Project 1001: Tusk by Fleetwood Mac
We'll never forget tonight / It will be alright
Fleetwood Mac is one of the great bands in popular music. Unquestioned. Sometimes we expect too much of the greats. Comparing this album to Rumours, which is one of the relative handful of true masterpieces in rock/pop history, is a foolish exercise. We have to try to judge/enjoy this record on its own. But we are humans and that is not completely possible. This album was always going to be compared to its predecessor, unfair as that may be. By that comparison Tusk falls short. So do 99.9% of all other albums ever released! Let’s not be too harsh in thinking about this release. So, in my view, we need to examine this album on its own merits. On that score, we have a truly excellent piece of work even if not uniformly so. I think there are a couple of clunkers that don’t work for me. But there are some beautiful songs here. I think the experimentation that interested Lindsey Buckingham at the time prevents some of the songs from being commercial successes. But there are numbers that for the life of me don’t see why they were not big hits, like “I Know I’m Not Wrong” for example. It might be my favorite song on this album. It’s peppy and tight with a really nice vocal performance by Buckingham. I’m really not sure why this wasn’t released as a single! Christine McVie provides vocals on several songs, and she sounds incredible. I especially like “Never Forget”. Stevie Nicks has never been better. Her voice always delivers for me. The song “Tusk” seems out of place to a lot of people. But I love it. There’s a very cool bass line and the energy of it and how it builds to a bombastic crescendo by using the USC Marching Band has always been really cool to me.
My Rating:
“Tusk represents both the last word in lavish California studio pop and a brave but tentative lurch forward by the one Seventies group that can claim a musical chemistry as mysteriously right — though not as potent — as the Beatles’. In its fits and starts and restless changes of pace, Tusk inevitably recalls the Beatles’ “White Album”, the quirky rock jigsaw puzzle that showed the Fab Four at their artiest and most indecisive.
Like “The White Album,” Tusk is less a collection of finished songs than a mosaic of pop-rock fragments by individual performers. Tusk‘s twenty tunes — nine by Lindsey Buckingham, six by Christine McVie, five by Stevie Nicks — constitute a two-record “trip” that covers a lot of ground, from rock & roll basics to a shivery psychedelia reminiscent of the band’s earlier Bare Trees and Future Games to the opulent extremes of folk-rock arcana given the full Hollywood treatment. “The White Album” was also a trip, but one that reflected the furious social banging around at the end of the Sixties. Tusk is much vaguer. Semi-programmatic and nonliterary, it ushers out the Seventies with a long, melancholy sigh.”1
Matthew Sweet can’t live without Tusk writing: “Tusk is a good-for-the-soul kind of record. I love the mellow stuff. I love everybody’s stuff on it. I love how out there Lindsey gets. He went for it completely.”2
“Tusk remains an immersive and fascinating listen, imperative for an expanded understanding and appreciation of the band’s musical history. ‘We'll never forget tonight / It will be alright,’ McVie sings in the album’s concluding lines, and the unforgettable Tusk certainly sounds quite alright four decades on.”3
In 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Jim Harrington wrote:
“Borrowing equally from both Brians (Eno and Wilson), the album is a dreamy collage that utilizes every bell and whistle then known to man. Lindsey Buckingham, who assumed control of the band with Rumours, stays at the forefront here and creates his own sparking version of Pet Sounds.”4
Charts
• Peak on Billboard 200 album chart: #45
• Singles on Billboard Hot 100 chart: 6
> Tusk #8
> Sara #7
> Think About Me #20
> Sisters of the Moon #86
• RIAA certification: 7
> 2x Platinum | October 22, 1984
> Platinum | February 12
> 1980 Gold | February 12, 1980
Released on September 23, 1991. Here’s what else was happening:
Pop Culture
• Number one song: Sad Eyes by Robert John8
• Number one album: In Through the Out Door by Led Zeppelin9
• Number one movie: Starting Over by Alan J. Pakula10
• Most watched TV programs: 60 Minutes, Three’s Company, That’s Incredible11
• NYT bestseller, fiction: Jailbird by Kurt Vonnegut12
• NYT bestseller, non-fiction: The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet by Herman Tarnower, M.D.13
Other albums released that month
• Survival by Bob Marley & The Wailers
• Reggatta de Blanc by The Police
• I'm the Man by Joe Jackson
• Fire It Up by Rick James
• The Message Is Love by Barry White
• Prince by Prince
• Damn the Torpedoes by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
• One Step Beyond... by Madness
• Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants" by Stevie Wonder
• Victim of Love by Elton John
• Cornerstone by Styx
• Flirtin' with Disaster by Molly Hatchet
• Harder ... Faster by April Wine
• Head Injuries by Midnight Oil
• Rockin' into the Night by 38 Special
• Thighs and Whispers by Bette Midler
• Wet by Barbra Streisand14
Sport
• Oct 7 Jody Scheckter becomes first South African to claim Formula 1 World Drivers Championship.
