Tusk - 2015 Deluxe & Expanded!! [Archive] - Page 2

michelej1

12-05-2015, 01:07 AM

Ultimate Classic Rock

Fleetwood Mac, ‘Tusk: Deluxe Edition': Album Review
By Michael Gallucci December 3, 2015 11:25 AM

Read More: Fleetwood Mac, 'Tusk: Deluxe Edition': Album Review | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/fleetwood-mac-tusk-deluxe/?trackback=tsmclip

Had Fleetwood Mac played it safe after Rumours, they probably could have made another gajillion-selling album. Instead, they handed the reins to singer and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and allowed him to steer the follow-up to one of the 20th century’s biggest LPs to wherever he wanted (with a few detours along the way).
The result was 1979’s double-LP Tusk, a much-delayed, over-budget and sprawling masterwork that often played out like Fleetwood Mac’s version of the Beatles‘ White Album: three distinct singer-songwriters hashing out their solo compositions while the rest of the group played backing band. And it was, if you believed what you read at the time, a total bomb.
But 36 years later, Tusk stands as one of rock’s most underrated and rewarding albums, a complex and layer-revealing work that offers new perspectives and treasures with each listen. A new five-disc Deluxe Edition doesn’t so much give fresh insight to the record as it provides a behind-the-scenes peek at its formation and development, as well as the occasional struggles the band endured during its long and difficult birth.
The original two-LP set is expanded with discs of single remixes, outtakes, session leftovers, live cuts from the 1979-80 tour in support of the album and the entire record made up of mostly previously unreleased versions of the 20 songs. It’s as often fascinating as it is repetitive: Even for an album built on textures and detailed studio assembling, multiple takes on the title track and “I Know I’m Not Wrong” begin to get tedious after the fourth pass.
Still, alternate versions of “Over & Over” (the ambiance-soaked Christine McVie ballad that opens the album), “The Ledge,” “That’s All for Everyone” and “Brown Eyes” (with early member Peter Green prominently sitting in) show just how meticulous the recordings were … and just how much the band was slowly unraveling. Buckingham is clearly in control here, injecting flashes of weirdness and brilliance into the project. Stevie Nicks‘ contributions tend to be the least affected by his mad-scientist tinkering, but even they go deeper than Rumours‘ most intricate tracks.
Tusk: Deluxe Edition doesn’t show us much in the way of how skeletal demos evolved into multi-layered art pieces, though — it’s not that kind of box. If anything, it leads us to believe that most of these songs were fully structured by the time Fleetwood Mac began recording. And radio mixes of “Think About Me” and “Not That Funny” prove that even after the LP’s release, some cuts took on even newer forms.
It’s a lot to get through — more than 80 songs in all — and parts of it seem like padding (the live tracks, mostly from 1975’s self-titled album, Rumours and Tusk, sound diluted without their studio adornments). But the original album is worth diving into again, if only to revisit one of the era’s most undervalued works, a bold record made by a superstar band willing to risk its place at the top for its art.

Read More: Fleetwood Mac, 'Tusk: Deluxe Edition': Album Review | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/fleetwood-mac-tusk-deluxe/?trackback=tsmclip

michelej1

12-05-2015, 01:09 AM

http://ppcorn.com/us/2015/12/03/fleetwood-mac-rumors-review/

Fleetwood Mac: ‘Rumors’ Track-By-Track Album Review
By Alexandria Brown - Dec 3, 2015 PPCorn

The year was 1977 and my father probably still had a full head of hair. Besides that, 13-year-old Dad was able to witness one of the greatest album releases of all time. On the verge of breaking up due to divorce (Christine & Bob McVie) and the on-again-off-again relationship style of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac released their best album and one of the most legendary albums to this day. This throwback Thursday let me take you through Rumors by Fleetwood Mac.

“Second Hand News:” The perfect get out of my life break up song. It’s a funky upbeat song that is basically about telling your ex not to worry about you when you leave. Lindsey Buckingham might be hinting something to Stevie Nicks with this one. Best line: “I ain’t going to miss you when you go / Been down so long.”

“Dreams:” This is probably one of the most popular songs on the album. Written by the queen herself, and I don’t mean Beyonce, Stevie Nicks powerfully answers back to Buckingham’s “Second Hand News” with her own version of letting go. This song is a beautiful ballad with a fantastic drum line that is really noticeable when she sings the word ‘thunder.’ Best line: Now here you go again / You say you want your freedom / Well who am I to keep you down?”

“Never Going Back Again:” I feel like we may be in a back and forth between Nicks and Buckingham. Buckingham wrote this beautiful and simple acoustic song about realizing that after making the same mistake a couple times you can finally realize that you won’t be going back there again. Best line: “She broke down and let me in / Made me see where I’ve been.”

“Don’t Stop:” Christine McVie! There you are. As mentioned before Christine and John McVie were getting divorced when this album was being written. It’s said that Christine wrote this song for her ex-husband and wanted to keep looking forward. Best Line: “All I want is to see you smile / If it takes a little while / I know you don’t believe it’s true / I never meant any harm to you.”

“Go Your Own Way:” Another very popular song from the album, Buckingham wrote this song again for Stevie Nicks. This song though has a sad message behind it, is an incredibly fast tempo song with the best use of musical instruments I’ve ever heard. This song to date is still one of my favorites. Best line: “If I could, baby, I’d give you my whole world / How can I when you won’t take it from me?”

“Songbird:” Let Christine McVie break your heart with this one. This is one of the songs that she wrote and performs still to this day. It’s evident with this ballad the heartbreak she was going through with her divorce. If you want to eat ice cream and think about your ex then this is the song for you. Best line: “And I wish you all the love in the world / But most of all, I wish it from myself.”

“The Chain:” So this will be a little hard to explain but this song is co-written by all of the members of Fleetwood Mac. The thing is that the guys – Lindsey Buckingham and John McVie – wrote the music together while the ladies – Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks – wrote the lyrics. Though all four were never in the same room, all four definitely wrote it. Pretty crazy. The musical genius behind this song is evident and the lyrics fit perfectly with the album. It truly is a piece of art. Best line: “Listen to the wind blow / Watch the sun rise / Run in the shadows / Damn your love / Damn your lies.”

“You Make Loving Fun:” Christine McVie, you little vixen you! Christine told her then husband that she wrote this song about her dog when actually she wrote it about an affair she had. Not sure why John McVie would have ever believed it was about a dog, but anyways. If you are starting a new relationship and have the butterflies in your stomach then this upbeat, beautifully written song about new love is for you. It also has one of the funkiest basslines on the album. Best line: “Sweet wonderful you / You make me happy with the things that you do.”

“I Don’t Want To Know:” This song I will forever be grateful to Stevie Nicks for writing. This is hands down my favorite song on the album and is in my top three of all-time favorite songs ever. If you’re like me and have gone through quite a few weird and wonderful break ups and ended up flat on your back looking up at the ceiling wondering what happened yet again then you’ll love this song as much as I do. It’s an up-tempo song, but the lyrics behind are so powerful and will evoke you to think about what the hell happened to make you and your ex call it quits. Best line: “Finally baby, the truth has been told / Now you tell me that I’m crazy / That’s nothing I didn’t know.”

“Oh Daddy:” This song confuses me. I have done quite a bit of research on this album and this song in particular and I’m still not sure I could tell you what it’s really about. It’s said to be about Mick Fleetwood who was the only person who had kids at the time, but the other conspiracy theory is that Christine McVie wrote it about a lighting director she was dating. Either way it’s a slow song with some interesting keyboarding skills at the end. Not one of my favorites but still very good. Best line: “If I can make you see / If there’s a fool around it’s got to be me.”

“Gold Dust Woman:” Are you super sad that this is the last song on the album? Because I sure am. This is the perfect way to end the album with a slow song about drugs, break-ups and trying to survive. Stevie Nicks was said to be very big into cocaine when she wrote this and has said that it was about getting by while high all the time. It’s a powerful ballad that showcases Nicks’ beautiful voice not to mention the guitar rings out in epic tones. It is that cherry on top to end such an amazing record. Best line: “Well did she make you cry? / Make you break down? / Shatter your illusions of love?”

SUMMARY
This album, for me, is and will always be a five out of five. It takes you from extreme lows to extreme highs, just like a real relationship. As much as I’m sympathetic for all the heartbreak and hardships each member was going through at the time of writing these songs, I’m also extremely grateful that they were. They wrote an album that everyone can relate to and if they weren’t going through what they were going through then this album could have turned out totally different.

michelej1

12-05-2015, 01:16 AM

Salon 12-5/2015

http://www.salon.com/2015/12/05/the_genius_of_tusk_fleetwood_mac_could_have_followed_rumours_with_more_of_the_same_but_they_made_thi s_visionary_masterpiece_instead/

The genius of “Tusk”: Fleetwood Mac could have followed “Rumours” with more of the same — but they made this visionary masterpiece instead
Fleetwood Mac looked a sure-fire commercial hit in the eye — and made the most punk rock soft rock album ever

PATRICK BERKERY

Evidence exists proving Fleetwood Mac could have followed-up “Rumours” with something similar had the spirit moved them, instead of the alienating departure of the double album called “Tusk” that they did make as the follow-up to one of the most universally appealing albums ever.

When singer-guitarist-producer Lindsey Buckingham wasn’t making like a lo-fi indie rocker from the future playing in Brian Wilson’s sandbox on “Tusk,” Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie were singing songs that sounded like the Fleetwood Mac the world knew and loved — songs like “Sara,” “Think About Me,” “Over and Over,” “Sisters of the Moon,” “Never Forget” and “Angel.”

There’s further evidence sprinkled among the many demos and alternate takes featured on an expansive new “Tusk” box set Rhino Records just released, and unreleased “Tusk”-era tracks out there in the digital ether like Nicks’s “The Dealer,” which she re-recorded for her 2014 solo album “24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault.” “That’s Alright,” a beautiful country shuffle dating back to the Buckingham-Nicks days that ended up on 1982’s “Mirage” could have been folded neatly into this batch of songs. Mix those tunes in with some of the least-threatening Lindsey stuff from “Tusk,” like “Save Me a Place,” “I Know I’m Not Wrong” and “That’s Enough for Me” and you’ve got yourself a follow-up that doesn’t stray too far from the “Rumours” formula — one that could be squeezed onto two sides of vinyl as opposed to four by tightening up the fade-outs on a few tunes. Think something along these lines:

Side 1:

I Know I’m Not Wrong
The Dealer
Think About Me
Save Me a Place
Sara
Side 2:

Sisters of the Moo
Over and Over
Angel
That’s Enough For Me
That’s Alright
Never Forget
This “Rumours II” scenario seems commercial enough, with a pretty equitable balance of Stevie’s mystique, Christine’s hopefulness and Lindsey’s intensity. All the familiar pieces are in place: the songs contain the requisite three-part harmonies, plenty of Lindsey’s sick fingerpicking and those hypnotic grooves from Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. And you know co-producers/co-engineers Richard Dashut and Ken Caillat could have dialed in that warm sonic glow they achieved on “Rumours.”

But there’s a significant void. The emotional lightning of two in-house romances simultaneously crumbling, which sparked the fire in “Rumours” songs like “Dreams,” “Go Your Own Way,” “The Chain,” “Never Going Back Again” and “Gold Dust Woman,” couldn’t strike twice. An attempt to repeat the “Rumours” formula without that kind of fire down below would’ve resulted in a hollow imitation. Maybe they sell an extra million or two records in the short term by making the follow-up a single, safer kind of album. Ultimately it would’ve rendered Fleetwood Mac just another big ’70s rock commodity that liked to stick to the script, like the Eagles, Peter Frampton or Boston.

So rather than following the path of least resistance, Fleetwood Mac took the most radical left turn a huge band has ever taken at the peak of its commercial and artistic powers. With Lindsey Buckingham hogging the ball, they spent $1.4 million in 1978-79 dollars making the most punk rock soft rock album ever in “Tusk.” Next to making “Rumours” (and also the band hiring Lindsey and Stevie after Bob Welch left), letting Buckingham take the lead on “Tusk” was the best career move Fleetwood Mac ever made, though it would take years for its impact to be measured accurately.

Once people started recognizing “Tusk” as the enduring masterpiece that it is, it began to serve as a gateway for evaluating Fleetwood Mac from another perspective. It proved there was more to Fleetwood Mac than just “Rumours” and a bunch of other classic rock radio staples; that they weren’t just a pretty cool band you could share with your mom and dad or older brother or sister. “Tusk” showed Fleetwood Mac were also a risk-taking bunch, artists of great depth and integrity. A younger generation of cutting edge artists including Peter Buck, Trent Reznor, Stephin Merritt of Magnetic Fields, Joanna Newsom and Kurt Vile, to name just a handful, have championed the album over the years — Buckingham’s work on it in particular. Other musicians have taken things a step further, by forming groups to cover “Tusk” (and other Mac tunes) live. Mick Fleetwood, in his 1990 autobiography, basically said Fleetwood Mac needed to make “Tusk” if they had any hopes of continuing: “It’s a great album and probably the only reason Fleetwood Mac is still together today … it released a lot of creative frustrations.”

That was not a widely held view when “Tusk” was released in October 1979. To the millions of jilted fans — along with Warner Bros. Records executives and some members of the band — that didn’t hear anything as immediately satisfying as “Dreams” or “Go Your Own Way” among Tusk’s 20 songs, it seemed as if Buckingham had steered this very expensive, high-performing vehicle into a ditch. But time has shown Buckingham steered the band exactly where it needed to go if it hoped to remain relevant in the long term, steering them away from that ’70s FM rock comfort zone into a passing lane where new influences like the Talking Heads and the Clash informed his Elvis/Beach Boys/Everlys roots. As a songwriter, he found a link between David Byrne and Buddy Holly and milked it to manic effect on songs like “Not That Funny” and “The Ledge.” As a producer, he stripped away familiar elements from songs, favoring raw process over the perfection of “Rumours.”

