best of Get Tusked

[WalkAThinLine.]

Originally Posted by Villavic

Has anyone else read this book by now? Any thoughts? I’d like to know if it’s interesting—not so much regarding the personal anecdotes (which are entertaining), but rather the album recording sessions. I’m not looking for overly technical details, but rather Ken’s perspective on how the songs were selected and sequenced, the demos, working with Lindsey and Richard, where they drew inspiration from, and whether it covers details about the release and the tour.

I’m sure Ken must have shared a lot more than what appeared in the Tusk documentary.

I would definitely recommend it. Earlier posts on this thread had focused quite a bit on the relationships between the members, and while that is indeed discussed, a decent chunk of the book is still dedicated to the music. Every song on the album is discussed in at least some capacity, in addition to "The Dealer" and "The Farmer's Daughter". Some of the language may be somewhat technical for those without a music background, but most of it should be pretty understandable to the general public. There's some information in there that can't be found anywhere else, so it's definitely something that an uber-Fleetwood Mac fan should purchase.

[Penguin Emeritus]

Originally Posted by bombaysaffires

Reading what Ken and Hernan wrote about for example Christine-- she kind of pushed a lot of her own life aside to be with Dennis and accommodate him, the opposite of how Stevie managed her affairs. Not saying Chris was right either, I would never have been able to put up with Dennis for five minutes, but.....seems like she could step away from being a "rock star" for at least some periods of time. It also makes me understand even more why John would need to bug off and disappear on his boat for stretches of time to get away from that stuff.

This reminds me of that quote by john where he sailed out to the point in the ocean where he was furthest away from land in the world, and he said to himself, 'THIS is how far you have to go to get away from being John McVie of Fleetwood Mac.'

I think relationships these folks had, at least at that time, were so far from traditional that it would make most of us us wince a little.. For example i used to exchange emails with Ed Roach many years ago, long before he started posting stuff on facebook etc. (he passed away a few mos ago..) But he was dennis's best friend, and around a lot of the chaos, and he told me around Tusk that John and Julie used to go out on the boat sometimes w Chris and Dennis, and they all hit it off really well... reeeaally well lol . I'm pretty sure julie had known dennis even before chris met him, because I know from a source that she moved in a circle of folks who hung out with famous people, and we all know the reputation dennis had-- so things on the boat were ... loose, lol.

I'll also add i chatted with a fascinating Australian guy who owned what would become john's 2nd boat, the Challenge, after he sold Adelie. He was almost like a pirate lol, he was so interesting, but anyway he sold the boat under the prerequisite that he would teach john how to sail it. so john accepted, and this guy said he partied with them quite a bit back then and people just took various 'substances' literally as they boarded the boat. He met and partied with everyone in the band on the boat several times and said everything was verrrry loose and "rock star cool" below deck. He said enough that i got the drift of his meaning... these people slept around freely back then, and didn't seem to feel any guilt about it.

I suppose my point here is that these weren't folks who spent a lot of time moralizing about their behavior, sexual or otherwise, because most of the time they were just smashed and out for a good time. and sleeping around with people "in their circle" was a big part of this.

-Lis

[Villavic]

Few Amazon customer reviews gave it a low rating (<2), mentioning there are some fact errors and more typos and grammatical errors. Revies are always subjectives. But what caught my attention was a couple of them that said:

If co-producer, Richard Dashut, had anything to do with this disk, other than be a buffer between Callait and Buckingham, and to ask for coke, Callait doesn't give him much (read: any) for helping record the album.

Buckingham was the producer with Richard Dashunt. The book barely mentions Dashunt at all.

I always saw Ken and Richard as pals. It is very weird that Richard's work is barely mentioned in the book. I always saw him as an important part of the production. Will they K&R remain friends?