelej1

08-05-2012, 01:32 PM

It's amazing to me that WB didn't step in to say "we want (this) to be the fisrt single" as I doubt Tusk would've been their first choice.

That's a good point. I'm surprised they didn't put their foot down. It might have misled the public, but no more so than the existence of Rumours did in the first place. Even with Tusk as the single, I think most people still approached Tusk thinking it would sound more like the first two.

I think Sara did generate album sales though. So, I think that was a good single. Think About Me first would have been best (for sales) and they must have learned their lesson because they put Christine's single first when SYW was released:laugh:.

Michele

starshine

08-05-2012, 02:16 PM

I like Tusk probably better than Rumours probably because it hasn't been played to death like all the songs off Rumours have been through all these yrs now. I mean sure I do like some outtakes maybe a little bit more than the released version (like the longer version of Sara/outtake of Angel/ the longer version of Tusk from the box set that you actually hear the marching band on it) I love Christine's songs too esp Brown Eye's on of my favorites (though I don't like the version on the box set on this one ugh). I probably only don't like the LP cover photo with the dog. They had so many great pictures (outtakes taken) I just don't understand WHY they didn't use them. Heck they could've put them in the tourbook. (Just like Stevie could've given us more outtake picture in her toubook's) so sad but anyway. Sorry I get off the subject a little bit. I love Tusk much more its awesome they should play songs (more songs) from this LP for sure. :shrug::D

BombaySapphire3

08-05-2012, 07:29 PM

Yeah I wouldn't say beat to death. I'm still surpirsed that when it was out it was played a little but not much then was more surprised to find out it only made it to number 20. I know they wanted the title track to be the 1st single to show people "this new album is different" but I bet that if TAM was released as a first single then it would've made number one (since that's the sound the public liked/wanted). I guess it would've been misleading to protray a different image to the public of the album but I'm sure WB wouldn't have lost any sleep over it since they'd be getting those Christmas bonuses after all. :) It's amazing to me that WB didn't step in to say "we want (this) to be the fisrt single" as I doubt Tusk would've been their first choice. Also, let's face it, not EVERY song on an album is a hit anyway ("hit" meaning single release, sales number of those singles etc.) so what's the differece? There's bound to have been albums released by many throughout the years that pushed the commercial sounding songs as the singles then people would get the album home to find the rest of the album is different and so on. Just some thoughs anywyay. :)

John

Having been around ,already 17 and a huge fan at the time of the release of Tusk.I don't see TAM making it to number one as the first single.TAM followed Tusk and Sara both of which did make the top ten .Although a great song TAM is way more raw than any other of Chris's top 20 FM hits.It even has a bit of a punk feel to it IMHO.Consider the case of the far more sleek and polished Little Lies which also followed a Lindsey single and then Seven Wonders which only made it to numer 19.Little Lies sailed up the charts to number 4 becomng the album's biggest US. hit and tied Hold Me for the third highest charting FM single.

David

08-05-2012, 08:15 PM

That's a good point. I'm surprised they didn't put their foot down.Imagine the studio's having put its foot down about anything in 1979 to Fleetwood Mac. Warner Brothers was in Mac's back pocket. The band could have done anything it wanted to.

Even with Tusk as the single, I think most people still approached Tusk thinking it would sound more like the first two.People loved Tusk, so I think you're right. It was the perfect first single by a long shot. It was playful, inventive, energetic, wild, creepy, cinematic, inspired on every level. The Rolling Stone critics voted it the best single of 1979. Other critics loved it; the public loved it; and the USC audience at the Coliseum loved it. It was a newsmaking single: jungle chants and a renowned college marching band. There wasn't a single misfire with Tusk. It was a fabled moment for Fleetwood Mac and for USC, and its triumph has lived to this very day: Go to a Trojan football game at the Coliseum and hear the marching band get the SC fans pumped up at halftime with it. There's nothing else like it in rock history since the Beatles.

But you're right because the really weird weirdness with the album—not the peppy, cool weirdness of Tusk that everyone loved—hit people when they played the rest of the tracks. All those scratching and screeching sounds in the production—of guitars tuned down and played like bass guitars, of sound fields awash in oversaturated gain and distortion, etc.—confused and turned off DJs and a lot of the public that bought Tusk (the single and the album). The martial horns riffing out the title song had the world tapping its feet and clapping along, but the dry-humping & pig-grunting of Not That Funny made people truly sorry not only that they had bought the album but also that a band that previously wrote such great hooks had lost it.

moon

08-05-2012, 08:30 PM

Well, in my opinion, Tusk is an interesting album.
After lot of times I heard the entire albums from the Rumours era, I can say that Mirage is my favourite, but Tusk has special things that makes me like it more than others.
We don't have 10 songs here. We have 20!!

- About Lindsey songs, I love What Makes You Think You're The One, and obviously Tusk. And I like Save me a place, That's all for everyone, Not That Funny and Walk a thin line.
Ledge and That's enough for me, are, for me, just the same thing. And I don't like them.
- About Christine songs, Over & Over, Think about me and Brown Eyes are simply the best. But I love the live version of Over & Over more that this.
Don't know the rest very much... :sorry:
- About Stevie songs, Sisters Of The Moon is amazing, and I make special mention to Angel, sweet and good song.
And I don't like Storms and Beautiful Child. They're so slow, so long... :sorry:

I do not know what would have happened if Silver Springs was included from the beginning in Rumors. Maybe it could be complete, and could be definitely the best album. Maybe...
Regards!!

MikeInNV

08-05-2012, 08:46 PM

Having been around ,already 17 and a huge fan at the time of the release of Tusk.I don't see TAM making it to number one as the first single.TAM followed Tusk and Sara both of which did make the top ten .Although a great song TAM is way more raw than any other of Chris's top 20 FM hits.It even has a bit of a punk feel to it IMHO.Consider the case of the far more sleek and polished Little Lies which also followed a Lindsey single and then Seven Wonders which only made it to numer 19.Little Lies sailed up the charts to number 4 becomng the album's biggest US. hit and tied Hold Me for the third highest charting FM single.

Yes, TAM is raw compared to LL, but the musical landscape changed a lot between 1980 and 1987. I think the sound of TAM was well-suited to the era in which it was released, just as LL was.

(Also, LL did not follow a Lindsey single. Seven Wonders was in between them.)

MacShadowsBall

08-05-2012, 09:18 PM

...I don't care for Tusk. :eek:

I adore all of Stevie' songs especially Sisters of the Moon and Angel. As far as a unit of songs, Stevie's Tusk songs are her "best" (subject to opinion, of course!)

Christine, who I normally love equally to Stevie, on this album her songs are just kinda there, too slow and dreary, except for Think About Me. I kinda like that song but can go without it.

Lindsey's songs on FM albums are always my least favorite. The only song of his on Tusk I kinda like is Save Me a Place. The others...oh geez!

In short, while I kinda understand fans being tired of Rumours, I don't really understand how Tusk is so well-respected. I've only been in fandom for three years, so perhaps it comes with age. :cool:

BombaySapphire3

08-05-2012, 09:29 PM

(Also, LL did not follow a Lindsey single. Seven Wonders was in between them.)

Correct..that is why in my post I stated that Little Lies followed a Lindsey single and then Seven Wonders.:nod:I was drawing a parallel between LL and TAM both followed a Lindsey and Stevie single.

BombaySapphire3

08-05-2012, 10:34 PM

In short, while I kinda understand fans being tired of Rumours, I don't really understand how Tusk is so well-respected. I've only been in fandom for three years, so perhaps it comes with age. :cool:

I guess with Tusk for those of us who love it no explanation is neccesary.For those who don't no explanation is possible.:shrug:

GreenMagic

08-05-2012, 11:21 PM

@Elle-

To each their own. I just never got into Dont Stop even before it became roadkill so to speak. The arrangement never worked for me. I always felt that was one of Christine's weakest songs.

Sara is a very divisive song. Other peeps I know who like the Mac either love it or hate it. I'll never forget Robert Christgau the music critic saying how he disliked Sara. But then again, his taste in music is very, very questionable. He thinks everything has to have a "Bob Dylan" lyrical deepness.

He looks more at the lyrics than the musical arrangement. For me the lyrics can be garbage as long as the arrangement salvages the song. Remember how lyrically early Beatles records were juvenile? It wasn't their lyrics in the beginning that made them special. It was the fact they were using Everly Brothers -inspired harmonies with folk chords backed by a rock beat.

Nobody at that time was really doing that. Just an example.

Anyway.

@MacShadows -

I can respect that. I think the reason Tusk alienates a lot of White Album Rumours fans is they tend to be more into classic rock like Eagles, Boston, or Skynerd.

BTW that isn't a diss just so there is no misunderstanding. Whereas if you're someone who listens to stuff like Roxy Music, Germany era of Bowie, Kraftwerk, Wire or Public Image Limited the Lindsey stuff can be appreciated more.

That is why you get so many up and coming indie bands listing Tusk as an influence as opposed to Rumours. Cause it dabbled more into new wave and some post punk areas.

I can admire the craftsmanship of the first two buckingham-nicks lineup albums. Even if I feel they pale next to Big Star or The Raspberries in terms of being Power-Pop Classics.

Again no diss intended, but I think to really appreciate Tusk, you have to really like out-there artsy kinds of music. Otherwise it can be rough going. May I suggest popping in the first two Roxy Music albums back to back then put in Tusk if you listen to music while working. It will help you understand Tusk more in that respect.

Danigirl

08-06-2012, 10:48 PM

What I love about Tusk, was how it enabled the band to transition from potentially becoming a commercial band, that needed to conform to the industries needs for more "hit albums." I know it's been said before, in numerous interviews, but I most amazed at the quality and versatility given the tremendous pressure to produce another Rumours. I think Angel is the most played song on my iPod. Storms and Beautiful Child are effortless, Sisters of the Moon is Gold Dust Woman on steroids! Stevie did an amazing job at demonstrating her impeccable versatility on this album. When I saw the Mirage tour footage, with Lindsey's performance of "Not That Funny" I felt like I finally connected to Lindsey as a musician, I felt like I was really seeing him. And I LOVED it. Save Me a Place sounds like it could have been produced in any decade since then. It's timeless! I gotta say that in comparison to Rumours; whose drama was and is still widely talked about, so much is not discussed about Tusk. And there was an enormous amount of tension and life changing situations taking place. Tusk evokes the emotions of the artists in a way that was not as literal As it was in Rumours. I have to say Rumours reeled me in, but Tusk got me
hooked!

mikephxaz

08-06-2012, 11:02 PM

elle

08-07-2012, 09:56 AM

Lindesy's over production was in full swing on SYW...what started with the songs on Tango In The Night with his "family man" obscure, over production continued on with Say You Will where Tusk represents the BEST of Lindsey's funky, honest, earthy approach to music...(which was brilliant for Stevie's songs on Tusk) I wish he could get back to that place.
thanks for responding to my query. you might be right... i think you might be also referring to possible production unevenness from song to song - b/c i don't find most of LB's songs on SYW to be overproduced (except Say Goodbye, but other than the great guitar parts that one is even worse schmaltz imo as a slowed down live version). i can't say too much about SN's SYW songs b/c i so dislike most of them that i hardly listen to them (while i love her Tusk songs)... however i hear many SN fans having gripes with arrangements and production on them, usually listing Smile At You as an example (i can see why - i think the original angry version is rocking but don't care at all for the version on SYW - whether it's LB's production fault or somebody else's decision to go with different version).

re LB getting back to more raw production - did you hear Seeds We Sow? many people say that album is underproduced (although he did do that artificially-making-voice-higher on it too).

The martial horns riffing out the title song had the world tapping its feet and clapping along, but the dry-humping & pig-grunting of Not That Funny made people truly sorry not only that they had bought the album but also that a band that previously wrote such great hooks had lost it.

:laugh::laugh: i don't know, seems most people hate NTF on Tusk (but love the pot-smoking-orgasm-faking-high-pitch-screaming 10 min Mirage tour version :lol:). when i listen to NTF on Tusk, to me it's the pinnacle of what LB was doing there - not just punk/new wave, but i hear on his Tusk songs a lot of what became popular as world music - in singing, in accompanying instruments and sounds... you can hear a lot of folk music influences from different [mostly European i think] countries. LB used different influences, but if you think of it, using regional music influences was something that Peter Gabriel and others made huge right about that time (in the 80s i guess? may have started during late 70s, idk) but with African music influences. except using different inspiration and instruments, LB didn't work with local artists from countries he seemed to have been taking inspiration from, unlike Gabriel.

clarification: maybe "folk" is the wrong expression... what i mean by that expression in this context is endogenous music from certain regions.

michelej1

08-07-2012, 12:42 PM

(except Say Goodbye, but other than the great guitar parts that one is even worse schmaltz imo as a slowed down live version).

Agree about the stultifying live version, especially listening to it. If you're in concert and see it, it's a little interesting to watch, because Stevie is not that comfortable and it's kind of fascinating, but just hearing the live song with nothing to engage me visually is deadly.

I like the album version much better and I actually like them "talking to each other" on the album closers. That sequencing works fine for me.

Michele

GreenMagic

08-07-2012, 01:33 PM

@Danigirl - Right on! I really think Stevie was at a songwriting peak for the Mac on Tusk. Then on Mirage, with Gypsy being an awesome exception, she started sputtering.

But I think that was because of saving her best songs for the solo. I do often wonder what Stand Back would have sounded like if Lindsey produced it instead. I like the solo version dont get me wrong, but I'm curious of how far Lindsey would have taken it musically.

Leather and Lace I think would have been an awesome Lindsey and Stevie duet given their history together.

Aside from her first solo album, I'm kind of meh on Stevie's solo work till Trouble In Shangri-la. While it is a flawed album, there are some gems. I think Sheryl Crow on the tracks she produced, did a great job. And she sang wonderful harmony with Stevie. Too bad she couldn't have produced the rest of the album. Cause the weakest tracks to me are the John Shanks ones.

I do like In Your Dreams. But I've only heard it once in a sitting. So I can't give a definitive opinion. That album is a definately a grower.

Anyway in regard to NTF I listen to the musical arrangement moreso than the lyrics. I think it's awesome but to each their own. To me, the worst Lindsey song is Bwana. That's a piece of junk. That is hard for me to admit given how I love Lindsey's solo work. In fact aside from 2 or 3 songs I dont really care for Lindsey's first solo album. I do love Go Insane, Out of The Cradle, indifferent to UTS, love Gift of Screws and undecided on Seeds we sow.

I wish Lindsey get back more into adventurous music territory. I love his current stuff. But kind of feel he's treading some water musically. Would love to see him work with Brian Eno, as their production styles are very similar.

CADreaming

08-07-2012, 02:12 PM

Agree about the stultifying live version, especially listening to it. If you're in concert and see it, it's a little interesting to watch, because Stevie is not that comfortable and it's kind of fascinating,

:laugh::laugh: I sort of really hate I missed that tour then...

I like the album version much better and I actually like them "talking to each other" on the album closers. That sequencing works fine for me.

Michele

Hear that Stevie? :D

louielouie2000

08-07-2012, 02:20 PM

HejiraNYC

08-07-2012, 03:54 PM

For me, Tusk is the only Rumours era Mac studio album that I never need to put on the shelf for extended periods of time (Live '80 is the only live Mac recording I can't get enough of). The sheer difference in the 3 singer/songwriters, combined with the variety and scope of musical styles on this album have kept my attention and love after all these years. I don't think it was just Stevie who was at her peak on this album... it's arguable every single member of the band was at the top of their perspective mountains on Tusk (and about to plummet off the cliff into burnout territory). Stevie & Chris were recording the most beautiful and introspective songs of their careers... Lindsey was smashing the moulds of his traditional style and was laying the groundwork for his musical direction for the next 3+ decades. Mick and John were making the most entrancing rhythms of their careers (just listen to Brown Eyes!). To me, Tusk was sort of the Rumours incarnation of the Mac's swan song... they pretty much slowly & painfully self destructed over the next decade, and really never recovered. Tusk will always be their masterpiece, though. :)

Maybe it's just me, but I think Tusk was a bit of a happy accident... borne of extreme burnout and weariness as opposed to some orchestrated masterpiece by musicians who were at the top of their game. I love it because it is deeply flawed and because the songs are as uneven as they are intimate and revealing. Sure, Lindsey has gone on record to say that the sonic template for the record was a response to the new wave/punk sounds of the time, but I can't help but wonder whether the rough edges were there because people just couldn't be bothered to fix them up into something conventionally pretty. I have a feeling that the Stevie of today would demand remixes and removal of all of the random little noises that are scattered throughout the album. But in 1978/79, she was still the forgotten stepchild in the band who was too busy plotting her solo career to take a stand. If the rest of the band truly cared about the direction of Tusk, wouldn't they have fought to wrest control from Lindsey? In the end they didn't fight him and Lindsey was allowed to run amuck, doing what pleased himself above anything else. Accordingly, the instrumental tracks are relatively loose and meandering- almost as if they couldn't be bothered to play or record with the deliberate precision of every single note on Rumours. In fact, in many cases, they didn't even bother to play at all. While evergreen inspiration is often wonderful, the lack of inspiration can also be a thing of tragic beauty as well.

Ultimately I think Tusk would have failed as a single album- just like The Lord of the Rings would have failed as a half-hour sitcom. The sheer breadth and length of Tusk wears you down, and it envelopes you and takes you into their blurry-eyed, hung over, occasionally intense world. The miraculous beauty of Tusk is a fragile one, and any misstep could have thrown off the balance and rendered it unlistenable.

Dodfather

08-07-2012, 04:28 PM

It's not. She was McVie by then.

Sorry... couldn't resist. A more sensible comment/review etc will follow!

shackin'up

08-07-2012, 07:12 PM

michelej1

08-07-2012, 07:27 PM

Hear that Stevie? :D

Since Ken says Stevie didn't sequence Rumours, it would be interesting to hear sequencing stories about the other albums -- other than from Stevie herself:laugh:.

Michele

vivfox

08-08-2012, 12:27 AM

BombaySapphire3

08-08-2012, 12:37 AM

Whomever was responsible for that, I'd like to ask them why they didn't include any of Lindsey's songs on side two.

Well he did get credit as a cowriter on The Chain is featured prominently in that song as well as singing co -lead on IDWTK..what is stranger to me is that Tusk goes on for 9 songs..almost a full album back then. with no Christine.

michelej1

08-08-2012, 12:38 AM

Whomever was responsible for that, I'd like to ask them why they didn't include any of Lindsey's songs on side two.

If it was Judy Wong maybe she just could take Lindsey for only limited periods of time and didn't want to extend the agony.

Michele

HomerMcvie

08-08-2012, 01:02 AM

Since Ken says Stevie didn't sequence Rumours, it would be interesting to hear sequencing stories about the other albums -- other than from Stevie herself:laugh:.

Michele
"Delusional LOON, party of one".

And I think she believes her own fabrications.