Macfan4life

12-05-2015, 05:58 AM

That review from Patrick hit the nail on the head about Tusk being so "raw" and each song stripped down. I heard a demo of Never Make Me Cry. It actually was uptempo with keyboards, etc. It was really cool. The album version is so raw and stripped down that it almost sounds like a demo. Its amazing how far and out of his way Lindsey went for the Tusk sound.

MoonSister75

12-05-2015, 06:59 AM

The box set just arrived in the post. It's beautifully packaged.
This was a Christmas present from my family, I'm not sure I'd have wanted to spend £45 but I probably would have done anyway.
It's very nice to have, and a lovely Christmas present :)

edit....The notes look interesting. There's "The Background to Tusk" by Jim Irvin - an article about the making of Tusk, that looks to include old quotes along with some new ones. An article from The New York Times - Feb 18th 2015, and "Tusk Track-by-Track" with Lindsey, Stevie and Mick talking about individual tracks - no Christine or John.

Wdm6789

12-05-2015, 08:32 AM

Salon? Really? That review is worthless.

jbrownsjr

12-05-2015, 08:53 AM

Wow, the vocals on the live YMLF are so blusey!! Love it..

aleuzzi

12-05-2015, 09:29 AM

Wow, the vocals on the live YMLF are so blusey!! Love it..

Agreed! And her performance of SYLM at the outset of the show is terrific, too.

Re: the demos and early takes: I actually like the earlier takes of a Never Forget and Think About Me--they sound warmer and more womanly, like Over My Head. Think About Me, in particular is a jewel because we get to hear her without the double-tracking and Lindsey hogging the second half of the song.

MoonSister75

12-05-2015, 10:04 AM

SisterNightroad

12-05-2015, 10:36 AM

I have a rare day to myself to appreciate this box set - it's very good timing.

I love this, by Stevie, about "Sisters of The Moon" - I honestly don't know what the hell this song is about. I've been singing it on tour for the last two and half years, and every time I'm thinking, What the hell is that? I think it was me putting up an alter ego or something, the dark lady in the corner, and there's a Gemini twin thing. It wasn't a love song; it wasn't written about a man, or anything precious. It was just about a feeling I might have had over a couple of days, going inward in my gnarly trollness. Makes no sense. Perfect for this record!
Fantastic! Thank you very much, I've always wanted to know more of Sisters Of The Moon, along with Rhiannon and Gold Dust Woman it's Stevie's most mysterious song. The lyrycs don't make immediate causal sense but they draw from a certain imagery evocative of the subconscious.

elle

12-05-2015, 11:34 AM

Agreed! And her performance of SYLM at the outset of the show is terrific, too.

Re: the demos and early takes: I actually like the earlier takes of a Never Forget and Think About Me--they sound warmer and more womanly, like Over My Head. Think About Me, in particular is a jewel because we get to hear her without the double-tracking and Lindsey hogging the second half of the song.

i didn't listen to these "new" versions yet but i LOVE the version where he's hogging the second half of the song!! (was that the alternate released on 2004 tusk 2cd?) i was missing more of that hogging/his screaming "baby once in a while" etc on Aus/NZ live versions from this tour.

MoonSister75

12-05-2015, 01:03 PM

Fantastic! Thank you very much, I've always wanted to know more of Sisters Of The Moon, along with Rhiannon and Gold Dust Woman it's Stevie's most mysterious song. The lyrycs don't make immediate causal sense but they draw from a certain imagery evocative of the subconscious.

I'm glad you like it :) It's funny how she describes not knowing what the hell it's about. The song makes sense to me but more in the way that you described - imagery evocative of the subconscious. Or as Stevie says, it's "about a feeling".

I love the "going inward to my gnarly trollness" :laugh:

I had to go out for a while, but I'm back to the box set now. If I find anymore insightful gems I'll post them.

elle

12-05-2015, 01:27 PM

Hey there, does anybody know if the "Sisters Of The Moon" remix on disc two is the same as the single version which appeared on the 2004 Tusk remaster?

if the info here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tusk_(album) is correct, it's not a previously unreleased version so probably the same as 2004 version.

SorcererJP

12-05-2015, 01:34 PM

I have a rare day to myself to appreciate this box set - it's very good timing.

I love this, by Stevie, about "Sisters of The Moon" - I honestly don't know what the hell this song is about. I've been singing it on tour for the last two and half years, and every time I'm thinking, What the hell is that? I think it was me putting up an alter ego or something, the dark lady in the corner, and there's a Gemini twin thing. It wasn't a love song; it wasn't written about a man, or anything precious. It was just about a feeling I might have had over a couple of days, going inward in my gnarly trollness. Makes no sense. Perfect for this record!

While so was very precise about it in the Tusk Tour Documentary from 35 years ago ... don't blame her memory though :-)

SorcererJP

12-05-2015, 01:39 PM

Listened to it on the train commuting to work yesterday (on Spotify on my earphones) and picked up the parcel with my box yesterday.

Finally have to the time to listen to it carefully tonight. I just adore the 2 live CD's. Made a special playlist already on my Sonos-system. Also love the alternate vocal 'Angel' ... as far as I'm concerned there are to much IKINW's and Tusk's on it, but hey ... there is the skip-button invented for ...

SisterNightroad

12-05-2015, 01:54 PM

I love the "going inward to my gnarly trollness" :laugh:
Yes, that was cute but somehow it feels quite right if you think about the demos of Sisters Of The Moon we have...
One is sung with raw, a bit forcibly low and threatening voice and the other, the one used for the album, is sung with eerie, high voice. The ending result with all of the Stevie's acute vocal layers looks like she has some kind of foreboding conversation with herself.
I can't help but think that somehow all of this was intended.

MoonSister75

12-05-2015, 02:15 PM

Yes, that was cute but somehow it feels quite right if you think about the demos of Sisters Of The Moon we have...
One is sung with raw, a bit forcibly low and threatening voice and the other, the one used for the album, is sung with eerie, high voice. The ending result with all of the Stevie's acute vocal layers looks like she has some kind of foreboding conversation with herself.
I can't help but think that somehow all of this was intended.

Yes I'm sure you're right. To me, it always seem like a song that can take the listener to a dark but cathartic place, as it probably did with Stevie herself

MoonSister75

12-05-2015, 02:19 PM

Maybe someone will scan the liner notes and post them at some point, for anyone not buying the physical format. I don't have a scanner. The Tusk Track by Track section is great, Lindsey has the most to say obviously. I'm not sure if it's all new interview material, or some is taken from old interviews.

Here's a few sections that I liked in particular:

Over and Over - Lindsey
By the time we got to this we knew we had an album that was not by the book. When it came to sequencing we felt this song had a certain familiarity to it, something that people were going to latch onto on one level and yet set them up for some of the other more traditional things. Where this got untraditional was leaving it in a fairly raw state, not too glossy in the production.

Sara - Mick
I recall it being just me and Stevie going into the night on this one. Everyone apart from Keith and Richard had left. Chris was going to reply the piano and Stevie re-sing the song, but we listened back to this guide and she sang it so beautifully whilst she was playing piano, which was leaking into her vocal mic. And the timing of it was so individual - there was no way Chris could get in there. The vocal and piano were just not able to be separated. But the guys were saying, "The timing is all over the place" so I said "Just let me weasel around and make it ok. If I'm playing brushes there's no absolutes, no hits, it can just grease around". So I spent about 24 hours - a long, long time - dropping in phrases, schmoozing my way around her timing, and that's the track that survived, with Stevie playing piano.

That's All For Everyone - Lindsey
This was influenced by Brian Wilson. What I love about him is not just his music but his choices. He gave me the courage to flout success, showed me that what you need to do as an artist is take risks and find new avenues.
It's a wisp of a meaning at best, more of an atmospheric piece. I had the idea of being at a function with these people and having to go home, but on a less literal level I think it may also have been about deprogramming from the formulas you need to follow to buy what the corporate world is trying to sell you.

michelej1

12-05-2015, 05:57 PM

i was missing more of that hogging/his screaming "baby once in a while" etc on Aus/NZ live versions from this tour.

So, was I. I was hoping he would get more into it, as the tour went on. I want him to go a little wild demanding that he be thought about, while Christine pleads in contrast.

Michele

SisterNightroad

12-05-2015, 06:06 PM

Sara - Mick
I recall it being just me and Stevie going into the night on this one. Everyone apart from Keith and Richard had left. Chris was going to reply the piano and Stevie re-sing the song, but we listened back to this guide and she sang it so beautifully whilst she was playing piano, which was leaking into her vocal mic. And the timing of it was so individual - there was no way Chris could get in there. The vocal and piano were just not able to be separated. But the guys were saying, "The timing is all over the place" so I said "Just let me weasel around and make it ok. If I'm playing brushes there's no absolutes, no hits, it can just grease around". So I spent about 24 hours - a long, long time - dropping in phrases, schmoozing my way around her timing, and that's the track that survived, with Stevie playing piano.

This one was special, I've never read it anywhere, thank you.

jbrownsjr

12-05-2015, 07:59 PM

Agreed! And her performance of SYLM at the outset of the show is terrific, too.

Re: the demos and early takes: I actually like the earlier takes of a Never Forget and Think About Me--they sound warmer and more womanly, like Over My Head. Think About Me, in particular is a jewel because we get to hear her without the double-tracking and Lindsey hogging the second half of the song.

I love how they can interchange the vocals with each other. They have a chemistry in the band that's unmatched even by B/N. It has to do a lot with the fact that they're both players and love to play with vocals.

michelej1

12-05-2015, 08:10 PM

I love how they can interchange the vocals with each other. They have a chemistry in the band that's unmatched even by B/N. It has to do a lot with the fact that they're both players and love to play with vocals.

And it's funny how Lindsey remarked that he and Stevie are both nasal and Christine has more of a honey tone, yet when Christine and Lindsey mingle their voices, you can't tell where one ends and the other begins.

Stevie had mentioned that if you speed Lindsey up or slow her voice down, they sound alike, but with Lindsey and Christine, if you intermingle them, they meld together, as if speaking from the same psyche.

Michele

bombaysaffires

12-05-2015, 11:29 PM

wow, is it me or does Lindsey's guitar on Storms 6/2/79 sound like crap??

MoonSister75

12-06-2015, 05:48 AM

Beautiful Child - Lindsey
Stevie never confided in me who it's about, but it's clearly someone who's a bit older, someone who was just passing through. I think it speaks of her longing to connect with someone on a deeper level again. It's sad because it comments on her loneliness. It's a gorgeous song. That and "Storms" kill me.
Stevie
This is one of my very favourite ballads. It's so from the heart. It was written about an English man I was crazy about who was quite a bit older than me in his beautiful English voice, and I would sit at his feet, just mesmerised, and he would say, "You are a beautiful child" and I'd say, "I'm not a child anymore". He was married, so we stopped, because it was going to hurt a lot of people. The song is like a straight retelling of the last night of that relationship. Every time I sing it I'm transported back to the Beverly Hills Hotel and walking across the grounds to get a cab after saying goodbye.

Walk A Thin Line - Lindsey
This was sparked by a Charlie Watts drum fill in "Sway" on Sticky Fingers. There are a couple of times where he does a kind of military press-roll acriss the beat, and I was in love with that moment. When I thought about the tempo of the song I was reminded of "Sway" and that fill. It was a spirited idea that fit the song.

Macfan4life

12-06-2015, 08:02 AM

The Tusk stage riff is sensational. John McVie is on fire with that bass!
It sounds so cool without the horns. Its really catchy.

elle

12-06-2015, 02:33 PM

MoonSister75

12-06-2015, 05:14 PM

some of my favorite reading from track-by-track notes right there - treasure trove!

It really is :nod::nod:

On a general note, I've been listening to more of the tracks today (I'm working my way through it at a very slow pace) and I'm totally over the moon with this box set. Tusk is my favourite album by far, but this is so good it's almost unbelievable. I didn't realise quite how much I would love it. So much to take in and so much to enjoy.

I just finished listening to Beautiful Child, Live Sara followed by alternative Save Me A Place and alt What Makes You Think You're The One, all completely brilliant!

MoonSister75

12-06-2015, 05:21 PM

and now listening to Live Angel.... just fantastic... a treasure trove :D:angel:

Macfanforever

12-06-2015, 11:17 PM

secondhandchain

12-06-2015, 11:34 PM

I noticed that all the Tusks version have parts on them that were used in the final mix. It's like if you take all the versions and mix them together (minus a few things) you've got the final mix.

Nicks 2016

12-11-2015, 03:52 AM

JB Hi Fi are now showing the 5 disc box set not released in Australia until 23d December.:shrug:
Let's hope there is a Santa Claus.

deribish

12-12-2015, 09:37 AM

Andy Man

12-12-2015, 12:16 PM

Having just purchased the new Super deluxe edition, I must say this could be the best release that Fleetwood Mac has put out (in terms of deluxe treatments).

Highlights:

-The live recordings (essentially a full Tusk show) are outstanding! By far the best live songs put out by the band. It's amazing to hear them live in their prime (for someone who was born way too late to experience this). It would have been great to have included a live version of Think About Me from the tour, but this is a minor quibble. Every single live track is epic...certainly this is FM at their most raw and 'rockiest'. As I listen to each live track it feels like the creative energy in the band is exploding on stage, resulting in an epic 2 hour listening experience. Well done to the individuals responsible for putting together this live set.

