What does "Out of the Cradle" refer to?
 

Has Lindsey ever commented on his reasons for choosing this as a title?

It's from a Walt Whitman poem. The full phrase is "out of the cradle, endlessly rocking."

Michele

That rings a bell. Do we know why Lindsey chose it or why it has significance for him?

And it was his first solo album without being in a band. So he was out of the cradle that grew him up as an artist....:shrug:

From the book "a companion to walt whitman"

The liner notes in the cd I have refer to the "collage poem", by Walt Whitman, but I think they left it out of mine, as I have no collage! :confused:

In 1992 Lindsey Buckingham, a member of the popular band Fleetwood Mac, directly connected his own artistic growth with Whitman's by titling a solo album Out of the Cradle. In addition to using a title virtually identical to one of Whitman's, Buckingham fills his album art with, among other things, old photographs of himself as a young boy with guitars and a "collage poem" taken directly from Whitman's "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking." The "collage poem" consists of nine handwritten lines from the first line group in Whitman's poem. The poem, combined with pictures of Buckingham learning to play the guitar, works to connect the musician's own artistic "awakening" to Whitman's. Though Buckingham's album employs Whitman to underscore his serious artistic aims, there is also a playfulness present. The handwritten poem, with begins with Whitman's first line, "Out of the cradle endlessly rocking," is flanked by two large photographs: on the left is a young boy playing a guitar and singing, on the right is the adult Buckingham playing a guitar and singing. In other words, Buckingham puns, he has been "endlessly rocking" throughout his life. As painful as that pun is—at least he didn't title the album "Endlessly Rocking"—it is made subtly, and demonstrates the more complex relationship songwriters are beginning to have with Whitman. Rather than just venerating him as a great poet, Buckingham uses humor in his Whitman references.

That poem is really...deep.

Ha. With the she-bird disappearing, never returning to their nest, forcing the he-bird to sing alone, I do get a sense of Gerald's interpretation, being without the band for the first time. I mean, LB was never totally on his own before, from Fritz until then.

Michele

Oh, sure - definitely that. But, considering it is Lindsey, I think the other themes in the poem must have also been inspirational to him - going on and on about his love and losing his love and calling for his love and the sea and death. I especially like the end of the poem. It reminds me of his lyrics in "Great Day" and "Treason".

I felt it was promoted well, but I wouldn't say heavily. At least I remember that MTV/VH-1 actually bothered to play the videos from the album. I remember seeing mentions of it before the album was out. In music stores, it was in the front shelves with other 'featured albums'.
As for MTV's promotion of The Dance. I felt it was kind of hypocritical, considering that they rarely played any FM or solo tracks between 1993-1996.

thanks holidayroad. that's exactly what i was curious about - front shelves, where, when, how much etc.

since Cassie started a separate thread for it now (i knew it was being discussed somewhere else but couldn't find in which thread), i'll delete my mesage here and move it to the OOTC promotion thread.

Yeah, i was just wondering myself, as to how it could bomb if it was promoted so much? Sorry, it was just my inner business nerd coming through :laugh:

Thanks MacMan, that was a really interesting read and it encouraged me to look a bit more closely at the album art. :thumbsup: Cheers!

thanks for that qoute! at first i glanced through your message and thought the text you qouted was from OOTC liner notes... mention in the book is really cool.