Why Tusk is the "Perfect" Album

[brickney723]

I like all of Stevie and Christine's Tusk songs- in fact, I think they're some of the very best from both of them. But I hate Lindsey's songs, and Lindsey is my favorite. I'm not fond of the music anyway, but lyrics are also important to me, I understand all of them and they were all directed at Stevie. I think during the Tusk era he had absolutely lost his freaking mind. To me, he was just a hair short of straight-jacket crazy and his Tusk performances prove it. Sorry, I do love him overall, that's my opinion.

[PenguinHead]

Tusk is an album that has aged well over time, like a fine wine. It is certainly more respected and understood now than when it first came out, and confounded everyone's expectations. The public expected a repeat of Rumours, but Lindsey was inspired by the punk scene of that time, and wanted to challenge the norm.

Like many others who bought the album, I was a bit challenged by the somewhat radical departure of the music. The package itself was very intriguing - an austere and elusive cover, with sleeves in sleeves, featuring some bizarre photos. Stevie's songs were the most appealing to me, Christine's songs seemed a bit too thin, and Lindsey's songs were just too out there. The reviews and critics were not kind. Even Stevie made some negative comments about it.

However, over time, in the context of their history, Tusk has emerged as one of the most creative and bold albums ever made. It's their Beatles "White" album. Everything I disliked about it then is what I love about it now!

Lindsey had the balls to break reins and shatter conventions. He got flack for it, and was even a little bit contrite about it at times. But over the decades, people have come to view this work in a very different light. It's nice that so many songs from the album have been performed:

Over and Over
Think About Me
Brown Eyes
Sisters of the Moon
Storms
Beautiful Child
Sara
Angel
Tusk
That's Enough for Me (once!)
Not That Funny
What Makes You Think Your the One
The Ledge (rehearsal only)
Save Me a Place
I Know I'm Not Wrong

On the upcoming tour, I hope they don't glut the set list with Rumours songs, and leave room for some never/rarely performed Tusk songs. How cool would it be to hear the other songs performed:

The Ledge
That's All For Everyone
That's Enough For Me
Walk a Thin Line
Never Make Me Cry
Never Forget
Honey Hi

They should do another Tusk tour, and perform the entire album. Some other groups have done that. In my dreams there will be a Tusk box set with alternate mixes, outtakes, live performances, a DVD packed with videos, interviews and live footage, and a coffee table-like book with tons of photos, articles, comments, assessments, recollections etc...

[shackin'up]

Originally Posted by brickney723

I think during the Tusk era he had absolutely lost his freaking mind. To me, he was just a hair short of straight-jacket crazy and his Tusk performances prove it. Sorry, I do love him overall, that's my opinion.

In my opinion it was the most brilliant set of songs he ever did. Close to insanity. When he is at is best.

[FuzzyPlum]

Originally Posted by GJK

What does this mean? A private thing?

Thanks,
GJK

hahahahahahahahahahahaha x100

[MoonSister75]

I can't find a fault in Tusk - I love all the songs and their running order. Its quirky, fun, dark, sad and deeply moving. For Lindsey, Stevie and Christine some of their best songs are on this album - its just a wonderful, wonderful collection of songs from the three of them.

[FuzzyPlum]

Like the Beatles' White album you do wonder what Tusk could have been like as a single album...
...you pick out what you perceive to be the best songs and make what you think is a nice arrangement. You step back and inspect the single Tusk album. But then you realize there's something missing...it just doesn't work.

I've done this a lot. No matter which songs I include and no matter which arrangement I come up with a single album feels weak. Common sense states that the best 12 or so from 20 should be the cream of the crop. However, without everything included they just don't play coherently.
It's only at this point that I look back and appreciate the album as a whole. It needs those odd Lindsey moments to bring out the subtle qualities in the more mainstream songs.

That said I do wonder what it would have been like if some of those numbers were just a bit more mainstream... just a bit more Mick and a bit less shoe-box and biscuit tin (and if Lindsey just sang without the funny voices). I know there are plenty of people who think 'sacrilege- the quirkiness is what makes those songs'. I understand this, and I appreciate the odd sounds and as I said, its these moments that complete the album... I just cant help but wonder...

Tusk is not perfect but its damned interesting.

