All these Tusk stories are pretty neat!
Mine is fairly boring: I didn't hear it until 1982, when I discovered 'FM' and ran to the library and got every FM record album they had there (mostly the old bluesy ones-- Tusk was the most recent one they had.) I was about 11 or 12. I vividly remember when The Ledge came on, w/ all it's energy and intensity, I was like 'This song is SO friggin weird...." And I basically said the same thing for all of LB's songs.
My favorite one that i played a million times was 'Think About Me.' I made a tape of the album which I played to death, but almost every month I would go back to the library to borrow the vinyl copy again, I liked the sound better than what was on my tape.
All the artwork etc on the sleeves fascinated me too; instead of studying in my room (as i was supposed to do every day) I sat there trying to decipher all the stuff that was written , and just looking at all the little details in the photos. I made awful quality black and white copies of the pics of the band and started a 'photo scrapbook' LOL.
On my stereo you could mess w/ the sound levels to just get bass, or just vocals etc, so I spent lots of time listening to 'parts' of all the songs. I also recall the album had this great library 'smell' to it, funny what sticks in your mind...
Anyway I loved Tusk, it was crazy but it was brilliant. It impressed me greatly.
-Lis