CADreaming

08-08-2012, 07:01 AM

Since Ken says Stevie didn't sequence Rumours, it would be interesting to hear sequencing stories about the other albums -- other than from Stevie herself:laugh:.

Michele
Whomever was responsible for that, I'd like to ask them why they didn't include any of Lindsey's songs on side two.

:laugh::laugh: Maybe it really was Stevie! No Silver Springs, buster? Oh, yeah - I'll show you! ;)

"Delusional LOON, party of one".

And I think she believes her own fabrications.

:laugh: Of course, she does!

TrueFaith77

08-08-2012, 12:19 PM

From my post in an old thread about Christine's Tusk songs.

Two of my friends responded to this query. I thought their responses were interesting, PARTICULARLY my Friend #2's distillation of Tusk.

Friend #1:
Part of the difficulty is Christine's consistent songwriting excellence which immediately points to her deft grasp of the lite-pop idiom that shines in "Think About Me" and "Never Forget." I always thought "Over and Over" was the most exquisitely produced track on Tusk which leaves the profoundly simple (simply profound?) "Honey Hi" and the amazing sensuality of "Brown Eyes." Up against the wall, I'd have to pick "Over and Over."

Friend #2:
I'm gonna say "Never Forget" - which I never thought I'd say - this is after listening to Tusk twice all the way through

Then, after hearing the result of the poll:

I think "Brown Eyes" was my favorite after the FIRST listen. I mean, it's all perfect! Among so many other things, the album is a peerless epic of friendship. The purely spiritual harmonies that link Lindsey, Stevie, and Christine's voices and perspectives also validate each individual performer/songwriter's deepest humanity. On Rumours, each of the three certainly had a compelling story to tell; on Tusk, each one comes to represent a distinct state of lovers' consciousness.

dino

08-08-2012, 06:53 PM

It's a very uneven album. Never understood the "cutting edge" reputation. This might apply for the title track and a few more of Buckingham's songs, but otherwise it's FM snoozeland.

seekerj

08-09-2012, 09:46 AM

It's a very uneven album. Never understood the "cutting edge" reputation. This might apply for the title track and a few more of Buckingham's songs, but otherwise it's FM snoozeland.

Agreed.

I would even say that Lindsey's tracks aren't all that "cutting edge", and yes, even for 1979; maybe as far as songs coming from FM, but not in general.

I think Lindsey's songs on Mirage are far, far more bizarre and "against the then-grain" than any of his songs on Tusk. The Tusk songs I can listen to and hear rock songs. His Mirage songs, to me, sound cartoonish; to this day I can't listen to a single one of them. They should be playing in the background while Wile E. Coyote chases the Road Runner.

HomerMcvie

08-09-2012, 12:48 PM

I do often wonder what Stand Back would have sounded like if Lindsey produced it instead. I like the solo version dont get me wrong, but I'm curious of how far Lindsey would have taken it musically.

Leather and Lace I think would have been an awesome Lindsey and Stevie duet given their history together.

I do like In Your Dreams. But I've only heard it once in a sitting. So I can't give a definitive opinion. That album is a definately a grower.

Anyway in regard to NTF I listen to the musical arrangement moreso than the lyrics. I think it's awesome but to each their own. To me, the worst Lindsey song is Bwana. That's a piece of junk. That is hard for me to admit given how I love Lindsey's solo work. In fact aside from 2 or 3 songs I dont really care for Lindsey's first solo album. I do love Go Insane, Out of The Cradle, indifferent to UTS, love Gift of Screws and undecided on Seeds we sow.

I wish Lindsey get back more into adventurous music territory. I love his current stuff. But kind of feel he's treading some water musically. Would love to see him work with Brian Eno, as their production styles are very similar.
Well SB would have been a completely different creature. You know that Prince wrote the music(although uncredited), right? So obviously, it wouldn't be the same song...not even close!

I can't imagine L&L without Don Henley's signature rasp. I don't think Lindsey's whine would have worked.

I finally got In Your Dreams, a couple of weeks ago. So far, "meh". There are a couple of tracks that I like, but the rest just hasn't excited me, yet. I've listened to the whole thing, 3 times. I always give any album at least 5 full listens, before I make final judgement, though...:cool:

I like Bwana, and honestly, for me, Law and Order is a masterpiece. Hands down, my favorite LB album. Even weirder than Tusk!

I agree that he's treading water now. Can he or Stevie, either one, no longer make a song that ROCKS? Come on, enough with the sleepy MUZAK!

TrueFaith77

08-09-2012, 03:26 PM

GAG doesn't rock? The last half of that song sends me to the moon.

mikephxaz

08-09-2012, 04:35 PM

GAG doesn't rock? The last half of that song sends me to the moon.

I agree...I love Ghosts are Gone...its a true rock n roll song...the guitar licks are second only to Edge of 17...I wanted her to open her tour with GAG:thumbsup:

WildHearted

08-09-2012, 05:19 PM

GAG is just very like... run of the mill, to me. It's just like a generic rock song. I feel like you could cut Stevie's vocals out and replace it with a number of other peoples voices and you'd never know anything was wrong, if that makes sense. It's a good tune it just doesn't stand out to me.

Love IYD as a whole though. It's been in my car for over a year and I still listen to it nearly every drive.

Villavic

08-09-2012, 05:47 PM

Well SB would have been a completely different creature. You know that Prince wrote the music(although uncredited), right? So obviously, it wouldn't be the same song...not even close!

Prince wrote the Stand Back music? I had read he collaborated and I was going to say the he didn't he actually co-wrote it. However after a short research I found more details of his participation in this song (that's why I love The Ledge, it makes me learn new things every day). What I always knew was what Stevie said in the Timespace cd book:

I got married the day i wrote this song. We were driving to Santa barbara and a new song by Prince came on, so we pulled over somewhere and got the tape. It just gave me an incredible idea, so I spent many hours that night writing a song about some kind of a criz argument, and it was to becamo one of th most important of my songs.

Funny to find she said she got married in a cd book, while she said she "never got married, because there wasn't time" in the Making of Rumours 1997 VH1 DVD.

So then I found today this MTV interview, where she describes more the Prince participation (again she mentions the marriage, one of her typical contradictions):

"I'm driving to my honeymoon night in Santa Barbara from L.A., and 'Little Red Corvette' comes on," she recalled. "We're like oh my God, it's Prince! So I start singing all these words, and I'm like, 'Pull over, we have to get a cassette player! And we have to record this!' I'm writing in the car — here we are, newlyweds, and we get to our hotel and we're setting up the tape recorder and I've made up my whole new melody to [the song]. So I haven't really ripped off the song, because I'm admitting that I have done this. So we go into a studio in Los Angeles a couple weeks later and I track down Prince's phone number — and because I'm Stevie Nicks, I can get it.

"I call him, and I never thought he was going to answer, or that it would be him, or that I would ever find him — and he answers. I said, 'Prince, this is Stevie Nicks, and I wrote a song to your song 'Little Red Corvette,' and we're at Sunset Sound right now, and I was wondering — first of all, I wanted to tell you that I'm giving you 50 percent of [the royalties] it if it ever goes anywhere, but are you in town? If you are, how would you feel about coming down and playing on it?' Never in a million years did I think this man would be like, 'I'll be right there.' He was there in 20 minutes and he played [she mimes instrumental parts of the song] on 'Stand Back,' and he was there an hour and a half, and then he left."
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1608437/stevie-nicks-opens-up-about-collaborating-with-prince.jhtml

PS: Is he still receiving the royalties of all Stand Back versions?? :lol:

elle

08-09-2012, 05:53 PM

I agree that he's treading water now. Can he or Stevie, either one, no longer make a song that ROCKS? Come on, enough with the sleepy MUZAK!
GAG doesn't rock? The last half of that song sends me to the moon.

exactly TrueFaith. sometimes i read people's posts like Homer's above and go - huh? have you even listened once to the stuff that you are providing this sooo authoritative opinion about?

one can like or not GAG, or That's The Way Love Goes, Illumination, One Take, the list goes on and on... but saying there's nothing that rocks in the most recent output from SN or LB just makes such posts completely non-credible.:shrug:

puzzling... :confused:

elle

08-09-2012, 05:56 PM

PS: Is he still receiving the royalties of all Stand Back versions?? :lol:

my understanding is that Prince is uncredited for whatever arranging/producing/composing (not sure which) work he did on Stand Back - so therefore would not be receiving royalties.

TrueFaith77

08-09-2012, 06:01 PM

The first dozens of times I listened to GAG, I thought: what an annoying generic rock tune. And then finally, I was just in the zone of the album, and I suddenly realized: I was on a friggin rocket ship to the moon! It sends me everytime now. No generic rock song has a second half like GAG. In fact, I can't think of the last time I felt like that during a rock song (ok... MAYBE certain live performances of "Come").

GreenMagic

08-09-2012, 06:35 PM

In my humble defense I never said Lindsey or Stevie didnt rock anymore. That was the other dude :angel:

I did say I felt that LINDSEY although still making AWESOME music, is not being as innovative anymore.

Now that could be down to the fact he doesnt have the budget to make complex records anymore. If that's the case, I understand.

I listened to In Your Dreams again. It's a good album but very flawed like Shangri-La. I dont care for the tune inspired by Twilight. And a couple of other ones feel half-finished to me. Otherwise I enjoy the album but I wouldnt put it up against Stevie's first two solo albums which are classics or near it.

I dont know how many people here have heard of Daniel Lanois but I would love for him to work with Lindsey or the Mac. He is the guy who produced U2'S Joshua, Achtung, Bob Dylan Oh Mercy, TIme Out of Mind, Wiliie Nelson Teatro, Emmylou Harris Wrecking Ball, or the latest Le Noise by Neil Young.

I love his production work. And he always seems to bring the best out of his artists. He is a musician and songwriter himself which I'm sure helps him with other artists. BTW his solo albums are true gems including Acadie. i highly recommend them or any of the records I mentioned that he produced to anyone. They're great freakin' albums :thumbsup:

chiliD

08-09-2012, 06:35 PM

Tusk is the best album ever recorded by anyone.

It breathes 5 and maybe even 6 decennia of popmusic, it's as much inspired by the sixties and seventies as it is by punk and new wave. It throws it's shadow over the alt singersongwriters of the nineties and 00's too. contemporary bands like Tame Impala are directly influenced by it and I'm pretty sure there's more to come in the next eight years.

People who are irritated when something is deliberately brought as an artistic, alternative product will never agree with me. So be it. It's THE album that bonds the popworld with the alternative world.

And therefore...

Tusk is the best album ever recorded by anyone.

ZZZZZzzzzzzZZZZZzzzzzZZZZZzzzzz!

Gimme XTC's Oranges & Lemons ANY day! Even Buckingham's own Out Of The Cradle. Tusk is Lindsey's "yank job"...took Stevie & Christine's good material and just wanked on top of it all.

I STILL STAND ON MY PREMISE THAT BOTH BUCKINGHAM AND NICKS SHOULD'VE GONE SOLO AFTER THE TUSK TOUR and stopped holding Fleetwood Mac hostage to the insane!!

dino

08-10-2012, 03:59 AM

TrueFaith77

08-10-2012, 07:35 AM

List time!

My 10 Fav Albums OF ALL TIME!

1. Tusk (1979), Fleetwood Mac
2. Siren (1975), Roxy Music
3. Rubber Soul (1965), The Beatles
4. Bad Girls (1979), Donna Summer
5. Remain In Light (1980), Talking Heads
6. Very (1993), Pet Shop Boys
7. Fear of a Black Planet (1990), Public Enemy
8. Cupid & Psyche 85 (1985), Scritti Politti
9. You Are The Quarry (2004), Morrissey
10. Sticky Fingers (1971), The Rolling Stones

CADreaming

08-10-2012, 08:49 AM

I STILL STAND ON MY PREMISE THAT BOTH BUCKINGHAM AND NICKS SHOULD'VE GONE SOLO AFTER THE TUSK TOUR and stopped holding Fleetwood Mac hostage to the insane!!

Well, they did sorta... I mean they both put out solo albums in '81. And, wasn't there always the talk or the assumption the band was broken up at that point? Sounds like the heavy handed management led to a lot of the splintering within the group anyway. But, I think burnout is inevitable for any artist. And, they are always going to be doomed to try to recreate what the public really liked - and what made everybody a lot of money.

Villavic

08-10-2012, 10:09 AM

ZZZZZzzzzzzZZZZZzzzzzZZZZZzzzzz!

Gimme XTC's Oranges & Lemons ANY day! Even Buckingham's own Out Of The Cradle. Tusk is Lindsey's "yank job"...took Stevie & Christine's good material and just wanked on top of it all.

I STILL STAND ON MY PREMISE THAT BOTH BUCKINGHAM AND NICKS SHOULD'VE GONE SOLO AFTER THE TUSK TOUR and stopped holding Fleetwood Mac hostage to the insane!!

chili (and all who are getting upset in this thread).. do you know that writing in uppercase means you are screaming? I don't know why we get that mad for a discussion about albums. I do think Tusk is far from perfect. I just like the album, I like more Rumours, I don't think the arguments (about Tusk) I have read in this thread are valid, cause.. with all respect, they just came from fans, as I am (so I don't need to convince anybody Rumours is better, cause is just better for me)... but all of that doesn't make scream or say "zzzz".. come on is just music, we are not arguing about our mothers, religion, politics, etc. to get that upset.

If GreenMagic thinks Tusk is a perfect album and shackin'up thinks Tusk the best album ever recorded by anyone, good for them.. and good for shackin'up cause he has the privilege of have listened all the albums in the whole wide world :confused:.. Then you see my point is that I can take all those arguments so seriously. They just come from fans. As I am, a fan. So I'm not trying to belittle or underrate those reasons, nor trying to offend anybody, but also I can't overrate those. They are just opinions, not evidences or proof.

Villavic

08-10-2012, 10:21 AM

My 11 Fav Albums OF ALL TIME!

Rumours, Fleetwood Mac
Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd
Tango in the Night, Fleetwood Mac
Picture Book, Simply Red
Discography, Pet Shop Boys
A Night at the Opera, Queen
Wish you were her, Pink Floyd
Live and More, Donna Summer
Paris, Supertramp
Time, ELO
Cloud Nine, George Harrison

And there are several soundtrack albums I love, like Empire Strikes Back, Lion King and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

chiliD

08-10-2012, 11:08 AM

chili (and all who are getting upset in this thread).. do you know that writing in uppercase means you are screaming? .

Of course I know. My all-caps was intentional and with an obvious purpose.
Not exactly an internet newbie here, ya know.

:wavey::laugh:

GreenMagic

08-10-2012, 06:08 PM

moon

08-11-2012, 01:10 AM

GreenMagic

08-15-2012, 12:17 PM

I'm gonna find my huge rock to climb under when I say the following and keep in mind it's just my dumb opinion.

I've never gotten into the Roger Waters line up of Pink Floyd. Wait! Wait! Before I'm stoned to death, hear me out.

I like the Syd Barrett line up of Floyd. As to me it was musically inventive without being overly pretentious. I always thought Roger Waters stuff was too prog-rock. His lyrics strike me as trying too hard.

Where Barrett's lyrics were witty, poetic, childlike, surreal while coming off effortless. I felt the music with the Barrett lineup didn't meander, but still dug deep and was interesting.

Again, that is just my opinion. If you like Roger Waters more power to ya. I do think David Gilmour is a great guitar player though for what it's worth.

BTW who here would honestly abstain from seeing the mac next year if you know in advance the setlist will be Rumours heavy? Even if you love Rumours, you got to be sick of hearing it by now.

Even Van Halen who I used to love, but now despise (because of Eddie V screwing Michael Anthony over) is playing obscurer tracks live. I dont understand why the Mac underestimates it's audience's taste.

I think most would be happy if they played a lot of stuff off Tusk instead of playing one or two tunes from there. Or even play stuff besides the hits off Mirage, Tango, or Say You Will.

Or even the Buckingham Nicks album. I really like that album. Would love to hear it live. I just wish The Mac would stop treating their fans like The Eagles do theirs. (Bear in mind though I can't stand The Eagles, however I do like Don Henley's solo work)

seekerj

08-15-2012, 12:47 PM

I'm gonna find my huge rock to climb under when I say the following and keep in mind it's just my dumb opinion.

BTW who here would honestly abstain from seeing the mac next year if you know in advance the setlist will be Rumours heavy? Even if you love Rumours, you got to be sick of hearing it by now. Or even the Buckingham Nicks album. I really like that album. Would love to hear it live. I just wish The Mac would stop treating their fans like The Eagles do theirs. (Bear in mind though I can't stand The Eagles, however I do like Don Henley's solo work)

Nope. I don't care if it is popular on this forum or not. I listened to it in 1977 and still listen to it to this day, very often, and could listen to FM play those songs live everynight until I die. For me, I love the music and what the songs have to say. I appreciate the songs totally on their own merits as songs and couldn't care less how many times they've been played. I don't let airplay numbers or sales figures get in the way. I get the impression that people are "down" on Rumours because of the sales and overkill airplay and live performances, and not because they are looking purely at the songs themselves, outside of the sales context. But try pretending that Rumours didn't sell well and really listen to the songs. Don't blame the art for what "the machine" did to it.

But hey, ya know, I also love Welcome to The Room Sara and When I See You Again, so I guess I'm in my own little world anyway.

GreenMagic

08-15-2012, 11:29 PM

Seekerj-

I never said the songs were bad from Rumours. It's a good album although I took a long time to admit that.

I'm just burnt on Rumours. But heck, I'm sick of The Beatles and I love them. It's just hearing the constant rotation on radio along with grocery stores, restaurants can numb ya on a band.

Unless it's Hysteria, (title song) I dont really wanna hear Def Leppard ever again. They played Pour Some Sugar On Me one too many times at Bars/Clubs. I used to go out a lot a year ago, so that is all I would hear.

BTW am I the only one who thinks bars suck at playing 80's music? They play the basic really well-known stuff. But dont dig any deeper. I've complained about their djs before but it doesn't help these peeps were born in late 80's. So they only have a basic knowledge of 80's hits.

Sorry, I see people complaining about being sick of 80's revival nights and that's cause the DJs are terrible at playing lesser known stuff.

Anyway, I'm getting off track. I cant in good faith pay almost 300 bucks to hear Rumours live again. It might be a good deal for those who haven't seen the mac live. But to paraphrase Lindsey, I'm never goin' back again..