[tabruns]

Originally Posted by FuzzyPlum

Like the Beatles' White album you do wonder what Tusk could have been like as a single album...
...you pick out what you perceive to be the best songs and make what you think is a nice arrangement. You step back and inspect the single Tusk album. But then you realize there's something missing...it just doesn't work.

I've done this a lot. No matter which songs I include and no matter which arrangement I come up with a single album feels weak. Common sense states that the best 12 or so from 20 should be the cream of the crop. However, without everything included they just don't play coherently.
It's only at this point that I look back and appreciate the album as a whole. It needs those odd Lindsey moments to bring out the subtle qualities in the more mainstream songs.

That said I do wonder what it would have been like if some of those numbers were just a bit more mainstream... just a bit more Mick and a bit less shoe-box and biscuit tin (and if Lindsey just sang without the funny voices). I know there are plenty of people who think 'sacrilege- the quirkiness is what makes those songs'. I understand this, and I appreciate the odd sounds and as I said, its these moments that complete the album... I just cant help but wonder...

Tusk is not perfect but its damned interesting.

You have a point here. I think with more production "I Know I'm Not Wrong" could have been a hit.

[sasja]

Tusk is the one FM album I still listen to.

I always thought that, What Makes You Think You're The One is the best song Lindsey / FM ever did.

But the whole Album remains a gem, even still all these years later.

[michelej1]

[From a review of a festival in Newcastle, Lee Etherington's Tusk Festival ]

The Quietus.com by Stewart Smith , October 16th,

http://thequietus.com/articles/16492...al-report-tusk

I'd rather Jeck, than Fleetwood Mac

Excuse the atrocious pun on The Reynold Girls' cheeky pop favourite, but it seems apt given Phillip Jeck's turntable, laptop and sampler based reconstruction of Fleetwood Mac's Tusk. Yes, he went there, but happily, what could have been a glib novelty set yields sublime results. A watery piano ushers in the unmistakable cocaine and honey tones of Stevie Nicks: "Beautiful child..."

Jeck works over the phrase, repeating it, modulating it and layering it so it goes in and out of phase. Gradually, he introduces other parts of the song, their delayed entry deepening the ache. As a huge fan of Tusk, I'm fascinated and moved by Jeck's artful and sensitive bricolage. The echoes and vinyl crackles intensify the torpid emotions beneath the music's luminous textures, highlighting Nicks' oft-overlooked brilliance as a lyricist: "Your eyes say yes, but you don't say yes." As the set progresses, Jeck weaves in phantasmal vocals and Fender Rhodes from Christine McVie's 'Brown Eyes' spiral into the ether, and a spindly guitar is isolated from Nicks' gorgeous 'Storms'.

[michelej1]

[So, Mick is just like, "Hey, Lindsey write a song with a marching band, pronto!"]

[Excerpt]


The 10 best bands in college football

By: Alan Siegel, USA TODAY SportsOctober 23, 2014 1:39 pm

http://college.usatoday.com/2014/10/...lege-football/

“Mick Fleetwood, the drummer, the head of the group, he was in Germany touring. One of the German brass bands marched by the window [of his hotel] and when he came back to the United States, he decided that he wanted a marching band on his next album. Believe it or not, he called the band office directly and said, ‘Would you guys be interested in being on our next album? We’re gonna write a tune especially involving the band.’ He got his guitarist, Lindsey Buckingham, to write the tune, ‘Tusk.’ We went into the studio, and I went in with my arranger, and my drum guy, we fleshed out the tune. And they laid down a track.”

“And we went into Dodger Stadium of all places and we recorded — the full band — that track, to give the ambiance of a marching band. And four months later I’m driving to school and then I hear on the radio, ‘Here’s Fleetwood Mac’s latest hit, featuring the USC marching band.’ I mean I was like, ‘Whoaaa.’”

“Over the years we have stayed in touch. They’ve been down to our halftime show, we’ve been to their concerts, I’ve talked to Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham … and I’ve gotten Mick some tickets for football games. So yeah, through the years we’ve stayed in touch. I mean, they made the band famous with a whole different group of people. So why not?”

[tabruns]

Originally Posted by GreenMagic

4. Christine, Lindsey and Stevie has their best work songwriting-wise on the album. Especially Christine who honestly I did dismiss at first. But on this album her songs have some teeth to them. As does Stevie's. Sister of The Moon beats Gold Dust Woman for me any day of the week. Lindsey's is just sheer genius. His non-specific surreal, subject matter adds to over-all quality of songs.