-The Alternate takes are a gem. Normally, I find the demos and such on deluxe treatments to be a formality with little insight; I am always much more interested in getting a remastered version of the original record. However the 'Alternate Tusk' presents us with truly different versions of each song, allowing us to hear each track in it's most raw state. The alternate "Brown Eyes" is certainly the best out of the unreleased material, however I quite enjoy the alternate "Storms" and "Save Me A Place" as well.

-"Save Me A Place" has become an unexpected favourite for me since listening to the new release. I have to say that the final album mix does not do the song justice compared to the much more intimate alternate and live versions. I do hope that if FM tour again that we receive this song in the acoustic set...it is Lindsey at his most vulnerable.

-The packaging is absolutely beautiful. The essay and track notes are well worth the read.

-The Remastering: This is one of the best remasters I have ever heard (especially the 5.1 mix). The remastered album sounds incredible, and it is evident that a lot of time went into making this record shine. The remastering for this release (and the Rumours re-releae, quite frankly) should serve as an example for all engineers and mixers in the industry.

Above all, this release highlights the many talents in the band. I dare say that when you truly listen to "Tusk" it is not hyperbole to state that FM rivals The Beatles in terms of musicianship and songwriting ability. Christine, Stevie, and Lindsey each contribute such creative and sophisticated material throughout the album. If nothing else, this release emphasizes the force that is Lindsey Buckingham. "Tusk" (the album) is his greatest moment, and his ability to transfer his skill to the writing, musicianship, and recording of each other FM member is outstanding.

A great release. It is now more than evident that "Tusk" is the band's crowning achievement.

SisterNightroad

12-12-2015, 02:36 PM

Top 10 Reissues of 2015
By Michael Gallucci

The Top 10 reissues of 2015 include plenty of familiar classic-rock favorites. From the Beatles and the Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin and Bruce Springsteen, the remastered and repackaged LPs on the above list represent many of the artists during their peak periods.

We’re long past the days when just a straight reissue of an old album passes off as something worth celebrating. So, most of the 10 records in this gallery include lots of extras to draw in longtime fans who’ve probably bought these LPs a half-dozen times since their original releases.

Whether it’s the alternate takes of classic songs found on the Stones’ expanded Sticky Fingers reissue and Bob Dylan‘s latest Bootleg Series box or the new versions of classic albums assembled on the Springsteen and Fleetwood Mac sets, the Top 10 reissues of 2015 take a specific period in time and break it down to the smallest details in meticulously crafted new collections.

The Ultimate Classic Rock staff voted on their favorite reissues of the past 12 months, we crunched the numbers and came up with 2015’s Top 10 — a sampling of classic rock’s golden years updated for modern times. Not so surprisingly, all of these recordings remain timeless listens, even after all these years.

4. Fleetwood Mac, 'Tusk: Deluxe Edition'
The follow-up to Fleetwood Mac's gajillion-selling 'Rumours' was deemed a failure when the double-LP set arrived in 1979. But it remains one of rock's most undervalued and rewarding records. This five-disc box includes an alternate version of the entire album, demos, outtakes and live cuts from the subsequent tour.

Read More: Top 10 Reissues of 2015 | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/best-reissues-2015/?trackback=tsmclip

BLY

12-12-2015, 03:50 PM

I have finally listened to the 5.1 DVD Audio mix...... Unbelieveable! I still need to listen to the Singles/ Demos Cd. This just makes me want the same exact treatment for Mirage, Tango, Mystery to Me, Heroes...... I can go on but you get where I'm going with this. Great stuff for the fans!

PenguinHead

12-12-2015, 04:39 PM

This just makes me want the same exact treatment for Mirage, Tango, Mystery to Me, Heroes...... I can go on but you get where I'm going with his. Great stuff for the fans.

I have the same feeling. Makes me wonder how much material is laying around -- demos, alternate mixes, live takes, etc..

I wish they would release a thoroughly executed box set featuring the middle, transitional period of the band - Kiln House, Future Games, Bare Trees, Penguin, Mystery to Me, and Heroes are Hard to Find. I'd hope that each album could contain lots of bonus material, photos, quotes and extensive liner notes.

KarmaContestant

12-12-2015, 05:00 PM

I'm simply in awe of the 5.1 mixes. It's like listening to the album on an entirely different plane. Transcendental. Im not joking either. It's brilliant and I wish you all could hear these mixes. Each song has parts and vocals we've never heard in any outtake or mix. "Sara" and "Tusk" are by far the standouts... but the entire thing is inspirational and beautiful!

A 5.1 speaker setup is on my to-do list for 2016. I have the amp for it, but right now I'm using old-school 48-inch floor speakers that were given to me a few years ago.

I'll still play the DVD through the speakers I have, but not sure what I'll be hearing.

michelej1

12-13-2015, 12:49 AM

By Jeff Burger The Morton Report

http://www.themortonreport.com/entertainment/music/album-review-fleetwood-mac-tusk-deluxe-edition/
Album Review: Fleetwood Mac - Tusk (Deluxe Edition)

December 11, 2015

Though Tusk received generally positive reviews when it appeared in 1979, the prevailing view seems to be that it paled alongside its huge-selling immediate predecessors, 1975’s Fleetwood Mac and 1977’s Rumours. The consensus was that Lindsey Buckingham had taken over the group and buried its shimmering pop under layers of less-accessible experimental music.

Fleetwood Mac’s label was reportedly not happy and, on Tusk’s atypical “The Ledge,” a New York Times essayist recently wrote, “you can practically hear the record executives shrieking in the background.” Critics did a bit of shrieking as well. All Music Guide proclaimed that Buckingham “subverts pop-rock” on the double LP, which is “as weird as mainstream pop can get.” Rolling Stone, meanwhile, opined that “the bulk of Tusk sounds cold and fussy next to the emotional heat of Rumours” and that the title tune is Fleetwood Mac’s “Revolution 9,” a reference to John Lennon’s abstruse electronic track on the Beatles’ “White Album.”

Comments like these help to qualify Tusk as one of the most underrated records in rock history. In fact, while Fleetwood Mac and Rumours were terrific, the well-sequenced tracks on Tusk are more complex and adventurous, have aged at least as well, and are arguably just as accessible. Though it sold fewer copies than those earlier LPs, the album did after all attract four million buyers, spend 37 weeks on the charts (where it reached number four), and spawn two hit singles. As for “emotional heat,” you can’t get much hotter than Tusk’s “Sara” and “Storms,” both from Stevie Nicks, or Buckingham’s beat-crazy title cut, a gripping portrait of jealousy and paranoia that has garnered a whole lot more airplay than “Revolution 9” ever did.

While Buckingham provided nine of the 20 tracks, moreover, his songwriting contributions to Tusk are outnumbered by the combined efforts of Christine McVie (six songs) and Stevie Nicks (five); and their lilting, addictive melodies and magnificent vocals are just as inviting as anything on the earlier albums. In fact, most of their songs here would fit right in on Rumours, as would Buckingham’s “Not That Funny” and several of his other tunes.

Now, 36 years after its release, Tusk has received the reissue it deserves. One can only hope it will also prompt an equally deserved reassessment. The album may be somewhat less of a sequel to its predecessors than a departure, but Buckingham’s inventive songs and production mark him as a latter-day Brian Wilson, while Nicks and Christine McVie sing like angels throughout. John McVie’s bass adds immeasurably to the mix, as does Mick Fleetwood’s drumming, which sounds like what you’d hear from Ringo if he were a little more manic.

If you want an example of a reissue done right, at any rate, look no further than this “deluxe edition,” which includes five CDs, an audio DVD, and two vinyl LPs. The LPs and one of the CDs offer a 2015 remaster of the original album. Another CD features singles, outtakes, and session work from the Tusk sessions, and still another delivers what’s labeled as “The Alternate Tusk,” with outtakes of each track presented in the same order as the numbers on the original record. Two more CDs preserve 21 previously unreleased performances from the concert tour that followed Tusk’s release, while the DVD contains a surround-sound mix and an audiophile stereo version of the original album.

Supplementing all this material is an oversized, well-illustrated 24-page booklet that includes a lengthy essay about the making of the record and the real-life romantic entanglements that fueled it. Also in the booklet are the aforementioned New York Times essay; comments on each track by members of the group; and complete lyrics, track listings, and credits.

Budget-conscious fans might be tempted to eschew this everything-but-the-kitchen-sink package in favor of a more modestly priced three-CD “expanded edition,” which includes only the remastered original album and the two discs with singles, outtakes, and alternate versions. My advice: this is not the place to economize. With a few exceptions, the singles, outtakes, and alternate versions are not particularly revelatory; the most compelling goodies here are the high-energy two-disc tour document and the DVD audio disc. The former incorporates many of the songs from the album at hand (including a knockout version of “Sara”), plus fine readings of classics from Fleetwood Mac and Rumours, including “Say You Love Me,” “Rhiannon,” “You Make Loving Fun,” “Landslide,” and “Go Your Own Way.”

As for the DVD, it makes Tusk sound far better than it does in stereo. You’ll appreciate things you may never have heard clearly before, such as the Beatlesque instrumentation that underlies “What Makes You Think You’re the One” and the smooth-as-silk harmony vocals that enhance Stevie Nicks’s performance on “Storms.” If you’re a fan of the band, this DVD may actually offer sufficient reason to buy not only the “deluxe edition” of Tusk but a 5.1 audio system as well.

iamnotafraid

12-13-2015, 03:20 AM

The LPs and one of the CDs offer a 2015 remaster of the original album...

Did we ever find this out for sure?

Tonight was my first listen of disc one. I thought it
sounded great. Haven't compared it to the '04 remaster
yet.

I had been hoping that I Know I'm Not Wrong* would be the
same as on my original LP. But that's not the case. Maybe that's one
of the outtakes or different versions?

I've been trying to avoid spoilers, but just wanted to know about
that particular song*.

nicole21290

12-13-2015, 06:18 AM

Have typed up all the liner notes - the background to the album and the track-by-track. Just for ease of reference.

http://www.buckinghamnicks.info/tusk-1979

MusicInferno

12-13-2015, 09:19 AM

I had been hoping that I Know I'm Not Wrong* would be the
same as on my original LP. But that's not the case. Maybe that's one
of the outtakes or different versions?

I've been trying to avoid spoilers, but just wanted to know about
that particular song*.

What version is it then? I listenend to it on spotify and it's not the alternate cd/04-remaster-version.

Aussie W/Heart

12-13-2015, 09:22 AM

Have typed up all the liner notes - the background to the album and the track-by-track. Just for ease of reference.

http://www.buckinghamnicks.info/tusk-1979

Thanks for sharing your link, good stuff!!

Wdm6789

12-13-2015, 09:37 AM

I still wish they chose another performance of Sara, where Christine played the "great dark wing" and "hold on the night is coming" parts normally. That's my favorite part of that song and the performance they chose doesn't have enough piano prominence for me. Still an awesome performance, the soundboard people just should have turned up the piano. The other live performances on the Tusk Deluxe are awesome too, but they should have used more 1979 shows when the band was more fresh and less worn out.

UndoingTheLaces

12-13-2015, 12:41 PM

Did we ever find this out for sure?

Tonight was my first listen of disc one. I thought it
sounded great. Haven't compared it to the '04 remaster
yet.

I had been hoping that I Know I'm Not Wrong* would be the
same as on my original LP. But that's not the case. Maybe that's one
of the outtakes or different versions?

I've been trying to avoid spoilers, but just wanted to know about
that particular song*.

I get the feeling that they have included a bunch of stuff from unused tracks to surround you with the music in the 5.1 versions. In the case of I Know I'm Not Wrong they used elements from both the original version of the album and parts from the CD version. I don't have a 5.1 surround set up so I'm currently listening to it through my flatscreen TV (which still has great stereo sound) and the mix sounds way more even than when it first came to CD. The extra background vocals, that harmonica part in the instrumental break, Stevie's harmonies, all sound much more blended than on the original CD where they split the original mix and the remix into two separate channels.

WayOfTheDragon

12-13-2015, 07:26 PM

Have typed up all the liner notes - the background to the album and the track-by-track. Just for ease of reference.

http://www.buckinghamnicks.info/tusk-1979

Thanks for this!!!

Macfanforever

12-13-2015, 08:24 PM

Heres FM In The Studio with Redbeard.This caught me off guard as I found it done on my computer tonight.I record his show every week.I must of miss his "Whats coming up next weekend" outtro last weekend.

The show is complete with the adverts scoped out.I did not have time to listen to it closely .Let me know how it came out and anything new they say or is retreaded interview clips.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/8y15zqid8oqjdzt/FMtuskinthestudio12062015.rar

Heres part two of In the Studio with Redbeard which I did not know until tonight.

Please give me thanks for these goodies as I post them on here.Its annoying when I post this stuff and get NO THANKS for doing so.I wont post any more if it continues.Rant over.

Heres part two..

http://www.mediafire.com/download/rz060imaf7af3jw/FMtuskinthestudio12132015.rar

iamnotafraid

12-14-2015, 12:43 AM

What version is it then? I listenend to it on spotify and it's not the alternate cd/04-remaster-version.

I should clear up my statement about I Know I'm Not Wrong.

I don't think it's an alternate take from what was
used on the original album. But perhaps a different
mix.

It seems like there was a discussion about the difference
before. Probably in the dungeon of the Ledge somewhere.
But I'm scared to go down there.

michelej1

12-14-2015, 01:26 AM

cactusjack

12-14-2015, 04:19 AM

Heres part two of In the Studio with Redbeard which I did not know until tonight.

