[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by Villavic

My first thought would be that the least reluctants were Mick and John, since there are not songwriters. But Mick did recognize he had reservations about Tusk.

There was quite a debate within the band on the disparate nature of the record, each writer doing his or her own thing instead of the unified sound of Fleetwood Mac and Rumours. I argued this issue with Lindsey, sometimes bitterly. I kept saying that I didn't want the album to be so segregated that people couldn't hear the band. When we were mixing I'd beg Lindsey to make his songs more recognizable as Fleetwood Mac. His songs were fantastic, but my reservations were that they might be too alien for our fans. Do what you're doing, I'd say, but don't forget the ingredients we worked on for years as part of the band. Don't go too far.

To this day, Lindsey feels I wasn't enthusiastic enough about the album. I know he feels I got it all wrong, but in fact I loved Tusk, I think it's a great album, and probably the only artistic reason Fleetwood Mac is still together today. As a double album, it released a lot of creative frustrations. The extra space let us delve and experiment and hone art. And in the end, I think I was right. Tusk did well when it came out, with its Peter Beard collage and avant-postmodern graphics, but it was mostly Stevie's and Chris's music you heard on the radio.

I guess that last sentence had a lot to do with how Mirage and Tango were later made.

So what about John? Does anyone remember if he said what he thought of Tusk during the recordings? He's the quietest member of the band, so it's easy to think he might have thought, "No problem, I'll play my bass parts anyway." But we also know he's very professional, demanding, and protective of his work. Remember how he argued with Lindsey when he the newcomer first joined the band? But by 1979, John might have been tired of all the conflicts, so perhaps he didn't want to argue about the album's change of direction, or about Lindsey banging on shoeboxes for the thythm tracks? I don't know.

I think Chris and Lindsey had one of the best working relationships in rock music. I don't remember anything ever written they had fights about production. I think Chris adored Lindsey for not only his guitar playing but his production knack. Were they not similar in the sense they were self taught? Chris took some piano lessons but it was her discovering Fats Domino that she started exploring those keys. Lindsey may have had a guitar, banjo, or bass lesson but he is mostly self taught from listening to Elvis records. They came from different worlds but they were made with the same cloth. Chris even had Never Going Back Again has her ringtone. They got along great during the Tango sessions. While Stevie was with Bella Donna and Tom Lindsey and Chris were already in France working together. So I think it would be natural that Chris was the least reluctant because of her admiration of Lindsey's craft.