Tusk at 40: FM's defining record

[David]

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

Mirage was really the end of them as being "just a band". Big production started taking over by Tango. Stevie's backup singers, and off stage keyboard players.

True. Although many of us forget that even during, say, the Tusk and Mirage tours, there was more than one extra guy playing something or other. Ray Lindsey, of course, playing rhythm guitar on Second Hand News, Gypsy, and Go Your Own Way. Jeff Sova played a tape of all that Dodger Stadium noise on Tusk and also played an Oberheim or something to simulate some brass (it didn’t sound like brass back then—it sounded like a synthesizer saw wave). Sova also played a synth pad on Hold Me in 1982. And Tony Todaro played drums on his own kit on Tusk in 1980—you could see him in silhouette playing behind Mick at the Hollywood Bowl.

But these guys didn’t swamp the show by any means, or detract any attention from the four main instrumentalists. So, yes, the nonsense started in 1987 with digital instrumentation. Remember Mick’s nonsense on World Turning that year with the Atari vest? I doubt he was triggering absolutely everything we heard—which sounded like a film soundtrack orchestra: swelling strings and brass, Mick’s digitized shouting, the percussive stuff from him tapping his vest, etc. Dan Garfield added all sorts of stuff offstage to most of the set, including Seven Wonders, Gold Dust Woman, Everywhere, and Little Lies. A few years afterward, he even sold his rig and modules on eBay.

This past year’s tour was ridiculous on that front. Weren’t there something like 14 people onstage? One of the reviews in the paper even called them out on it. It was certainly the first time that Fleetwood Mac ever played with two Hammond B3s live. Why on earth . . . ?! Why does any live outfit need two B3s?