UndoingTheLaces

08-16-2012, 12:31 PM

Tusk always makes me feel like I'm sitting by the fire in a small cabin with a loved one who's showing me photos from an album, sharing the good stories and the bad that go with each photograph. In my minds eye some of the photographs are the ones in the Tusk album sleeves and some contain individual images from the collages. And when it's all over we sit and bask in the glow of the dying embers and decide to take a walk, enjoying a night that we'll never forget.c

There are bands for whom I pretty much only listen to the singles. The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees are two of them. They each have one album that I like beginning to end but for the most part I only know the material from the singles collections they've put out. But both Fleetwood Mac and Stevie are opposite for me. While I do love their hits it's often the deep album cuts that I really get into. Sara and Rhiannon are both big favorites but I prefer demos and live versions way more to the studio cuts. However, Tusk is one of those albums that when I'm in the mood I have to play from beginning to end. I have a few songs in my FM playlist on my iPod but when I hear a song from Tusk by itself (even the studio version of Sara) it always sounds like I'm hearing an excerpt of a larger piece. I feel bad it wasn't as big a commercial success for the band but I'm kind of glad there wasn't a string of hits like there was for Rumors because it's helped keep the album as a whole cohesive unit. Just like when I hear the single mix of Another Brick in the Wall or Comfortably Numb on the radio, when the end of each song comes on my ear aches to hear the next part of the album.

Tusk may not be a full on concept album in the way Tommy or The Wall was, but to me it does take the listener through an amazing journey.

TrueFaith77

08-16-2012, 01:05 PM

For the record, I said that Tusk was a perfect album for the BN lineup. It is NOT the perfect album of all time.

Hey Truefaith77, awesome list. Liked your choices both strange and unexpected. Here's my still developing one though not definitive. It's mostly based on the fact I can listen to them all the time and never tire of them.

1. The Stooges Fun House - Best Rock and Roll album ever for no thrills rockin'
2. The Byrds Notorious Byrd Brothers
3. The Stone Roses Debut album
4. Roxy Music For Your Pleasure/Avalon - (Sorry couldn't give either up)
5. Bob Dylan - Oh Mercy (Along with the songs he left off the album which can be found on Bootleg Series Vol 1-3 and Tell Tale Signs (Box Set)
6. Bruce Springsteen Nebraska (along with outtakes that can be found on Tracks)
7. Motorhead Ace of Spades (Burnt out on title track but rest of album is perfection.
8. The Sundays Blind
9. New Order Substance
10. Marshall Crenshaw Field Day. (If you like power pop like The Raspberries, this 80's album is a masterpiece.)
10+ - Son House - The 1965 Recordings. One of the most underrated and greatest soulful blues singers. Jack White agrees obviously.

If anyone posts a list of their greatest albums that have come out in last 2 years will be happy to oblige with mine.

BTW Tusk isnt the greatest album ever. But for fleetwood Mac yes. Although Then Play On from the Peter Green lineup sort of tops it.

Thanks for the good word. :thumbsup: I don't mean to nitpick, but I note that some have included Substance and others Discography on their lists. I consider those compilations, not albums proper. My fav New Order album proper is Brotherhood (1986) (following by, in preferential order: Waiting for the Sirens Call, Technique, Republic, Power Corruption & Lies, Get Ready, Low-Life, Movement). So Substance doesn't count because anything with "True Faith" (see my name) is obviously the greatest thing ever.

Oh, and I take your bait on the best albums of the 2010s! Here's my list so far as I plan my best of the decade list lol:

2010
OLYMPIA, Bryan Ferry
MY BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANTASY, Kanye West
IT'S A BEAUTIFUL LIFE, Freebass
MICHAEL, Michael Jackson
BOYS OUTSIDE, Steve Mason

2011
ECHOES, Will Young
WATCH THE THRONE, Kanye West & Jay-Z (aka The Throne)
VOYAGE, The Sound of Arrows
IN YOUR DREAMS, Stevie Nicks
SEEDS WE SOW, Lindsey Buckingham

2012
WORDS AND MUSIC BY SAINT ETIENNE, Saint Etienne
A JOYFUL NOISE, Gossip

To keep track as my list builds:

http://rateyourmusic.com/list/johndemetry/great_albums_of_the_2010s/

On Ice

08-17-2012, 08:16 AM

I thought I would never say this, but I'm not interested in seeing FM live again, only to hear the same set list with only one or two nuggets added in. I'm certainly not down on the Rumours tracks but the band sells us all short when they ignore the vast treasure trove of material that would transfer well to the stage. It's weird to think that we're a quarter century past the time when Rumours tracks in their set list should be down to no more than 3 or 4 (two hits and one deep cut).

GreenMagic

08-19-2012, 10:29 PM

@On Ice- Trust me, you're not alone. Lindsey doing solo numbers is where you can see passion and fire. Same with Stevie

But when the band is together, you really get the sense of them going through the motions ALA Eagles. It seems so passionless. I even thought that watching the Dance era.

It seemed so blah compared to them live in the 70's and early 80's. I think the only way for them to truly sound alive again on stage is doing deeper and obscurer cuts. Oh and more recent music might help too :laugh:

The Mac really could learn a thing or two from Bruce Springsteen live. He does deeper cuts as well as recent material. And also a couple of hits to please the casual fans. His shows run from 3 to 4 hours. You can tell he still loves what he does. His setlist changes from night to night. I will always pay the highest dollar if required to see him as he always respects his fans by doing something different.

Is there a website or email we can communicate to the Mac or their management that the fans are tired of greatest hits setlists? That we want something a little deeper?

@TrueFaith - I love New Order so much it is hard to pick an album. So I wussed and picked the compilation.

My favorite recent albums are as follows

The Jayhawks Mockingbird Time
Neil Young Le Noise
MGMT Congratulations
Hot Chip One Life Stand
The Generationals Actor-Castor
School of Seven Bells Ghostory
Garbage Not Your Kind of People
Electric Guest Mondo
Patti Smith Banga
Randy Newman Harps and Angels
Fiona Apple The Idler Wheel is Wiser
Leonard Cohen Old Ideas
Jack White Blunderbuss
Talib Kweli Gutter Rainbows
The Roots Undun
Bruce Springsteen Wrecking Ball

As this list will atest, people will probably think I'm a schizoid freak. But I love all kinds of music and variety is the spice of life..

TrueFaith77

08-20-2012, 11:55 AM

@greenmagic, we have different taste ;) but here's my review of the Cohen's OLD IDEAS:

http://cityarts.info/2012/02/15/through-the-eye-of-the-camp-parsing-leonard-cohen%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98old-ideas%e2%80%99/

As one of our fellow Ledgies put it, this review evidences about my writing/thinking: "The fact is that he has no point and cannot make arguments rooted in fact. Or, at best, he is simply incapable of articulating a cogent argument that deals with the issue at hand."

Villavic

08-21-2012, 01:43 PM

But Tusk doesn't sound like a strong band album in many songs. Not like the White and Rumours albums. There are many "solo" songs from Lindsey, and there are songs where you can't listen Chris, Stevie or Lindsey doing harmonies. At Storms I can listen Lindsey, but not Chris. Maybe I'm wrong and she is there at harmonies but it's almost inperceptible, it's not like her voice in Dreams. Or Stevie in Oh Daddy. I'm not saying everybody has to sing in all songs but their presence should be noticeable in enough songs to feel it's a band album and not a collage of songs.

So I can't say I feel Tusk like a strong, cohesive album. There are lot of Lindsey solo works in Tusk, for example, and that's described in Mick's book:

"All right, Lindsey," I finally had to say. "Where is this gonna end? What do you want? What's the compromise going to be?" The usually reticent Mr. Buckingham had a ready answer. "What I want to do is some serious recording at home. Sometimes I'm at the studio and I can't quite bridge the gap between the sounds I'm hearing in my head and the music I'm actually able to get on tape. Other times I'd like to play some of the other parts myself, like drums or the bass line, but I feel too intimidated to ask you and John to let me. It boils down to this I want to do some of the work at home."
....
The result was that some of Lindsey's things were recorded in his basement at home. Some of the rhythm tracks are Lindsey banging on shoeboxes. Some of the vocals were overdubbed on his hands and knees in his bathroom. I understood what Lindsey was going through, but neither John nor Chris really appreciated this method. It was felt that this kind of segregation away from the caldron of traditional Fleetwood Mac group creativity in the studio was . . . unhealthy. Lindsey himself later speculated that he might have been selfish. On the other hand, he continued to labor in the studio as part of our regular production team.

That doesn't sound to me like a perfect album. Not a perfect band album at least.

michelej1

07-11-2013, 10:07 PM

Excerpt from an article about Daze, Nashville Scene
http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/patience-and-skill-make-kurt-viles-wakin-on-a-pretty-daze-an-unlikely-but-excellent-pop-record/Content?oid=3458096

by Chris Parker July 11, 2013

Though more than half of Daze's 11 songs pass the six-minute mark, the record generally avoids the noodly autoeroticism of jam bands. Vile's a keen, admittedly obsessive craftsman, adding detail and melody in light, flaky layers that unfold with the unhurried grace of a scenic drive through a national park. One of his big inspirations was Fleetwood Mac's sprawling art-pop masterpiece, Tusk.

"Once I discovered it — must've been 2007 — I just listened to it over and over again, like while bottling beer," Vile tells the Scene. "It's like experimental classic rock. The whole album is like unconventional pop. And that's how I consider [Wakin' on a Pretty Daze]. I don't really consider any of it challenging exactly. It's a long song. Like the first song, [the nine-and-a-half minute] 'Wakin' on a Pretty Day,' that's like a pop song to me."

pop-muse

07-13-2013, 09:06 AM

tusk is also my favourite fm album- stevie's songs are perfection.

lindsey's production doesn't sound dated like on "mirage" when fm sounded like they were stuck in the 70s

christine's "brown eyes" is flawless.

the album is unpredictable, so it never gets stale

Ghosty

07-13-2013, 09:42 AM

I love Tusk too. I didn't really start buying FM albums till like around 1982 or so because of my age, I was too young before and there were no record stores in my town. I pretty much was just hearing them on the radio and then starting tape recording off the radio.

So when I found Tusk, a double album, WOOOOO!!!! I was thrilled! And there are no bad songs on it (a few "odd" ones though), and many of my all time favorite songs are on it. I also loved all the photos on the inner sleeves. despite being disappointed in the actual album cover. That did not help sales any, I am sure. There absolutely should have been some amazing photo of the band showcasing the Chris and Stevie gorgeousness and the guys' handsomeness to help lure buyers, imo. I mean, all the Tusk photo sessions gave some awesome pictures! Whoever came up with the Tusk cover did not help the sales one bit.

michelej1

07-13-2013, 01:24 PM

I also loved all the photos on the inner sleeves. despite being disappointed in the actual album cover. That did not help sales any, I am sure.

I agree with that. We've talked about the cover more, but not often in terms of the fact that might have lost them some sales.

You liked Rumours, the word of mouth you're hearing about Tusk doesn't initially grab you. Plus, it's a two-disc record and costs a little more, so you really are on the fence about buying, but if it had a different album cover showcasing the band whose soap opera had been in the news, that might have spurred a few of the indecisive into buying.

I am certainly into the Mirage cover. I would have bought the album anyway, but the cover, front and back, was a strong incentive. Michele

bluefox4000

07-13-2013, 04:58 PM

Tusk is probably my fav FM album. However not perfect. Simple answer if i have to skip tracks it ain't perfect.:nod: by that thinking......they've yet to make a perfect album, imo

Mick

Keith

07-14-2013, 03:16 AM

"could you ever need me.... and would you know how?":nod:

becca

07-15-2013, 01:01 PM

Don't know if Green Magic is still around but reading this thread makes me want to try Tusk again (I do have the 1990s CD still). Tastes change.

Also boggled to see someone who picks The Sundays' Blind as their best as it's the one by them I found most disappointing. I definitely agree about Syd Barrett being great but always found Rick Wright's material worth hearing too. There was a lot of pretentiousness in '70s rock albums, but taking some thinnish ingredients and puffing it up to capital A art dates to Sgt. Pepper probably, that the media went nuts over it and not Revolver is why.

secret love

07-22-2013, 11:31 PM

Yes, for me Tusk is the perfect Fleetwood Mac album too. I first listened to it just last year! I'm a bit of a newcomer to Fleetwood Mac...when the Rumours lineup was touring the globe for The Dance, I was 4 years old and in preschool! I wish I had properly discovered the band in time to attend Unleashed and In Your Dreams Australian concerts...alas, oh well. :o

I especially love The Ledge, Not that Funny, What Makes You Think You're the One, That's Enough for me, Angel, Beautiful Child, Storms, Over and Over, Think About me, Never Forget.

What strikes me about Tusk is how it never ceases to surprise you, how each track sounds completely unique; and that jarring effect of some of Lindsey's songs juxtaposed next to Christine's - going from the slow, gentle Over and Over into the jumpy, frentic yet upbeat The Ledge, for example. And as someone else said, the album really does tell a story. Stevie's pride at writing Angel "a pure rock and roll song" with "edgeiness" is so cute (Tusk doco). That song really says something about her and Lindsey and their relationship at that time 1979. And it was before they absolutely loathed each other and before they had been out of each other's lives for the better part of the decade (as in before SYW/Unleashed tours where the relationship between Lindsey and Stevie was still strained and mainly just a business partnership) -so Stevie singing "I still look up when you walk in the room" sounds genuine and heartfelt.

In 2013 Stevie singing "You are a song for me melody, ingrained in my soul. Where would I be without you?" to Lindsey just sounds...untrue; a vocal performance without raw genuine emotion.

There's The Ledge (is it about Carol Ann Harris?) Beautiful Child - about Stevie's affair with The Beatles tour manager. Lindsey hitting back at Stevie perhaps with WMYTYTO. Chris' touching rendition of Over and Over...who knows who she wrote that about?

But Tusk just draws me in, as the listener I feel a part of the band's inner circle...it is beautiful and creative storytelling at its best. Unbeatable. For me, one of the greatest albums of all time, up there (right in the top 3) with my other favourites like Rod Stewart's Every Picture Tells a Story, The B-52s Cosmic Thing, Sheryl Crow's Tuesday Night Music Club, Train's Drops of Jupiter, Tegan and Sara's The Con, Laura Marling's Once I Was an Eagle.

Stormwind

07-26-2013, 01:32 PM

Tusk was a sign of courage, an escape from the pattern of making records watching carefully the sales. It was Lindsey's artistic integrity textured with the approach of a band that had an established style of playing music. Nothing to recriminate about the different aim of making a record that was vital for the group.
Of course, making a record that goes a different way makes all more difficult, more inaccesible to the mainstream audience. But, everytime I listen, as eccentric it may be, to this album, "Tusk", I melt, a great demonstration of how FM were great:

Maybe it's difficult to apprecciate all the songs, or to catalogate, them in a historical importance as the ones on Rumours, but in my opinion, few would have tried something so risky after a mega-selling success.

For me Tusk is the best album the band has ever done, not perfect for a way of defining, artistic cohesiveness. Maybe it seems a Lindsey's solo album, and in part it's true, but the whole journey going on ,everytime I listen to it, makes me forget everything.

michelej1

08-24-2013, 09:44 PM

By Michael, August 22, 2013, Just Giblets

http://justgiblets.com/2013/08/22/tusk/

I periodically go on a Fleetwood Mac jag, where I can’t get enough of their albums. And not being a Stevie Nicks sycophant (although I do enjoy a lot of her work) but a Christine McVie fanatic, my Fleetwood Mac listening is not limited to their 1975 white album on, but goes back to the early 70’s, pre-Buckingham Nicks, when the likes of Bob Welch and Danny Kirwan were members. My latest obsession from the last couple of weeks has been Tusk, their 1979 follow-up to the phenomenally successful, life-changing Rumours.

Tusk was a curious album. There was no way the band was going to repeat the magic that emerged out of their personal break-ups and formed Rumours, number 10 on the list of best-selling albums of all time. (You can see that list at http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/entertainment-articles/whats-the-biggest-selling-album-of-all-time/). I’m sure the pressure from their label, Warner Bros. was pretty intense to do just that, but the band went in a completely different direction. While it seems that Lindsey Buckingham was the driving force between the pseudo-punk, vaguely country tone of Tusk, certainly throughout all of his, the majority, contributions, his quirky production served Christine and Stevie’s compositions well. Back in 1979, when Tusk was released, it was a rather shocking turn from Fleetwood Mac. When listened to today, it seems even more incomprehensible juxtaposed with Rumours, but it works all the better for it. The double album cost $1M to record, an exorbitant amount at the time, and with it only reaching #4 on the U.S. Billboard charts it is considered a disappointment. Still, it did sell over 2M copies, earning a double platinum certification.

The title track was released as a single in advance of the album, and should have been a good indication that this was not going to be a Fleetwood Mac album like anything we’d expected. From the jungle beat of the drums, the bizarre lyrics mumbled, then half-shrieked, and the overlay of the USC marching band, this was something visceral and different. I was transfixed. I ran around my high school (I was a senior) shouting Tusk! I even included it as one of my quotes in the yearbook.

Now as I listen to Tusk some 34 years later, I am struck by how forward thinking it was, and how I think it might be Fleetwood Mac’s best album. Okay, maybe not their best, but certainly Lindsey Buckingham does his best work ever with the band, or at least, most original. Stevie Nicks turns in some pretty interesting work as well, and while Christine McVie has always been, in my opinion, the most reliable of the Mac songwriters, she doesn’t disappoint on Tusk. While Tusk is arguably Lindsey’s album, it’s the way he pushes Christine and Stevie to the far reaches of what could be their comfort zones that really shines on Tusk. (Although, part of me hopes that they all had fun trying out stuff they’d never usually perform – just take another listen to ‘The Ledge.’)

My current obsession is Christine McVie’s ‘Think About Me.’ It was a third single off the album, and is considered a minor hit for the band, only reaching #20 on the Billboard singles chart. When I first heard ‘Think About Me’ it seemed a typical McVie single, reminiscent of ‘Don’t Stop’ and ‘Say You Love Me.’ Listening to it today, I am struck by the rock ‘n roll and punk influences, and the sparse, powerful mix of the song. Lyrically, McVie injects a little wry sarcasm into the song, something she is not usually known for. ‘Think About Me’ really features the power of McVie’s piano driving the song rhythmically forward, and Buckingham’s chunky guitar blends to create something truly rollicking. Once again, McVie choses to alternate vocals with Buckingham, the former taking the lead on the vocals, the latter leading the bands trademark sublime harmonies on the choruses. The vocal mix is perfect, with each of the unique voices easily picked out when they sing together. Add to that the solid foundation of Fleetwood’s drums and McVie’s surprisingly flashy bass and it thrills me every time I listen to it. McVie’s other contributions include the album opener, ‘Over & Over,’ the haunting ‘Brown Eyes,’ the gorgeously simple and heartfelt ‘Never Make Me Cry,’ the intricate confection ‘Honey Hi,’ and one of the best album closers ever, ‘Never Forget.’

