50 great things about Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk"

Oh, duh, of course Nathan Fake's "Undoing The Laces" in a Fleetwood Mac reference; will have to play it next to Justus Köhncke's "Albatross" one day.

Enjoying the Crystal Ark's cover of Tusk, though I still wish there was some sort of Tom Moulton-esque 12" version of the original floating around.

Oh, duh, /of course/ Nathan Fake's "Undoing The Laces" in a Fleetwood Mac reference

They really need to get around to making a Classic Albums documentary of this. I know that Rumours has one already, and that there was a great documentary on Tusk at the time of its release, but I'd really like to hear the real in-depth hindsight perspective on Tusk from the members themselves. The 'Don't Stop' and 'Rock Family Trees' shows on Fleetwood Mac's whole career were both great, but they didn't really go as far into THIS era of the band as I feel they could have done. I still think there's a hell of a lot for them to talk about in regards to this album, and I still think there's shitloads of archive footage of the recording process that we haven't seen. Wouldn't it be great to see Ken Caillat in the studio, isolating the harmonies on 'Walk A Thin Line' or 'That's All For Everyone'?

from the RS cover story:

In a private plane that's passing through a storm somewhere over the Rocky Mountains, Lindsey Buckingham, Richard Dashut and I are discussing Talking Heads' Fear of Music, an album they both like a lot. Across the table, John McVie cringes when he hears the words New Wave. "Is that punk rock?" he asks, feigning horror, then slumps over and pretends to sleep. Buckingham and Dashut have never seen Talking Heads perform, so I am trying to describe what the band is like. The lead singer has spasms onstage, I explain, and the bass player and the drummer are married to each other. McVie wakes up. "Did you say married to each other? You mean, this band has a man and wife, a couple in it?" There is a long, irony-charged silence. In the back of the cabin, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie are wrapped in blankets, asleep. The plane engines drone. McVie takes a sip of his drink and mumbles something.

"Oh. We ought t

Marcello gets to Tusk.

Every time I read a paragraph of that I felt like I must have missed a paragraph. I'll have to give it another shot later.

I fucking love this album.

^Me fucking too.

I deeply love Rumours, but its beauty has a self-sufficient, perfected quality that can verge on stifling. Tusk brings air, space, and even a dose of ugliness to the table, and this makes the FM universe a much much bigger place for us all to live in. It was an unnecessary experiment, and all the more necessary for that.

Also, I contend that "Over and Over", over time, repeated listens, stretched across the decades, slowly but surely exerts itself as the greatest album opener ever.

Sorry if I sound pretentious. I haven't figured out how to write about things that make me weep.

Disc 1 of the Tusk reissue is the only CD in my car. I usually take the bus, but I'll drive my car once per week to keep it in running condition. I get through the whole album about every 1.5 weeks. It's a bit remarkable that they reissued this on vinyl for $40. You can easily find used copies in record stores for <$10.

Is it actual reissue vinyl, or did Warners merely stumble into a warehouse full of New/Old Stock and was like "Ka-Ching!"?

I believe it is a reissue. The year says 2012, and the vinyl is 140g. That's a weird weight, but I'm guessing it's still heavier than the original pressings.

iirc, they did half-speed remasters of Rumours and the s/t for a recent rsd, but didn't hear about anything re:Tusk. I'd still like to think there's a distributor out there sitting on a load of unsold copies of Tusk, I'm In You and Captain Fantastic.

I doubt Marcello will be getting to I'm In You anytime soon.

That's a nice essay, I reckon it gets somewhere near the heart of things.

version of Over and Over on the Mac's AMAZING 1980 live album contains my favourite Buckingham guitar solo of all time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDql-ykPZ-8

gorgeous version; thank you stevie.

I see there's a big box set version of "Rumours" coming out in the new year, 4 cds, dvd and vinyl - the cds are the album, the 2004 extras disc, another disc of out-takes and a live show, the dvd is the Rosebud documentary (sorry, no idea what that is but the report I read said it was "legendary"). Wonder if they'll do a similar box for "Tusk"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vrNtkC6rU0

Rosebud contains this incredible outdoor afternoon performance. If there's any more footage from this show I may die of joy. A tracklisting I've seen suggests it goes: World Turning, Rhiannon, Say You Love Me, Go Your Own Way, You Make Loving Fun, I'm So Afraid; but whether the other five are performances I do not know.

I'm fairly sure Rhiannon will be, actually - iirc I've seen a couple of seconds of Stevie singing it outdoors, maybe on Behind The Music.

the echo on stevie's vocals on the line: "I think I had met my match"

the double tracked drums on sara

Nicks wailing, "ALL I EVER WANTED! WHOAAAAAH" over the outro

everything about that song basically

the echo on stevie's vocals on the line: "I think I had met my match"

when she sings "she was singing" and Christine's voice rises ecstatically AHHHHHHUHHHHAAAHHHHHHUHHHH

lay-saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaces

the laces undoing the laces

revived this because i listened to the expanded tusk today -- re: sara, i almost wish that alternate take wasn't there (tho i like hearing it i guess) just because the released version is ridiculously perfect, just an amazing song/production/vocal/performance/everything.

The alternate take needs to be heard just once.

i listen to the alt take more than the album version these days, i like the extra length and hearing the ooh-ahh bits (and the cleaning lady bit)

^^^^2nded

i prefer the longer version!

more "sara". what's not to like?!

^otm

do we need to have a poll? listened to both of these on headphones yesterday and there is no contest.

GH version >>>>> original Tusk version >>>>> alternate take

what's the greatest hits version -- an edit?

i have a 7:36 from a bootleg labelled "tusk rehearsals" (nice version but terrible recording) and the original is 6:22 (Edited to 4:39 on earlier CD pressings).

yeah is GH the 4 min first CD release edit? and which alt are you talking about?

the ''It's all I want to do" vocal part in "you make loving fun"

That's Rumours, dog.

oh fuck sorry

The GH version was for a long time the only full version extant

how long are the GH version and the "original Tusk version"? is what you're calling "original" the 4:39 tusk first cd release?

I don't think I've ever listened to this album without hearing something I haven't heard before.

But I'd like to mention an ol' favorite, the way "Save Me a Place" alludes to Brian Eno's "I'll Come Running."

via wiki
The version of the song featured on the original vinyl release of Tusk was the unedited 6:22 version, but when Tusk was originally released as a single compact disc in 1987 it featured the edited 4:37 version of "Sara" which leaves out the middle verse and musical bridge. It was not until the 1988 Fleetwood Mac Greatest Hits compilation was released that the 6:23 version of the song became available on compact disc. Nicks is famous for hating shortened versions of her songs.

There is also a version known as "the cleaning lady" edit, so-called as Nicks is clearly heard to say at the beginning of the demo recording, "I don't want to be a cleaning lady!" This version lasts almost nine minutes and was actually released on the 2-disc remastered version Tusk in March 2004. It contains an extended vamp, which includes excised lines previously only heard in live performances, such as, "and the wind became crazy," "no sorrow for sorrow, you can have no more," and "swallow all your pride, don't you ever change—never change."

Confession: I'm a much bigger fan of "Storms" than I am of "Sara."

another great thing about tusk -- that this of all songs was a single
http://images.45cat.com/fleetwood-mac-its-not-that-funny-1979.jpg

Ha, listening to that right now!