You lost me on this one. I think Christine came up short on this album.

Christine's role has always been to provide the really poppy, hook laden songs to add to Nicks' mysticism and Buckingham's off-kilter brilliance. On every album of the BuckinghamNicks Mac she comes through with at least two really radio friendly songs: "Over My Head" and "Say You Love Me" (white album), "Don't Stop" and "You Make Lovin' Fun" (Rumours), "Hold Me" and "Love In Store" (Mirage), "Little Lies" and "Everywhere" (Tango).

But on Tusk we have "Think About Me" as the catchiest of her songs, and even that one is not as pop-oriented as the songs listed above. That's not to say that it isn't *good*...I think it's a great song, along with "Brown Eyes". But she just didn't provide the big radio songs for Tusk like she did the other albums:
"Brown Eyes" is *awesome* but it's an atmospheric album track, not a single.
"Never Make Me Cry" is too subdued to make it on radio.
"Never Forget" is a nice, bouncy song but not substantial enough to be a radio hit.
"Over & Over" has a nice smokey vibe but again way too subdued to make it on radio. No real hook here.
"Honey Hi" is a grower. I actually really disliked it when I first got Tusk back in 1979, but its grown on me since then basically because of the gorgeous vocals on it. But still, not radio friendly.

Now, I'll give you that one can consider these to be good songs, absolutely. But they aren't the radio pop songs that, IMO, Tusk kind of needed. Tusk is a class, brilliant album, and it has Nicks' best songs ever because Nicks did what Mac needs Nicks to do: Be the long-winded, mystical, personality-driven goddess. Buckingham came through too with amazing songs that were way ahead of their time: "Tusk" was the weirdest, best top 10 hit of 1979, "I Know I'm Not Wrong" sounds today like it should have been a hit back then, and the production on "That's All For Everyone" is breathtaking.

But Mac needs McVie to provide the radio friendly pop and on Tusk she just didn't.

[brad975]

My bf has a turntable at his place, so I'd brought over some old albums. I'd played Tusk once before, so it wasn't completely knew to him. But yesterday was the first time we just lounged and really listened (after a big fat J). It was interesting to hear his reaction and comments:

* Over & Over (he pleasantly nodded along, though he mistakenly thought it was Stevie on lead at first; rookie mistake)
* The Ledge (he tapped his fingers on the chair, surprisingly seeming somewhat engaged)
* Think About Me (he jammed along to this one)
* Save Me a Place (he asked "Is this Lindsey 'I've Got To Be On Every Song' Buckingham"? I explained that in this case, Lindsey likely WAS the whole song)
* Sara (his favorite; he got out a blonde Halloween wig and twirled a little)
* What Makes You Think You're the One (I skipped this as to not harsh our mellow)
* Storms (he agreed this was dreamy magic)
* That's All For Everyone (he didn't really react, but I like this one okay, mainly because I can at least imagine that Christine is layered in there vocally, where she is or not)
* Not That Funny (he said, "This is lame"; My assessment is not quite as harsh, but I think this one would only be okay on the reissue's bonus disc of otherwise unused demos)
* Sisters of the Moon (I think we both got lulled into a trance, though he may have been napping)

We'll try Disc 2 later.

My main problem with Tusk is that you can really tell there's a Lindsey solo album running through it that feels almost entirely disconnected from the other members. How much better would "Save Me a Place" sound with all 3 singers harmonizing? A bunch, I bet!

But the upside to all those Lindsey songs (most of which I delete from my 'Tusk' playlist) is that the 2 discs freed up enough space for 5 great Stevie songs and some good Christine ones. Lord knows they both deserved more space. But Stevie never would've gotten 5 songs without the longer running time.

[bobwelchera]

Haha, what an interesting take on Tusk! I've not had the pleasure of sharing it with a partner as of yet, but I did share it with my best friend about nine years ago in high school, which she seemed to dig, but I wasn't in her presence.

I think "What Makes You Think You're The One" may be among the most timeless of the tunes. Like, some twenty-year-old like myself could cover it, and it would fit pretty well in the alternative realm. The same with "Save Me A Place."