Fleetwood Mac : That's All For Everyone
On October 12, 1979 Fleetwood Mac released Tusk, the double album follow-up to their smash hit Rumours. Nobody would have complained if Tusk sounded like Rumours 2, and there are a few songs on the album that fit that billing (the singles "Think About Me" and "Sara"), but Lindsey Buckingham had no interest in repeating himself.
"I was following my heart," Buckingham told BBC Radio 4. "And I was flaunting the expectations of not only the record company but to some degree the fans perhaps and even members of the band in a small way".
Buckingham had been inspired by punk rock bands like The Clash, new wave bands like Talking Heads and the studio high jinks of Smiley Smile-era Beach Boys. The latter really comes across in "That's All For Everyone".
The band used some of their Rumours royalties to build their own studio. That may sounds a good, thrifty way to save money, but Tusk would cost more than a million dollars. Money spent on a lot more than recording equipment and producer fees.
"We had the studio completely decorated," says Stevie Nicks. "We had shrunken heads hanging from the ceiling. We had two big glorious ivory tusks on each side of the big, huge board. By the end of the first week we had brought in so much stuff-- pillows and blankets and portraits and frames and so when you walked into it I used to say this is like we're going up to the sacred burial ground at the top a mountain in Africa or Tibet. It became like this is kind of sacred tribal room."
Christine McVie tells Uncut "The studio contract rider for refreshments was like a telephone directory. Exotic food delivered to the studio, crates of champagne. And it had to be the best, with no thought of what it cost. Stupid. Really stupid. Somebody once said that with the money we spent on champagne on one night, they could have made an entire album. And it’s probably true.”
And of course there was plenty of cocaine.
Despite all the excess in the studio, Buckingham was in pursuit of a sparser sound. He had a 24 track machine at his home. He was making his own musical discoveries, and he brought that experimental mindset to the studio, much to the consternation of producer/engineer Ken Caillat.
"He'd say 'Ok you got the sound the way you like it?' I said 'Yep'. He'd say 'OK. Good. Turn every knob you got 180 degrees the other way' and of course I did and it sounded horrible and he'd say 'Now, let's record'".
Buckingham also played his own drums and bass on some tracks. Mick Fleetwood, who was seeing Stevie Nicks on the side, merely shrugged. It was either let Buckingham have his way or Buckingham would bolt.
Caillat told BBC Radio 4 if he had a chance to remix the album, he could possibly produce something brighter and more perky. Tusk only sold four million albums, less than a quarter of the number Rumours sold, making it the highest selling "failure" in rock history.
Finally, we can't visit Tusk without mentioning the title track, the first single from the album. Based on a riff Buckingham would play at sound check, the tune involves the The Spirit of Troy, the University of Southern California Trojan Marching Band. It's outrageous. It's audacious and to this day, Nicks believes it's the best thing that came out of the whole record "because it was so crazy and the song was so insane."
If you can track down the expanded two-CD version of Tusk, it's well worth it. There is also a 3 CD version available, but like Tusk itself, that just might be too indulgent.
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