50 great things about Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk"

"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.

also didn't the 1980 live album have tons of unacknowledged studio overdubbing?

well, maybe not /tons/

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.

There is a dark reason behind this: Stevie and Lindsay both acknowledge that he would refrain from (or at times, flat out refuse) helping Nicks out on her songs beyond the bare minimum guitar work... which is really unfortunate obviously.

And also not really true, because when she was out of commission during the "Tango" era he (and she) has said he more or less created her songs around what few of her takes were good enough to use.

xpost "What Makes You Think You're The One" might be a two-man operation, but there is clearly still overdubbing. I mean, no doubt, the rest of the band is not there, but even this crazy song is not just a live in a room take. I'm always surprised what is going on in some of these even simple songs, especially with a micromanager like Lindsey around.

also, McVie unlike Nicks was a musician and unlike Nicks not his lover.

Did McVie ever have a substance abuse problem? Wouldn't be surprised if she and Buckingham were often left working together on clean-up duty while John, Stevie and Mick were out of pocket.

she did her fair share of booze and coke, but as a sensible person and professional has cut her intake. She never did AA. A recent Mick interview alluded to Christine sitting in her English country garden enjoying a glass of white wine.

Tango has the most Buckingham-McVie collaborations, so I think you're right

xpost

Listening to my parents' vinyl copy (which Mom says they bought for Xmas '79, because the holiday season was the only time my parents bought records back then) ATM, and am struck again by how weird the sequencing is: three of the five Stevie tracks are on the first LP, and the fourth kicks off the second; no Christine songs at all on side two...

it's been said upthread, but i'm always baffled at how "That's All for Everyone" was buried in the middle of side 2. Could've been a single. Heartbreakingly beautiful song. I was disappointed that the 10/20/78 demo on the recent reissue has a gibberish vocal. That marimba line is a stroke of genius.

Seems like that of the Lindsay stuff on the album, it would have been the biggest no-brainer to put out as a single. But their chart game suddenly fell off majorly..."Tusk" & "Sara" both get into the top 10, but then "Think About Me" peaks at #20, and "Sisters of The Moon" (issued on 45 almost seven full months after the LP) lands at lands at #86. Oddly enough, the title tracks aside, all of the singles are b/w Lindsay tunes (but not "TAfE").

Keep in mind: Rumours notwithstanding, it was still unusual for an act to release more than two singles per album. Singles-wise, Tusk performed fine.

Thriller, of course, changed this dynamic.

On a related note, I've recently been going through my vinyl backlog, which includes a lucky bargain purchase some time ago of all the 80s Mac albums and the first two Lindsay solos. I was quite delighted to hear for myself that Law & Order is basically "TUSK II".

Law & Order rules. That cover though...good god does that guy have issues.

...further explored by him and the naked lady in the artwork for Go Insane.

good god does that guy have issues.

See also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nLiQBV6A7c

Such an insane counter to the song's happy go lucky rep.

check out the audience particpation at the end of this!

http://www.youtube.com/v/_nLiQBV6A7c%26fs=1%26hl=en

sorry this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44dS8g4uoNw

I read somewhere at the time that the audience's affection for it astounded him.

It's a pretty dopey song. He's done it every time I've seen him, dog barks and all.

Man, Lindsey needs some kind of boxed set.

that when you put on this record it feels like coming home

I think hearing the first 5 seconds of Over & Over with an emotional hangover finally convinced me that Tusk is indeed a stronger record than Rumours

absolutely

again, what a strange yet perfect opener for an album

I've listened to it regularly ever since I first curled up with it on headphones when it came out, aged 9, so yeah it does feel like home. I think "Honey Hi" is probably the most welcoming / nurturing track though.

Not a fan of demos and rough versions in general but really digging the "alternate Tusk" disc - close enough to the final versions that it's easy to forget you are not listening to the official album and yet there plenty of illuminating minor differences scattered here and there.

Road trippin' at the moment and "Walk A Thin Line" came on and I noticed that towards the final third of the song a second Lindsay drum track comes in towards the end and clumsily doubles the already clumsy first drum track.

Over and Over is like ASMR: the musical.

audacious and perfect choice for opener

the guitar that sounds like a scratch track with dozens of small mistakes in "Storms"

this demo, good lord:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3w5IGdtbAE

All the Lindsey demos in the delux Tusk are wonderful.

It took me forever to realize/recognize that the Lindsey tracks on "Tusk" are more or less all Lindsey, as far as I can tell.

Where can I get a giant "TUSK IS HERE" poster...

(No, not Donald Tusk.)

every
hour of
fear i’ve spent

Where can I get a giant "TUSK IS HERE" poster...

I actually have a small one of these. I'm looking at it right now ...