Please give me thanks for these goodies as I post them on here.Its annoying when I post this stuff and get NO THANKS for doing so.I wont post any more if it continues.Rant over.

Heres part two..

http://www.mediafire.com/download/rz060imaf7af3jw/FMtuskinthestudio12132015.rar
thanks for these!

UndoingTheLaces

12-14-2015, 09:14 AM

Macfanforever, thank you for posting these. I've been making a playlist of Stevie/Fleetwood Mac interviews on my iPod to save for long car trips and I just added this. I look forward to hearing it. :)

GJK

12-14-2015, 09:42 AM

I should clear up my statement about I Know I'm Not Wrong.

I don't think it's an alternate take from what was used on the original album. But perhaps a different mix.
It seems like there was a discussion about the difference before. Probably in the dungeon of the Ledge somewhere. But I'm scared to go down there.

You can easily find it on the 'Threads in Forum: Rumours' page; the last post was on December 11.

shackin'up

12-14-2015, 01:44 PM

Listening to the live songs, I notice how hard they tried to change their voices to create aural depth and interest. They didn't just do their famous harmonizing, but also worked harder to add texture to the sound by playing with range and tone. With background vocalists added to the mix, they aren't as creative when arranging the live vocals at all. They think the quantity of vocalists will be enough to make the sound full and don't worry about it also being more unique.

Michele

Spot on. It's a pity, that they never tried it again after the Miragetour. The rawness brings a lot of emotional depth and vulnerability. It's just great to hear them at their peak in good quality. They seem untouched, these liverecordings, although I'm pretty sure I hear a lowvoiced extra Lindsey on the stunning Save Me A Place.

Macfanforever

12-14-2015, 07:58 PM

thanks for these!

Macfanforever, thank you for posting these. I've been making a playlist of Stevie/Fleetwood Mac interviews on my iPod to save for long car trips and I just added this. I look forward to hearing it. :)

Thanks.No problem doing so.

I agree .Its great to listen to these on the road.

UndoingTheLaces

12-14-2015, 08:08 PM

Okay, here's a weird question. I got the Deluxe Edition as an early Christmas present from my partner but the CD player in my computer isn't working and I really want to rip the entire set to I can play it on my iPod in the car. Is there an option where downloads are included in the set? I've bought other sets that included this.

Macfanforever

12-14-2015, 09:59 PM

iamnotafraid

12-15-2015, 12:21 AM

You can easily find it on the 'Threads in Forum: Rumours' page; the last post was on December 11.

Thanks.

I don't know why but I never use that feature.

iamnotafraid

12-15-2015, 12:28 AM

I get the feeling that they have included a bunch of stuff from unused tracks to surround you with the music in the 5.1 versions.

I certainly hope that's not the case.

____________________________

Disc 1
Anyone else noticed how some tracks come in early?
And some have slightly extended endings (fade outs).

vivfox

12-15-2015, 10:04 AM

Is there an option where downloads are included in the set?

I remember elle was saying her order was all in digital download format.

michelej1

12-17-2015, 04:15 PM

Fleetwood Mac Tusk (Deluxe Edition)

http://thequietus.com/articles/19435...edition-review

Chad Parkhill , December 16th, 2015 07:43

After all of the mythologising – the most expensive rock album ever produced; a staggering commercial failure; a Lindsay Buckingham vanity project with the Fleetwood Mac name attached; what happens when too much money meets too much blow - Tusk remains a singular oddity in Fleetwood Mac's oeuvre. By the time its recording commenced in June 1978, the band were in the stratosphere of commercial success: their previous album, Rumours, had shipped millions of copies and was on its way to becoming one of the best selling albums of all time. Yet the music that had inspired Buckingham during his respite from the gruelling Rumours tour was the opposite of commercial: the debut albums from The Clash and Talking Heads, both recorded on the cheap. As Rob Trucks recounts in his 33⅓ entry on the album, Tusk began its life as an ultimatum from Buckingham to band leader Mick Fleetwood: Buckingham had new songs he was going to record. In response, Fleetwood shot back another ultimatum: Buckingham was either in the band or out of it. The stage was set for a collision: between the moneyed, high-gloss world the band inhabited and the scrappy upstarts who were shaking that world's foundations; between Buckingham's musical ambitions and Fleetwood's determination that Fleetwood Mac stick together as a band.

Tusk, therefore, is riven through with contradictions. It contains some of the band's glossiest work, of the sort that would have made the executives at Warner hopeful that Tusk could function as Rumours Redux: the gorgeous 'Sara', Stevie Nicks's aching paean of love and loss; Christine McVie's rock burner 'Think About Me', complete with acid lyrics that would fuel further speculation about the band's private lives; the lapidary 'Storms', featuring Nicks at her most pitilessly introspective. Yet these songs find themselves nestled between Buckingham's off-kilter, deliberately lo-fi ditties: deliberately truncated songs (none longer than 3:32) with unusual, unresolved melodies, in which Buckingham affects a falsetto and Fleetwood sounds as though he were drumming with a set of cardboard boxes. You'd be hard-pressed to call these numbers 'punk' per se - they thrum through with Buckingham's interest in folk and blues traditions, and they were after all recorded at phenomenal expense - but they preserve punk rock's affinity for simplicity and concision. In many ways they sound like exactly what they are: punk rock reflected back through the funhouse mirror of a platinum-selling band with a well-documented cocaine problem, a limitless recording budget, and a background in blues.

It's no secret that Tusk performed poorly on its release, shipping a mere two million copies in its first few months of existence compared to the over ten million copies that Rumours shifted. Just who the fault can be pinned on remains the subject of some debate. Did Tusk's commerical failure, as Warner's executives insisted, derive from Buckingham's outré songwriting? Was it, as Mick Fleetwood argued, because the album was prematurely leaked to the RKO radio network, who proceeded to play it in order, much to the delight of home tapers? In the long view, such considerations are immaterial: given the album's strange afterlives - including a start-to-finish cover version by Camper Van Beethoven and becoming a formative influence on Carl Newman's work with The New Pornographers - it seems that Tusk has ultimately vindicated itself.

The latest remaster and reissue of the album - the third such intervention to have happened since the 1980s - is about as comprehensive as anyone could hope for. In addition to the original album, which has been given a crisp buff and polish (albeit one that could have preserved a little more of the original release's dynamic range), and a second disc of single versions and demos (many of which originally appeared on the 2004 remaster/reissue), it also includes a start-to-finish version of Tusk in hitherto unreleased alternate takes and two discs of live material from the band's 1979-1980 Tusk tour. Mac anoraks will find that the second disc's collection of successive demos - which map out the progression of both 'I Know I'm Not Wrong' and the title track from their early incarnations through to near-finished versions - illuminates the band's creative processes.

UndoingTheLaces

12-17-2015, 10:49 PM

I remember elle was saying her order was all in digital download format.

Amazon's site doesn't allow you to download if you buy the set as a gift, which my partner did. So I have this wonderful box set of my favorite album that I can't even listen to unless I want to play it through my TV set (I use my PS3 for blu rays and DVDs and it plays CDs too). I'm going to visit my family tomorrow in Pittsburgh and I'm not even going to be able to take this on the plane and listen to it through my iPod, which is what I really want to do. I figured a great way to pass the time on a 5 hour flight would be 5 hours of Tusk related Fleetwood Mac. I can't believe I'm going to have to actually buy my own Christmas present in digital download form so I can take it with me.

The cruel irony. File sharing contributed to my losing my 8 year long job in the adult industry because people kept pirating our stuff and they had to cut the staff down due to loss of revenue. I fought tooth and nail trying to convince people to support artists and studios, in movies, music (and yes, porn) by paying for the media rather than illegally downloading it. And now here I am getting screwed by the very system I stood up for. :(

iamnotafraid

12-18-2015, 01:43 AM

So I have this wonderful box set of my favorite album that I can't even listen to unless I want to play it through my TV set (I use my PS3 for blu rays and DVDs and it plays CDs too). I'm going to visit my family tomorrow in Pittsburgh and I'm not even going to be able to take this on the plane and listen to it through my iPod, which is what I really want to do.

You can't upload the set to the cloud (Amazon)?

Unless you're using an older receiver that doesn't
have HDMI, I'm not sure why you have to listen
through your TV.

UndoingTheLaces

12-18-2015, 04:11 AM

I don't have a stereo. I have a computer. I used to import CDs into iTunes and listen on my computer, and take the music with me into my car with my iPod. I can play DVDs and CDs on my Playstation and the sound goes through my TV. The sound isn't bad but it's not as good as a decent stereo.

And I can't upload the music to the cloud because I don't have it on my computer. I have a stack of CDs that are sitting next to my computer that I can't play.

KarmaContestant

12-18-2015, 04:58 PM

Amazon's site doesn't allow you to download if you buy the set as a gift, which my partner did. So I have this wonderful box set of my favorite album that I can't even listen to unless I want to play it through my TV set (I use my PS3 for blu rays and DVDs and it plays CDs too). I'm going to visit my family tomorrow in Pittsburgh and I'm not even going to be able to take this on the plane and listen to it through my iPod, which is what I really want to do. I figured a great way to pass the time on a 5 hour flight would be 5 hours of Tusk related Fleetwood Mac. I can't believe I'm going to have to actually buy my own Christmas present in digital download form so I can take it with me.

Do you not have a computer with a CD drive?

If not, perhaps a friend can rip the CDs for you and put the digital files on an external drive, and then you can load them to whatever device you use to sync your iPod?

I guess I'm a bit confused about this dilemma you're in!

Macfanforever

12-19-2015, 08:37 PM

Do you not have a computer with a CD drive?

If not, perhaps a friend can rip the CDs for you and put the digital files on an external drive, and then you can load them to whatever device you use to sync your iPod?

I guess I'm a bit confused about this dilemma you're in!

I agree.If the computer have a CD/DVD in it.For Personal use only .It can be ripped to MP3 for your Ipod with some ripping program..

I don't have a stereo. I have a computer. I used to import CDs into iTunes and listen on my computer, and take the music with me into my car with my iPod. I can play DVDs and CDs on my Playstation and the sound goes through my TV. The sound isn't bad but it's not as good as a decent stereo.

And I can't upload the music to the cloud because I don't have it on my computer. I have a stack of CDs that are sitting next to my computer that I can't play.

Amazon's site doesn't allow you to download if you buy the set as a gift, which my partner did. So I have this wonderful box set of my favorite album that I can't even listen to unless I want to play it through my TV set (I use my PS3 for blu rays and DVDs and it plays CDs too). I'm going to visit my family tomorrow in Pittsburgh and I'm not even going to be able to take this on the plane and listen to it through my iPod, which is what I really want to do. I figured a great way to pass the time on a 5 hour flight would be 5 hours of Tusk related Fleetwood Mac. I can't believe I'm going to have to actually buy my own Christmas present in digital download form so I can take it with me.

The cruel irony. File sharing contributed to my losing my 8 year long job in the adult industry because people kept pirating our stuff and they had to cut the staff down due to loss of revenue. I fought tooth and nail trying to convince people to support artists and studios, in movies, music (and yes, porn) by paying for the media rather than illegally downloading it. And now here I am getting screwed by the very system I stood up for. :(

Sorry to hear that.It sucks for us small people that are in the biz.

I'm confused over on how Amazon know its a gift.I dont recall the gift feature on there.

AnthonyMI

12-20-2015, 12:00 PM

The answer to all these problems with having a computer with no CD drive or a solid state drive that is too small is Amazon

A usb external drive is $20-$30http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Electronics-External-Optical-Drives/zgbs/electronics/1292112011

An external hard drive to rip stuff too if you lake space is $30-$100

After you have successfully ripped the music it can be transfered to a iPod ir iPhone or even to the cloud. If yiu opt for a external Usb cdrw drive you can even make mix cds

The possibilities are endless and you can keep thr drives and keep using them

shackin'up

12-20-2015, 08:32 PM

So NOBODY hears a second Lindseyvoice on the live SMAP?

AnthonyMI

12-20-2015, 09:09 PM

So NOBODY hears a second Lindseyvoice on the live SMAP?

Ive had that version of that same live show a while now. Im fairly certain that low voice is stevie. She has a very low low voice which is surprising for that era

WayOfTheDragon

12-20-2015, 11:31 PM

Ive had that version of that same live show a while now. Im fairly certain that low voice is stevie. She has a very low low voice which is surprising for that era

Yes, Stevie is singing the low part. On the video of the Largo, MD show, you can see her singing that part:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Pe9X5Lp90

michelej1

12-21-2015, 12:02 AM

12-18-2015 Huffington Post by Mike Ragogna

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-return-of-tusk-fleetwood-macs-exotic-classic_56733577e4b08ea2326b3e24

The Return of Tusk: Fleetwood Mac's Exotic Classic Expands, Plus Anomalisa, Myriam Phiro, Jeremy Nash, American Darlings, The Paperboys, and Sea Caves Exclusives

When Fleetwood Mac's Tusk finally was unveiled to the masses back in 1979, it critically dropped like a white elephant. After releasing two of the best, almost flawless pop albums of the seventies--Rumours and Fleetwood Mac--folks expected the band's formula of non-stop, potential singles to remain intact. Instead, Tusk spread its sonic experimentation across two albums, its creative overlord, Lindsey Buckingham, having utilized virtually every studio toy at his disposal. Add to that USC's marching band drumline-ing across the focus single/title track plus servings of un-Mac-like musical performances and song lengths, and you get Buckingham's musical vision/version of what a late-seventies album was supposed to be.

