''Tusk'' is the twelfth studio album by British-American rock band
Fleetwood Mac, released as a
double album on 12 October 1979 by
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
. It is considered more experimental than their previous albums, partly as a consequence of
Lindsey Buckingham
Lindsey Adams Buckingham (born October 3, 1949) is an American musician and record producer, best known as the lead guitarist and male lead vocalist of the band Fleetwood Mac from 1975 to 1987 and 1997 to 2018. In addition to his tenure with Fl ...
's sparser songwriting arrangements and the influence of
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad music genre, genre of Punk Music, punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde s ...
. The production costs were initially estimated to be about $1 million but many years later were revealed to be about $1.4 million (equivalent to $ in ), making it the most expensive rock album recorded to that date.
The band embarked on a nine-month tour to promote ''Tusk''. They travelled extensively across the world, including the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Japan, France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK. In Germany, they shared the bill with
Bob Marley
Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements o ...
. On this world tour, the band recorded music for the ''
Fleetwood Mac Live'' album, released in 1980.
Compared to 1977's ''
Rumours'', which sold ten million copies by February 1978, ''Tusk'' was regarded as a commercial failure by the label, selling four million copies. In 2013, ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' ranked ''Tusk'' at number 445 in their list of "
500 Greatest Albums of All Time". The album was also included in the book ''
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'' is a musical reference book first published in 2005 by Universe Publishing. Part of the ''1001 Before You Die'' series, it compiles writings and information on albums chosen by a panel of music critics ...
''. In 2000, it was voted number 853 in
Colin Larkin
Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British writer and entrepreneur. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged".
Along wit ...
's ''
All Time Top 1000 Albums
''All Time Top 1000 Albums'' is a book by Colin Larkin, creator and editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. The book was first published by Guinness Publishing in 1994. The list presented is the result of over 200,000 votes cast by th ...
''.
Background
Going into ''Tusk'', Lindsey Buckingham was adamant about creating an album that sounded nothing like ''Rumours'': "For me, being sort of the culprit behind that particular album, it was done in a way to undermine just sort of following the formula of doing ''Rumours 2'' and ''Rumours 3'', which is kind of the business model
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
would have liked us to follow."
Mick Fleetwood
Michael John Kells Fleetwood (born 24 June 1947) is a British musician, songwriter and occasional actor. He is best known as the drummer, co-founder, and leader of the rock band Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood, whose surname was merged with that of t ...
decided early on that ''Tusk'' was to be a double album. After their label turned down Fleetwood's request to buy a new studio to make the record, the band used some of their royalties to construct their own Studio D.
Even with the custom studio, Warner Brothers still charged the band for the recording sessions. Production costs rose beyond a million dollars, far more than ''Rumours''. Regarding the album's production costs, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham stated: "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
'Rumours''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."
After the studio was built, Buckingham queried Fleetwood about recording some songs at his home studio. Fleetwood acquiesced, but told Buckingham that the other members needed to be integrated at some point. Most of Buckingham's demos were augmented with contributions from other members. Fleetwood
overdub
Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more av ...
bed his drums over Buckingham's snare-drum track, which he sometimes played on a
Kleenex box. Despite this, three tracks were recorded solely by Buckingham: "The Ledge", "Save Me a Place", and "That's Enough For Me". Producer Ken Caillat commented on Buckingham's obsessive nature in the studio: "He was a maniac. The first day, I set the studio up as usual. Then he said, 'Turn every knob 180 degrees from where it is now and see what happens.' He'd tape microphones to the studio floor and get into a sort of push-up position to sing. Early on, he came in and he'd freaked out in the shower and cut off all his hair with nail scissors. He was stressed."
Buckingham – infatuated with bands such as
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.[Talki ...](_blank)
– was "desperate to make Mac relevant to a
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad music genre, genre of Punk Music, punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde s ...
world", according to music journalist
Bob Stanley, who commented that, compared to ''Rumours'', ''Tusk'' was "unleavened weirdness, as close to its predecessor as
the Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band that formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by the ...
' lo-fi ''
Smiley Smile
''Smiley Smile'' is the 12th studio album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released on September 18, 1967. It reached number 9 on UK record charts, but sold poorly in the US, peaking at number 41—the band's lowest chart placement to tha ...
'' had been to ''
Pet Sounds
''Pet Sounds'' is the 11th studio album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released on May 16, 1966, by Capitol Records. It was initially met with a lukewarm critical and commercial response in the United States, peaking at number 10 on the ...
''. Much of it sounded clattery, half-formed, with strange rhythmic leaps and offbeat tics."
