Tusk - looking back 25 years later

[goldustboi]

Ironically Tusk is one of the last albums I bought and took me ages to get into but now its an absolute masterpiece - although for me its purely a phase album, when I love it I LOVE it but get tired of it easy. As for Christine, on the one hand, Brown Eyes and Honey Hi are 2 of my fave Christine songs, on the other hand, Never make Me cry is possibly the worst.

I know Im not wrong is the most underrated song on the album, and is also my 2nd favourite Lindsey song (after GYOW.Miranda and Cant go Back are close contenders!)

[HomerMcvie]

Lindsey's songs are my favorite on Tusk. Chris has Think About Me, and Over and Over, and Stevie has Sara and Angel, but most else by the ladies is toooo lethargic. Good, but still sleepytime.......zzzzzzzz
Lindsey's have a very raw energy to them.

[dontlookdown]

i think one of the things that drew me into Tusk was because I was fifteen when it was released. I was too young to go to any of the Rumours shows so this was my first big FM album and Tour.
The Clash were just breaking in the states and I loved them along with Patti Smith and Springsteen.
Tusk almost felt "punk" after Rumours. I thought it was so adventurous of Lindsey to make the album and give it to the record company as a finished work after Rumours. Very brave and for me, Tusk is what made Fleetwood Mac rise to a level that the Eagles were never able to. They had a hard time breaking out of that "Eagles mold". Tusk and most of Lindsey's work proved that he had more in him than what casual fans expected.

[shackin'up]

Originally posted by dontlookdown
i think one of the things that drew me into Tusk was because I was fifteen when it was released. I was too young to go to any of the Rumours shows so this was my first big FM album and Tour.
The Clash were just breaking in the states and I loved them along with Patti Smith and Springsteen.
Tusk almost felt "punk" after Rumours. I thought it was so adventurous of Lindsey to make the album and give it to the record company as a finished work after Rumours. Very brave and for me, Tusk is what made Fleetwood Mac rise to a level that the Eagles were never able to. They had a hard time breaking out of that "Eagles mold". Tusk and most of Lindsey's work proved that he had more in him than what casual fans expected.

I second every word of your post, don't look down! I was just 14 and had the same experience. For me Tusk still has it totally. Also chris'songs! They add so much warmth and spirituality to the album!

And the risk of commercial suicide is so bravely taken by this band!

gerald

[cliffdweller]

Originally posted by strandinthewind
As was Bella Donna for La Nicks.

But even those two stellar efforts pale in Tusk's shadow. Tusk was just on another level and still is IMO

"Oooh, pale... shadow of an album"...

[cliffdweller]

Originally posted by ShamHy89
I feel the exact opposite here. I have grown to absolutely love the vocals on Honey Hi, Over and Over is great, Never Make Me Cry is quite heartfelt (and sounds like The Way I Feel from MTM), and Never Forget is one of the biggest overlooked songs to me. The ending with Stevie singing "never forget" is just classic. Christine, did a nice job on the album in my opinion. Again though, to each his own

Shamus

Agreed. Chris shines here, her best songs are on Tusk IMHO.

I love Tusk, mainly for its non-commercial appeal. I mean, we're not all sick of Tusk because it's played over and over (no pun intended) on the radio like Rumours was/is, so it's always fresh and interesting. It's my favorite Mac album by far.

[David]

Originally posted by diamondsnake
Does anyone else not care for Lindsey's stuff on this album? It is like he is too focused on being weird and being the exact opposite of Rumours that he forgets to make his songs listenable.

Yes, he's very weird -- not just with the songs themselves (short, choppy bursts of lyrical & chordal ideas) but with the presentation (an element of "found sounds" & the use of conventional instrumentation unconventionally). Much of the appeal of "Tusk" for me & others is in our frame of reference. We were relatively intelligent teens at the time "Tusk" hit the market & we were sick of the sameness & blandness of radio. A lot of the artists who were making important strides in new directions, like Elvis Costello & the Clash, weren't getting any airplay on most stations. Pop music had got so dull & so tired that a lot of us were really suffering with slurpy crap like Randy Van Warmer's "Just When I Needed You Most," Robert John's "Sad Eyes," David Naughton's "Makin' It," Melissa Manchester's "Don't Cry Out Loud," empty, addleheaded cock rock like Pat Benatar's "Heartbreaker," disco with all the R&B juice squeezed out of it like Leif Garrett's "I Was Made for Dancin'" or Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" & lots of crap by once-decent artists (Neil Diamond) & nonentities (Olivia Newton-John).

When all that sludge is being thrown at you day & night on the radio, your brain screams for something different. "Tusk" came along -- many of us were already big Mac fans -- & threw us for quite a loop. It was engaging & charming & even very funny, & it avoided many of the tired old conventions of track production. Our fans' pride in the band really grew at that point because it was so refreshing to hear the biggest rock group in the world produce tracks that used chair cushions as kick drums -- not just for the sake of novelty (anyone could have done that) but out of an expressive need for that sort of innovation. I would even go so far as to say that "Tusk" helped some of us hear differently.

[David]

Originally posted by dontlookdown
iVery brave and for me, Tusk is what made Fleetwood Mac rise to a level that the Eagles were never able to. They had a hard time breaking out of that "Eagles mold".