Fleetwood Mad had arrived and considering the relationship breakdowns and band's highly-publicized drug culture, it was a miracle this previously-considered overthought, overwrought product made it to vinyl at all.
Fleetwood Mac's shifting business and leadership dynamics and partner trade-ups shouldn't have been surprising considering the musical institution's member roster evolved following every few albums (remember Peter Green and Bob Welch?) and the inevitable shake-up cyclicly was due. All of this very public Mac stress delighted journalists who gleefully spread the word. Regardless, devoted fans still were hooked on the band that strutted siren Stevie Nicks and the sophisticated Christine McVie, and they would spend their last dollar for this sweet fix. So the album sold well though it did shock Macheads, and the returns (when stores want a refund for unsold product) were large since product shipments allegedly were as bloated as Tusk's track count and excesses. Then again, at the time, returns were a given and built into the business plan for virtually every album release.

As a single, the title track "Tusk" wasn't a flop; its "TUSK!" chants and overall adolescence was electrifying. Still, it wasn't embraced like the usual, undeniable Mac anthem ("Rhiannon," "Don't Stop," "Dreams," etc.) probably due to its cryptic poetry ("Why don't you ask him what's going on? Why don't you ask him who's the latest on his throne?"). The reality was that no matter how ambitious and applaudable the 45 was, it didn't change music as we knew it, which seemed like its mission. Stevie Nicks'"Sara" became the album Tusk's biggest hit and its commercial saving grace; the followup singles, "Think About Me" and "Sisters Of The Moon," came off like second stringers, akin to Rumour's lightweight "I Don't Want To Know." Add to that Lindsey Buckingham's dark "Not That Funny" and "The Ledge" and it was like the Fleetwood Mac we knew and loved had been euthanized.
With the release of the super-deluxe Tusk and its abundant, additional content--including a vinyl pressing--this head-scratcher of an album both gets a thorough examination and, finally, its due. Naturally, the remastered album sounds fuller than its original CD release and closer to the vinyl sonics, and the 5.1 surround mixes utilize instruments, vocals, and arrangement groupings previously denied this project. The crazy amount of work that went into Tusk's undertaking is uncovered further with a rarities disc that contains demos, outtakes, and remixes. There are also two live CDs that put the emotionally and physically exhausted Fleetwood Mac's fatigue front and center. What's presented here may not be fantastic but it's engaging, with performances of newbie compositions like "Sara" and older hits like the always dazzling "Landslide" stealing the show. And the alternate version of Tusk disc--comprised of different mixes and takes--is interesting, but Mac's first go-round is the definitive version, even though this "what if?" is smartly assembled.

After this huge historical analysis and with so many decades following its initial release, Tusk can be rationalized as a commercial misstep that served a bigger purpose. Lindsey Buckingham's genius has been outed through the years, project after project, and Tusk, obviously, was this scientist's first true laboratory, so he should get a break for an experiment or two that went haywire. Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie's lead vocals delighted on practically all of their songs, no problem there. Even former Mac member Peter Green paid a visit to the track "Brown Eyes," and to this day, everyone loves those USC marching band rascals, though not necessarily on a pop record heard every ten minutes on the radio. A big nod goes to the sound, expertly constructed by the project's talented co-producers Richard Dashut and Ken Caillat (father of Colbie).

Not much more can be said about Tusk except that its opening song "Over And Over" got it right. Its message of sanity prevailing through adversity applied to this incarnation of the group...at least until they changed doctors a few years later (Doctor Who reference...anyone?). This version of the band--Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood--survived long enough to record the Mirage and Tango In The Night albums, whose creative heights may not have been achievable without Tusk. Put in another context, Tusk could be considered Fleetwood Mac's middle child that demanded more attention and pretty much was, maybe until now, misunderstood.

michelej1

12-21-2015, 12:04 AM

Boston Herald

Keep music fans grooving with boxed presents
Jed Gottlieb Thursday, December 17, 2015

http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/music/2015/12/keep_music_fans_grooving_with_boxed_presents

• Fleetwood Mac, “Tusk Deluxe,” $119.98.
You’ll have to love “Tusk” as much as Lindsey Buckingham to pick up this monster: five CDs, four sides of vinyl and a DVD. Trying to follow up “Rumours” couldn’t have been harder. Thankfully, Buckingham and the rest of the Mac didn’t try for “Rumours II.” “Tusk” remains the classic lineup’s darkest, most daring release. For those already in the cult, this package reveals a dozen outtakes, loads of demos, extended notes, new interviews and 22 unreleased performances from the band’s 1979 tour. Worth the price of admission: the mostly unhinged and awesome version of “The Chain” recorded live at Wembley Stadium in 1980.

michelej1

12-23-2015, 12:33 AM

4.5 ****

Tusk (Deluxe Edition)

Tusk (Deluxe Edition) Fleetwood Mac Rhino
By Barry Walters December 22, 2015

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/fleetwood-mac-tusk-deluxe-edition-20151222#ixzz3v7RpaNVQ

The Mac's wild, punk-y follow-up to 'Rumours' hits just as hard 36 years later, especially on this extras-packed reissue

While the music scenes of England, New York City and scattered bohemian enclaves the world over embraced punk's do-it-yourself radicalization in the late Seventies, nearly every superstar of sunny southern California kept on making smooth and glossy soft rock as if Joey Ramone and Johnny Rotten had never happened. This didn't comfort Lindsay Buckingham. The pressure to follow Fleetwood Mac's astronomically successful 1977 LP, Rumours, with a follow-up just like it drove the singer-guitarist to turn to Talking Heads, Elvis Costello and other upstarts for inspiration and liberation.

And so he began what became 1979's famously experimental and eclectic double-disc, Tusk, at home with the deliberate goal of shaking things up. While Buckingham crafted his unconventional solo recordings, the Mac had Studio D at L.A.'s Village Recorder built to their specifications, where they added to his songs and recorded their own with results that veered from demo-quality rockabilly to exacting balladry. Both capitalized on the freedom that came with their success: Because drummer Mick Fleetwood himself managed the band, absolutely no one but the musicians and their near-exclusive producer-engineers Richard Dashut and Ken Caillat had any input. Tusk may have been the first album to cost a million dollars, but much of it was in spirit and practice nearly as DIY as the era's New Wave.

Sequenced for maximum disruptive effect, Tusk alternately reassures and startles: Christine McVie's placid lullaby "One More Time (Over & Over)" opens the album with a soothing dose of musical morphine, but gets followed by the wake-up call of Buckingham's anxious "The Ledge," the album's most punk-influenced track. As confirmed in the interviews that accompany this deluxe five-CD/two-LP/one-DVD box set edition, much of Tusk – like its predecessor – is a Rashomon-esque account of life within the band as seen through the sharply contrasting viewpoints of their three songwriters. One of Stevie Nicks's most delicate and downhearted songs, "Storms," wallows in the guilt over her affair with then-married Fleetwood, and the subsequent karmic payback she endured when her best friend secretly moved into his house. Buckingham's confrontational "Not That Funny" addresses Nicks, by then his ex, whom he saw as getting caught up in celebrity culture. It's this candid quality that makes Tusk so contemporary even decades later.

That forthrightness gets magnified exponentially by the deluxe edition's supplemental discs. One of them, "The Alternate Tusk," presents the entire album via divergent versions of every song, including an early, piano-led rendition of Nicks's "Sara" that lingers for nearly nine minutes; and Buckingham's languid "That's All for Everyone," here featuring entirely different lyrics. Another disc, "Singles, Outtakes, Sessions," demonstrates through multiple editions of some tracks like Buckingham's "I Know I'm Not Wrong" – the first song recorded for the album, but the last one to be definitively completed – how the album evolved during Tusk's year-long creation. The version of "Save Me a Place" on this disc lacks the weeping bluegrass harmonies that define the released take, but Buckingham's vocal here is even more pained. Two discs of "Tusk Tour Live" serve as a considerably longer and looser alternate edition of the band's 1980 live album, which chronicled that same world trek. And the set's audio DVD provides a new 5.1 surround sound mix by Caillat that maximizes the album's one-of-a-kind combo of punky verisimilitude and surreal opulence, and drives one point home harder than ever: No other band could've recorded Tusk.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/fleetwood-mac-tusk-deluxe-edition-20151222#ixzz3v7S5nk5t
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

HomerMcvie

12-23-2015, 01:41 AM

So NOBODY hears a second Lindseyvoice on the live SMAP?

I was just gifted this stuff a couple of days ago, and YES, I completely hear the second LB on the live version. Almost zero doubt in my mind, that it's him. It's too girly to be Chris or Stevie!:p

stevierocks87

12-23-2015, 07:25 AM

Yes! I can hear Stevie a bit too, but there has GOT to be a second Lindsey voice.

Rod~A~Little

12-23-2015, 09:30 PM

jbrownsjr

12-24-2015, 01:38 AM

I got an early Christmas present. So I connected my turntable to my digital 8-track and made this video for YouTube. Here's one of my faves from the vinyl...Angel!!! It sounds amazing!!!!

:blob2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1rKaVIXm3A

Wow that sounded fantastic!! Those keys never sounded more crisp. I can hear all three voices so clearly!

shackin'up

12-24-2015, 11:49 AM

michelej1

12-25-2015, 02:20 AM

Glide Magazine, 9 out of 10 stars

http://www.glidemagazine.com/153512/fleetwood-mac-reissue-tusk-featuring-unreleased-alternate-takes-live-renditions-album-review/

Fleetwood Mac Reissue ‘Tusk’ Featuring Unreleased Alternate Takes and Live Renditions (ALBUM REVIEW)

December 23, 2015 by Lee Zimmerman

Tusk, Fleetwood Mac’s 1979 opus was a daring experiment, one that defied commercial possibilities while expanding the band’s musical parameters into areas that were otherwise unimaginable. It was especially daring considering the fact that the band had just come off two LPs that had broken them wide open in the States, Fleetwood Mac and Rumours, albums that would go one to become among the best selling albums in all of music history.

Helmed by the most successful line-up in their lengthy history — that being the front line axis of Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie — the band continued to venture even further in from their blues based roots, having been hailed as the champions of soft rock radio in all its endearing essence. In truth, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, the band’s namesakes and longtime standard bearers, had become token players in their own outfit, having ceded control to the trio responsible for their hits. Nevertheless, Fleetwood Mac was more potent and impressive commercially than at any time in their storied history, flush with widespread acclaim and ready to take on the world.

While the album was successful by most standards — it reached the top five in the U.S., spent over five months in the top 40, and was certified double platinum by virtue of selling two million copies — it didn’t come close to matching the levels achieved by its two immediate predecessors. Warner Bros. blamed RKO radio for playing the album in its entirety prior to release, encouraging volumes of home taping. The album cost over $1 million to make, the most expensive record in pop music history up until that time, and with consumers forced to shell out an extra $2 to cover the price of the resulting double album, economics discouraged those on a budget from making a ready purchase. It did produce a pair of hits in “Sara” and the title track, but given the fact it bore 20 tracks in all, expectations were never fully realized.

Nevertheless, in retrospect ,it is a fascinating album, a brilliant combination of excess, eccentricity and studio savvy. Consequently, any reason for reexamination is well worth the time and effort. To be sure this 2015 version isn’t its first reissue; an extensive re-release was launched a decade ago, but it pales in comparison to the expansive treatment the album is accorded this time around. Offered now as a six disc set in its most elaborate configuration, it features an entire side of outtakes, rarities, works in progress and demos, as well as two discs culled from live recordings extracted from the Tusk tour, an alternate version of the album as it was first intended, and a DVD containing a surround sound mix of the original recordings.

Tusk deluxe is housed in an elaborate box that also boasts heretofore unseen photos and an extensive essay by journalist Jim Irvin, who, in turn, offers insights about the circumstances surrounding the album’s recording while reflecting on the general bewilderment it cast on an unsuspecting record label, music critics and the public in general, most of whom were either too confused or too overwhelmed to give it the time and attention the album deserved. As Irvin points out, many second generation copies were obtained from used record stores, discarded by the original owners simply because they had no patience for digesting it all.

More than 35 years later, Tusk can now be seen as the bold effort it is, and in listening to the various rehearsals and formative versions of its staple songs, it’s possible to appreciate all it has to offer. (Buckingham’s multiple takes on “I Know I’m Not Wrong” and his slow construction of “Tusk” offer fascinating insights into the way the genesis of the record was fashioned, one layer at a time.) No, is hardly a perfect record, but in terms of sheer brashness and bravado, it states an exceptionally high bar.

Hawkeye

12-26-2015, 11:01 PM

No offense to those songs. And to be completely fair I haven't even listened to brown eyes all the way thru or angel. I've just noticed those 2 songs getting mentioned a lot as being stand outs on a very consistent basis. But I've sen very little mention of the absolutely heavenly sonic journey that is every single freaking tusk demo. Holy ****, this is mind blowing stuff. All 5 are different enough that i wouldn't want any of them excluded from the set, unlike other songs cough IKINW cough.

Tusk has always been a to 5 fleetwood Mac song for me, but after hearing see other versions, it would be very hard for it not to be a landslide victory greatest fleetwood Mac song ever for me.

The acoustic version in particular makes me think the song could easily gone a much different direction, and would've been just as good if not better as an account if, much darker song. Kind like bel air rain 30 years early.

And if I had any way to control one decision the band does on stage next time it would be to do this: swap big love to full band and have tusk replace big love as the acoustic song mid set. It would be such a win win. Tusk would be so perfect acoustic. I think the guitar climax could blow big loves away. And tusk howls would replace big love grunts seamlessly!

Hawkeye

12-26-2015, 11:07 PM

And sorry if someone actually has pointed this song out. I just haven't seen it. But I may agave missed reading a lot. The songs that I've seen just get repeated a lot are brown eyes and Angel. And Sara live obviously when it was the only song we heard.

