50 great things about Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk"

no

http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/s/stevie-nicks/album-rock-a-little.jpg

TUSK SIDE D

91. the durutti column-esque guitar in brown eyes

92. the spacemen 3 ("ode to street hassle") guitar in "storm"

me: 'you're the poet in my heart"!?!>!>! puh-leaeze
Pete: aww but it's lady-to-lady
thats how ladies talk to each other

93. The title track is the only Fleetwood Mac song I like.

Get outta this thread.

seriously.

i don't think i've ever heard such a perfect frisson of sadness and wonder as is Beautiful Child. my boyfriend put it on at a sleepover the other night. i was standing on a chair, singing, and my girl Marissa was swaying on the floor, passing me a bowl. "and i'll do as i'm told | even if i never hold you again" broke my heart into pieces.

^^^

it took me a long time to get beautiful child, and it's still one of my least favorite songs on the album (which is undoubtedly my favorite album.) i think at first brush the lyrics were over the top ('i'm not a child anymore'-- 'women usually are') and almost painful to listen to (not in a good cathartic way, in a cringey-smiley way.) part of it may have also been that it comes smack between my two fave songs on the lp--'walk a thin line' is so great and i never wanted to wait for it to start.

ALL THAT SAID, i love it unreservedly, but it's been problematic for people i want to introduce to TUSK. most people don't seem to like it so much at first.

that's kind of shocking to me. it was definitely my first wow moment on the album.

I think it hit me immediately - "I'm not a child anymore" is not at all a simplistic or over-the-top statement in context I think.

The entire concept of childhood is framed quite sensitively I think. What Stevie finds attractive in Mick Fleetwood is his childlike nature, his innocence, presumably a certain kind of "in the moment" simplicity w/r/t love (the irony of course being that fleetwood is much older than her), but it is her distance from these qualities which also makes the relationship doomed. The freedom implied by the statement "I'm not a child anymore" includes the freedom to make moral decisions w/r/t how your actions might affect others adversely, regardless of their own wishes and yours. Hence the seeming contradiction of "I'm not a child anymore / I will do as I'm told..."

Stevie Nicks' delivery of the lines "I still look up... when you walk in the room. I've the same wiiiiide eyes" in "Angel" could (could) be her finest moment.

― my name is john. i reside in chicago. (frankE), Monday, November 14, 2005 6:51 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark

had to put this on

can't wait for this to blow the 70s album poll sky high

Tim F's excellent post just made that song click for me...thanks!

Sometimes 'The Ledge' is my favourite song ever - I just checked out some rhearsal footage on the youtube, and today's surprise is that Christine's playing guitar. I didn't know she could stand up.

I'm getting Beatles Rock Band for my christmas, but secretly I wish there was a Fleetwood Mac one I could have.

I think it hit me immediately - "I'm not a child anymore" is not at all a simplistic or over-the-top statement in context I think.

The entire concept of childhood is framed quite sensitively I think. What Stevie finds attractive in Mick Fleetwood is his childlike nature, his innocence, presumably a certain kind of "in the moment" simplicity w/r/t love (the irony of course being that fleetwood is much older than her), but it is her distance from these qualities which also makes the relationship doomed. The freedom implied by the statement "I'm not a child anymore" includes the freedom to make moral decisions w/r/t how your actions might affect others adversely, regardless of their own wishes and yours. Hence the seeming contradiction of "I'm not a child anymore / I will do as I'm told..."

― Tim F, Thursday, December 24, 2009 5:12 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

do you mean, Tim, that the freedom of adult morality is actually binding, insofar as she simply wishes to do as she is told, as a child would?

or maybe that she will do as she is told in terms of the rules of grown love -- that she can no longer just be in the moment. even if she'll never hold him again. :*( gahh

I'm getting Beatles Rock Band for my christmas, but secretly I wish there was a Fleetwood Mac one I could have.

