50 great things about Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk"

^ YES

that is one insanely expensive credit sequence if they're actually licensing everything. also, it's awesome.

The completely insane yet pleasingly non-obvious sequencing: "Over and Over" is the first song? "Never Forget" is the last song? "That's All for Everyone" is in the middle of the second side??
― Douglas (Douglas), Monday, February 23, 2004 12:09 AM (10 years ago)

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.
― collardio gelatinous, Friday, December 7, 2012 5:58 PM (1 year ago)

this issue has been on my mind lately. has anyone in the band ever talked about why they made "over and over" the album opener? it's a great song, but it's such a bizarre choice, even for a weird, sprawling double album. it's like taking the first lap of the indy 500 in first gear.

You could definitely rearrange this record, swap a few bits round, take some songs out in order to make a more personal and palatable iteration of the original. Hmm... I wonder if anyone's ever tried doing this?

all i want to do is listen to 'tusk' and the stuff posted on the balearic disco thread for the rest of july

― dude (Lamp), Friday, July 11, 2014 5:38 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Just saw this - Lamp, have you heard this groovy edit/remix by Gigamesh?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fss3Xn5dZzU

i first heard over and over on their 1980 live album, which was the first mac album i ever bought, as a kid. and that version remains one of my all time favourite mac tracks (lindsey's guitar solo, swoon) that the Tusk version, which i heard later, can't help but disappoint.

You could definitely rearrange this record, swap a few bits round, take some songs out in order to make a more personal and palatable iteration of the original. Hmm... I wonder if anyone's ever tried doing this?

― 3kDk (dog latin), Tuesday, August 5, 2014 6:51 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Seriously don't get the people who shake their heads at Over and Over as track one.

Yeah me neither, really. I mean, I get that it doesn't exactly herald what's to come, but what opener would, in an album that gets as close to being three solo albums as one can get without dissolving the "band" concept entirely?

I find this to be an exquisitely gentle intro to the album. Lindsey and Stevie (and Christine for that matter) will make more urgent emotional and aesthetic demands soon enough, but why not warm up the ears and heart a little before that?

It wasn't a wrong choice as an opener, just an intriguingly unconventional one.

Just finished listening to this from over the last three months. Really amazing.

"That's All for Everyone" is maybe the most amazing song I've heard in the last year, hypnotic.

From the bonus disc I was impressed by demos/alternates of the Lindsey songs. As great as the album versions are I think it's a shame he didn't incorporate the level of jangling/twinkling that you get in the demos. I hope he did more with that sound later on.

Cover of Beach Boys' "Farmer's Daughter" is lovely, but several of the demos don't seem all that necessary but I suppose loads of people would want them anyway.

On "Storms" in the 2nd chorus when Stevie drops the words "hour of" down an octave

"That's All for Everyone" is maybe the most amazing song I've heard in the last year, hypnotic.

This one I like, but it frustrates me as it sounds SO similar, in style and content to something else I can't put my finger on. Maybe some early-70s Beach Boys, Sunflower era?

this, i think, but it could be a numbe ro fBB songs from that time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mky-UhxUKoM

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/magazine/letter-of-recommendation-fleetwood-macs-tusk.html?_r=0

Wow, is "Storms" such a pretty song.

about a year ago "Sisters of the Moon" took over as my #1 and doesn't want to move

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j449/HideousLump/Tusk.jpg

Half a block from my apartment.

'Walk A Thin Line' and 'That's All For Everyone' still firmly lodged in my Top 5 songs from this.

xp I was initially thinking that the Fleetwood Mac tribute band was aiming to do "Tusk" in its entirety, which would've been awesome. Still, a half block walk is hardly prohibitive in your case.

I, personally, would totally go to see a Fleetwood Mac tribute band if they were going to play Tusk in its entirety. Now that Christine's back in the band, the Mac themselves should totally go for it before it's too late.

dare ya to say "tusk deluxe" ten times fast.

http://www.spincds.com/blog/2015/10/23/fleetwood-mac-tusk-deluxe-expanded-editions/

i hate myself for this, but o my god how i want that.

i think i can pass. the "alternate tusk" on the previous reissue is really nothing special (even though my nutso dad thinks it's better than the actual album)

the longer version of sara is wonderful.

i could possibly pass too if that 1980 Tusk tour the new live album is drawn from wasn't the same tour that yielded their 1980 live album, one of my favourite records of all time.

Sara in 5.1 sounds like it could be pretty fucking amazing.

The _Live_ record is way overdue for a cleanup/expansion, but with this new package we're not likely to get it. Annoyed that I'll have to shell out for two vinyl LPs to get the live stuff. But like NTI says, this one could be a doozy in 5.1 -- wonder if LB was involved in the 5.1 mixes?