And again I've only heard the second disk so far so those other songs could absolutely either live up to or exceed their hype from me, I'm not questioning that at all, just that even if they're even better to me, it was still worth pointing out that tusk was as I put it a heavenly sonic journey!

shackin'up

12-27-2015, 10:39 AM

jbrownsjr

12-27-2015, 01:39 PM

I totally agree about the Tusk journey. It's divine. But so are the IKINW experiments in my opinion. And the Out On The Road sketch is absolutely nineties experimentalist folk. Could have been on Neutral Milk Hotel's 1998 In an aeroplane under the sea- album.

I love them. I'm glad they included all of them. This package is so superior to anything they have released. The sound is so crisp on my speakers.

UndoingTheLaces

12-27-2015, 10:25 PM

I went out and got a really nice 5.1 surround sound system because of this DVD. I've been wanting one forever but this was the catalyst for my actually getting one. My partner put it all together and set it all up. And we both sat down on the couch and put on Sara. I cried before it was even half way done. It's really incredibly beautiful.

vivfox

12-27-2015, 10:43 PM

UndoingTheLaces

12-27-2015, 11:09 PM

What a sweet story. Wish I could have been there with you. I still haven't heard any of this release on GOOD speakers.

Aww, it's really wonderful. And at least now I can listen to my CDs in the apartment even though I can't add them to my iPod. My computer's CD drive doesn't work so I can't rip them. I'm gonna have to find a friend who can rip them for me.

Andyleo

12-29-2015, 02:44 AM

Well, finally after having the Aussie release date put back from the 4th to the 11th and then to the 23rd of December and then to discover no shops had received the super deluxe boxset anywhere in my state and after being devastated to think I'd never get my hands on one, I placed an online order with jb hifi, with no real expectations of getting one, my order has been shipped and is finally on the way😜:]

sorcerer999

12-29-2015, 03:46 PM

I finally got this as a Christmas present. It's wonderful. The stand out track for me in this set is the absolutely BEAUTIFUL and heartbreaking "Save Me A Place" (my favorite Lindsey song) from the Alternate Tusk dated 10/18/78. It took my breath away! I wish they had used this version. His vocal here is sublime!

There are a lot of great stand out tracks on The Alternate Tusk, in fact! "Storms" 6/2/79 sounds like "Landslide Part 2" with just her lone vocal and his acoustic guitar. "Angel" has an awesome vocal that, in my opinion, is so much better than what made it to the album. "Brown Eyes" with Peter Green is unique. I can't say I like it better, but I appreciate this "work in progress" version.

The two LIVE discs are a real treat as well. "Angel", "SMAP", "SYLM", "Sisters"...all amazing!!! Even the live "Sara" is still refreshing even already having heard it a million times since it was released early.

I haven't had a chance to listen to the DVD Audio because I don't own a DVD player anymore. Hopefully, someday Blu-Ray will be able to accommodate that format.

MikeVielhaber

12-29-2015, 04:18 PM

I haven't had a chance to listen to the DVD Audio because I don't own a DVD player anymore. Hopefully, someday Blu-Ray will be able to accommodate that format.

It's not DVD Audio, unlike the Rumours release from 15 or so years ago....it's just a DVD. I believe it has a DTS soundtrack. All blu-ray players will play it.

michelej1

12-29-2015, 05:46 PM

'Tusk': New Box Set Expands, Reveals Fleetwood Mac's Enigmatic Opus

By Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press Monday, December 28, 2015 | 1 day ago

http://www.houstonpress.com/music/tusk-new-box-set-expands-reveals-fleetwood-macs-enigmatic-opus-8002956

When the five members of Fleetwood Mac reconvened in the studio in 1978 to record the follow-up to their massively successful/decade-defining/inescapable disc Rumours, it would have been painfully easy to simply spit out Rumours II.

Instead, they took 13 months and spent a then-unprecedented $1 million-plus to birth Tusk, a double album of 20 songs spanning 72 minutes. The effort defied expectations, confounded some fans, sold “only” 4 million units, and produced only two singles resembling hits: the tribal-sounding title track (recorded with the 112-piece University of Southern California Trojan Marching Band), and Stevie Nicks’ ethereal “Sara.”

However, a funny thing happened with Tusk in the ensuing 35 years. Its standing among both Mac fans and musicians has skyrocketed, as has respect for the wildly diverse songs and experimentation. Now, Rhino/Warner Brothers has released Tusk: The Deluxe Edition. The 5-CD/2-LP/1-DVD set includes the original album remastered, a bevy of outtakes and alternate takes, and plenty of live material from the ensuing tour.

In the booklet of liner notes and rare photos, Jim Irvin celebrates the potpourri grab bag of music, spearheaded by Lindsey Buckingham’s newfound infatuation with the sounds of punk and New Wave music, and a desire to not repeat the same old formula. He would even adopt an entirely new look for the photos shoots and tour of closely cropped hair, suits, and…uh…heavy makeup.

“Listening to Tusk is like walking around a ridiculously eclectic art gallery curated by someone who’s keeping their aesthetic a secret,” Irvin offers. “And old master next to an abstract, a kinetic sculpture next to a watercolour. It makes no sense at first.”

Though, contrary to the established Rock History Narrative of him fighting for the change alone, both Nicks and Mick Fleetwood and not just Buckingham were also eager to shake things up, according to their own comments today.

And what of the effect as a whole? Buckingham certainly brings an un-Mac-like tension, nervous energy, and biting sarcasm to efforts like the deranged square-dance sound of “The Ledge,” the punkish “What Makes You Think You’re the One,” the biting “Not That Funny,” and the “rockabilly on acid” of “That’s Enough For Me.”

Stevie Nicks, always given something of a short shrift in terms of songwriting since she doesn’t play an instrument (not counting the tambourine), offers some of her finest work in the longing “Storms,” an upbeat “Angel,” elegiac “Beautiful Child,” and mysterious “Sisters of the Moon,” which surprisingly resurfaced on the set list for the Mac’s recent reunion tours.

Only Christine McVie’s contributions seem slight and listless — both lyrically and musically — save for some soft-and-gentle work on her usual romantic balladry in “Over and Over” and “Brown Eyes.”

Tusk's recording period saw Christine’s involvement with both Grant Curry (the band’s lighting director) and Beach Boy Dennis Wilson, while Buckingham fell into an intense involvement with record-company exec/former model Carol Ann Harris (who later wrote a not-that-flattering book about the relationship, Storms).

The shocker, fans later found out, was the news of Nicks and Fleetwood’s brief-but-intense involvement. It led to Fleetwood’s divorce from Jenny Boyd…who had previously had an affair with previous lineup guitarist Bob Weston…and was the sister of Rock’s Greatest Muse, Pattie Boyd, who sent both George Harrison and Eric Clapton into romantic bliss and yearning, poured out on vinyl.

And when Nicks and Fleetwood’s involvement ended, Nicks’ best friend, Sara Recor (partial inspiration for the song), took up with Fleetwood without either bothering to tell Nicks about it, which crushed her (are you following all of this?).

Thus, Nicks admits today that a number of her songs are about Fleetwood, and it’s not hard to interpret many of hers and Buckingham’s lyrics as continued musical snipes and judgments on their relationship.

Of the demos and alternate versions, there’s some very interesting development chronicled in the songs “I Know I’m Not Wrong” and “Tusk” as Buckingham — like he did with much of the material — tinkered with them in his own studio extensively before bringing them to the band. It was a way of songwriting that gave him more control, but which the band agreed to abandon after Tusk.

And on the live discs, listeners will find a band surprisingly willing to take risks with tempos and delivery onstage with material recorded in studio. And that includes tunes from their previous two records, Fleetwood Mac and Rumours.

So, while the hefty Deluxe Edition of Tusk may be for Mac Addicts only (and those with record players), less expensive options included a 3-CD Expanded Edition and a 1-CD Remastered effort.

In either case, for what attention and sometimes derision it received on release, Tusk is the one effort in the band’s discography whose standing has improved with time. Oh, and the meaning the title? It was Fleetwood’s slang term for a penis. You’re welcome for that.

KarmaContestant

12-29-2015, 11:25 PM

I haven't had a chance to listen to the DVD Audio because I don't own a DVD player anymore. Hopefully, someday Blu-Ray will be able to accommodate that format.

Likewise...but I do have a blu ray, and ordered a digital optical cord to connect it to the receiver. But, I don't have a 5.1 speaker setup, so even with the cord I still won't be hearing it the way it was intended.

I'm a bit overwhelmed with the box. I love the Alternate Tusk disc - that's what I've been playing mostly. I agree with you about Save Me A Place. I find that song a bit, um, whiny ordinarily, and the alternate version is not at all whiny. And Angel - yes - so good. I can understand why that particular vocal was discarded, but the soft tone she sings it in is perfect, and makes the ending vocals that much better.

The live stuff is great...I do find the ending of Go Your Own Way abrasive and dissonant, but just the last 30 seconds or so. I just love Rhiannon and Sisters of the Moon.

I Know I'm Not Wrong is a recent obsession of mine, and the different stages of the song on the outtakes disc are fun.

I do feel they held back on us. So this can be done again in a decade.

Hawkeye

12-30-2015, 08:11 PM

This box set is so amazing. It's easily the best thing fleetwood Mac has ever released. And I say that without any fear of hyperbole or exaggeration. I already considered tusk the best album they ever released. And now I have that same great album, with many alternative versions that are either equal to and very different or just flat out better. And the icing is the incredible live set, which in itself surpass any live set the rumours line up have released. On a side note, I feel there should be an option to just buy the 2 disk live set.

My only complaint over the whole box set is that they should've included the piano version of SOTM. Probably would've went on disk 2 since it's such a raw demo.

But that's a very small complaint. After listening to the alternative tusk of a few days my highlights are Angel, brown Eyes, I know I'm not wrong beautiful child, never forget and the biggest and most pleasant surprise... Never Make Me Cry! What the hell were they thinking there! This album could've been perfect to me all these years but I always considered NMMC the one weak link. But not now, with this version. It's better then songbird! Especially the ooooooo ooooooos in the middle. But even without that, she's singing the whole song like she means it. And the simple piano is way better then whatever weird echoey thing lindsey decided to got with.

I know I'm not wrong from disk 3 is probably my favorite of all the demos. Stevie's vocals are really cool. Walk a thin line was always up there with NMMC as the other song I would occasionally skip, but I love the extra instruments on disk 3. And I don't know if we should even call that's all for everyone an alternative version, it's like a completely different song!

My favorite stevie alternative song is beautiful child, or it's at least the most interesting. A lot of cool instrumentation. It's almost sounding like it's going to turn into a rocker at some points. It's not better then the original, just different. Same with Angel. I love the soft sexy vocal and the slightly different ending.

WayOfTheDragon

12-31-2015, 01:11 AM

Especially the ooooooo ooooooos in the middle.

I love this version of Never Make Me Cry. It's similar to the way she sang it on the Tusk documentary (the scene on the boat, with just her and the keyboard)-- After seeing that, I've always wanted to hear the full song with the original arrangement, so I'm glad they released this one (I love the album version, too-- but in a different way).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEQxwiQZuog

Macfanforever

12-31-2015, 10:12 AM

I wish they remaster the Tusk docu on DVD for we can retire out muffled, blurry worn out tapes.

SisterNightroad

12-31-2015, 10:57 AM

I wish they remaster the Tusk docu on DVD for we can retire out muffled, blurry worn out tapes.
Praise the Lord above!

KarmaContestant

12-31-2015, 11:54 AM

I finally listened to the 96/24 stereo mixes on the dvd last night after getting an optical cord to connect the blu ray to the receiver and OMG!

They're basically completely different songs - the clarity of vocals and instruments is that magnificent. Storms, Over and Over, The Ledge, Angel - these really struck me. The one stinker on the disc for me is Sisters of the Moon. The beginning is all...funked up, and a different, in my opinion inferior vocal was used for the first verse.

David

01-01-2016, 11:31 AM

This box set is so amazing. It's easily the best thing fleetwood Mac has ever released. Me agree. It's a marvelous box. Beautifully packaged, too. The whole shebang really transports me back to 1979, sitting on my bedroom carpet listening to my just-released vinyl, looking at all the Peter Beard polaroids and scribbles, calling the telephone numbers (one of the numbers was Seedy Management), and wondering what the words to the songs were.

And the icing is the incredible live set, which in itself surpass any live set the rumours line up have released.
Fantastic, too, and very illustrative of the band's ferociousness onstage at that time. I'm disappointed, however, that several cuts were taken from St. Louis. Because of the video doc and the soundboard, that show is already too familiar to us. But the material from Wembley surprised me with how manic and wonderful it was, and the two or three cuts from August are dreamy treats.

michelej1

01-01-2016, 08:43 PM

Me agree. It's a marvelous box. Beautifully packaged, too.

Beautifully packaged, except for the fact that the discs fall out of their slots whenever you breathe near the box.

But I agree that it's collector's paradise.

Michele

jcalzaretta

01-02-2016, 01:04 PM

MikeVielhaber

01-02-2016, 06:36 PM

I also love the liner notes. love seeing what they say about the songs. Loved seeing Lindsey say he loves both Storms and Beautiful Child. They are amazing.

Was not a fan of live SOTM. That song is so darn amazing and so many great live versions. That one did not do it for me. Sara live is incredible.

I'm also underwhelmed by the live version chosen for SOTM and that was one of the ones I was most looking forward to on this. The one in the Tusk doc is incredible.