Definitely. This was a prevalent view at the time, too. When the Eagles put out their 1979 "Long Run" album, it took just one quick listen & you knew that this was the sort of glossy, conventional "perfection" that Fleetwood Mac was reacting against.

[snwriter]

Stevie's stuff on "Tusk" is perfection; her best ever.
Christine's stuff on "Tusk" is excellent.
Lindsey could have used some editing on "Tusk" in my opinion:
The title track is a masterpiece, while "Walk a Thin Line" and "I Know I'm Not Wrong," and "The Ledge," are very very enjoyable.

"That's All for Everyone," "What Makes You Think You're The One," and "That's Enough for Me" are nice but are really song fragments, IMO.

"Save Me a Place" has some terrible vocals and would have benefited from the rest of the band's participation and
"Not That Funny" is just a bad song exhibiting Lindsey's most neurotic tendencies.

[shackin'up]

Originally posted by snwriter
Stevie's stuff on "Tusk" is perfection; her best ever.
Christine's stuff on "Tusk" is excellent.
Lindsey could have used some editing on "Tusk" in my opinion:
The title track is a masterpiece, while "Walk a Thin Line" and "I Know I'm Not Wrong," and "The Ledge," are very very enjoyable.

"That's All for Everyone," "What Makes You Think You're The One," and "That's Enough for Me" are nice but are really song fragments, IMO.

"Save Me a Place" has some terrible vocals and would have benefited from the rest of the band's participation and
"Not That Funny" is just a bad song exhibiting Lindsey's most neurotic tendencies.

*trying to bite his tongue off but not succeeding*

STOP!!

Anyone who devides the Album in three is not listening! This album is not to be portionalised!! Lindsey's work is EVERYWHERE on this album. He chose do be experimental in his own songs, as it comes to songwriting, but he is VERY experimental in the arrangements in Stevies songs, and in the way all the threeway-harmonies are recorded. i think that in Chris' songs Lindsey focussed on the "esoteric" -like he mentions a lot in interviews nowadays. i am convinced he had a big part in her songs, too on Tusk. The whole darkness on this album is his work, soundwise, in terms of vision on atmosphere etcetera.

If you listen to this album without preoccupation on the three songwriters you hear an album that is very coherent, in every song is an experimental touch. Sometimes in composition, sometimes in atmosphere, sometims in rythm or pace. And sometimes on everything at the same time.

And Not that funny is that one. You may not like it, It's the only song that hits it off diffently on all levels, and therefore is a
(maybe The) keysong on Tusk.

gerald.

PS: I understand people who say that IKINW and NTF are very alike, and that's the reason they don't like it. I'm not agreeing on that but OK. But if you think that IKINW is "very very enjoyable" (it's frickin brilliant!) and you despise Not that Funny, I am just going


did i mention that this is only an opinion?

[snwriter]

This is all just my opinion too.

I broke down the songs among the songwriters since others in this thread did so also.

I think that the women's songs on Tusk are primarily their own and that Lindsey just added his touches.

I don't hear a strong Lindsey influence on "Think about Me," "Angel," "Beautiful Child," "Never Forget," "Over and Over" or "Brown Eyes."

And I still say (and many others agree) that "Not That Funny" is just a bad song and therefore not the linchpin of "Tusk," but rather its worst song. It also was the nadir of the "Tusk" shows.

[David]

Originally posted by snwriter
I don't hear a strong Lindsey influence on "Think about Me," "Angel," "Beautiful Child," "Never Forget," "Over and Over" or "Brown Eyes."

"Angel" & "Think About Me"? Are you kidding?! Those two have Buckingham's arrangement, production & presentation ideas all over them.

And I still say (and many others agree) that "Not That Funny" is just a bad song and therefore not the linchpin of "Tusk," but rather its worst song. It also was the nadir of the "Tusk" shows.

I've discovered over the years that the fans who love the old performances of "Not That Funny" are either musicians themselves or LB ladies: in the case of the former, they loved hearing the band open up & jam in that off-kilter way of theirs, & in the case of the latter, they loved watching Lindsey's pants jiggle while he moaned & groaned at the mic.

My opinion is that late 1980 performances of "Not That Funny" constitute the high point of that incarnation's live shows. In a typical "Not That Funny" jam, you could hear each of the four member's strengths & idiosyncrasies as a musician more clearly & forcefully than in virtually any other single number.

[snwriter]

Boy, I guess we each love FM for very different reasons.

[shackin'up]

Originally posted by snwriter
Boy, I guess we each love FM for very different reasons.

Definately.

[shackin'up]

Originally posted by David
"Angel" & "Think About Me"? Are you kidding?! Those two have Buckingham's arrangement, production & presentation ideas all over them.

Thank you for hearing the same as I do
Also In a lot of songs the harmonies must have been arranged by him, to GREAT succes...like in honey hi and never forget...

I've discovered over the years that the fans who love the old performances of "Not That Funny" are either musicians themselves or LB ladies: in the case of the former, they loved hearing the band open up & jam in that off-kilter way of theirs, & in the case of the latter, they loved watching Lindsey's pants jiggle while he moaned & groaned at the mic.

Well....I'm not a musician and a "straight" male (maybe i like LB-ladies ) but I just love plain, pure belted out rock and roll....and that what he did...in a very raw way.