FEATURE:
Storms
A Flawed Masterpiece: Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk at Forty
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I know I have written a few album-specific articles lately…
IN THIS PHOTO: Fleetwood Mac photographed by Sam Emerson for the Tusk tour book
and there are one or two more to come! If an album celebrates a big anniversary, I feel it is only right to mark it and pay tribute to that artist. In terms of bands who overcame adversity and created something truly sensational, are there incidences more amazing and unbeatable as Fleetwood Mac and 1977’s Rumours? That album was completed at a time when couples Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, Christine and John McVie were parting and strained; drummer Mick Fleetwood also was going through some tough times. In the wake of all this separation and conflict was music that sounds unified and solid. I am staggered the band were able to complete the album, let alone release an album that ranks alongside the very best ever. There was a lot of praise and celebration once Rumours was released and, when it came to following that masterpiece, the band went in a different direction. I always love a good double album because it is ambitious putting something like that together. There are few double albums that are flawless and, even when you have a flawed one such as The Beatles (‘The White Album’) or Physical Graffiti (by Led Zeppelin), they are interesting and diverse. With twenty tracks – and each band member pulling in their own way -, Tusk was always going to be a different animal to Rumours. The twelfth album from the American-British band is a more experimental creation and (is an album) where Lindsey Buckingham exerts a lot of production influence – as he did on Rumours.
The songwriting is sparser and many people attribute the change in direction/production sound to the arrival and explosion of Punk – or, more accurately, the Post-Punk movement that followed on. Tusk was the most expensive Rock album ever made (at over $1 million), and the band toured the album relentlessly and extensively. There are a couple of ways at look at Tusk. Upon its release, it was viewed a commercial failure because it was far less successful than Rumours. Shifting far fewer units and not getting acclaim across the board, one needs to consider Tusk down the line; an album that needs more time to settle in than Rumours. The music scene was very different in 1978/1979 compared to a year or two previously. If the band had released something more commercial and Rumours-esque, perhaps they would have stalled or felt formulaic. They needed to evolve and acclimatise to the new world. In doing so, you get a double album that sounds like three writers’ – Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie – work rather than a band. Maybe the pains and tensions of Rumours meant that, by the time they came to record Tusk, Fleetwood Mac realised they could not work in the same way as they used to. Despite some patchy moments, some of the best Fleetwood Mac material can be found on Tusk. The first side has the primary songwriters flexing: Buckingham’s The Ledge, McVie’s Think About Me and Nicks’ Sara are incredible.
PHOTO CREDIT: Warner Bros.
Nicks also contributes big tracks like Storms and Beautiful Child, but she has less input in the album than Buckingham and McVie, in terms of song credits. McVie’s Brown Eyes and Never Forget are stunning but, in essence, Tusk does feel more of a Lindsey Buckingham album than the slightly more cohesive (if fractious) Rumours – nine of the twenty tracks are his and Save Me a Place and That’s Enough for Me are gems. In my view, the strongest two tracks come from the divided American sweethearts: Stevie Nicks’ gorgeous Sara and Lindsey Buckingham’s elephantiac centrepiece, Tusk. There are incredible songs across Tusk and the retrospective reviews have been largely positive. This is how AllMusic judged the album in 2016:
“Lindsey Buckingham directed both Fleetwood Mac and Rumours, but he dominates here, composing nearly half the album, and giving Christine McVie's and Stevie Nicks' songs an ethereal, floating quality that turns them into welcome respites from the seriously twisted immersions into Buckingham's id. This is the ultimate cocaine album -- it's mellow for long stretches, and then bursts wide open in manic, frantic explosions, such as the mounting tension on "The Ledge" or the rampaging "That's Enough for Me," or the marching band-driven paranoia of the title track, all of which are relieved by smooth, reflective work from all three songwriters. While McVie and Nicks contribute some excellent songs, Buckingham owns this record with his nervous energy and obsessive production, winding up with a fussily detailed yet wildly messy record unlike any other.
This is mainstream madness, crazier than Buckingham's idol Brian Wilson and weirder than any number of cult classics. Of course, that's why it bombed upon its original release, but Tusk is a bracing, weirdly affecting work that may not be as universal or immediate as Rumours, but is every bit as classic. As a piece of pop art, it's peerless.
I could sample a whole heap of reviews but here, in Pitchfork’s review, we get a glimpse into the recording process and what makes Tusk so intriguing:
“Nicks described their space in Studio D as having been adorned with “shrunken heads and leis and Polaroids and velvet pillows and saris and sitars and all kinds of wild and crazy instruments, and the tusks on the console, like living in an African burial ground.” Everyone agrees Buckingham was losing it a little—that he was chasing something (artistic greatness? avant-garde credibility?) and pursuing it wildly, haphazardly, like a crazed housecat stalking a black fly about the living room. Did he really have a drum set installed in his bathroom so he could play while on his toilet? (More reasonable minds have suggested he merely liked the acoustics in there.)