BLY

01-02-2016, 08:15 PM

I Know I'm Not Wrong on the alternative disc has got to be favorite track. It's great to have a gem like this to surface after all these years thinking I had all the outtakes. It's like when I got the Never Going Back Again Duet from the Rumours reissue.

soul_drifter333

01-04-2016, 04:41 PM

Someone posted Disc 1 of the Tusk show in Mobile 1980 but I didn't get Disc 2. Can someone kindly post Disc 2. I think that it was on this thread but can't seem to find it. Thanks.

iamnotafraid

01-05-2016, 04:18 AM

I wish they remaster the Tusk docu on DVD for we can retire out muffled, blurry worn out tapes.

They must have used video tape instead of film
for that documentary. The same way they did
for Stevie's HBO Concert and FM's Mirage.

I have the original video tape of that documentary
and it doesn't look much better than whats on YouTube.

Though the Mirage and Stevie concerts look decent
considering the source.

Neb-Maat-Re

01-05-2016, 05:16 AM

On another note, I wish they put the 5.1 surround mix on Blu-ray and not DVD-A. Blu-ray audio is really the best format now. I have a DVD-A player, but blu-ray is really far more accessible for people. Kinda surprised actually...well maybe not.

And the sad thing is it's not even DVD-Audio - it's just lossy DTS on DVD-Video, which is sad given the DVD-Audio master was ceated.

I agree that Blu-ray would have made it more accessible to the masses and I would have preferred it lossless.

MikeVielhaber

01-05-2016, 04:07 PM

KarmaContestant

01-05-2016, 08:34 PM

And the sad thing is it's not even DVD-Audio - it's just lossy DTS on DVD-Video, which is sad given the DVD-Audio master was ceated.

I agree that Blu-ray would have made it more accessible to the masses and I would have preferred it lossless.

You're saying a blu-ray would be more accessible to the masses than a regular DVD, which this is? I would strongly disagree with that. A lot of people own blu-ray players, but a lot more own dvd players. Sure it could be lossless, but then the masses don't really care about that.

I agree with both of you. On the one hand, a release like this should have an audiophile version. On the other hand, the masses don't care and / or don't have the stereo equipment to hear it properly.

I connected my blu ray to my receiver with an optical cable, and left the tv sound of out of the mix completely. I think the dvd mixes sound *amazing* when played through a stereo, with a proper audio connection. They certainly don't sound lossy. But even still, I only have two floor speakers, and not the proper surround sound system that the mixes are designed for.

I've also decided these tusk dvd mixes are superior to the Rumours dvda mixes, insofar as the layers of sound and the work put into them, but I do occasionally find myself disappointed by the alternate bits that were used here and there, such as the opening of Sisters of the Moon.

michelej1

01-09-2016, 02:01 AM

Best Reissues of 2015, Something Else Reviews 1/6/2016 by Nick DeRiso

http://somethingelsereviews.com/2016/01/07/john-oates-led-zeppelin-faces-yes-best-of-2015-reissues-live/

No. 10. FLEETWOOD MAC – TUSK (REISSUE): You’re reminded all over again of this deeply underrated Best of 2015 favorite’s brilliant weirdness, and its splashes of very real emotion. An expanded double-album format allowed Lindsey Buckingham to experiment with the punk and New Wave sounds of the day, even as Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks mapped out the aftermath of heartbreak. “Sara,” for instance, works almost as a response to “Dreams,” her career-making hit from Rumours. Meanwhile, the frank simplicity of McVie’s “Over and Over” is all the more powerful on a bracing, left-turn-filled release like Tusk — which had, as its bizarre lead single, this paranoid excursion of a title track that includes the USC marching band.

aprilsrain

01-11-2016, 09:03 PM

Just confirming before I buy -- the live is new performances, not a reissue of "Live" right?

BLY

01-11-2016, 09:18 PM

Just confirming before I buy -- the live is new performances, not a reissue of "Live" right?

Right,it's not a reissue of the 1980 release of "Live"

jcalzaretta

01-12-2016, 04:01 PM

I wish the vinyl was released in 45 format instead of 33.

shackin'up

01-13-2016, 03:13 PM

I wish the vinyl was released in 45 format instead of 33.
The vinyl sounds spectacular to my ears.

jbrownsjr

01-13-2016, 03:55 PM

The vinyl sounds spectacular to my ears.

I bet it does!!

shackin'up

01-13-2016, 05:05 PM

I bet it does!!

I bought a new recordplayer for it. And for the vinylversions of Lindsey's Gift Of Screws and that wonderful red vinyl double-album for the Seeds We Sow tracks. That one sounds awesome.

The most rewarding track to hear on vinyl is definately Great Day. As if twelve singing Lindseys are surrounding you in your room, playing Rythms on all your furniture and guitars, topped with a screaming rythmic solo that crack your walls as well as your soul.

Macfanforever

01-13-2016, 06:54 PM

They must have used video tape instead of film
for that documentary. The same way they did
for Stevie's HBO Concert and FM's Mirage.

I have the original video tape of that documentary
and it doesn't look much better than whats on YouTube.

Though the Mirage and Stevie concerts look decent
considering the source.

Yes its live on Memorex.Pun intended.I wish it was on film.I got the original copy here too.

It would be great if the shows were filmed in Imax 70 mm .They would look great on blueray today.

iamnotafraid

01-13-2016, 11:01 PM

They would look great on blueray today.

I'd love to see them put out a proper blu ray of all their
videos.

It could look better than some expect. Videotape was
used to record Elvis' 68' Special and Aloha: From Hawaii
(1973). And the official DVD's look very good considering
the source.

___________________________________________________

I finally got to do a "serious" listen to Tusk 5.1, and I have
to say that I think it's the best 5.1 mix of any album I have.
Finally someone did it right!!!.

A few more discs to go. I've listened to disc one and disc two,
then jumped to the DVD.

To anyone reading this. Don't wait - this set is a must have for any
serious Fleetwood Mac fan.

michelej1

01-18-2016, 10:56 PM

Album Review: Fleetwood Mac – Tusk (2015 Reissue) Published On November 20, 2015 | By Marcus Floyd | Albums, Music - See more at:

http://renownedforsound.com/index.php/album-review-fleetwood-mac-tusk-2015-reissue/#sthash.Guoln4Ek.dpuf

4.5 of 5 stars

The best words to describe supergroup Fleetwood Mac would be iconic and timeless; even today the group remain one of the world’s most influential bands. In October 1979 it was time for the group to release their follow-up to the incredibly successful Rumours; thus Tusk was born and it was their most experimental release at the time. Having had multiple remasters and reissues over the years Tusk is still a fan favourite today.

The 2015 reissue consists of 5 discs including a remastered version of the original album, an alternate version with outtakes that have mostly been unreleased, various single/demos and remixes; and you also can’t ignore unreleased performances from their Tusk tour, a DVD, and a 2LP 180-gram vinyl. The new masters of the original LP recapture the splendour that amazed fans, retaining the group’s precision when it comes to their finished product. 26 years later the album proves to be just as relevant and wondrous as ever; hearing classics like Tusk, Sara and the underrated Sisters Of The Moon will either make you nostalgic or deeply appreciate this work once again.

The remixes include the upbeat Think About Me Single (Remix) and the smooth That’s All For Everyone (Remix) among others. Soon you sit back in awe as you hear the initial recordings of a selection of songs; the first take of Walk A Thin Line was surprisingly sung more nasally, the Tusk (11.5.79 Demo) was also an interesting listen, and Sara (3.10.79 Demo) is just as charming as the final cut. The live tracks aren’t limited to Tusk and are derived from performances at Wembley, St Louis and Omaha between 1979-80: it’s nice to hear other hits like The Chain, Don’t Stop and Landslide.

This reissue of Tusk is a must-have for diehard fans or enthusiasts, it delves deeply into the group’s mindset in the lead up to the release as well as the chance to enjoy the original album again. If there’s something to be picky about it would be the inclusion of so many different versions of Tusk and I Know I’m Not Wrong; regardless of them being alternate takes it may be too much for the average listener. The new reissue is definitely something to be excited about, reminding the world that Fleetwood Mac is one of the most influential rock groups of all time.

- See more at: http://renownedforsound.com/index.php/album-review-fleetwood-mac-tusk-2015-reissue/#sthash.Guoln4Ek.dpuf

FuzzyPlum

01-22-2016, 01:40 PM

I'm starting to think I prefer the alternate Tusk to the 'real' version.
There are a number of songs that sound so much better, to the point where I wonder how they could have ever thought the final versions were superior (Lindsey's songs are much more pallatable). Overall, I think I prefer listing to the alternate- it just sounds more like a ....Fleetwood Mac album.

One thing I find though, is that I can't stop myself from naturally singing parts that aren't there on the alternates of Lindsey's songs.

KarmaContestant

01-22-2016, 03:35 PM

I'm starting to think I prefer the alternate Tusk to the 'real' version.
There are a number of songs that sound so much better, to the point where I wonder how they could have ever thought the final versions were superior (Lindsey's songs are much more pallatable). Overall, I think I prefer listing to the alternate- it just sounds more like a ....Fleetwood Mac album.

Me too, but not on all the songs. Lindsey's, yes, especially Walk A Thin Line and Save Me A Place.

I don't care much for the alternate Brown Eyes or Sisters of the Moon.

secondhandchain

01-31-2016, 09:26 PM

jbrownsjr

01-31-2016, 09:49 PM

The live Sara in tucson is amazing. The back and forth between Lindsey and Christine from 6:55 is stunning. They were at the top of their game. The Chain, Over and Over all amazing. Why weren't these the ones chosen for the live Album??? They also seem much rawer but still full sounding.

I was just listening to Sara Tucson, yesterday. The piano and guitar blow me away.. The audio is so good. I agree it's stunning.

michelej1

02-13-2016, 12:42 AM

Tusk, BY MATTHEW FIANDER 12 February 2016 Pop Matters

http://www.popmatters.com/review/fleetwood-mac-tusk-deluxe-edition/

DESPITE POPULAR NARRATIVES, TUSK ISN'T ALL DRUGGY, UNABASHED EXCESS. INSTEAD, THIS NEW SETS SHOWS THE RECORD AS A DEEPLY SELF-CONSCIOUS DOCUMENT, THE SOUND OF A BAND THAT DIDN'T REBEL AGAINST SUCCESS SO MUCH AS IT MISUNDERSTOOD THE PRIVILEGE IT BRINGS.

usk, Fleetwood Mac’s 1979 double album, is full of backstory. If its mega-successful predecessor Rumours had the Behind the Music-made backstories of deceit and division, Tusk (like the album itself) had several conflicting and chaotic backstories. It was the first record to cost over a million dollars. The affairs and divides of Rumours had, by 1979, grown into wider fissures between band members and, in some ways, full-on breakdown. There’s also the notion that this is the cocaine record, a product of excess and disconnection from sense.

Perhaps connecting all these stories together—or fracturing them further—is the idea that Tusk was Lindsay Buckingham’s brainchild. In the liner notes to this new Deluxe Edition of the album, Jim Irvin lays out Buckingham’s mindset post-Rumours. He didn’t want to lean back on success and make the same record again. He was also, so the essay suggests, influenced by the growing punk movement. That Irvin himself seems disingenuous about punk, referring to the movement as a “grubby breeze” and to the moderate chart success of the Ramones or the Damned as “if they were mould spores ready to discolor the musical wallpaper.” And though he sees punk and new wave as music with a “youthfully abrupt” attitude to the past, he does concede that Elvis Costello and the Clash, among others were “speedily evolving.” His attitude, colored by a clear love of the “plush delights” of Rumours, seems to echo Buckingham’s. He borrows the ethos of punk in claiming that Tusk was a “**** you” to the business of music.

Digging into this new 5CD/DVD/2LP version of Tusk, with all its bonus tracks and liner notes and photos, suggests that Buckingham’s view of the record and its making veers us away from the notion of coke bloat. The album isn’t truly about unabashed excess. Instead, this new edition helps us to re-see the record as a deeply self-conscious document, wherein Buckingham’s turn to the Talking Heads and the Clash (influences largely absent on the actual music of Tusk) seem to suggest an any-port-in-the-storm approach to making new music. The truth, though, is that the success of Rumours was hardly a problem. Tusk suggests that Fleetwood Mac was for a moment—due to inexperience, drugs, personal rifts, whatever—unsure not of how to follow up Rumours, but of how to make any other record. The “idiocy of fame” Irvin suggests as a target for Fleetwood Mac rings as naïve even now. Buckingham’s genre-hopping was little more than diving into of-the-moment trends. Mick Fleetwood, according to liner notes, wanted to make an African record, calling it a “native record with chants and amazing percussion.” These starting points for Tusk suggest not a rejection of success, but rather a fundamental misunderstanding of the privilege it brings.

That misunderstanding bleeds into the confused album itself. But this misunderstanding, and all the other confusions that went into the record, is what makes it so fascinating to listen to. For one, Buckingham’s conceits of ambition distract from some of the album’s purest pop moments. “Sara” shimmers” on clean, crisp pianos and beautiful vocals (Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie are actually the voices that keep this record together, though their influence is undersold in the liner notes in favor of the Buckingham defiant-burdened-male-genius narrative). “Over & Over” is bittersweet, dusty country-rock. “Storms” feels both spare and dreamy, leaning on vocal harmonies and tumbling guitar phrasings. “Angel” is stripped down and lean, letting the rhythm section take over rather than Buckingham’s layering. “What Makes You Think You’re the One” is catchy, straight-on power-pop, even with the high-in-the-mix snares and Buckingham’s unruly, edged vocals (which appear plenty on the record).