Stevie Nicks’ most memorable song on Tusk for most people is ‘Sara,’ the second single from the album, and the highest charting, climbing to #7 on the Billboard charts. I’ve always found ‘Sara’ to be rather uninspired, overlong and little boring. The fourth single from Tusk was Stevie’s ‘Sisters of the Moon,’ a dark, pseudo-sequel to ‘Rhiannon.’ Nice enough, but pretty standard Stevie-fare. Her other three compositions for Tusk are some of her finest work. ‘Storms’ is a gently rumbling lament, beautifully constructed, and more complex than much of her Fleetwood Mac work. ‘Angel’ is probably my favorite song Nicks wrote for Fleetwood Mac. It’s got a bouncy, bluesy chord progression that makes it sound like a Christine McVie composition sung by Nicks. The hauntingly lovely ‘Beautiful Child’ closes out Nicks’ contributions to Tusk. Powered by McVie’s gentle piano and flush with the vocal interplay Fleetwood Mac is known for ‘Beautiful Child’ is a heartfelt ballad that highlights Stevie’s strength as a songwriter. While Nicks’ songs are possibly the least affected by Tusk’s strangeness, Buckingham keeps the arrangements sparse and raw lending an urgency even to her most gentle numbers.

But it’s true, Tusk is really Lindsey Buckingham’s album, and his creativity and originality really show through on his songs. Penning nine of Tusk’s twenty songs, Lindsey’s short, energetic numbers are like exclamatory punctuation marks sprinkled through the narrative. His songs burst with heavy, distorted guitars and raucous vocal shrieks that convey frustration, anxiety and anger. In some cases the bizarre lyrics seem interchangeable (and in fact, listening to the demo tracks included on the 25th anniversary release, snippets of lyrics are used on various songs). The first of Lindsey’s songs you experience is the punk/country hybrid called ‘The Ledge.’ You might think, ‘he’s lost his mind, what the heck is this?’ but it’s a powerful locomotive of a song with the three vocalists harmonizing with wails and whispers the likes of which Fleetwood Mac had never explored before. ‘Not That Funny’ is Buckingham’s punk response to Rumours’ ‘Never Going Back Again.’ It’s a bouncy pop ditty that leaps off the record with a high-pitched acoustic guidtar part that sticks in your head. Along with ‘That’s Enough for Me’ and ‘I Know I’m Not Wrong’ these are three musical outbursts that highlight Lindsey’s new musical direction and his frantic energy. ‘What Makes You Think You’re the One’ is almost traditional anchored by a pounding piano line that McVie once said made here wrists hurt after a day of recording. ‘Save Me a Place’ and ‘That’s All for Everyone’ are lush, dreamy tracks that retain the quirky sensibilities of Lindsey’s current vision, but are less confrontational and again, use the trio’s vocal interplay to maximum affect. Buckingham’s most beautiful number is yearning falsetto-powered ‘Walk a Thin Line.’ It highlights his adept vocals but it once again takes the expected Mac oohs and aahs and pushes them slightly left of center to remind us that we’re not listening to Rumours.

The first time I saw Fleetwood Mac live was during the Tusk tour at the Boston Garden. It was a glorious show, and was the first of three (or maybe four times) that I was able to see them live. I know they have had a bit of a return in the past few years, but without Christine McVie, it’s just not the same for me. There was some sort of magic when those five made music together, and Christine McVie is one of my all time musical heroes. I’m just glad the band has a long history of music to which I can return.

elle

08-24-2013, 09:51 PM

Buckingham’s most beautiful number is yearning falsetto-powered ‘Walk a Thin Line.’ It highlights his adept vocals but it once again takes the expected Mac oohs and aahs and pushes them slightly left of center to remind us that we’re not listening to Rumours.

go Michael go!! :thumbsup:

of course, i'd get rid of those oohs and aahs. :p

michelej1

08-24-2013, 10:09 PM

of course, i'd get rid of those oohs and aahs. :p

Yeah, but you now see how adept his young voice was too, don't you;).

Michele

elle

08-24-2013, 10:15 PM

Yeah, but you now see how adept his young voice was too, don't you;).

Michele

:)

his fritz, BN, white album and rumours era voice = very adept, but blah sounding. it started being not as bad during Tusk era :cool:

secret love

08-25-2013, 04:43 AM

:)

his fritz, BN, white album and rumours era voice = very adept, but blah sounding. it started being not as bad during Tusk era :cool:

Just goes to show you're not born a great singer haha

Sadly with Stevie I feel her voice has declined with age. Lindsey's has not improved but his voice has definitely aged better than her's. They are both still great singer judging by YouTube, so live in concert they are probably outstanding.

It is a shame Stevie did not find her voice coach earlier than 1997.

applebucked

08-30-2013, 01:22 PM

I think both Stevie and Lindsey sing better in this current tour than the SYW and Unleashed tour, and I prefer Lindsey's deeper voice now than his during their heyday with the falsetto and all. But let's be real, Chris blows both of them out of the water these days. :laugh: Listen to her Maui stint.

elle

08-30-2013, 07:54 PM

applebucked

08-30-2013, 10:04 PM

There are certain songs of Lindsey's that I couldn't stand hearing because of the voice he uses there (studio version of I'm So Afraid comes to mind). His guitar playing has definitely gotten better over the years, no doubt about that, and he still has that energy.

HelloMonster

08-30-2013, 10:47 PM

I love his voice in all stages. I like the young, clear and high Lindsey, and the rough and mature, fine wine Lindsey. :D

michelej1

10-18-2013, 02:39 AM

So So Gay

http://sosogay.co.uk/2013/lost-music-fleetwood-mac-tusk/

Lost In Music: Fleetwood Mac – Tusk

Posted by: Jamie Clarke in Music 18 October 2013

Released on 12 October 1979, Tusk, the third album from the Buckingham/Nicks incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, should have been one of the most well-known albums of all time. For some reason though, the album sank without much impact and has come to be later appreciated by fans and critics alike.

The band's previous album, Rumours, had sold 10 million copies worldwide in the two years it had been available prior to Tusk's release. To put those figures into perspective, however, Rumours had sold 40 million copies worldwide by 2009 and is still, 36 years on, the 14th best selling album in UK history - quite an achievement.

To date, Tusk has sold two million copies in the US and 300,000 in the UK. A stark contrast when compared to the success of Rumours. Critics deemed the album a failure and jumped on the album's production costs ($1 million - the most expensive album ever made, at that point in time), deeming the cost an unnecessary extravagance.

The band admitted that the record company just wanted 'Rumours II' from them, but they didn't want to sell out for the cash or fame and wanted to create something they were proud of, a real body of work. So, the 21-track, double-disk album Tusk was conceived.

There are three distinct personalities within this particular line-up of the band, Christine McVie brings the blues background and spritely keyboard compositions to the mix, Stevie Nicks delivers ethereal and left-field musical poetry, and Lindsey Buckingham a more guitar-driven rock sound. The band had made every effort to blend each of their sensibilities on Rumours, but on Tusk, they are fractured. Their songs are their own compositions packaged together on a double-disk collection. Tusk is an album that demonstrates a band all but broken up, merely held together by obligation to their art.

Lindsey Buckingham was the driving force behind the style of Tusk. Not satisfied to create radio-friendly polished pop as they had on Rumours, he was influenced by more alternative developments such as new wave and punk. The band put their faith in his abilities as an accomplished musician, songwriter and producer. They would later admit that following the album's failure, there was open hostility towards him.

Time has been very kind to Tusk. The production techniques employed by Buckingham, such as recording vocals lying down on his tiled bathroom floor and creating drum loops from tapping on his knees, though radical at the time, add a level of depth to the emotion of the songwriting - they're organic, you feel them. The personal struggles the band were facing during recording are still present. The relationships deteriorating and the struggles of still working with your ex are in the subtext of these songs, though not as obviously referenced as on Rumours. Essentially, Tusk is a folk band making a rock & roll album.

Nicks' voice throughout the album is hoarser than ever before, caused by her publicly discussed struggles with cocaine. But the hoarseness of her voice adds to the emotion of the tracks she's singing. It enhances the lyrics that usually concern landscapes affected by the four elements in a very 'gothic fiction' manner. The highlight being 'Sara'.

McVie can be relied upon as the constant. Here she delivers a collection of straightforward and sweet love songs, her album highlight being 'Never Forget'.

It's the Buckingham tracks that will make or break this album for you. They're messy and they often don't make sense. If you give them a chance, however, their experimental nature may come to grow on you. 'I Know I'm Not Wrong' is a highlight, complete with accordion riff.

The album's title track is perhaps its most bizarre. With no clear structure and no real form, it's simply a chant, built around African tribal drums, that builds maniacally to an insane crescendo - complete with USC Trojan Marching Band backing and shouts of 'don't say that you love me', amongst other paranoid and emotional cries.

Mick Fleetwood, the band's drummer and namesake, has said as recently as their 2013 world tour that Tusk is his favourite of the band's albums. He put its commercial failure down to the fact that it was played in full on a US radio station in the run up to its release allowing mass home taping. Also, due to its double-disk status, the list price ($15.98) was double that of a regular album, which deterred some from buying.

Tusk is an album that you should be aware of, though it's not always an easy listen. It's an album you need to make sense of. It commands your attention and you should give it this attention it deserves.

Read more: http://sosogay.co.uk/2013/lost-music-fleetwood-mac-tusk/#ixzz2i3bACSUS
Follow us: @SoSoGay on Twitter | SoSoGay.org on Facebook

staceface

10-26-2013, 11:45 AM

michelej1

11-17-2013, 02:23 PM

Drowned in Sound by Ben S Travis November 17th, 2013
http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4147160-70-minute-plus-albums--how-long-is-too-long-for-an-lp

[excerpt from article discussing double albums]

Although often seen as a poisoned chalice, double albums can bring out the best or worst in an artist often at once - after all, one man’s magnum opus may be another’s overcooked mess. Painting on a larger canvas offers opportunities for further exploration and experimentation, more individual components creating a cohesive whole. Fleetwood Mac fans rightly laud 1979’s Tusk as one of their greatest works, one that accentuates all of the band’s writing styles - the Stevie Nicks tracks are more Steve Nicks than ever, and Lindsey Buckingham’s are twitchier and more coke-addled than on Rumours, singling out Christine McVie’s outwardly pop sensibilities even further. As an album it perfectly captures the essence and range of who Fleetwood Mac are. The double album format allows for such risks, any unusual excursions cushioned by more conventional material.

Autumn Ocean

11-29-2013, 04:37 AM

When I discovered Stevie at 14, it was a thrill that there were a couple of albums before Rock A Little I could buy. Then, Fleetwood Mac and my pocket money gone for months so I could get their back catalogue. I liked Tusk the least, at first but over time it became my all time favourite album.

I love it as is but have a Mac fantasy in which Stevie and Chris went in for some Lindsey style experimentation... Imagine!

I love the strangeness of Lindsey's songs, the raggedness of Chris's (compared to the usual polish) and the range (in music and vocals) of Stevie's. I still find parts in the arrangements of the Tusk songs that I've never noticed before.

vivfox

11-29-2013, 09:19 AM

I love it as is but have a Mac fantasy in which Stevie and Chris went in for some Lindsey style experimentation... Imagine!

If that were the case we might get this for a cover:

BLY

06-26-2014, 04:13 PM

It seemed like forever waiting for Tusk to be released as the follow up to Rumours. I got sucked in early 1977 , saw them in 78 and The MAC was the number one band senior year in High School. Fleetwood Mac and Rumours were played to death and I couldn't wait for new tunes. I will say when I heard Tusk for the first time time I was blown a way. I knew I was a true fan when I thought at the time of its release that this was a MASTERPIECE! This was the best follow up to Rumours.

GJK

06-26-2014, 05:36 PM

>I got sucked in early 1977...<

What does this mean? A private thing?

Thanks,
GJK

BLY

06-26-2014, 06:45 PM

What does this mean? A private thing?

Thanks,
GJK

Just meaning once I heard Rumours I was hooked.

brickney723

06-26-2014, 07:36 PM

I like all of Stevie and Christine's Tusk songs- in fact, I think they're some of the very best from both of them. But I hate Lindsey's songs, and Lindsey is my favorite. I'm not fond of the music anyway, but lyrics are also important to me, I understand all of them and they were all directed at Stevie. I think during the Tusk era he had absolutely lost his freaking mind. To me, he was just a hair short of straight-jacket crazy and his Tusk performances prove it. Sorry, I do love him overall, that's my opinion.

PenguinHead

06-26-2014, 11:59 PM

Tusk is an album that has aged well over time, like a fine wine. It is certainly more respected and understood now than when it first came out, and confounded everyone's expectations. The public expected a repeat of Rumours, but Lindsey was inspired by the punk scene of that time, and wanted to challenge the norm.

Like many others who bought the album, I was a bit challenged by the somewhat radical departure of the music. The package itself was very intriguing - an austere and elusive cover, with sleeves in sleeves, featuring some bizarre photos. Stevie's songs were the most appealing to me, Christine's songs seemed a bit too thin, and Lindsey's songs were just too out there. The reviews and critics were not kind. Even Stevie made some negative comments about it.

However, over time, in the context of their history, Tusk has emerged as one of the most creative and bold albums ever made. It's their Beatles "White" album. Everything I disliked about it then is what I love about it now!

Lindsey had the balls to break reins and shatter conventions. He got flack for it, and was even a little bit contrite about it at times. But over the decades, people have come to view this work in a very different light. It's nice that so many songs from the album have been performed:

Over and Over
Think About Me
Brown Eyes
Sisters of the Moon
Storms
Beautiful Child
Sara
Angel
Tusk
That's Enough for Me (once!)
Not That Funny
What Makes You Think Your the One
The Ledge (rehearsal only)
Save Me a Place
I Know I'm Not Wrong

On the upcoming tour, I hope they don't glut the set list with Rumours songs, and leave room for some never/rarely performed Tusk songs. How cool would it be to hear the other songs performed:

The Ledge
That's All For Everyone
That's Enough For Me
Walk a Thin Line
Never Make Me Cry
Never Forget
Honey Hi

They should do another Tusk tour, and perform the entire album. Some other groups have done that. In my dreams there will be a Tusk box set with alternate mixes, outtakes, live performances, a DVD packed with videos, interviews and live footage, and a coffee table-like book with tons of photos, articles, comments, assessments, recollections etc...

sorcerer999

06-27-2014, 12:44 AM

Tusk is my favorite Fleetwood Mac record! It was ego. It was excess. It was art. It was genius!

Even Stevie made some negative comments about it.

Stevie has "waffled" about this album for YEARS!!! When they were doing initial interviews for this album, she said it was their "masterpiece". Yet just three years later, she said that the album was "indulgent" and couldn't wait to get back to the Rumours sound, a la "Mirage". I still can't understand her logic there. Cocaine induced comments.

In any event, as much as I am dismayed over the ticket prices for this new tour, I feel I must at least buy a "nose bleed" seat in the very back row...just so that I might hear "Brown Eyes" (since Christine keeps alluding to the fact that they might play it) or any Tusk song they just happen to surprise us with. :)

FuzzyPlum

06-27-2014, 01:58 AM

What does this mean? A private thing?

Thanks,
GJK

hahahahahahahahahahahaha x100

MoonSister75

06-27-2014, 03:48 AM

I can't find a fault in Tusk - I love all the songs and their running order. Its quirky, fun, dark, sad and deeply moving. For Lindsey, Stevie and Christine some of their best songs are on this album - its just a wonderful, wonderful collection of songs from the three of them. :xoxo: :]

FuzzyPlum

06-27-2014, 11:35 AM

Like the Beatles' White album you do wonder what Tusk could have been like as a single album...
...you pick out what you perceive to be the best songs and make what you think is a nice arrangement. You step back and inspect the single Tusk album. But then you realize there's something missing...it just doesn't work.

I've done this a lot. No matter which songs I include and no matter which arrangement I come up with a single album feels weak. Common sense states that the best 12 or so from 20 should be the cream of the crop. However, without everything included they just don't play coherently.
It's only at this point that I look back and appreciate the album as a whole. It needs those odd Lindsey moments to bring out the subtle qualities in the more mainstream songs.

That said I do wonder what it would have been like if some of those numbers were just a bit more mainstream... just a bit more Mick and a bit less shoe-box and biscuit tin (and if Lindsey just sang without the funny voices). I know there are plenty of people who think 'sacrilege- the quirkiness is what makes those songs'. I understand this, and I appreciate the odd sounds and as I said, its these moments that complete the album... I just cant help but wonder...

Tusk is not perfect but its damned interesting.

shackin'up

06-27-2014, 12:24 PM

I think during the Tusk era he had absolutely lost his freaking mind. To me, he was just a hair short of straight-jacket crazy and his Tusk performances prove it. Sorry, I do love him overall, that's my opinion.

In my opinion it was the most brilliant set of songs he ever did. Close to insanity. When he is at is best.

aleuzzi

06-27-2014, 02:31 PM

Tusk is perfect because it is flawed in musically intriguing ways. It's an off-balance, asymmetrical record, sort of like an enormous concrete sculpture held up by the tiniest pin--or something. It doesn't feel like a coherent statement: rather a series of statements which add up to something approaching an attitude.

It continues to baffle. And that is oddly pleasing.

For what it's worth, I get very similar thoughts when I listen to Then Play On.

michelej1

10-16-2014, 01:11 PM

[From a review of a festival in Newcastle, Lee Etherington's Tusk Festival ]

The Quietus.com by Stewart Smith , October 16th,

http://thequietus.com/articles/16492-festival-report-tusk

I'd rather Jeck, than Fleetwood Mac

Excuse the atrocious pun on The Reynold Girls' cheeky pop favourite, but it seems apt given Phillip Jeck's turntable, laptop and sampler based reconstruction of Fleetwood Mac's Tusk. Yes, he went there, but happily, what could have been a glib novelty set yields sublime results. A watery piano ushers in the unmistakable cocaine and honey tones of Stevie Nicks: "Beautiful child..."

Jeck works over the phrase, repeating it, modulating it and layering it so it goes in and out of phase. Gradually, he introduces other parts of the song, their delayed entry deepening the ache. As a huge fan of Tusk, I'm fascinated and moved by Jeck's artful and sensitive bricolage. The echoes and vinyl crackles intensify the torpid emotions beneath the music's luminous textures, highlighting Nicks' oft-overlooked brilliance as a lyricist: "Your eyes say yes, but you don't say yes." As the set progresses, Jeck weaves in phantasmal vocals and Fender Rhodes from Christine McVie's 'Brown Eyes' spiral into the ether, and a spindly guitar is isolated from Nicks' gorgeous 'Storms'.

michelej1

10-23-2014, 07:06 PM

[So, Mick is just like, "Hey, Lindsey write a song with a marching band, pronto!"]

[Excerpt]

The 10 best bands in college football

By: Alan Siegel, USA TODAY SportsOctober 23, 2014 1:39 pm

http://college.usatoday.com/2014/10/23/the-10-best-bands-in-college-football/

“Mick Fleetwood, the drummer, the head of the group, he was in Germany touring. One of the German brass bands marched by the window [of his hotel] and when he came back to the United States, he decided that he wanted a marching band on his next album. Believe it or not, he called the band office directly and said, ‘Would you guys be interested in being on our next album? We’re gonna write a tune especially involving the band.’ He got his guitarist, Lindsey Buckingham, to write the tune, ‘Tusk.’ We went into the studio, and I went in with my arranger, and my drum guy, we fleshed out the tune. And they laid down a track.”