More likely Ken Caillat, who did the Rumours 5.1 (and an unreleased 5.1 of the S/T I believe ).

i like when he super-close-mics the guitars so the scraping of the strings becomes an important, if still subtle, compositional element.

anyone get the deluxxe edition? it's amazing. so many rough versions of the title tune.

also those fucked up backing vocals (are they all lindsey?) on "walk a thin line"

i'm sure this has all been mentioned upthread.

Yeah, I third the head-scratching sequencing. It's one of those rare, sprawling double-albums where the weird, schizophrenic track order actually works. 'Specially the first song. "Exile," "London Calling," "Sign 'O'" all start out with clinchers, but "Tusk" makes you work from the start. Though it's hardly an ordeal.

this is key. i think the album kind of teaches you to listen to it by starting with a dirge-like song in which the strange subtleties of the arrangement are paramount.

opener is still far and away my favourite on this

the live version of over and over is so much better, so less lethargic, with such an incandescent guitar solo

the sequencing on this album made it very difficult to get into. obvs now i love it and can read some genius logic into it as amateurist does above, yet i remember almost giving up at some point

"Think About Me" is neck in neck with "Little Lies" as best McVie single.

The 'alternate Tusk' isn't exactly a revelation, per se, but it's pretty enjoyable if you know the album as well as some of us here do, and you can pinpoint the very slight differences in some of these songs. It sounds as if these "alternate versions" are, in a few cases, just the basic tracks without the overdubs, and /or with scratch vocals. One exception is the early version of "That's All For Everyone," which is just a sound in search of a song at this point. Interesting how the original plan (???) was to let the descending marimba part be the "hook."

"Storms" might be the best Stevie song, save maybe "Silver Springs."

One of the strange miracles of Fleetwood Mac is how Buckingham was brought into the band as a package with his longtime partner Nicks, but it's McVie who turns out to be the perfect pair for him. Somethings they sing in close harmony, sometimes they just double each other, sometimes they trade off, but their voices just mesh so perfectly.

Per those crazy Bucky backing vocals, if we haven't talked about it or if it isn't common knowledge, I think it's pretty safe to assume all or most of the Lindsey tracks are overwhelmingly him alone, with only the occasional help from one of his bandmates.

Depends. "What Makes You Think" has Fleetwood on drums but Buck on piano, while "Walk a Thin Line" is all Buck.

I was just listening to the former yesterday, and it sounds like Bucky and Mick on drums, or at least multiple drummers. Mick doing the weird fills and stuff and Bucky doing some of the other hitting. (I recall the Classic Albums Rumours doc, or maybe the book, talking about tracks on even that album featuring Bucky hitting things along with Mick). I mean, "The Ledge" is all Bucky, for sure, as is "Walk a Thin Line." And most of the other Bucky-led stuff, iirc.

do we really call him "Bucky"?

I got the facts about "What Makes You Think" from Paul Zollo's interview with Buck in the early '90s for Zollo's book on songwriters.

do we really call him "Bucky"?

― tylerw, Thursday, December 10, 2015 10:25 AM (54 seconds ago)

Christine calls him "arsehole" and Stevie "dickhead" iirc

Third time posting this itt, but it's a great quote.

Lindsey: Oh yeah, that’s one of the classic drum tracks. I love that. That’s one of the great drum tracks that I’ve ever heard. That’s up there with "Instant Karma." That was a great moment. That was just Mick and myself late at night in the studio, me at the piano. We put a cassette player that has one of those really cheap mikes in it, we put that right under his snare, and it was so explosive the way he heard it in the cans, he got off on it, and he just turned into an animal. And it was just two-piece, there was no Christine or anybody putting any constraints on what could or couldn’t be done. That has to rate as one of my top-five moments with the band.

take that, Christine!

It's a helluva snipe!

the worst part is she probably would dig playing that loosey goosey piano

the sequencing on this album made it very difficult to get into. obvs now i love it and can read some genius logic into it as amateurist does above, yet i remember almost giving up at some point

― flopson, Thursday, December 10, 2015 1:51 PM

had the exact same experience

i think the multiple I Know I'm Not Wrongs are the most illuminating section of the box set, really pulling back the curtain on Buckingham's process, and the song's evolution - and also the evolution of the album's sound. Am mildly disappointed that the new live tracks aren't often of a standard with their 1980 Live album from the same tour, but I'm such a ridiculous stan of that album it shouldn't be a surprise to me (Save Me A Place is lovely, though).

yeah, i think the 'i know i'm not wrong' outtakes plus the title track outtakes are the most illuminating things in the deluxe edition.

the live tracks are very hit and miss -- kind of surprise to hear christine fall out of tune so often. maybe the monitors were bad.