• Oct12 Boston Celtics guard Chris Ford scores first 3-point basket in NBA history; game also marks debut of Boston rookie Larry Bird.
• Oct 12 Magic Johnson makes his debut for L.A. Lakers at the San Diego Clippers.
• Oct 14 NHL's greatest scorer Wayne Gretzky scores his 1st NHL goal.
• Oct 17 Baseball World Series: Pittsburgh Pirates beat Baltimore Orioles, 4-1 at Memorial Stadium for 4 games to 3 series win; MVP: Pirates 1B Willie Stargell.
• Oct 20 American John Tate beats local favorite Gerrie Coetzee by UD in 15 rounds in Pretoria, South Africa for vacant WBA heavyweight boxing title.
• Oct 21 New York City Marathon: Bill Rodgers wins 4th straight men's title in 2:11:42; defending champion Grete Waitz of Norway takes out women's event in 2:27:33.15
Notable Births
• Oct 8 Kristanna Loken, American actress (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines), born in Ghent, New York.
• Oct 9 Brandon Routh, American actor (Superman Returns; Chuck), born in Norwalk, Iowa.
• Oct 10 Mýa [Mya Marie Harrison], American pop and R&B singer ("Lady Marmalade" from Moulin Rouge!), born in Washington, D.C.
• Oct 14 Stacy Keibler, American actress / ex-professional wrestler.
• Oct 17 Kimi Räikkönen, Finnish auto racer (F1 World Champion 2007), born in Espoo, Finland.
• Oct 18 Ne-Yo [Shaffer Chimere Smith, Jr], American pop and R&B singer and songwriter, born in Camden, Arkansas.
• Oct 20 John Krasinsky, American actor, director and producer (The Office, A Quiet Place), born in Boston, Massachusetts.16
Historical Events
• Oct 6 Pope John Paul II is 1st Pope to visit The White House, meeting with President Jimmy Carter in Washington, D.C..
• Oct 8 13th Country Music Association Awards: Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers & Barbara Mandrell win.
• Oct 9 Howard Stern begins broadcasting on WCCC in Hartford, Connecticut.
• Oct 10 Panama assumes sovereignty over Canal Area (ie Canal Zone).
• Oct 11 Allan McLeod Cormack & Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield win Nobel Prize for medicine for developing CAT scan.
• Oct 11 German DR frees dissidents Rudolf Bahro & Nico Hubner.
• Oct 12 Typhoon Tip becomes the most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded with peak sustained winds of 305km/h (190mph) and a wind diameter of 2,220km (1,380mi).
• Oct 14 100,000 demonstrate in Bonn against nuclear energy.
• Oct 14 1st Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. by over 100,000 people.
• Oct 15 Military coup in El Salvador: President Carlos Romero flees.
• Oct 17 Mother Teresa of Calcutta awarded Nobel Peace Prize.
• Oct 17 US President Jimmy Carter signs legislation creating Department of Education.
• Oct 18 Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini orders mass executions to stop.
• Oct 20 John F. Kennedy Library dedicated in Boston, Massachusetts.
Oct 22 Deposed Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi arrives in NYC for medical treatment.
• Oct 22 Walt Disney World's 100-millionth guest.17
Notable Deaths
• Oct 5 Ken Strong, American College/Pro Football HOF fullback/halfback (NYU; NFL C'ship 1934 NY Giants; 4 × First-team All-Pro), dies from a heart attack at 73
• Oct 6 Elizabeth Bishop, American poet (North & South, Pulitzer Prize 1956), dies of a cerebral aneurysm at 68.
• Oct 13 Clarence Muse, American actor, screenwriter and director (Casablanca, Black Stallion), dies at 89.
• Oct 17 S J Perelman, American author, humorist and screenwriter (The New Yorker, Around the World in 80 Days), dies at 75.
• Oct 26 Park Chung-hee, South Korean general and President (1963-79), assassinated by the director of the Korean Intelligence Agency at 61.
• Oct 27 Father Charles Coughlin, Canadian-American Roman Catholic priest and pro-Fascist radio broadcaster, dies at 88.
• Oct 29 Ramon "Tiki" Fulwood, American funk drummer (Parliament-Funkadelic; Miles Davis), dies of stomach cancer at 35.18
Enjoy and listen without prejudice. Cheers!
On Prime: 129. Tusk by Fleetwood Mac
Harrington, Jim, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, ed. by Robert Dimmery, p. 441
Ibid.
Ibid.