50 great things about Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk"

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

from what i understand certain parts were recorded at his home.. i heard the anecdote about setting up mics on the floor of his bathroom and just having the singers belt out the tunes, i believe you can hear this on the backup vocals during the chorus on 'the ledge'

The story I read was that he demoed a lot of the songs at home, in the bathroom, and then rebuilt the bathroom (the floor and walls, at least) in the studio. It sounds nuts until you think about it, and then it makes perfect sense. Like, of course he did!

ok, not lo-fi like pavement or guided by voices. but lo-fi compared to rumours, or the eagles, or jackson browne, or most anything else that was going on in LA or on rock radio at the time. a lot of the songs, like "the ledge" or "not that funny" or "what makes you think you're the one," sound like demos to me, like he's screwing around with sounds and ideas, like he's just laid the floor but hasn't yet applied the wax. the arrangements seem relatively stripped-down, too, a conscious step away from the previous two fleetwood mac albums. it's a multimillionaire's take on home taping, but it's still home taping, and it still sounds as fresh as that.

it's a multimillionaire's take on home taping, but it's still home taping, and it still sounds as fresh as that.

i can totally get behind that

Curious that he went from "Tusk" to the anti-septic (proto-digital?) production of "MIrage" and "Tango." For that matter, just about everything Buckingham has produced from "Mirage"-on seems very much of a piece, sound-wise. I mean, I like it all, but his solo albums in particular make my ears hurt in large doses, esp. with all the sped-up guitars and pitch-shifting that abounds. Almost as if, as far as Lindsey's concerned, e strings don't get high enough.

That I now so love a record that lets Stevie Nicks thank "the poet in my heart," when that kind of shit made me gag in the fall of '79 (when I lived and died by 'Rust Never Sleeps' and 'Repeat When Necessary').

This is a really lovely sentiment. Seriously.

Interesting tidbit about Colbie Calliat:

Her father, Ken Caillat, co-produced Fleetwood Mac's Rumours (1977) and Tusk (1979) albums.

Dudes production resume goes directly from coproducing Fleetwood Mac directly to coproducing his daughter. I'm going to have to delve deeper into her records.

I've been caning the extra demos disc of Tusk the past few days and it's really quite satisfying. 'Storms' is unutterably lovely.

"tusk" documentary on youtube in 8 parts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2j5cr_XJvc

nice! will watch.
I've been caning the extra demos disc of Tusk the past few days and it's really quite satisfying. 'Storms' is unutterably lovely.
for awhile i thought the bonus disc was kinda a waste of time, but i have learned the error of my ways. none of the alt versions are better than what's on the actual album, but they are still super rad. and farmer's daughter is esssssential.

i guess this was only available on laser disc

are there still people out there with laser disc players? i saw some for sale at a thrift shop last weekend.

i remember seeing portions of this doc on youtube. looking forward to watching. i can't remember if it was at this period that their manager limited them to one heineken beer cap of cocaine before each concert. such a strange story.