There is new territory here that works, namely the shift to a focus on drums in “Tusk.” Some of the skronky and brittle guitar tones feel fresh, though they sometimes land (“I Know I’m Not Wrong”) and sometimes fail (“Ledge”). But Tusk is at its best when it merely twists the band’s sensibility into something a bit more edgy and challenging than Rumours. The out-and-out experiments—like the hazy layers of “That’s All For Everyone” and the oddball chug of “Not That Funny”—feel awkward and pretentious, as if Buckingham didn’t quite understand the trends he was immersed in. Meanwhile, other places like “Honey Hi” just pile on the too-polished layers to saccharin effect.

Hearing Tusk now, all the ambition and hand-wringing around its creation feels largely unnecessary, with Buckingham’s ambitions for the album more relevant as ways to square with success that gave far more than it took away. But absent of all that outside story, it plays like a fascinating, uneven record. It is, like so many double albums, too long, but it also pushes the band places it hadn’t gone before. That those places are still firmly rooted in their pre-existing pop aesthetic, the very thing they claim to be turning away from, adds an interesting wrinkle.

The extras here further drive home the self-conscious nature of Tusk, suggesting even more that its excesses were more tantrum than rebellion. The “Alternate Tusk” included with largely unreleased takes is a compelling listen. It definitely doubles down on the album’s eccentricities. Buckingham’s vocals are as edged and shrill as ever. An extended take of “Sara” feels more spacious and haunted than the album take. “Storms” is spare and acoustic, with layers peeled back to reveal the song’s broken-hearted center. It plays like a long shadow to “Landslide.” “Tusk” gives the synths more space than the horns, but all the notes feel 8-bit next to the drums in the mix. Overall, this version is more disjointed and odd than the album version, and certainly worth a listen. But assembled here for a massive reissue, there’s a constructed feel to it that seems canned and, like so many other things around Tusk, overwrought. Like the original version, it is fascinating both when it struts with confidence and when it trips over its own self-aggrandizing ambitions.

The singles and outtakes drive home the defensive nature of Tusk, as well as the obsessive tinkering that happened as a result. Single versions of several songs skew any discoveries back to the middle. “Think About Me” is mixed to be all vocals and drums. “Sara” gets cut to a truncated, claustrophobic four-ish minutes. Even “Not That Funny”, a bad single candidate, sounds tame when those bleating guitars get sanded down. There are some interesting versions here, especially early takes on “Storms” and “Never Make Me Cry”, but while the evolution inherent in six versions of “I Know I’m Not Wrong” seems compelling on paper, in practice none of the takes stand out.

The two discs of live performances from the Tusk tour are—surprise, surprise—both fulfilling and frustrating. For one, they put songs from Tusk alongside songs from the band’s catalog, and the fit once again suggests the fleeting nature of the ambition of this double record. But the performances themselves are often ragged, sometimes exhausted. Nicks labors through a version of “Landslide” as if she’d prefer never to sing it again. Meanwhile, for a band not interested in repeating early success, they really stretch out a bombastic performance of “Go Your Own Way.” Between exhaustion and wanking, the band does sometimes nail it, though, especially a version of “Sara” here, a solid take on “Tusk”, and a charged, scuffed-up take on “Dreams”.

Tusk is an album that is excellent—and these uneven extras add interest to it—because it seems to come from such a flawed perspective. Buckingham and company spent over a million bucks on an album supposedly influenced by punk. The band was railing against a system that paid for that record. And, in the end, those pretenses of rebellion give way to simple artistic uncertainty. Even now, this set seems unsure of which way to present the album. We get a remastered version, an alternate version, a surround-sound DVD version, and a new pressing of the record on two LPs. This edition is an expansive, if expensive, gift to fans, and worthwhile in that regard, but its presentation also reminds us that Tusk isn’t the product of a burst of creativity or a major shift in artistic vision. Rather, it’s the sound of a band that didn’t know where to go, so it went everywhere at once. If that sounds dismissive, it’s not. Beneath all the conceits and mythologies that surround this record, it’s the basic fact that it’s always reaching that makes it the strange, great record it is.

TUSK (DELUXE EDITION)
Rating: 9 out of 10 stars

UndoingTheLaces

02-13-2016, 01:05 AM

shackin'up

02-13-2016, 06:40 AM

The thing that the writer of this article seems to be missing is that while the music the was "influenced" by punk never actually becomes punk, it was still different than anything else at the time. It's almost like he's comparing it to today's music rather than music that was around in 1979.

Exactly. The tone of the article irritates me. Not the critical approach, don't get me wrong, I love that. But when you read it, you can't imagine he ranks it 9/10.

sanders8323

02-13-2016, 04:06 PM

I love how he says, "Like many double albums, Tusk is too long." Umm, yeah, it's a double album. You didn't expect it to be short did you? It wouldn't be a double album if it wasn't long.

michelej1

02-13-2016, 10:45 PM

SILive

Like 1979 original, Fleetwood Mac's 'Tusk' reissue is bold, brash and excessive

http://www.silive.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2016/02/like_1979_original_fleetwood_m.html

By Ken Paulsen | [email protected]

on February 13, 2016 at 8:33 AM, updated February 13, 2016 at 8:37 AM

Fleetwood Mac's deluxe reissue of "Tusk" is as brash and elaborate as the 1979 original, offering extended insights into the development of 20 eclectic songs.

In its original form, "Tusk" was a 2-LP set that followed the mega-success of "Rumours," which had delivered enduring pop classics "Don't Stop," "Dreams," "You Make Loving Fun" and "Go Your Own Way."

Flush with fame and cash, and fueled by cocaine use, according to band co-founder Mick Fleetwood, the band was intent on not making "Rumours II." Instead, they released a 20-song set that mostly (not entirely) eschewed the sunny California harmony pop sound of "Rumours." Songs haltingly methodical and slow crash into breakneck-paced punk-rock romps. On the first listen, it can be unsettling. After that, it works wonderfully.

A few hits emerged from between the heart-racing highs and the faint-pulse lows, including the title track, featuring the USC marching band, and the ethereal top-5 smash "Sara." Most of the rest was not radio-friendly. "Tusk" was a critical smash but a commercial flop when stacked up against "Rumours"-sized expectations.

The passage of time has solidified the legacy of "Tusk" as a masterpiece. The anniversary set captures the album's essence with an in-depth exploration of how it unfolded. Here's why fans will wallow in its abundance of material:

It's excessive, just like the original. The deluxe version delivers 84 tracks, spread across five CDs (the digital version is organized along the same lines.) Those tracks include inside-out looks at the evolution of the album, including the aforementioned title track (eight versions, including one live performance) and "I Know I'm Not Wrong" (eight versions.) Both have aged well. To be sure, half as many versions of each would be plenty, while leaving room for more outtakes and alternate takes.

The hidden gems shine. Stevie Nicks' "Sisters of the Moon" starts softly and builds for five minutes, her distinctive raspy vocals taking center stage. An alternate take of "Storms" haunts with the backing of Lindsey Buckingham on acoustic guitar. Buckingham's "The Ledge," "That's Enough For Me" and "I Know I'm Not Wrong" fuse rockabilly and punk; they sound like they could have been written on the same wild night, and that's a good thing. On each of these three tracks (average length about 2:20), by the time you ask yourself, "Wait, this is Fleetwood Mac?" the tune is already over -- and it's time to jam on the brakes for a track like Christine McVie's "Brown Eyes" or "Never Make Me Cry." Those tracks may not rank among McVie's career's best, but they showcase a moody, silky voice that keeps you from skipping ahead. The alternate takes of these songs give a sense of what it was like in the recording studio, one that was famously, and very expensively, custom built for the band.

22 vintage live tracks. We don't get a single concert, but rather selected tracks from the band's 1979-80 tour in support of "Tusk." Many were taken during a June 1980 run at Wembley Stadium. The tracks present a time capsule of a band still riding the crest of its popularity yet testing the waters with the new material. "Sara" is gorgeous in its simple arrangement and Nicks' passionate vocals during a 1980 Tuscon, Ariz. show. Buckingham practically barks at a St. Louis crowd during a November 1979 performance of "Not That Funny." He gets the point across. During that same show, McVie plaintively belts out "Over and Over," the mournful leadoff track on "Tusk." Tracks from the band's 1975 eponymous album and "Rumours" round out the live offerings.

The band's cohesiveness is on constant display. Watching and hearing Fleetwood Mac's disparate units combine talents is the real pleasure in following the band. "The magic of a band, any band, is in the combination," Fieetwood once said. Although they don't write songs, Fleetwood and fellow original band member John McVie provide the band's backbone, something that's evident during the live performances of "Not That Funny" and "Tusk." Ultimately, Buckingham's orchestration of these songs works so well because it's those guys who form the orchestra. Each of main album's tracks takes on the distinctive personality of the songwriter -- Buckingham (nine tracks), McVie (six) or Nicks (five).

The set, issued by Rhino Records, is available in multiple physical and digital configurations. Among them is a gift set that contains 5 CDs, a DVD, 2 LPs and a booklet, and retails for about $100. All the music can be purchased digitally for $39.99 on music services. The biggest fans will enjoy this encyclopedic approach to an album that holds up to an in-depth re-inspection. The set minus the 22 live tracks sells for $10 less. You can save another $10 by dropping all the outtakes and alternative tracks, but that's where the real fun stuff lives.

~*BellaDonna*~

04-03-2016, 07:05 PM

Although Tusk is my favorite FM album, I do, however, think that Mirage should be giving the same kind of special attention. Especially since a deluxe version of Tusk was released back in 2004.

Wdm6789

04-07-2016, 06:38 AM

Although Tusk is my favorite FM album, I do, however, think that Mirage should be giving the same kind of special attention. Especially since a deluxe version of Tusk was released back in 2004.

Was there anything good on that one that wasn't on the 2015 one? Like another live version of Sara, by any chance? The only Tusk that is available on iTunes is multiple versions of the 2015 reissue.

SisterNightroad

04-07-2016, 06:50 AM

Was there anything good on that one that wasn't on the 2015 one? Like another live version of Sara, by any chance? The only Tusk that is available on iTunes is multiple versions of the 2015 reissue.
The detailed tracklist is on fleetwoodmac.net here (http://discog.fleetwoodmac.net/discog.php?pid=48). The entire 2nd disc was previously unreleased and is different from the material released in 2015.
I particularly like the demo of Sisters of the moon and Storms from that reissue.

vivfox

04-08-2016, 06:09 AM

The price of the Deluxe Tusk reissue is a bit hard to swallow, but being rabid fan, I can not settle for the lesser format versions, sans the live tracks.
I initially was resolved to suck it up and pay full price. I pre-ordered it from my local record store, but there are no obligations for me to purchase it. It was priced at $125.

Looking for better options, I was able to purchase it for $80 with free shipping at Target (with my Target Red Card). By no means am I motivated to endorse any merchandiser, but I just want to share my experience with people who might be daunted by the prospect of shelling out so much cash. 80 bucks is still a lot of money but it's the best deal I've seen so far.

Even though I can afford it, I still cannot see myself giving anyone that kind of money for a live disc, which is what I basically wanted out of this. Just yesterday I duped myself out of my own stupidity and bought the 3 disc package at Barnes and Noble for 23.00 thinking it contained the live tracks. I just quickly glanced at the songs on disc three and saw some dates and assumed it was the live stuff.I was so proud of myself for waiting until April to buy this, knowing the price would be reduced by now and NOW realize I'm gonna have to shell out MORE money for the live stuff to be included. This may sound crazy but even though several Ledgies spelled it out for us, the different versions available for this format, I had to read them and reread them over and over and was still readily confused.

fleetwoodguy79

05-11-2016, 08:51 AM

Hi All! I'm so sorry that I'm late to this party!

First of all I just need to say that I have literally been waiting for this for over 20 years when I first discovered Fleetwood Mac (yes, I'm aging myself a little...). Tusk is my all time favorite album for a number of reasons.

The Tusk Tour is still my favorite Fleetwood Mac Tour. IMO, there has never been an edgier, gritty, powerful version of the band. The leaders of the group were clearly trying to assert dominance on the stage each night and it came through in their performances. Stevie's vocals and stage presence can be downright haunting, and Lindsey's guitar tone sounds like a demon and madman (probably not too far from the truth...). To me, Lindsey has never played better than he did during the middle stages of the Tusk Tour!

This release was so welcome for me and especially for the live disc of unreleased tracks. Here is where I am most critical of the release though...

While I am very happy that we have some new shows that I don't believe have ever been circulated as bootlegs (i.e., London), I don't hear the band at their peak. Lindsey sounds coked out on some of the songs (I think from the first night, 06/20) and some of the singing from Stevie is sloppy; probably also suffering from the affects of nose candy. I wish they would have included some of the shows from May of 1980, which to me, were the pinnacle of that tour. Chicago, Cleveland (also on Live Album), some of those bootlegs are wonderful. Regardless, it's great to hear some of this new material even if it isn't quite their best.

The live version of Sara is phenomenal. I like it better than the Live Album version simply because it's more raw. I also love that they included songs like That's Enough For Me that I don't think I've ever heard even from bootlegs! And the 5.1 DVD audio? Please don't get me going on that... it's my own little version of heaven. I was so disappointed in 2003/2004 when we heard that Ken had mixed it but never received a release due to the death of DVDA and SACD :(. The wait was worth it!

All in all, I just wanted to share my impressions and geek out on this release. THANK YOU BAND AND WARNER BROS for putting this material out for us to consume! I've bought it all, including the standalone In Concert and Alternate Tusk vinyl release and will continue to buy any material you release from the Tusk era! (wink wink)

I hope you all have been enjoying this release as much as I have!