“And we went into Dodger Stadium of all places and we recorded — the full band — that track, to give the ambiance of a marching band. And four months later I’m driving to school and then I hear on the radio, ‘Here’s Fleetwood Mac’s latest hit, featuring the USC marching band.’ I mean I was like, ‘Whoaaa.’”

“Over the years we have stayed in touch. They’ve been down to our halftime show, we’ve been to their concerts, I’ve talked to Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham … and I’ve gotten Mick some tickets for football games. So yeah, through the years we’ve stayed in touch. I mean, they made the band famous with a whole different group of people. So why not?”

Keith

10-23-2014, 07:17 PM

The package itself was very intriguing - an austere and elusive cover, with sleeves in sleeves, featuring some bizarre photos. .

I loved the packaging, but never understood why they didn't provide a lyric sheet. It took me forever to figure out "blue calm sea" on Storms.

tabruns

10-23-2014, 09:02 PM

4. Christine, Lindsey and Stevie has their best work songwriting-wise on the album. Especially Christine who honestly I did dismiss at first. But on this album her songs have some teeth to them. As does Stevie's. Sister of The Moon beats Gold Dust Woman for me any day of the week. Lindsey's is just sheer genius. His non-specific surreal, subject matter adds to over-all quality of songs.

You lost me on this one. I think Christine came up short on this album.

Christine's role has always been to provide the really poppy, hook laden songs to add to Nicks' mysticism and Buckingham's off-kilter brilliance. On every album of the BuckinghamNicks Mac she comes through with at least two really radio friendly songs: "Over My Head" and "Say You Love Me" (white album), "Don't Stop" and "You Make Lovin' Fun" (Rumours), "Hold Me" and "Love In Store" (Mirage), "Little Lies" and "Everywhere" (Tango).

But on Tusk we have "Think About Me" as the catchiest of her songs, and even that one is not as pop-oriented as the songs listed above. That's not to say that it isn't *good*...I think it's a great song, along with "Brown Eyes". But she just didn't provide the big radio songs for Tusk like she did the other albums:
"Brown Eyes" is *awesome* but it's an atmospheric album track, not a single.
"Never Make Me Cry" is too subdued to make it on radio.
"Never Forget" is a nice, bouncy song but not substantial enough to be a radio hit.
"Over & Over" has a nice smokey vibe but again way too subdued to make it on radio. No real hook here.
"Honey Hi" is a grower. I actually really disliked it when I first got Tusk back in 1979, but its grown on me since then basically because of the gorgeous vocals on it. But still, not radio friendly.

Now, I'll give you that one can consider these to be good songs, absolutely. But they aren't the radio pop songs that, IMO, Tusk kind of needed. Tusk is a class, brilliant album, and it has Nicks' best songs ever because Nicks did what Mac needs Nicks to do: Be the long-winded, mystical, personality-driven goddess. Buckingham came through too with amazing songs that were way ahead of their time: "Tusk" was the weirdest, best top 10 hit of 1979, "I Know I'm Not Wrong" sounds today like it should have been a hit back then, and the production on "That's All For Everyone" is breathtaking.

But Mac needs McVie to provide the radio friendly pop and on Tusk she just didn't.

tabruns

10-23-2014, 09:07 PM

sasja

10-23-2014, 11:37 PM

Tusk is the one FM album I still listen to.

I always thought that, What Makes You Think You're The One is the best song Lindsey / FM ever did.

But the whole Album remains a gem, even still all these years later.

dontlookdown

10-24-2014, 08:23 AM

I agree.
And yes - Don't Stop is still cringe-worthy for me.
It's the one Fleetwood Mac song I've never liked.

Bumperke

10-25-2014, 05:53 AM

When leafs start falling i associate this time with Tusk. One of the most memorial albums of 1979. I was shocked, this wasn't rumours.
But After two days of intensive listening i experienced the new road.
At first i liked Some SN songs and found Brown eyes in One word adorible.
Three days later i was covinced this was a Great album. One of the best, certantly in my perception.

There isn't a bad track on Tusk. And a ageer with a lot of people that dont stop is the most worst song on rumours. No affence to them who Like that song, its a personal thing. I just don't Like the way the piano sounds.

Since i'm over 50 years, i start comparing albums. For instance, the eagles had the long run, single album with mainly bad songs :sorry:

When i look outside and i need to make a choice?
Tusk by FM, forbidden colours by David Sylvian, BW suite by LB, ans a lot of simple new wave.
Storms is coming, save me a Place, Sara:]

michelej1

11-20-2014, 10:17 PM

[Members of Fists and Cantaloupe talk about great albums]

Left Lion

http://www.leftlion.co.uk/articles.cfm/title/defending-the-indefensible/id/7115

Tusk is Fleetwood Mac’s twelfth studio album and the follow up to Rumours which is the one that everybody else loves. When it came out in 1979 it was almost entirely universally panned by the critics, the fans and the radio programmers alike. Despite being the most expensive record ever recorded (at the time) it disappeared quickly from the charts and the playlists.

The arguments for it being bad are that it’s fragmented and non-cohesive, the sound of three solo artists pretending to still be in a band together, and an album with quite a few half-baked songs with nothing that really works on the radio. (It’s essentially Fleetwood Mac’s In Utero which is clearly the best Nirvana album).

These criticisms might be true but they are also the reasons why I love this record. When reviewers talk about it being fragmented what they should mean is that it takes wild and bizarre U-turns into weird new territories that records made by folk-rock dinosaurs from the seventies should not visit.

It opens with the long melancholy sigh of Christine McVie’s Over and Over, a song of quivering; multiple-vocal layers so overdone that it hums with an eerie electronic vibrato. Track two and we’re listening to Lindsey Buckingham trying to reinvent himself as a new-wave punker with Mick Fleetwood playing Kleenex boxes instead of a drum kit in the most expensive studio on earth! These odd shifts continue for the whole record like interlocking fragments that create a wonky whole that reveals a band on the precipice of a new decade who are unsure of who they are anymore.

Like its predecessor it shimmers with cocaine, sunshine and the erotic fluctuations of its core members before we end up at one of the biggest and weirdest U-turn’s in the history of pop music. The title track is a Hollywood sized epic folk-rock diorama of tribal drums, animal sounds and the USC Trojan Marching Band that’s completely unforgettable. James from Fists

michelej1

12-04-2014, 01:32 PM

Phoenix New Times Why Fleetwood Mac's Tusk Is Better Than Rumours

By Jason KeilTue., Dec. 2 2014 at 9:00 AM

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/uponsun/2014/12/fleetwood_macs_tusk.php

The first two albums Fleetwood Mac released after Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined Christine McVie, bassist John McVie, and drummer Mick Fleetwood provided the pop soundtrack of the late 1970s. The tender nature of singles like "Landslide," the mysticism of "Rhiannon," and the bold confessional nature of "Go Your Own Way" and "The Chain" struck a chord with anyone with a radio and a pair of working ears. Rumours would go on to be one of the top ten selling albums of all time. It continues to resonate today as much as it did when it was first released in 1977, influencing musicians for generations to come, providing the soundtrack for '90s presidential campaigns, and continuing to set itself upon the lofty perch of various "all-time best album" lists.

How did the quintet follow up such unprecedented success? By releasing Tusk, a double-album that in 1979 was one of the most expensive albums ever made. Tusk's 20 experimental tracks felt like the disjointed work of three charismatic solo artists as opposed to five talented musicians. Despite the fact it sold two million copies in the United States, it was considered a costly failure, especially sitting in the long shadow cast by Rumours. Unless they're Michael Jackson, how could any artist expect to come close to repeating the feeling and enormous popularity of an album that feels like lightning captured in a bottle?

Buckingham knew it couldn't be done. It's obvious in his studio work on the album (he took on most of the production duties for Tusk, and nine of the songwriting credits on the album are his) that it was time to move on and take a more contemporary and experimental approach to the music. This explains why 25 years later, history has been kind to the disc. It was an album that was not only a product of its time, with the album's influences coming less from the soft rock era the band was leaving behind and more from the punk and new wave sounds that were emerging, but was also ahead of its time. Songs like "Think About Me" feel like they could come out of the indie rock music of today, chock full of rich layers that need to be peeled back with each listen to be fully appreciated. You can hear that influence -- a desire to keep a song elegant in its simplicity -- in songs like "Ask Me Anything" from The Strokes' album First Impressions of Earth.

There are a lot of details that can be picked up on multiple listens of Tusk, which makes the album a far richer experience than the slick production on Rumours. On the strange, percussion-heavy, tribal title track (which supposedly refers to the euphemism Fleetwood has for his member), you can hear Buckingham give some studio direction, and then the drummer says "real savage like" as the USC Trojan Marching Band trumpets in. The one-off line isn't repeated during any other live recordings of the song. "Here comes the night time looking for a little more/Waiting on the right time somebody outside the door," a line on the raw and angry track "Not the Funny," makes another appearance six spots down during "I Know I'm Not Wrong." Then there's Christine McVie's quiet sultry repeat of the final line of "Never Forget," the album's lovely optimistic finale. It's the perfect finish to an album that put everyone in the band through the emotional wringer.

It was the drama behind each of the songs that made Rumours so relatable to so many listeners. That album is infamous for chronicling the declining relationships and persistent addictions that took place, but on Tusk the music is much more heartbreaking, confessional, and personal. "What Makes You Think You're the One," just one of the many songs Buckingham wrote about Nicks, possibly addresses his former love's cocaine habit by asking her if she is the one "who can live without dying." Christine McVie sings to a lover (possibly McVie), who is cheating on her to "go and do what you want" as she waits for him to return on "Never Make Me Cry." Last September, Nicks confirmed to Billboard that the urban rock legend about the song "Sara" was partially true: the song came from the name of the unborn child Nicks conceived with Eagles' singer Don Henley while the couple were dating. As Nicks recalls:

"Had I married Don and had that baby, and had she been a girl, I would have named her Sara. But there was another woman in my life named Sara, who shortly after that became Mick's wife, Sara Fleetwood."

The most sonically thrilling aspect of the expansive Tusk is the harmonies of singers, thanks to Buckingham's continued fascination with California bands like The Beach Boys. The background vocals on "Walk a Thin Line" mesh so well with the guitar virtuoso's falsetto during the song's chorus that you want to make that journey across the tightrope right along with him. The harmonies also shine on the heartbreaking "That's All For Everyone," as Buckingham "cries out for more" while trying to decide whether the band should continue on together considering all the personal turmoil their collaboration has wrought.

It was after this album that Buckingham, Fleetwood, and Nicks pursued solo albums. Buckingham went on to explore the experiments he started on Tusk with the album Law and Order. Nicks would grow into the role of the mythical diva she is today. The band as a whole went back to the formula they honed on Rumours with 1982's Mirage, having spent their creative capital on an album that many see as an oddity, but holds up as a masterwork today.

seeker007nmss

12-07-2014, 02:13 AM

HomerMcvie

12-07-2014, 02:27 AM

Tusk perfect? I greatly disagree, it has the WORST FM song of all time on it. Lindsey screaching Not that Funny turns my stomach every time. I absolutely hate that song. That piece of crap should have never seen the light of day.

I wanna buy you a drink!

I don't mind the record version, too much, but the Mirage video version? My god, I had this video as a kid, and my friends loved it....liked it....err, tolerated it, EXCEPT for NTF? "Turn this sh*t OFF, or we're going home!"(referring to NTF).

NTF wasn't really well received....:lol:

secret love

12-07-2014, 03:04 AM

I only really became a devoted fan of Fleetwood Mac recently, maybe just over two years ago.

I had heard their songs on WS 101.7 FM for years growing up because my Dad often put the car radio on WS FM. It's a classic rock station so of course they play Fleetwood Mac songs over and over: but they stick to the hit staples: Rhiannon, Dreams, Go Your Own Way, Don't Stop, Tusk, Gypsy, Hold Me, Little Lies, Seven Wonders. I have never heard this station play any songs from Behind the Mask, Time, Say You Will or Extended Play.

It is also rare for them to play any song from Tusk other than the title track. Which brings me to why I love Tusk so much. When I worked out the same band was behind all of these great songs I heard on Sydney FM radio, I decided to dig a bit deeper into their back-catalogue and downloaded most of their albums from iTunes.

Tusk was great because 75% of these songs I'd never heard before! They were new to me, exciting, fresh and catchy. I Know I'm Not Wrong is one of my favourite Lindsey songs.

I love Tusk and think it is a great album, but I would stop short of calling it "perfect". Tusk is special to me because it isn't perfect (let me explain). There is not one bad song on Rumours.

In my opinion, Rumours is the perfect album and I think it sells extremely well because so many people can relate to the stories on that record: unrequited love (Go Your Own Way), feeling trapped in a relationship (Dreams), I care about you, but I don't love you anymore (Don't Stop) etc. But Tusk is my favourite album because it never seems to get old. I notice something I haven't before every time I play the record. The songs on Rumours have been played to death both on FM radio and in concert by the band, but many Tusk songs retain that elusive feeling: you can play Never Forget and enjoy it and actually believe that most of the world has not heard the song.

Does that make any sense?

bethelblues

12-07-2014, 10:13 AM

elle

12-07-2014, 01:24 PM

I don't mind the record version, too much, but the Mirage video version? My god, I had this video as a kid, and my friends loved it....liked it....err, tolerated it, EXCEPT for NTF?

:lol: not the most kid-friendly song version, no. ;)

for the record, i actually love NTF - both on the album where i think it's very interesting with extra little arrangements and left-field additions in it, and especially his more recent, very short punkish live versions. Live 2013 version was one of the unexpected highlights of that show. :nod:

secret love

12-07-2014, 04:03 PM

That definitely makes sense! When songs are less familiar, they feel fresh and new and exciting. There's no need to press skip when a song comes up on your iTunes shuffle list. It surprises you and it's a gratifying listening experience.

Tusk has some great songs. Perhaps some of the best the band has done. I do think production hurt some in terms of accessibility. Lindsey could've probably had one or two more hits had his songs felt more complete...but that was clearly not what he was going for. I think Stevie's songs set her as one of the pre-eminent female singer-songwriters. Sara, Beautiful Child, and Storms are really special songs, devastating even. I wish the latter two were more known by the world and music critics. I'd be citing them as among her best songs and most essential. Sisters of the Moon was such a great rocker for the Tusk and Mirage tours, just an incredible live moment for Stevie and the band that again didn't pierce the popular consciousness like her other songs did, unfortunately. And Christine shows quite a lot of diversity on the album. The layering and production of "Brown Eyes"...my God! I remember thinking "Honey Hi" was just so short and stupid, but now it has completely absorbed me...I love the vocals and I love how they keep building to the end's "round." No, not every song works. I would point to the album's biggest problem being its pacing. Listening through the album in the car, for example, can be quite difficult, since there are so few upbeat songs. And slow ballads or slow songs don't give the overall listening much momentum and drive. Still, this is a very important album for the band and certainly gets close to The Beatles' White Album for its experimentation. I think The Beatles (and Led Zeppelin) did more with songs, where you'd have 3-5 enormous changes in rhythm and tempo that effectively made 3-5 songs in 1 song...but FM gives you more interesting vocals and personalities. If only the band would do more to draw attention to this album. Some songs here could only be described as sublime.

On the bolded point. Perhaps this is why Stevie dusted off Beautiful Child for the SYW 2003/2004 tour and Storms for the Unleashed 2009 tour. To give the songs a new audience. When she included Sisters of the Moon in last year's set list, I was so hopeful that Angel would be in the 2014/2015 set list. I'm sure some other fans must have noticed the same pattern I did, of a different Tusk album track from Stevie every consecutive tour since The Dance.

Oh well, we can keep our fingers crossed that Sisters of the Moon will be swapped out for Angel some time in 2015. Power of positive thinking! :thumbsup:

Edited to add:
Yes, of course The Beatles did more with songs than Fleetwood Mac ever has. The mantra of this band, since Tusk, has been KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) - "guys, let's stick to what worked for us in 1977". That is why so many of their songs are classified by Billboard as Adult Contemporary. There is definitely a Fleetwood Mac formula.

Most songs Stevie writes have three different chords repeated through out. This is because she writes on piano and having never taken lessons, she doesn't know how to read a score nor does she know very many chords. The band tends to take Stevie's piano demos and keep the basic three chord structure but just add different instruments into the mix to make it interesting listening.

Christine McVie did receive piano lessons and as a result, of course her songs tend to have a more complex musical structure than Stevie's. Lindsey's songs again, are almost always more musically complex than Stevie's because he is a virtuoso guitarist. On a side note, It Takes Time would definitely benefit from Christine McVie either re-arranging or completing re-writing the piano music. It is a bit too dull for me.

I think what was missing from Say You Will was not Christine per se. What's missing to me is that more sophisticated musical structure she delivers in her compositions that just leaves Stevie's music-writing efforts for dead. We needed a bridge between Lindsey's amazing, boundary-pushing guitar work and the simple (but still impressive) music which Stevie composed. Christine's songs have always been more mainstream. Lindsey's work is more to the left and Stevie's is, sometimes, a little to the right. Her lyrics can sound forceful, bossy.

bethelblues

12-07-2014, 08:22 PM

Yes, of course The Beatles did more with songs than Fleetwood Mac ever has. The mantra of this band, since Tusk, has been KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) - "guys, let's stick to what worked for us in 1977". That is why so many of their songs are classified by Billboard as Adult Contemporary. There is definitely a Fleetwood Mac formula.

But even putting said "experimental" Tusk songs next to what Led Zeppelin did (Stairway to Heaven being a good example) or The Beatles did and many of the ideas are significantly less developed. Lindsey's songs are so short...I might have preferred if he went go big or go home and really went for a guitar epic, 8-10 minute album cut. I wish their songs weren't reduced to Adult Contemporary...but that's what happens when you reinforce the same songs and album to the world.

ryan4136

12-08-2014, 02:40 PM

Yeah Tusk!!!!!!!

