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Originally Posted by bwboy
I looked online for reviews of Tusk from 1979-1980, but could only find one by Rolling Stone, which was extremely positive. Other sites had snippets of reviews, but it appears pretty divided then. Adjectives included random, abrasive, lo-fi, and new-wave.
According to Wikipedia, Mick said Then Play On is his favorite FM album, Tusk is his second favorite.
Christine: “Lindsey had already decided that he wanted to make a solo record. In order to keep him in the fold we all said ‘Well look, let him do his experimenting and incorporate it in the album somehow.’”
There is some confusion about sales for Tusk; most articles say it eventually sold 4 million copies, but online sources say it sold 2 million in America and 4 worldwide, which is shocking, really.
It was nominated for only one Grammy, for ‘best packaging’ or something to that effect.
The record company refused to build a new studio for FM, apparently feeling there were several to choose from, so the rest of the band agreed to let Lindsey have a new studio built out of their own pockets. Ironically, Lindsey still recorded 3 of his songs alone in his home, rather than the studio they had just paid 1.4 million to have built (not just one million).
Interesting stuff!
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Tusk wasn’t even close to a “flop” in the broader commercial sense, topping the U.K. charts and landing at Number Four in the U.S. — not a bad return on investment when you consider the amount of bathroom recording involved. But Warner Brothers certainly didn’t do the band any favors on the promo side, playing the double LP in full one day before its release date via the Westwood One radio network.
“That was ridiculous, and that was Warner Brothers’ fault,” Fleetwood told Discoveries in 2004. “I said, ‘I don’t think you should be doing this,’ and they said, ‘Oh no, it’s all part of a new thing, friendly to radio.’ But there are people with tape machines out there. And they played the whole album! I should have stopped it. But they’d convinced me it was part of a new, cutting-edge marketing thing. Who knows how much damage it did? To me it was like a milestone of stupidity, and rolling the dice unnecessarily. But the album survives.”
It also didn’t help that the album’s list price was just under $16, a lofty price for the late Seventies. (Calculated for inflation, that’s around $57 in 2020 terms.)
Tusk changed the band forever. It was creative. It was experimental. Even though it was not a flop, Warner believed it was a flop because it sold so much less than Rumours. It changed the band forever. Tusk sort of killed the band on rock stations. They were not playing Tusk or Sara. Think About Me got airplay though. The over correction from Tusk led to the music box Mirage and then the even more synth pop Tango. While Tusk was not about chasing commercial success. Tusk made the band start chasing commercial success. Classic rock stations are still a staple in every city and they only Fleetwood Mac they play are from the White album and Rumours. There was talk on a local rock radio show a few months ago and the DJ was saying that Fleetwood Mac became a pop band in the 80s.