Though Tusk’s most memorable tracks are also its strangest (like “The Ledge,” a manic, pitter-pattering kiss-off in which the band’s signature harmonies are overridden by a guitar that’s been tuned down and turned up), there are a handful of songs that harken back to Rumours’ rich palatability. “Save Me A Place” plays like an extension, at least lyrically, of “Go Your Own Way,” in which Buckingham begrudges his lover’s unwillingness to grab what he’s half-offering her.
A lot of Buckingham’s lyrics from the late ‘70s seem to simultaneously admit trepidation and cast him as the aggrieved party; he seems, in an endearing way, oblivious to his own caveats, or how they might dissuade another person. “Guess I want to be alone, and I guess I need to be amazed/Save me a place, I'll come running if you love me today,” he sings on “Save Me A Place.” He later described the song as vulnerable. “None of us had the luxury of distance to get closure… It’s about a feeling that’s been laid off to one side and maybe not been fully dealt with, sadness and a sense of loss.” It captures the wildness of recovery: what happens when love dissipates, and you have to find a new thing to believe in? What if that thing is work?”.
Depending on your opinions on what makes an album successful determines whether Tusk can be viewed as a failure or success. Certainly, those expecting Rumours 2.0 would have been in for a bit of shock. That album was recorded at a particular period, and circumstances had changed by the time Fleetwood Mac came to record Tusk. If the band had gone into Tusk with the view of replicating Rumours, I think the results would have been inauthentic and repetitive. Tusk is a bold and brave record and, as NME argue in 2011, Tusk is a misunderstood album that inspired Fleetwood Mac themselves and a legion of acts:
“Although misunderstood at the time, the album’s cobweb-filled sound later found fans in Air, The Strokes and Vetiver. Today, the influence of ‘Tusk’ extends from chillwave to freak folk. And the subversion of what was expected after ‘Rumours’ and the creative space it created also gave the band (and primarily Buckingham) reason to continue making music in Fleetwood Mac for the next decade.
But then, is ‘Tusk’ really as subversive, as ‘difficult’, as critics have always made out? Sure, it’s long and druggy and sprawling – and named after Mick Fleetwood’s nickname for his own penis. But take away Buckingham’s scuffed, home-made sonic experiments and this is an album that’s just as lush and melodic as ‘Rumours’”.
I will round of this feature with an article from Ultimate Classic Rock that gives a balanced view of Tusk; stating it is masterful, but it has its flaws and cannot quite be seen in the same vein as Rumours. I think Tusk is definitely in Fleetwood Mac’s top-three albums and, as we know, drove the band forward. They could have gone their own ways after Rumours and struggled to find impetus to reconvene and solider on. Whilst there are more of Buckingham’s fingerprints on Tusk than the rest of the band, one cannot argue against the commitment and input of each member! Tusk is undeniably brilliant…but I come back to that question as to whether it is inferior to Rumours and a disappointment or whether its evolution, different sound and breadth makes it a stronger and more interesting listen. This article has some theories and input:
“Given its length, its ambition, and its much clucked-over million-dollar cost -- not to mention the mountains of rock-star excess that sprung up around Fleetwood Mac during an epic Tusk tour that included specially painted hotel rooms for singer Stevie Nicks and no shortage of on-stage tension -- the record came to be regarded as a weird, costly tumble from the dizzying heights of Rumours.
Unsurprisingly, the band members took issue with this point of view. "In the context of the whole, Rumours took longer to make than Tusk. One of the reasons why Tusk cost so much is that we happened to be at a studio that was charging a f--- of a lot of money," Buckingham pointed out. "During the making of Tusk, we were in the studio for about 10 months and we got 20 songs out of it. Rumours took the same amount of time. It didn't cost so much because we were in a cheaper studio. There's no denying what it cost, but I think it's been taken out of context."
Fleetwood also insisted in a Trouser Press interview that change was part of the band's legacy. "We've never stayed one way for very long, and I don't think we ever will. We've always changed a lot whether or not players have changed," he said. "Doing a double album didn't make any business sense at all. But it meant a lot to us, artistically -- whether we could still feel challenged. We really, really are pleased with it. We've also, I think, got enough discretion to know if the songs aren't up to standard, in which case we'd have just put out a single album."
Meanwhile, Christine McVie bristled during a 1982 interview with Sounds, pointing out that "Tusk sold 9 million copies -- so it can't be too shabby, can it? But a lot of people gave us flak about that album. It's very different, very different, very Lindsey Buckingham. I'll have to say that. He was going through some musical experiments at the time."
Still, the backlash took its toll, and when the sales came in considerably softer than those for Rumours -- which was, it's worth noting, one of the biggest-selling records of all time -- Buckingham felt that the other members of the group turned on him, jaundicing his perception of his place in the band as well as its artistic limits”.
On 12th October, Tusk turns forty, and I think we should all sit down and listen to this fascinating album. Fleetwood Mac are still touring today – minus Lindsey Buckingham – and I think Tusk is the last time when they really soared and hit genius levels. Albums like Mirage (1982) had their moments but Tusk is a fascinating album with more than its fair share of wonder. Tusk is a precious and complex album that, for years to come, will…
CONTINUE to inspire.