Lindsey Buckingham vs. Mark Knophler

[David]

Originally posted by Les
I'm under the impression from the things he's said that it wasn't even so much the fan reaction to Tusk that upset him. Yes, I think it disappointed him and maybe hurt his feelings in some way, but I think he also expected some harsh reactions from a fanbase used to hearing something different. What I've always thought "crushed" him was actually his bandmates' relative rejection of the album after the fact. I suppose he felt like they had either lied to him during the making of it and really hadn't liked anything he did but wouldn't say so during the making, or he felt like they were distancing themselves from the album only because it didn't sell so well. Whether either one of those things is totally or partially true only they know. But that seemed to be something that colored everything from that point forward.

Judging from their playfulness & exuberance onstage during that tour, I'd say that the other Fleetwood Mackies initially enjoyed the "Tusk" left turn, but didn't understand -- or "get" -- some of it. Then, when it fizzled out halfway up the matchstick, they probably said some harsh things to Lindsey about whose fault that was & what the direction of the band *should* be & all that.

But I think it took the other members some time before they really began to enjoy the sound & vibe of the album the way that some of the fans already enjoyed it in 1979. Stevie, for example, says that she took several years to warm up to it, that she didn't get it at first. She talked to Molly Meldrum about "Tusk" in 1986 & about how she loved it at that point, but about how it took her several years to hear the fun & the energy in it. Of course, by that time, she didn't talk to Lindsey much -- otherwise, she might have told him then how amazing she thought "Tusk" was. Imagine if she had been able (or courageous enough) to tell him that in 1986. Maybe those "Tango" sessions might have had an entirely different context. And maybe his decision not to tour might have taken a radically different path the next year (if the others had all told him how much they had come to love "Tusk" musically).

As for Lindsey's estimation of his talents & importance, he has shown perspicacity. He said his main contribution to the band has always been as an arranger & producer rather than as a singer or songwriter or even guitarist. He's always admitted that he has "the chops" as a guitarist, but that it's more important to him how he thinks about the guitar instead of how he plays it. As a songwriter & guitarist, he is fringe & minimalist & exuberant. As an arranger, he is practically peerless in his field.

Repeating ideas & motifs is practically commonplace in all the arts. Beethoven built entire symphonies painstakingly & deliberately on the repetition of themes & ideas: that was the mark of a great composer in his day. That was what you were supposed to do. I like to think of Lindsey as an auteurist in the film study sense: this entire way of looking at movies originated as a French theory of film directing. Sometimes these repeated motifs succeed artistically & sometimes they don't, but they're there in so many works. In "High Sierra," a Raoul Walsh movie with Bogart & Lupino, Walsh uses a dull & obvious device that he had used earlier in a dumber movie ("High Sierra" is not itself a great movie). In that earlier movie, the hero thrashes around in his sleep & mumbles dream-talk incoherently. Then the girl he loves comes into the bedroom & listens to him, her eyes welling with sympatico tears. The same scene occurs in "High Sierra." When you see Hitchcock's "Saboteur," you can see some of the same devices & techniques & even themes that you saw in earlier Hitch movies like "The 39 Steps" & even "The Lady Vanishes."

This kind of thing happens all the time in all the arts; it's not by any means a Lindsey Buckingham "problem." The question is, Is it done well or poorly? Does it have a point (& that point could be thematic or semantic or structural or even kinetic)? And most important, does the self-borrowing (in Lindsey's case) strike you imaginatively or as just a ripoff of an earlier success? Think of your best friend, who (I hope) has a personality. Sometimes, displays of that personality charm you & other times irk you. There are times when Lindsey's self-referencing charms me, as in the "Bleed to Love Her" stanza that is lifted from "You Do or You Don't." The lifted verse in "Bleed" nestles beautifully into the song's bridge at that point. I also appreciate the repeated stanza in "I Know I'm Not Wrong" & "Not That Funny" because the sarcasm of the joke build & builds & is completed -- "don't blame me" that there's "somebody outside the door."