― Ismael Klata, Thursday, December 24, 2009 1:59 PM (54 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this imo

the rehearsals to which Ismael alluded -- and we do see Christine on guitar!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNanT533pQ0

In her own mind Stevie has the choice between doing what she wants and doing what she knows is "right" (which happens to be what society tells her is right, in this instance at least) - she chooses to do the latter, her freedom to choose thereby entailing submission to social standards.

i.e. Stevie had obv just finished reading Kant's Critique of Practical Reason.

UR NEVER GONA MAKE IT BABAY

My take on the McVie songs.

Lovely piece...I didn't know you wrote for Popmatters.

Great article. I pulled the Cut Copy 'Never Forget' off the link upthread recently, which is a lovely track.

does anyone remember when bill wyman was rock critic for the reader, before peter margasak. anyway, bill wyman sucked. anyway, one year he had "best 50 moments in rock" or something like that. one such "moment" was "the production on 'tusk.'" huh?

problems with that:

(1) production of an entire album is not a "moment" by any stretch

(2) idea that "production" is this added _thing_ on an album, like a layer of frosting

chicago reader btw

Lovely piece...I didn't know you wrote for Popmatters.

Thanks. First article for'em.

Sorry, I'm gonna dissent as to the quality of that article.

From admissions of (zmg shocka!) deliberate contrariness to clumsy analogies to pathetically RONG mishearings of lyrics* ... sorry, not feeling it.

*"just remember that love is GOLD"

nothing personal, just sayin. we cool lordsotosyn.

Just bought Tusk on CD finally. Criminally, Warners didn't have it in the shops when FM were over in the UK last autumn. It's not the deluxe edition cos that was stupid price, but the single CD. Sara is billed as an edit. Is this an edit I should give a shit about?

x-post Looks like McVie is on guitar here, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Pe9X5Lp90&feature=related

And Lindsey is sweating cocaine.

not familiar w/the "sara" edit, but jeez, it's one of the best songs on there...

Pretty sure I like the edit better

it's billed as an edit on the original album iirc... the most familiar version is the edit

i think its just billed as an edit on the original CD, to squeeze the double-LP set on what was then the max-length CD. now you can fit more music on there, the full version is on the rerelease from several years back. i mean, its more 'sarah' than the edit, which is great, but - despite what simon reynolds wrote in 'unknown pleasures' - the edit isn't heinous by any means.

Thanks for that. Would have bought the more recent reissue, but it was twice the price and I didn't feel the need at this stage to have all the demos. God knows I never listen to the Rumours demos. Presumed it was a squeeze-for-CD, but I was intrigued they'd edit one of the best-known songs on the record. Guess that's where the surplus instrumental breaks were ...

i think they edited that song more because it was longest, and had instrumental longeurs that were emininently editable... i do love the bonus tracks though, in fact the version of sarah on disk 2 i prefer to the lp version. but yeah, its a big invest if you've not heard tusk already...

Are there different mixes from vinyl to CD? The version of I Know I'm Not Wrong on the LP is substantially different to that on the CD. I think I prefer the latter actually - it's a bit fuller sounding, more rockin', with slightly different lead guitar breaks.

'Tusk' is such a brilliant, excentric song. I love the contrast between the thin, whispering vocals in the verses... slightly menacing in their lines and delivery... and the vibrant, cheerful tone of the chorus. Kind of like a funeral dirge arranged to be played by marching bands and cheerleaders.

All the Buckingham demos on the 2cd version are worth owning imo but I way prefer the Buckingham tracks.

Whenever I hear the Rhodes piano introduction to "Never Forget" my heart drops. It's so melancholy...

too drunk to go through 378 messages.. just want to say

sha la la sha la la sha la la who hoo hoo-oo

7. lindsey buckingham's lo-fi home production.

― fact checking cuz (fcc)

Does it sound lo-fi home production to anyone else asides 'fcc'? I'm listening to the vinyl copy right now and quite contrary I think it sounds very deep and detailed for it to be simply described as 'lo-fi home'. Not a producer myself though so what do I know.

lindsey girlfriend at the time, carol ann harris, wrote about how he setup a home recording studio and basically recorded all of his songs at his house in her autobiography "storms: my life with lindsey buckingham and fleetwood mac"

he might have recorded it at home, but it sounds incredibly HIFI to me