Journalist Adam Webb described the ''Tusk'' recording sessions as a "cocaine blizzard" from which
Christine McVie
Christine Anne McVie (; née Perfect; 12 July 1943 – 30 November 2022) was an English musician and songwriter. She was best known as keyboardist and one of the vocalists of the band Fleetwood Mac.
McVie was a member of several bands, nota ...
's then-boyfriend, Beach Boy drummer
Dennis Wilson
Dennis Carl Wilson (December 4, 1944 – December 28, 1983) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter who co-founded the Beach Boys. He is best remembered as their drummer and as the middle brother of bandmates Brian and Carl Wilson. ...
, "never really came out." Music historian
Domenic Priore
Domenic Priore (born January 15th 1960) is an American author, historian and television producer whose focus is on popular music and its attendant youth culture.
Biography
He has written extensively about The Beach Boys' ''Smile'' album, includin ...
claimed that, for research purposes during the album's recording, Buckingham accessed the master tapes for the Beach Boys' unreleased album ''
Smile
A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a Duchenne smile.
Among humans, a smile expresses ...
'', and that the tracks "That's All For Everyone" and "Beautiful Child" most strongly exemplify its influence.
Bassist
John McVie
John Graham McVie (born 26 November 1945) is a British bass guitarist. He is best known as a member of the rock bands John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers from 1964 to 1967 and Fleetwood Mac since 1967. His surname, combined with that of Mick Fle ...
commented that the album "sounds like the work of three solo artists", while Fleetwood said it was his second favourite Fleetwood Mac studio album behind ''
Then Play On
''Then Play On'' is the third studio album by the British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on 19 September 1969. It was the first of their original albums to feature Danny Kirwan (although he is also listed on two tracks on the earlier co ...
''. "You got that sweetness
rom Nicks and McVieand me as the complete nutcase," Buckingham observed. "That's what makes us Fleetwood Mac."
Release and reception
''Tusk'' peaked at number four on the
''Billboard'' 200 in the United States, but spent less than nine months on the chart. It was certified double platinum for shipping two million copies. It peaked at number one in the UK and achieved a platinum award for shipments in excess of 300,000 copies.
The album gave the group two US top-10 hit singles, with the Buckingham-penned
title track
A title track is a song that has the same name as the album or film in which it appears. In the Korean music industry, the term is used to describe a promoted song on an album, akin to a single, regardless of the song's title.
Title track may a ...
(US number eight/UK number six), and the
Stevie Nicks composition "
Sara
Sara may refer to:
Arts, media and entertainment Film and television
* ''Sara'' (1992 film), 1992 Iranian film by Dariush Merhjui
* ''Sara'' (1997 film), 1997 Polish film starring Bogusław Linda
* ''Sara'' (2010 film), 2010 Sri Lankan Sinhal ...
" (US number seven/UK number 37).
In his review for ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'',
Stephen Holden emphasized the experimental nature of the album, comparing it to
the Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...
' "
White Album
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
" in that "''Tusk'' is less a collection of finished songs than a mosaic of pop-rock fragments by individual performers."
Robert Christgau of ''
The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
'' was more ambivalent, lauding Buckingham's production and experimentation, while dismissing Christine McVie's and Stevie Nicks's contributions.
Retrospectively,
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
's
Stephen Thomas Erlewine found the album to be timeless, calling it "a peerless piece of pop art" that rivals the more accessible ''Rumours'' album in terms of quality.
Amanda Petrusich
Amanda Petrusich (born c. 1980) is an American music journalist. She is a staff writer at ''The New Yorker'' and the author of three books: ''Pink Moon'' (2007), '' It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American M ...
of ''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
'' found the album "self indulgent" and "terrifically strange".
Contemporary and retrospective reviewers alike have noted the stark contrast between the album's lush opening track, "Over and Over", and jarring production of the following track, "The Ledge".
Though the album sold four million copies worldwide, and earned a Grammy nomination in 1981 for its art design in the category "Best Album Package", the band's record label deemed the project a failure, laying the blame squarely with Buckingham (considering the comparatively huge sales of ''Rumours'' and the album's unprecedented recording expense).
Fleetwood, however, blames the album's relative failure on the
RKO
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheu ...
radio chain playing the album in its entirety prior to release, thus allowing mass home recording. In addition, ''Tusk'' was a
double album, with a high list price of
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
16.00, or $56.00 in 2019 terms.
Further releases from the album "
Not That Funny" (UK-only single release), "
Think About Me
"Think About Me" is a song by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in March 1980. The song was composed by Fleetwood Mac keyboardist Christine McVie. "Think About Me" and " Not That Funny" were the first "Tusk" singles released in t ...
