1992 Plight of Going Solo

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

I specifically was not not talking about the industry standard. I specifically mentioned a "rational standard." Selling four million double records worldwide is not a flop by a rational standard and it means four million people (two miilion here) got more exposure to him from the record and then hundreds of thousands more on the 18 month tour. That is quite wave to ride on into your solo record a year or so later That wave certainly had to have helped him sell L&O and Trouble, which were successful, but not blockbusters.

There is no definition for "rational" standard. No record that sounds good is a failure to a reasonable person. No record with artistic merit is a failure by a rational standard. I think that after Rumours made him money, Lindsey sought creative fulfillment with his next record, not more fame and fortune and I think Tusk's sound, followed by its commercial failure proves that, as does the fact that he went for more of Tusk and less of Rumours in his first solo album.

Did Tusk help his solo career? I doubt it. But even if it did, when he took those 13 months to make Tusk, I doubt he was even thinking of a solo career yet. That didn't come into his head until after he became alienated from his bandmates following Tusk. So, it cannot be said he went into Tusk to launch a solo career that hadn't materialized yet. He didn't create Tusk as a wave to ride into his solo career. Rumours and Trouble are waves. Tusk and the bulk of Law and Order are more like undertow, the current flowing beneath the surface moving somewhere beyond Billboard.

Michele