SisterNightroad

12-13-2014, 09:32 AM

35 Years Ago: Fleetwood Mac Tries Something New with ‘Tusk’
by Jeff Giles October 12, 2014 3:04 PM

How do you release a double album that goes multi-platinum, breaks the Top Five, spawns multiple hit singles, and spends months in the Top 40 while still being widely regarded as an artistic folly and a flop? Ask Fleetwood Mac. After all, that’s exactly what they did with 1979′s ‘Tusk.’
Released Oct. 12, 1979 — just a few months shy of three years after their previous effort, 1977′s ‘Rumours,’ began its march toward record-breaking success — ‘Tusk’ made up for the long wait between LPs by packing 20 tracks into its expanded length.
But as the Mac giveth, the Mac taketh away: for fans expecting a set of songs that picked up where ‘Rumours’ left off, ‘Tusk’ proved a confounding listen, full of artistic left turns and sonic experimentation. Some found it daring and others accused the band of self-indulgence, but no matter how you felt about the album, it was obvious that Fleetwood Mac was refusing to rest on its laurels.
This is not to say that ‘Tusk’ is without its radio-friendly moments. Six singles were released in all, starting with the Top 10 title track — one of the more willfully experimental cuts on the album — and including ‘Sara’ (No. 7) and ‘Think About Me’ (No. 20). But it was obvious that rather than trying to recapture or outdo ‘Rumours,’ the band members were willing to expend the huge amount of commercial capital they’d built up by putting together a sprawling, ambitious work that reflected many, if not all, of their wildest artistic whims.
Leading the charge was guitarist and singer Lindsey Buckingham, whose grip on the ‘Tusk’ reins would later lead to some derisively referring to the record as ‘Lindsey’s folly.’ As he later took pains to explain, however, it wasn’t about satisfying his ego.
“I was losing a great deal of myself,” Buckingham later recalled of trying to create new music in the wake of ‘Rumours.’ His solution was to cover as much musical ground as possible — to consciously avoid a ‘Rumours II.’ “My thought was, let’s subvert the norm. Let’s slow the tape machine down, or speed it up, or put the mike on the bathroom floor and sing and beat on, uh, a Kleenex box! My mind was racing.”

The end result was a set of songs that replaced the burnished AM glow of its predecessor with a sonic landscape that was broader and more colorful — yet also more arid, and studded with sharper angles. Critics were quick to point to New Wave as an overriding influence, but ‘Tusk’ wasn’t an attempt to glom onto trendy sounds. As evidenced by the stomping, marching band-backed title track, or the spiky ‘The Ledge,’ or the fuzz-laced ‘Not That Funny,’ or the reverb-soaked ‘That’s All for Everyone,’ it found Buckingham on nothing more than a dizzying quest to capture the sounds in his own mind.
Although Buckingham described the positive aspects of upending expectations, engineer Ken Caillat recalled a fairly turbulent working environment, with Buckingham’s eccentric behavior setting the tone. “He was a maniac,” Caillat countered. “The first day, I set the studio up as usual. Then he said, ‘Turn every knob 180 degrees from where it is now and see what happens.’ He’d tape microphones to the studio floor and get into a sort of push-up position to sing. Early on, he came in and he’d freaked out in the shower and cut off all his hair with nail scissors. He was stressed.”
He wasn’t the only one. Drummer Mick Fleetwood later laughed about Warner Bros. chief Mo Ostin’s apoplectic response to the finished product, paraphrasing his remarks by saying, “You’re insane doing a double album at this time. The business is f–ed, we’re dying the death, we can’t sell records, and this will have to retail at twice the normal price. It’s suicide.”
But in 1979, not even the head of Fleetwood Mac’s record company could stop them from doing whatever they wanted. Neither could they stop a troubled narrative from being woven around the album’s eventual success.

Given its length, its ambition, and its much clucked-over million-dollar cost — not to mention the mountains of rock-star excess that sprung up around Fleetwood Mac during an epic ‘Tusk’ tour that included specially painted hotel rooms for singer Stevie Nicks and no shortage of on-stage tension — the record came to be regarded as a weird, costly tumble from the dizzying heights of ‘Rumours.’
Unsurprisingly, the band members took issue with this point of view. “In the context of the whole, ‘Rumours’ took longer to make than ‘Tusk.’ One of the reasons why ‘Tusk’ cost so much is that we happened to be at a studio that was charging a f– of a lot of money,” Buckingham pointed out. “During the making of ‘Tusk,’ we were in the studio for about 10 months and we got 20 songs out of it. ‘Rumours’ took the same amount of time. It didn’t cost so much because we were in a cheaper studio. There’s no denying what it cost, but I think it’s been taken out of context.”
Fleetwood also insisted in a Trouser Press interview that change was part of the band’s legacy. “We’ve never stayed one way for very long, and I don’t think we ever will. We’ve always changed a lot whether or not players have changed,” he said. “Doing a double album didn’t make any business sense at all. But it meant a lot to us, artistically — whether we could still feel challenged. We really, really are pleased with it. We’ve also, I think, got enough discretion to know if the songs aren’t up to standard, in which case we’d have just put out a single album.”
Meanwhile, Christine McVie bristled during a 1982 interview with Sounds, pointing out that “‘Tusk’ sold nine million copies — so it can’t be too shabby, can it? But a lot of people gave us flak about that album. It’s very different, very different, very Lindsey Buckingham. I’ll have to say that. He was going through some musical experiments at the time.”

Still, the backlash took its toll, and when the sales came in considerably softer than those for ‘Rumours’ — which was, it’s worth noting, one of the biggest-selling records of all time — Buckingham felt that the other members of the group turned on him, jaundicing his perception of his place in the band as well as its artistic limits.
“I got a lot of support from the band during the making of ‘Tusk’; everyone was really excited about it. Then, when it became apparent that it wasn’t going to sell 15 million albums, the attitude started to change — which was sad for me in a way, because it makes me wonder where everyone’s priorities are,” Buckingham later admitted to Record. “They changed their attitude about the music, after they realized it wasn’t going to sell as many copies. That’s not really the point of doing it. The point is to shake people’s preconceptions about pop.”
None of that helped curb Buckingham’s restless artistic appetites, and before the end of the ’80s, he was out of the band, temporarily off to pursue wilder (and less commercially friendly) solo vistas. But like a lot of works of art once deemed too outre, ‘Tusk’ earned a deeper measure of appreciation over time. Today, it’s widely regarded as one of the more interesting and artistically sounding albums in Fleetwood Mac’s catalog, and all those out-there moments that perplexed ‘Rumours’ fans have been hailed as influential by a widening circle of younger bands.
In time, Buckingham would return to Fleetwood Mac, but the way it was perceived — and the lasting demand for ‘Rumours’-style Mac product — left a lasting impression on his career.
“For me, the ‘Tusk’ album was the most important album we made, but only because it drew a line in the sand that, for me, defined the way I still think today,” Buckingham mused in a 2011 interview. “I was trying to pave some new territory for us, but another way of looking at it is that I was causing trouble. Had we all wanted the same thing for the same reason, I probably never would have made solo albums.”

Read More: 35 Years Ago: Fleetwood Mac Tries Something New with 'Tusk' | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/fleetwood-mac-tusk/?trackback=tsmclip

PenguinHead

12-14-2014, 04:35 AM

seems so many people who say they love Tusk at the same time severely dislike SYW. to me, these two albums have a lot of similarities, and i could never understand how the same person can love Tusk and hate SYW. what are your thoughts on this?

Interesting thought. I do think they share similarities; they are both distinctive, challenging double albums, but different in production style. Tusk feels more organic and diverse.

I love that Tusk is getting the love and recognition it deserves; far more so than when it was released. It's an album ahead of its time (Thanks Lindsey!). Like a fine wine, it benefited from age in order to be fully appreciated for its distinct flavors and inherent significance. It's a fine example how of hard-line judgments of the moment can sometimes turn fluid over a span of time, transforming perspective and perception.

michelej1

12-14-2014, 05:12 PM

Why Fleetwood Mac's Greatest Album Isn't Rumours

By Jason Keil Fri., Dec. 12 2014 Denver Westword

http://blogs.westword.com/backbeat/2014/12/fleetwood_mac_tusk_tour.php?page=2

The first two albums Fleetwood Mac (playing tonight, December 12, at the Pepsi Center) released after Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined Christine McVie, bassist John McVie, and drummer Mick Fleetwood provided the pop soundtrack of the late 1970s. The tender nature of singles like "Landslide," the mysticism of "Rhiannon," and the bold confessional nature of "Go Your Own Way" and "The Chain" struck a chord with anyone with a radio and a pair of working ears. Rumours would go on to be one of the top ten selling albums of all time. It continues to resonate today as much as it did when it was first released in 1977, influencing musicians for generations to come, providing the soundtrack for '90s presidential campaigns, and continuing to set itself upon the lofty perch of various "all-time best album" lists.

How did the quintet follow up such unprecedented success? By releasing Tusk, a double-album that in 1979 was one of the most expensive albums ever made. Tusk's 20 experimental tracks felt like the disjointed work of three charismatic solo artists as opposed to five talented musicians. Despite the fact it sold two million copies in the United States, it was considered a costly failure, especially sitting in the long shadow cast by Rumours. Unless they're Michael Jackson, how could any artist expect to come close to repeating the feeling and enormous popularity of an album that feels like lightning captured in a bottle?

Buckingham knew it couldn't be done. It's obvious in his studio work on the album (he took on most of the production duties for Tusk, and nine of the songwriting credits on the album are his) that it was time to move on and take a more contemporary and experimental approach to the music. This explains why 25 years later, history has been kind to the disc. It was an album that was not only a product of its time, with the album's influences coming less from the soft rock era the band was leaving behind and more from the punk and new wave sounds that were emerging, but was also ahead of its time. Songs like "Think About Me" feel like they could come out of the indie rock music of today, chock full of rich layers that need to be peeled back with each listen to be fully appreciated. You can hear that influence -- a desire to keep a song elegant in its simplicity -- in songs like "Ask Me Anything" from The Strokes' album First Impressions of Earth.

There are a lot of details that can be picked up on multiple listens of Tusk, which makes the album a far richer experience than the slick production on Rumours. On the strange, percussion-heavy, tribal title track (which supposedly refers to the euphemism Fleetwood has for his member), you can hear Buckingham give some studio direction, and then the drummer says "real savage like" as the USC Trojan Marching Band trumpets in. The one-off line isn't repeated during any other live recordings of the song. "Here comes the night time looking for a little more/Waiting on the right time somebody outside the door," a line on the raw and angry track "Not the Funny," makes another appearance six spots down during "I Know I'm Not Wrong." Then there's Christine McVie's quiet sultry repeat of the final line of "Never Forget," the album's lovely optimistic finale. It's the perfect finish to an album that put everyone in the band through the emotional wringer.

It was the drama behind each of the songs that made Rumours so relatable to so many listeners. That album is infamous for chronicling the declining relationships and persistent addictions that took place, but on Tusk the music is much more heartbreaking, confessional, and personal. "What Makes You Think You're the One," just one of the many songs Buckingham wrote about Nicks, possibly addresses his former love's cocaine habit by asking her if she is the one "who can live without dying." Christine McVie sings to a lover (possibly McVie), who is cheating on her to "go and do what you want" as she waits for him to return on "Never Make Me Cry." Last September, Nicks confirmed to Billboard that the urban rock legend about the song "Sara" was partially true: the song came from the name of the unborn child Nicks conceived with Eagles' singer Don Henley while the couple were dating. As Nicks recalls:

"Had I married Don and had that baby, and had she been a girl, I would have named her Sara. But there was another woman in my life named Sara, who shortly after that became Mick's wife, Sara Fleetwood."

The most sonically thrilling aspect of the expansive Tusk is the harmonies of singers, thanks to Buckingham's continued fascination with California bands like The Beach Boys. The background vocals on "Walk a Thin Line" mesh so well with the guitar virtuoso's falsetto during the song's chorus that you want to make that journey across the tightrope right along with him. The harmonies also shine on the heartbreaking "That's All For Everyone," as Buckingham "cries out for more" while trying to decide whether the band should continue on together considering all the personal turmoil their collaboration has wrought.

It was after this album that Buckingham, Fleetwood, and Nicks pursued solo albums. Buckingham went on to explore the experiments he started on Tusk with the album Law and Order. Nicks would grow into the role of the mythical diva she is today. The band as a whole went back to the formula they honed on Rumours with 1982's Mirage, having spent their creative capital on an album that many see as an oddity, but holds up as a masterwork today.

michelej1

02-19-2015, 12:15 AM

[Excerpt From an article on the NYT Magazine. The FM article should be in Sunday's paper] 2/18/2015 Capital New York

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2015/02/8562405/new-emnew-york-times-magazineem

New franchises include Virginia Heffernan and Colson Whitehead taking turns for an opening "First Words" essay about language; Jenna Wortham on cool quirky web trends ("Search Results"); a "Letter of Recommendation" from a different writer each week raving about random great things (first installment: "Tusk" by Fleetwood Mac; coming soon: La Croix sparkling water);

secondhandchain

02-19-2015, 01:21 AM

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/magazine/letter-of-recommendation-fleetwood-macs-tusk.html?_r=0

Here is the article. I love how the guy thinks Stevie is singing the last line in The ledge. Do your research.

michelej1

02-19-2015, 10:34 AM

[Thank you SecondHandChain]

New York Times Magazine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/magazine/letter-of-recommendation-fleetwood-macs-tusk.html?_r=1

Letter of Recommendation: Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Tusk’
By SAM ANDERSONFEB. 18, 2015

There is a species of spider that hunts by releasing chemicals that imitate the sex pheromones of moths. When its prey arrives, high on fantasies of romance, the spider hits it with a sticky blob of web, then devours it. Scientists call this “aggressive mimicry.”

This is something like the operating principle behind Fleetwood Mac’s 1979 album “Tusk.” The trap is set with the first track: a lite-rock masterpiece, in roughly the tempo of a summer nap, called “Over & Over.” The singer’s voice is smooth and sad, a melon-flavored wine cooler on a vacant beach at sunset with the one you know will eventually leave you. The keening cheese-ball lyrics (“all you have to do is speak out my name, and I will come running”) are so generic as to be almost meaningless, and these words float on top of a clean acoustic strum, which is punctuated neatly by a clean snare, which is colored in turn by the very clean jangles of an undistorted electric guitar.

Continue reading the main story
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It is, in other words, quintessential Fleetwood Mac: classic FM-radio easy listening — an absolute top-shelf lighter-swaying anthem. Not a note is out of place. (This may be the spot to mention that the birth name of the song’s lead vocalist, Christine McVie, is actually Christine Perfect.) The band’s three-voiced choir is in full-on angel-harmony mode — “Oooooooooooo a-ooo-ooo-OOO-ooo-oooooooooooo” — and as the refrain drones on (“over and over, over and over, over and over”) you can feel your pulse beginning to slow, and you step through the bead curtains into the dim back room of your consciousness, where the lava lamp still blorbles and the ylang-ylang incense burns and you can bathe forever in the radiant black light of the perpetual 1970s.

As Tusk’s opening song, “Over & Over” functions as a thesis statement: No matter how messy life gets — with its affairs and screaming matches and drunken blackouts and cocaine frenzies and ludicrous escapades, like that one time (true story) when a decadent German LSD cult corrupted the lead guitarist — in the end we are all going to be safe, forever, in the Crystal Palace of Soft Rock.

This is, of course, a lie. The Crystal Palace of Soft Rock will save no one. It is a beautiful but fragile structure, unfit to shelter us from even life’s most minor assaults, let alone the really serious dirt clods and cannonballs and stinger missiles associated with marriage, parenthood, age and death. The Crystal Palace of Soft Rock will crumble. It is good for nothing. Do not trust it. What makes “Tusk” a great album — not just a pop relic of the late ’70s but an artwork that continues to speak to contemporary, sentient humans — is how quickly and ruthlessly it exposes this lie.

It happens on the very next song. “Over & Over” fades out on a liquid guitar solo (we can rock, Fleetwood Mac will have you know, but we’re not going to burden you with too much of it), and into the vacancy steps a song called “The Ledge.” As in, a thing to fall off. And this is exactly what the album suddenly does. Fleetwood Mac shoves the glimmering Crystal Palace of Soft Rock — and along with it, the band’s whole multiplatinum, radio-friendly sound — directly off a steep and treacherous cliff, at the bottom of which it crashes into 32,000 jagged pieces. “The Ledge” is a noisy, bouncing fuzz-monster that makes no kind of sense in the universe of mainstream ’70s radio pop. The band’s signature vocals are buried in the mix, roughed up, uglified; there are chants, whispers, moans and shouts. It sounds as if it were recorded live on a whaling ship in heavy seas. You can practically hear the record executives shrieking in the background. It ends not with a gentle fade-out but with a kind of goat-bleat from Stevie Nicks, followed by some gratuitous drum patter.

“Tusk” was Fleetwood Mac’s follow-up to the 1977 megahit “Rumours,” the exquisitely engineered soft-rock juggernaut that went platinum 20 times over, spent 31 weeks at No. 1 and made Fleetwood Mac the world’s biggest band, the very definition of commercial rock. Everyone (including most of the band itself) was expecting the next album to be “Rumours II”: 40 more lucrative minutes of “Go Your Own Way” and “Dreams” and “Don’t Stop” and “You Make Loving Fun.”

nstead, they got “Tusk” — a deliberate act of crazy defiance. Everything about the album is ridiculous, from its length (20 songs, 72 minutes) to its sleeve art (a visual distillation of the precise moment at which the 1970s turned into the 1980s) to its title (the word “tusk,” among the band’s male members, was slang for the male member; when Stevie Nicks heard that this his would be the album’s title, she threatened to quit the band).

The hero (or villain) of “Tusk,” the organizing intelligence behind everything, was Lindsey Buckingham. He was less the band’s guitarist than a one-man band whose instruments happened to include all of his bandmates. Some of the songs were recorded in Buckingham’s home studio, where he had a setup that allowed him to play drums while sitting on the toilet. His obsessiveness during the recording alienated everyone. All of the non-Buckinghams sat around idly, inhaling hillocks of cocaine, losing track of time, while Buckingham futzed around with tape speeds and lay on the ground singing countless takes of backing vocals into a microphone taped to the floor. (He thought this would create a more “aggressive” sound.) Famously, the band rented Dodger Stadium and employed the 120-piece U.S.C. marching band to record the title track — an infectious riff that Buckingham distilled into a three-minute oddity so strange it seemed to actively sabotage any chance the song might have had to become a breakout hit.

“Tusk” cost more than $1 million to make — the most expensive record ever, at the time — and took 13 months to record. The result was a double LP, almost twice as long as “Rumours,” that produced zero No. 1 hits. It was as uncommercial as an essentially commercial enterprise could ever make itself sound. (Despite this, the single versions of “Tusk” and “Sara” did manage to crack the Top 10.)

This is the defiant heroism of “Tusk.” “Rumours” is one of the most immaculate products in the history of American pop — every song a potential hit, every moment airtight. “Tusk,” by contrast, is full of air; the songs are swollen with atmosphere. It contains many of Fleetwood Mac’s greatest nonsingles (“What Makes You Think You’re the One,” “Save Me a Place,” “Storms,” “That’s All for Everyone”), as well as some of the most powerful transmissions ever received from the astral plane occupied by Stevie Nicks. (“Beautiful Child,” in particular, will haunt you all the way to the terminal buttons of your neurons.) The defining tension of “Tusk” is perfection versus destruction, gloss versus mess — the lure of soft rock versus the barb of art rock. It is where obsessive artistic control circles around into raggedness, where chaos and order dance together in a cloud of whirling scarves. The album probably has five too many songs, and a handful of tracks are two minutes too long, but that’s the cost of this kind of genius: excess, bombast, hubris, getting carried away.