", and "
Sisters of the Moon
"Sisters of the Moon" is a song by British-American rock group Fleetwood Mac. It was written and sung by band-member Stevie Nicks and was released in the US as the fourth single from the 1979 album '' Tusk''. It peaked at No. 86 on the ''Billboard ...
" were slightly remixed for radio, and were less successful. The latter two appear in their 'single versions' on the 2002 compilation ''
The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac'', while "Sara", which was cut to 4 minutes for both the single and the first CD release of the album, appears in its unedited form on the 1988 ''Greatest Hits'' compilation, the 2002 release ''The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac'', and the 2004 reissue of ''Tusk''.
Track listing
Notes:
*On earlier CD pressings, "Sara" is edited to 4:39.
*The CD mixes of "Not That Funny" and "I Know I'm Not Wrong" differ from their LP mixes.
Personnel
Fleetwood Mac
*
Lindsey Buckingham
Lindsey Adams Buckingham (born October 3, 1949) is an American musician and record producer, best known as the lead guitarist and male lead vocalist of the band Fleetwood Mac from 1975 to 1987 and 1997 to 2018. In addition to his tenure with Fl ...
–
vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...
,
guitars,
bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
,
keyboards,
drums,
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...
*
Stevie Nicks – vocals, tambourine
*
Christine McVie
Christine Anne McVie (; née Perfect; 12 July 1943 – 30 November 2022) was an English musician and songwriter. She was best known as keyboardist and one of the vocalists of the band Fleetwood Mac.
McVie was a member of several bands, nota ...
– vocals, keyboards, piano, organ, accordian
*
John McVie
John Graham McVie (born 26 November 1945) is a British bass guitarist. He is best known as a member of the rock bands John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers from 1964 to 1967 and Fleetwood Mac since 1967. His surname, combined with that of Mick Fle ...
– bass guitar
*
Mick Fleetwood
Michael John Kells Fleetwood (born 24 June 1947) is a British musician, songwriter and occasional actor. He is best known as the drummer, co-founder, and leader of the rock band Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood, whose surname was merged with that of t ...
– drums, percussion
Additional musicians
*
Peter Green – guitar
*
USC Trojan Marching Band –
horns Horns or The Horns may refer to:
* Plural of Horn (instrument), a group of musical instruments all with a horn-shaped bells
* The Horns (Colorado), a summit on Cheyenne Mountain
* ''Horns'' (novel), a dark fantasy novel written in 2010 by Joe Hill ...
and percussion
Production and design
*Fleetwood Mac – producers
*
Richard Dashut – producer, engineer
*
Ken Caillat
Kenneth Douglas Caillat ( ) is an American record producer. He is best known for engineering the Fleetwood Mac albums '' Rumours'', ''Tusk'', ''Mirage'', ''Live'', and '' The Chain Box Set''.
Life and career
Caillat was the president of 5.1 Ent ...
– producer, engineer, remastering
*Rich Feldman – assistant engineer
*Hernán Rojas – assistant engineer
*Ken Perry – mastering
*
Peter Beard
Peter Hill Beard (January 22, 1938 – March 31 / April 19, 2020) was an American artist, photographer, diarist, and writer who lived and worked in New York City, Montauk and Kenya. His photographs of Africa, African animals and the journ ...
– photography
*Jayme Odgers – photography
*
Norman Seeff
Norman Seeff (born March 5, 1939, in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a photographer and filmmaker. Since moving to the United States in 1969, his work has been focused on the exploration of human creativity and the inner dynamics of the creative ...
– photography
*Vigon Nahas Vigon – art direction, design
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
See also
*
Album era
The album era was a period in English-language popular music from the mid-1960s to the mid-2000s in which the album was the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption. It was primarily driven by three successive music recording ...
References
Bibliography
*
External links
''Tusk''(
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players. Fla ...
) at
Radio3Net
Radio 3 net is the former ''Radio România Tineret'' (or Radio 3). More than 20,000 albums are stored on Radio 3 net. A few of the prominent features available on the website are "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
''1001 Albums You Mus ...
(streamed copy where licensed)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tusk (Album)
1979 albums
Albums produced by Christine McVie
Albums produced by John McVie
Albums produced by Ken Caillat
Albums produced by Lindsey Buckingham
Albums produced by Mick Fleetwood
Albums produced by Richard Dashut
Albums recorded in a home studio
Fleetwood Mac albums
Warner Records albums
Rhino Records albums