A version of this article appears in print on February 22, 2015, on page MM74 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline: Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Tusk’.

Copies of “Tusk” sold in the U.S.: 2 million

Copies of “Rumours” sold: 20 million

Album’s price in 1979: $15.98; adjusted for inflation: $52.11

Album’s price today on iTunes: $12.99

Cost to build Fleetwood Mac’s custom recording studio for “Tusk”: $1.4 million

Estimated daily cost of the “Tusk” tour: $25,000-$30,000

Minimum number of drug dealers on the band's payroll: 1

Dr.Brown

02-20-2015, 10:22 AM

What if Little Lies had appeared on Tusk as a Lindsey/Christine duet?
Perhaps it would have gone something like this::)
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O6GpbrV3Q-0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

vivfox

02-20-2015, 11:53 AM

What if Little Lies had appeared on Tusk as a Lindsey/Christine duet?

Cute, hot and handsome.

michelej1

03-28-2015, 04:05 AM

Nashville Scene Posted By Stephen Trageser on Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 12:57 PM

http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/archives/2015/03/27/what-were-listening-to-currently-spinning-on-the-creams-turntables-and-playlists

I respect Fleetwood Mac as a great group of pop songwriters and a rock band who wielded the power of state-of-the-art studios like Zeus throws lightning bolts, but I can't call myself a fan. I passed on a chance to see last week's Bridgestone show. But I started listening to Tusk this week, and it's rapidly becoming a favorite, maybe because the unvarnished, somewhat unhinged double-album is almost the antithesis of the rest of their catalog. If you're anti-Mac, consider starting here — keeping in mind that it's almost nothing like the rest of their work. Camper Van Beethoven digs it.

Keith

03-28-2015, 10:39 AM

I just finished listening to my vinyl copy of Tusk from front to back and I'm exhausted. I had to get up 3 times to flip over and change discs.

A truly beautiful record with so many brilliant moments. Perfect, not quite. For me, missing is so many opportunities to incorporate the voices of all 3 singers. This was the era when their voices were magical and how sweet they sounded together. Just listen to the end of Never Forget or Beautiful Child or Honey Hi.

I remember when I first got the album in college and me and my roommate were listening to side 1 - Mike didn't say anything until Sara started playing. He said "Now that's Fleetwood Mac."

michelej1

03-28-2015, 03:55 PM

I just finished listening to my vinyl copy of Tusk from front to back and I'm exhausted. I had to get up 3 times to flip over and change discs.

I know. I am the same way with DVDs. If I can't stream something, getting up and finding the DVD and having to put it in the player ... Why must I still live like a cave man!

Michele

michelej1

07-03-2015, 08:09 PM

VH1 by Mike McPadden, July 2 2015

http://www.vh1.com/news/32806/classic-rock-albums-that-baffled-fans/

8 Albums By Classic Rock Artists That Left Fans Baffled

Fleetwood Mac rewrote what was possible in pop-rock with their 1977 watershed Rumours, a multi-multi-platinum hit factory that also made deeply heartfelt and personal impacts on listeners worldwide, thereby setting up the band to be the biggest musical outfit maybe even of all time.

Tusk, the album that followed Rumours, made sure that didn’t happen.

Sprawling, strange, fitfully brilliant, and recorded at a cost of a then-unprecedented $1 million, the double-LP Tusk slammed into fans and critics alike in 1979 like a wrecking ball emblazoned with a giant question mark.

If Rumours sounded nothing like Fleetwood Mac’s original incarnation as a heavy blues ensemble, then Tusk not only sounded nothing like Rumours, it actually sounded like nothing else anyone else had ever attempted since the last biggest rock group on the planet pulled off Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Alas, LSD seems to be a more creatively fertile intoxicant than cocaine and that, among other factors, may well explain why Tusk, triumph that it is in spots, hardly connected with human consciousness as did Sgt. Pepper.

Mac bass player John McVie has correctly stated that Tusk comes off as three separate solo projects jammed together: one by vocalist Stevie Nicks, one by singer and keyboard player Christine McVie, and the biggest one by guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. In fact, Tusk’s three radio hits adhere to that theory: Stevie’s “Sara”, Christine’s “Think About Me,” and Lindsey’s title track.

The song “Tusk,” in fact, encapsulates everything great and insane and frustrating and berserk and enduring about the larger album. Building off a tribal drum beat, “Tusk” features Buckingham, Nicks, and Christine McVie almost mumbling the paranoid opening verses of the song before exploding into the angry, shouted chorus “Don’t say that you love me! Just say that you want me!” after each line of which Lindsey whoops, “Ai-ooh-eee!” The University of Southern California Trojan Marching Band provides booming percussing and blaring horns. At some point somebody who sounds stoned say, “Real savage-like!”

In summation, “Tusk,” the song, is the strangest damn concoction to ever hit #8 on the pop charts. Tusk, the album, took that weirdness all the way to double platinum status.

michelej1

07-14-2015, 05:40 PM

Entertainment Focus Playlist: Sunny Ozell Posted on July 14, 2015

http://www.entertainment-focus.com/music-section/music-news/ef-playlist-sunny-ozell/

Over and Over by Fleetwood Mac off their 1979 record Tusk

I’m a huge Christine McVie fan. (This is a very important distinction to make, in the world’s ongoing and much agonized-over Christine-vs-Stevie debate.) My parents have a stupendous collection of vinyl, and much of my early music exploration was thanks to them. I loved Tusk long before I was old enough to understand how heavy it was, and what it must have cost them as humans to make. “Over and Over” is a testament to the profundity that is Fleetwood Mac’s rhythm section: the steady, lucid pulse of the bass and drums, paired with Christine’s airy and emotive vocal makes this tune feel like its perched on the head of a pin (a deliciously dangerous kind of tension). - See more at: http://www.entertainment-focus.com/music-section/music-news/ef-playlist-sunny-ozell/#sthash.23vT4aFe.dpuf

brad975

08-10-2015, 10:01 AM

My bf has a turntable at his place, so I'd brought over some old albums. I'd played Tusk once before, so it wasn't completely knew to him. But yesterday was the first time we just lounged and really listened (after a big fat J). It was interesting to hear his reaction and comments:

* Over & Over (he pleasantly nodded along, though he mistakenly thought it was Stevie on lead at first; rookie mistake)
* The Ledge (he tapped his fingers on the chair, surprisingly seeming somewhat engaged)
* Think About Me (he jammed along to this one)
* Save Me a Place (he asked "Is this Lindsey 'I've Got To Be On Every Song' Buckingham"? I explained that in this case, Lindsey likely WAS the whole song)
* Sara (his favorite; he got out a blonde Halloween wig and twirled a little)
* What Makes You Think You're the One (I skipped this as to not harsh our mellow)
* Storms (he agreed this was dreamy magic)
* That's All For Everyone (he didn't really react, but I like this one okay, mainly because I can at least imagine that Christine is layered in there vocally, where she is or not)
* Not That Funny (he said, "This is lame"; My assessment is not quite as harsh, but I think this one would only be okay on the reissue's bonus disc of otherwise unused demos)
* Sisters of the Moon (I think we both got lulled into a trance, though he may have been napping)

We'll try Disc 2 later.

My main problem with Tusk is that you can really tell there's a Lindsey solo album running through it that feels almost entirely disconnected from the other members. How much better would "Save Me a Place" sound with all 3 singers harmonizing? A bunch, I bet!

But the upside to all those Lindsey songs (most of which I delete from my 'Tusk' playlist) is that the 2 discs freed up enough space for 5 great Stevie songs and some good Christine ones. Lord knows they both deserved more space. But Stevie never would've gotten 5 songs without the longer running time.

bobwelchera

08-10-2015, 01:41 PM

Haha, what an interesting take on Tusk! I've not had the pleasure of sharing it with a partner as of yet, but I did share it with my best friend about nine years ago in high school, which she seemed to dig, but I wasn't in her presence. :nod:

I think "What Makes You Think You're The One" may be among the most timeless of the tunes. Like, some twenty-year-old like myself could cover it, and it would fit pretty well in the alternative realm. The same with "Save Me A Place."

michelej1

09-03-2016, 12:50 AM

Red Dirt Report

ANDREW W. GRIFFIN | SEPTEMBER 1, 2016

http://www.reddirtreport.com/dust-devil-dreams/tusk-oh

That is dramatic. And that year – 1979 – caught my attention.

That was the year – Oct. 12th, specifically – that the internationally-popular rock band Fleetwood Mac released their album Tusk.

I've felt drawn to that particular Fleetwood Mac album ever since seeing the classic line-up in April 2015 and getting to see a lot of Tusk material performed, including the unforgettable title track and the witchy Stevie Nicks song "Sisters of the Moon."

That album has a vibe unlike Rumours or Fleetwood Mac or Tango in the Night. It stands alone and helped close out the 1970's - a bizarre decade if there ever was one. Just look at the weird photos on and inside the album jacket. Tusk stays with you.

bwboy

09-03-2016, 09:44 AM

jbrownsjr

09-03-2016, 10:46 AM

Straightback

09-03-2016, 08:27 PM

I Know I'm Not Wrong was a song I never really noticed, somehow it just seemed to fall between the cracks. But when FM played it live for the first time a few years back, it became one of my all-time favorite songs! It's so catchy and upbeat, I really love it. But when people talk about Tusk, this song is rarely mentioned, good or bad.

Maybe it's because it's not divisive like other Tusk songs. I hate Not That Funny, and I hate that Lindsey sang that song live over other, more deserving songs that the audience would have rather heard. A three minute annoying song on record that he stretches to a horrific 7-9 minutes live really irritates me, and I'm so glad it's been off their set since he returned to the band.

IKINW has always been a favorite of mine. But I have to say, the alternate version on the "Tusk" box set that has Lindsey and Stevie singing together blows the original out of the water. Why they didn't end using that version instead is a head scratcher for me. There's something about it that's just more interesting and fun to listen to. Anytime it comes up on my playlist I have to listen to it at least 2-3 times. I've found my favorite FM songs are usually those where you hear the partnering of voices between Lindsey, Stevie and Christine as opposed to strict solos. They're just more dynamic.

FuzzyPlum

10-13-2016, 02:41 PM

Really interesting article...
'Tusk is a masterpiece, or very goddamn close to it. It has to be one of the best—and most absolutely rewarding and consistent—double studio albums ever made, and it has dated exceedingly well'.

The Observer
http://observer.com/2016/10/indulgent-showdown-fleetwood-macs-tusk-vs-the-clashs-sandinista/

Deep in the heart of every rock musician, from the most credible to the most commercial, there lies someone whining, “Je suis un artiste! If only the world knew what a deep, tortured soul I am, and how complicated my record collection is!”

The more practical of these musicians merely peppers their catalog with maudlin and heartfelt ballads. Let’s call this the Bon Jovi method: “Perhaps you will forgive that Slippery When Wet stuff if I sing another song that is the musical equivalent of the page in the yearbook dedicated to that 11th grader who died.” Other artists make severe left or right turns, and produce albums dripping with uncharacteristic drama and musical complication; here I direct you to Music From ‘The Elder’ by Kiss, a histrionic, incomprehensible, and orchestra-laden concept album from 1981 that very nearly ended Kiss’ career (it’s actually a pretty good record, by the way, and features two songs co-written by Gene Simmons and Lou Reed).

Pop/rock history is absolutely strewn with such artifacts, from Pet Sounds to Bad Religion’s Into the Unknown (a fascinating pop/prog exercise from 1983 that was so offensive to the group’s fans that the band excised it from their catalog). In between these extremes, there’s Springsteen’s bold and courageous Nebraska, McCartney’s remarkable Firemen albums, Neil Young’s fascinating genre exercises (like Trans, Everybody’s Rockin’ and Arc), the Beastie Boys’ game changing Paul’s Boutique, and, of course, the great daddy of all of these sorts of records, Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music. There are also entire careers that are built on thwarting expectations, e.g. Scott Walker, Beck, Bowie and Prince.[i]

In the autumn of 1979 Fleetwood Mac, a wildly popular and influential band at the peak of their visibility and commercial prowess, released a much-anticipated double album that was interpreted by fans and media as radical, even experimental. Almost exactly a year later the Clash, a wildly popular and influential band at the peak of their visibility and credibility, released a much-anticipated triple album that was interpreted by fans and media as radical, even experimental.

Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk is lean, effective and almost completely without waste or filler. It showcases a great band at their prime. Alternately precise and luxurious, Tusk is one of the most underrated albums of the era.

It is the anti-Sandinista!.

Sandinista! is a sprawling mess, resembling some kind of well-meaning dish that combines far too many under-cooked and over-thought ingredients (“I’m not sure yet if I’m making a soup, a stew, or a salad, but maybe we should we throw some cardamom and fenugreek in there!”). Sandinista! is like a perfect storm of mistakes, and it’s one of the most confounding and overrated albums of all time.

Respectfully, I “get” what the Clash were going for on Sandinista!—they wanted to present a travelogue of the sound of the disenfranchised classes of Jamaica, London and New York City. But it appears that no one was running the show or making sure takes were satisfactory; seemingly, nobody cared if overdubs made any sense, or if the mixes were coherent; and it certainly sounds like no one was insisting that a song be fully composed before the tape was rolling.

For 36 years, Sandinista! has been defined not by its content, but by the way it has been interpreted by an audience desperately eager to see genius where there was only confusion.

Sandinista! is a prime—perhaps the prime—example of what happens when a well known artist does something so contrarian and obscure that it gets mistaken for greatness; let’s call this “The Radiohead Effect.”

“This is so effed up, it must be good!” says the listener, who may also be the type of person who has spent far too much of his or her life listening to live recordings of “Dark Star”, owns a copy of Elvis Costello’s The Juliet Letters, and thinks liking Primus makes them really, really weird, maaan. Listen, pally, you want weird and good? Sit down with all four CDs of Tony Conrad’s Early Minimalism Volume One, and then talk to me about your uncle who taught you all about Captain Beefheart and the Talking Heads.[ii]

The standard line about Sandinista! is that there’s an album worth of good stuff here. Well, that’s not quite true. There may, indeed, be an album’s worth of good material, but barely an EP’s worth of good recordings.

The Clash
Remember all the thoughtful, meticulous songwriting and pristine production we used 12 months ago on London Calling? Me neither! Here’s Sandinista!. Screen shot/YouTube
Only a year earlier, the Clash had released one of the greatest albums ever made. On London Calling, the Clash also deviated from expectations; they crafted a near-perfect double album that accessed influences from all over the world, from all over their heart, from all over the 20th century. London Calling is an album about the conflicting public and private faces of the West, referencing the music that had touched the Clash and made them the band they had become, from Woody Guthrie to Mott the Hoople to Jacob Miller to Lonnie Donnegan.

The big difference, as far as I can tell, is that on London Calling, someone was in charge (specifically, producer Guy Stevens), and the Clash circa 1979 were a band who were seeking a form of perfection; but the band who made Sandinista! were, I believe, deliberately seeking a scattershot account of the 88 different types of music in their heads. However, I don’t think they anticipated the desultory effect an undisciplined writing, recording and mixing process would have on the finished product.

In order to underline my rather strong assessment of Sandinista!, I’ll point out some specifics.

In no particular order…“Junco Partner” is one of the more coherent recordings on the collection, but why didn’t someone ask violinist Tymon Dogg to tune up before recording? It’s precisely this sort of problem—stop the tape and tune the freaking violin—that consistently plagues Sandinista!

“Rebel Waltz” is painfully close to being a great song, but it’s about four mix passes away from a decent mix. Again, a track like this—which, if it had been more thoughtfully arranged and mixed, would have fit in well on London Calling—underlines why Sandinista! is such a troublesome album.

“The Sound of Sinners” also could have been a helluva song, if it had been produced or mixed by someone who wasn’t really, really high; and there’s almost something to “Ivan Meets G.I. Joe”, except, well, it’s dumb, and they made the standard stoner mistake of not being able to distinguish between the sound effects and the music (the video game sounds are mixed as high as anything else in the track).

One take, one riff, one verse, one melody and...we're done!
One take, one riff, one verse, one melody and…we’re done! Screen shot/YouTube
Let’s keep on going! “Look Here”, like many of the album’s worst tracks, is an idea, not a song—“We’ll try to do a jazzy, swingy, kind of thing, um, I mean, let’s not spend too much time on it, and, uh, I have one melody line I can repeat a lot, and if it doesn’t sound quite right, we can just overdub some more stuff on it, and I think it will be, like, jazzy!”

“Up in Heaven” is a very solid riff and a fairly decent verse and…nothing else. Nada. No one bothered to write anything more. “Something About England” is a goddamn good song, but it sounds like it was mixed by someone who just drank a lot of Benadryl and Baileys and chases shiny objects without any sense whatsoever of an “overall” coherent mix—“Oh, that’s a cool guitar part! Let’s turn that up! Wow, I like the sound of that piano, let’s put that fader up for a while!”

And on and on.

Sandinista! is mortally faulty on every level, except for one: it’s not pretentious, and its fascination with various urban music styles is sincere. In this sense—the way in which it is genuine, and simultaneously under- and over-thought—Sandinista! is reminiscent of Bob Dylan’s Self Portrait. But Dylan did something pretty brilliant on Self Portrait: he kept things small, and the performances and arrangements are on the minimalist side, as opposed to Sandinista!’s universal tendency to throw more and more crap into the gumbo.

Now, let’s extract a pretty solid EP from the album’s entire 144 (!) minutes.

“Magnificent 7” is a pioneering song with some style, effectively recorded. “The Call Up” is dynamic and strange, with a compelling lyric. And “Hitsville UK”, although drenched in the weed-friendly reverb haze that surrounds virtually all of Sandinista!’s non-mixes, is a very solid song, even if it smells a bit like a second-rate Jam or Elvis Costello composition. Sandinista!’s three unapologetically great tracks are “Somebody Got Murdered”, “Police on My Back” and “Lose This Skin” (though “The Call Up” comes preciously close); but I suspect it is no accident that two of these three were not written by the Clash.[iii]

There’s more: The thing that makes Sandinista! not just a curious, well-meaning face-plant but also a true catastrophe are the dub tracks. The half-dozen-plus dub tracks on the album are pretty sorry and confused examples of the genre. Generally, dub is the act of taking away elements, and effecting those that remain, to create a psychotronic, mesmerizing, hypnowoofer effect; however, the dub tracks on Sandinista! have more to do with “Revolution No. 9” or a bad sophomore year music concrete project. Whereas I can concede that most of Sandinista! is well intended, the dub tracks are just a disaster, a sign of what a misdirected and ill-conceived mess this whole thing is.

Now…Tusk.

I’ll be honest, you can’t even compare these two albums, these extraordinary adventures. From hushed, flickering ballads to constricted, tightly wound pop built out of the closely arranged Legos of genius, Tusk is a masterpiece, or very goddamn close to it. It has to be one of the best—and most absolutely rewarding and consistent—double studio albums ever made, and it has dated exceedingly well.

To rediscover Tusk (or to investigate it for the first time!) is like stumbling upon a lost masterpiece by the Go Betweens, XTC, Nick Lowe, Kimberly Rew, the dBs, or any of the artists from the early 1980s who were trying to create a highly conceptualized yet non-indulgent uber-pop resonant with emotion and depth.

On Tusk, Fleetwood Mac distill the very best of their past (the uncluttered intensity of the Peter Green era, the gorgeous, sad restraint of the Danny Kirwan years, and the harmony-laden FM glow of Rumours and Fleetwood Mac) into one package, and present it in a detailed, fastidious fashion; every sighing and soaring note and iridescent guitar is placed with nearly mathematical intent. What results is an album that easily equals the best credible pop of the era.

Contrary to the hype that usually accompanies Tusk, this isn’t just Lindsey Buckingham’s album; in fact, if you remove his tracks, you’re still left with a goddamn terrific record.

Christine McVie’s exquisite “Brown Eyes” is a cool, shimmering, dusk-purple spray of hooded-eyed sadness; the bass-chord-driven “Never Make Me Cry” is such a great example of late-night low-volume electric melancholy that it is reminiscent of Mazzy Star or Malcolm Burn-era Chris Whitley (and despite Buckingham’s more deliberate efforts, it might be the most successfully arty track on the album).

Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac. Courtesy of Fleetwood Mac
As for Buckingham’s much noted achievements on Tusk, they are artful and meticulous, and like the work of Mitch Easter-era R.E.M., endlessly fascinating, with new production quirks and onion-skin-like overdubs revealing themselves on every new listen.

When you combine Buckingham’s precisely tweaked pop gifts with McVie and Nicks’ luxurious, poignant sigh-pop, and then paint the whole megalith in the intimate tones that Tusk is bravely produced in, the result is rare magic. I think the album most comparable to Tusk is the Beach Boys’ Smiley Smile, which also balanced Brunelleschi-like brilliance with Gropius-like simplicity, creating a pastoral yet ecstatic album.[iv]

Listen, I can’t say enough about Tusk, but it’s really stunning how this emotional yet disciplined album, so richly composed and edited and mixed to masterpiece-like effect, is virtually the opposite of Sandinista!.

Let’s put it this way: Sandinista! absolutely insists you call it brilliant, because if you refuse to, you’ll see what a true piece of crap it is. At some point in high school, some friend of yours—possibly someone you wanted to hook up with—showed you one of their poems. It was pretentious nonsense full of typos, and combined the worst aspects of Kahlil Gibran, Richard Brautigan and Kurt Vonnegut. But you had invested so much in your friendship with this person that not only did you say you liked it, you actually convinced yourself that it was brilliant.

Generationally, we had so much invested in believing the Clash were The Only Band That Matters (especially after the Everest-like triumph of London Calling) and so much invested in believing that they were our Beatles, our Stones, that we not only tolerated the babbling, incomplete and indecipherable nonsense that was Sandinista!, we actually convinced ourselves that it was as good as the band thought it was when they were really high and recording it.[v]

Joe Strummer.
Joe Strummer. Wikimedia Creative Commons
I shall end this anecdotally.

One day in 1981, in my role as teenage journalist and correspondent for the U.K. music weekly Sounds, I found myself talking to Christine McVie. I told her I had heard that the Clash wanted to make sure that their new triple album, Sandinista!, would sell in stores for a lower price than Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk. McVie arched an eyebrow and said, “Ah…the Clash…I believe that’s one of those bands Lindsey likes.”

One day in 1981, in my role as NYU student who lived in Weinstein Dormitory and made virtually daily pilgrimages to a record store on St. Marks Place called Sounds, I ran into Joe Strummer. He was walking on the north side of 8th Street between University and Broadway. He was holding a small brown paper bag full of cherries. Being a strident but generally amiable 18-year-old asshole, I felt compelled to tell him all the things I didn’t like about his latest album, Sandinista! I also told him how very much I liked the just-released album from his pre-Clash band, the 101ers.

Strummer listened politely, never losing eye contact. When he saw that I was done, he smiled and said, “Want a cherry?”

[i] Into the Unknown is actually a pretty good record, and the two Firemen albums (Paul McCartney’s collaboration with producer/former Killing Joke bassist Youth) are probably McCartney’s most interesting work of the last 25 years. Neil Young’s Arc, like Metal Machine Music, is much better described than heard.

[ii] Seriously, though, listen to Early Minimalism Volume One; it is a deeply important and fascinating document, and a fundamental part of understanding the birth of the Velvet Underground, Krautrock and Sonic Youth.

[iii] “Police on My Back” is a first-rate cover of an even better recording by the vastly underrated Equals, a terrific and pioneering mod/blue beat band from the 1960s led by Eddy Grant; and “Lose This Skin” is written and sung by violinist Tymon Dogg.

[iv] Two architects mentioned in one sentence! I knew those NYU classes in urban design would pay off!

[v] Regardless, I’ll still take Sandinista! over the worst multi-LP album ever made, ELP’s triple-disc Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends. If I ever get Doctor Who-like powers to travel through space and time, the very first thing I will do is destroy the master tapes to this unforgivable atrocity; only then will I consider preventing Hitler’s birth or telling a young Robert De Niro that he should never, under any circumstances, make any movies with Ben Stiller.

shackin'up

10-15-2016, 06:21 PM

What an excellent piece! Thanks for that link! I basicly agree, but he could have gone slightly deeper on WHAT made Tusk so brilliant. still, he makes a very good observation.

michelej1

12-09-2016, 06:08 PM

The Verge

http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/7/13872524/entertainment-movies-tv-games-round-up-2016

The pre-2016 entertainment that got us through 2016

A roundup of our favorite older things to watch and hear this year
by Verge Staff Dec 7, 2016, 2:21pm EST

FLEETWOOD MAC’S TUSK

Chris Plante: We The Internet have collectively agreed on 2016's status as a Level 6 Garbage Fire. In my personal life, 2016 was more like a grease fire, a small flame, but one that refuses to go out and promises to burn your life down if you let it. My grandmother passed away, my wife and I continued to mourn the death of a close friend, and as if tormented by metaphor, practically every appliance in our house broke in the span of six months. This week, I got food poisoning, in a cheeky full stop to a year that often felt, emotionally speaking, like barfing and ****ting at the same time. As an act of self-preservation, I turned on most Sunday mornings to Tusk, Fleetwood Mac's experimental 1979 folk album. In a 2015 Letter of Recommendation for New York Times Magazine, Sam Anderson perfectly described Christine McVie's voice as "smooth and sad, a melon-flavored wine cooler on a vacant beach at sunset with the one you know will eventually leave you." Fleetwood Mac is McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, and Stevie Nicks, and when they were authoring this music, the latter two were just entering their 30s. Even rock stars, their lyrics suggest, must grow up and do battle with the dragons of mundanity: death, heartbreak, and finances. In 2016, those beasts appeared over and over, over and over, and Tusk served as a torch, rarely leading the way, but always illuminating the darkness.

Ench

02-08-2017, 02:18 PM

I'm sort of answering another thread that I can't find anymore. As with many double albums, there are people who say it should have been a single album. But, I've tried to make a single-album selection from Tusk, and it just doesn't work. The track listing and order I settled on is:

Over and Over
The Ledge
Sara
Think About Me
Walk A Thin Line
Storms
Angel
That's All For Everyone
Sisters of the Moon
Tusk
Brown Eyes

However, no matter how I fiddle with the track listing, it just doesn't work. The slightly out-there Lindsey songs stand out too much in a shorter track listing. Getting (finally) to the point of this thread, while I don't think Tusk is the perfect double album, Tusk it what it is. It's a double album with a lot of Lindsey, and nothing else can be extracted from it.

I much prefer Tusk to Mirage, which is much more of a safe post-Rumours album.

BLY

06-03-2017, 08:47 PM

Ok.... Tusk is my all time favorite Fleetwood Mac song. For all you Tusk lovers isn't the box set of variety versions of this song amazing? When a version comes on a mix play I get so excited to hear yet another version of a great song. Tusk the song and the album is their masterpiece. If you don't have this box set ....and you love the MAC. Get this set.Its Amazing!

SisterNightroad

09-10-2017, 07:35 AM

SisterNightroad

09-10-2017, 07:38 AM

“The epitome of art for art’s sake”: Fleetwood Mac’s masterful and difficult “Tusk”
The band that helped usher America from AM to FM radio, and their infamous follow-up to "Rumours"

Excerpted from "Fleetwood Mac's Tusk" by Rob Trucks (Bloomsbury, 2010). Reprinted with permission from Bloomsbury Publishing.

On March 1, 2009, Mick Fleetwood is 61. John McVie is 63. Stevie Nicks is 60.

Christine McVie, the missing third of Fleetwood Mac’s three vocalists and songwriters during the group’s glory years, is 65 and nowhere near Pittsburgh. She retired from Fleetwood Mac, and touring, a decade before.

At 59, Lindsey Buckingham, the man behind Tusk, is the baby.

For the next four months, at every one of their 51 performances, the band will play 23 songs, beginning with “Monday Morning” and ending with “Silver Springs.” Of the 21 songs in between, the oldest is the Peter Green-penned “Oh Well,” which first appeared on the Then Play On album, approximately five years before Buckingham and Nicks joined. The newest, a significant reworking of Tango in the Night’s “Big Love,” is old enough, if animated, to drink, vote, and be tried as an adult.

Like professional wrestling, this is theater.

Like professional wrestling, this is scripted.

And like a professional wrestling pay-per-view event, Fleetwood Mac’s 2009 tour brandishes an outrageously over-the-top title.

The designated appellation for this quartet of AARP-ready musicians’ 51-show North American sojourn: Fleetwood Mac Unleashed.

* * *

Nearly every night John McVie wears an open vest, Fleetwood wears a buttoned vest and Buckingham wears a bright-red V-neck T-shirt underneath a leather jacket.

Stevie Nicks wears a selection of shawls and, when onstage, is often lost in her own private Idaho, spinning and twirling, twirling and spinning. Like Billy Idol, dancing with herself.

Nicks will definitely be onstage for “Sara,” the tenth selection of the evening and one of but three songs from Tusk that makes the set list. Certain internet bloggers will have you believe that Nicks wrote “Sara” for her aborted child, fathered by the Eagles’ Don Henley. Mick Fleetwood has written that he is the song’s “great, dark wing,” while others will suggest that “Sara” is about Sara Recor, one of Nicks’ closest friends until Recor started sleeping with Fleetwood before Nicks realized that her own relationship with the drummer was over.

Whatever the song’s true topic, “Sara” is one of the few early Nicks songs that is positively not about her relationship with Lindsey Buckingham. And yet every night for 51 nights Nicks will sing herself over to Buckingham’s side of the stage, lay her head on his shoulder and, at the song’s conclusion, initiate an embrace before leaving the stage, once again and not so subtly selling the band’s “complex and convoluted history” that reached its peak with Rumours.

* * *

Within a year of its release, Rumours is the best-selling album in the history of Warner Brothers.

Rumours is the best-selling single album by a single artist of all time (these qualifiers allow ignorance of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack).

And though the Grammy Awards are like a middle school graduation exercise in that no one but the participants and their parents gives a ****, Rumours won one of those too.

The Big One: Album of the Year on February 23, 1978, just about 54 weeks after the album’s release.

And don’t think the Eagles’ Hotel California wasn’t some serious competition.

Rumours, along with Hotel California, another mid-1970s, LA-based “soft rock” classic, ushered in America’s transfer from AM to FM radio.

Good timing never hurt anyone.

* * *

Talking about Tusk without Rumours is like talking about aftershocks without an earthquake, like a lava flow without a volcanic eruption.

Tusk is a reaction (insert bad “Chain” pun here).

Tusk is not Tusk without Rumours.

* * *

Stevie Nicks is responsible for the wildly inappropriate tour title.

Stevie Nicks also threatens to quit the band if Tusk is used as the title of their 1979 double album.

Because, yes, among other things, Tusk represents part of the male anatomy.

You need go no further than the album covers for Fleetwood Mac and Rumours to know that Mick Fleetwood has a proclivity for dick jokes.

In a lot of ways, rock and roll is like nursery school and, at least in this sense, Fleetwood Mac is very much rock and roll.

* * *

This is how the story goes:

Rumours also wins Album of the Year at the Dick Clark-created American Music Awards.

Before going home, Lindsey Buckingham vomits all over Dick Clark’s backstage office.

As much as Rob would like to see this proportionately heroic regurgitation as symbolic, he’s afraid (Rob is often afraid) that a combination of steadily ingested pre-show drugs, and not any personal animosity towards Dick Clark and everything he stands for, is to blame.

Or credit.

* * *

Now that some 30-year-old dust has settled, Rumours stands as the ninth-best-selling album of all time, comfortably nestled between Shania Twain’s Come on Over, and the Beatles’ so-called White Album.

Coincidentally, the White Album is not only the bestselling Beatles album of all time, but a pretty good road map (were one to exist) for Tusk.

You know, a wildly experimental double album from a wildly successful pop band with a plethora (if three can be considered a plethora) of singing and songwriting talent.

And yes, Ringo wrote “Don’t Pass Me By,” which represents one-thirtieth of the group’s recorded output in 1968, and that really makes four singers and four songwriters for the Beatles so you’re welcome to use that fact as a disqualifier if you’d like because we’re about to move on to Pet Sounds comparisons anyway.

* * *

Besides FM radio and music, Rumours also sold a storyline. No review, interview, or feature about the band was written without assessing the recent break-up of Christine McVie from John McVie, of Stevie Nicks from Lindsey Buckingham.

And how the songs of Rumours sprung from these separations.

* * *

For those just barely old enough to see Pet Sounds in the rearview mirror, Tusk stands as a pioneer, the epitome of art for art’s sake. Not only an influence but also a permission slip, a throwing down of the creative gauntlet.

Which is why Tusk functions as both a primary influence for many independent musicians and an alarm of earsplitting proportions for the major label system that gave it birth.

* * *

When a wrestler’s good-guy character has run its course, he turns heel.

When a wrestler’s bad-guy character has run its course, he turns babyface.

But what do you do when a rock and roll band’s storyline is a plethora (if a plethora can be two) of break-ups and there’s no chance of romantic reconciliation?

* * *

Fleetwood Mac is a machine.

Despite the rough edges, a well-rehearsed, well-scripted machine.

Cue Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times.

Without a doubt, Tusk is Fleetwood Mac’s most adventuresome moment.

And one that they will never, ever repeat.

* * *

Music is personal.

Tusk is a symbol.

* * *

In terms of being someone who has tried to inject a sense of possibility into the band, there needs to be a certain aggressiveness in order to do that because I think there tends to be a kind of complacency to sort of remain with the status quo, you know. Certainly on the Tusk album. That was an effort to try to, you know, broaden out the palette and, as you know, that process became something which was disallowed by the band on future albums, not because there was any lack of artistic success but because there was a certain lack of commercial success. And so that’s always been something that I’ve had to pit myself against, like it or not.

—Lindsey Buckingham, October 2, 2008 (the last
day of his fifty-eighth year on earth)

http://www.salon.com/2017/09/09/33-13-excerpt/

FuzzyPlum

09-10-2017, 08:04 AM

SisterNightroad

09-10-2017, 08:49 AM

FuzzyPlum

09-10-2017, 09:24 AM

I think it's a nod to Mick's "balls".

Thanks.
Oh, is that it? Not sure they are even evident on the FM album?

SisterNightroad

09-10-2017, 09:38 AM

Thanks.
Oh, is that it? Not sure they are even evident on the FM album?
In fact they aren't on that cover, or at least aren't visible. I think memory tricked the author because Mick's "hanging balls" have always been part of his character.

HomerMcvie

09-10-2017, 10:11 AM

'You need go no further than the album covers for Fleetwood Mac and Rumours to know that Mick Fleetwood has a proclivity for dick jokes'

What does this mean? I've poured over those albums and don't get any sense of 'dick jokes'. What am I missing?

"Tusk" was supposedly named because it's a nickname for the penis. Stevie threatened to quit over it?

Speaking of such...what IS fuzzy plum? Because I tell ya, I can only picture ONE thing, every time I see your name. There, I asked!

FuzzyPlum

09-10-2017, 10:21 AM

"Tusk" was supposedly named because it's a nickname for the penis. Stevie threatened to quit over it?

Speaking of such...what IS fuzzy plum? Because I tell ya, I can only picture ONE thing, every time I see your name. There, I asked!

http://growingfruit.org/uploads/default/original/2X/5/537a25a2215470ad4d4491193abf4838beabddf6.jpg

I dont f***ing know

We should all be allowed to change our name at least once!

HomerMcvie

09-10-2017, 10:30 AM

http://growingfruit.org/uploads/default/original/2X/5/537a25a2215470ad4d4491193abf4838beabddf6.jpg

I dont f***ing know

We should all be allowed to change our name at least once!

And here I've been picturing a lone testicle all this time. Seriously. That's the image I get, EVERY time I see your name.

We should all be able to change our name once! I HATE Homer. WTF was I thinking? Well, for starters, I guess I didn't envision myself being here for 14 years...

SisterNightroad

09-10-2017, 12:11 PM

Interestingly it seems that those are hybrids between european plums and apricots.

SisterNightroad

10-12-2017, 05:03 PM

Today in rock history; Fleetwood Mac puts a Tusk in Rumours, Chaka Khan goes solo, Lloyd Cole & the Commotions debuts, more

Today in rock history: on this date in 1979, Fleetwood Mac released the follow-up album to its record-breaking success, Rumours. The 2-LP set, Tusk, came two years after its highly-regarded and multi-platinum selling predecessor and initial, response to the record was mixed. Rather than following in the footsteps of the previous release, the band instead opted to experiment with some unpredictable sounds and styles for Tusk. Much of the creative control was left to guitarist and songwriter Lindsey Buckingham who experimented with pop, rock and new wave to concoct what many have considered one of the band’s most confounding, yet ambitious, records.

Hit singles from the massive collection of songs included Stevie Nicks’s gorgeous, sweeping ballad “Sara,” Buckingham’s frantic “Not That Funny,” Christine McVie’s poppy “Think About Me” and, of course, the title track which featured a full on marching band backing the California-based quintet throughout the tune. The album peaked at no. 4 on the U.S. Billboard albums chart and topped out at about 2 million copies sold here in the States. A fine record that has aged well and shows off the creative direction Buckingham was taking the band in has sadly and unjustly always been viewed as a disappointing follow up for Rumours but, nonetheless, contains some of the very best material the band ever wrote or committed to vinyl.

http://www.cltampa.com/music/music-news/article/20979046/today-in-rock-history-fleetwood-mac-puts-a-tusk-in-rumours-chaka-khan-goes-solo-lloyd-cole-the-commotions-debuts-more