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1980 single by Fleetwood Mac

"Not That Funny" is a song by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in 1980. Composed and sung by guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, it was written as a response to the punk movement in the late 1970s.[3] The song shares some lyrics with "I Know I`m Not Wrong", another Buckingham penned song that appeared on the Tusk album.[4]

Background

"Not That Funny" was derived from an unused Buckingham song titled "Needles and Pins", originally recorded in June 1978. "Needles and Pins" later split into two different songs, "Not That Funny" and "I Know I`m Not Wrong", both of which share the "don`t blame me" lyrics found in the chorus and the "here comes the nighttime" lyrics found in the bridge.[5]

Buckingham performed his vocal part on the ground in a push-up position to achieve the desired vocal take. He also insisted on recording the vocals in a replica of his own personal bathroom, which was installed in Studio D of the LA Village Recorder. To satisfy Buckingham`s request, Ken Caillat, who served as the album`s co-producer and engineer, taped a microphone to the bathroom`s tile floor.[6]

Some of the electric guitars were detuned and recorded at high speed before being slowed down to 30 ips.[5] Buckingham multitracked the electric guitar parts on a Stratocaster and treated the instrument with a variable speed oscillator (VSO) to achieve a phasing effect.[7] The electric guitars were also sent through a tape recorder and mixing console to achieve a lower pitched, compressed, and thicker sound. The inverse occurred for the acoustic guitars, which were recorded at a slower speed but sped up with the VSO so that the instrument would resemble a harpsichord or music box. Buckingham played the acoustic guitars sparingly on the verses but used them more extensively during the bridge and chorus with an eighth and sixteenth note feel.[5]

For the drums, Buckingham layered several tracks of kick and snare drums and overdubbed tom drum fills leading to the vamp. The vocals were tripled, some of which were sung by Christine McVie. Fleetwood Mac engineer Hernán Rojas commented that Buckingham often asked McVie to help out with vocals on his songs due to their vocal blend. Buckingham also played the cello setting on a Chamberlin M1 keyboard to provide additional textures to the rhythm track.[5]

Release and live performances

While released as a single in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, "Not That Funny" was not released elsewhere. Instead, the track`s B-Side, "Think About Me", was issued as the third single in North America. Like the singles from Fleetwood Mac`s 1975 self-titled release, both singles were slightly remixed for radio. While "Think About Me" reached the top 30 in both the US and Canada, "Not That Funny" failed to chart at all, but it did receive some airplay in the UK, including on BRMB and Radio Clyde.[8] Despite the lack of initial success, the song became a live staple at Fleetwood Mac concerts. Played live, the song took on an entirely new arrangement – stretched out to almost nine minutes frequently, showcasing Buckingham`s guitar playing, John McVie`s bass playing and featuring a solo spot featuring Mick Fleetwood`s drumming. "Not That Funny" has been performed on the Tusk Tour, Mirage tour, The Dance tour, and the Live 2013 tour.[9][10]

For the Tusk tour, the band wanted their keyboard tech, Jeff Sova, to play synthesizers on the song to recreate some of the additional sounds heard on the record. However, this idea was dropped as it was interfering with his stage work. Instead, the only keyboard used on the song was a Yamaha console piano, played by Christine McVie.[11]

Critical reception

"Not That Funny" has generally received positive reception. Stephen Holden, a reviewer for Rolling Stone, compared the production of the track to a beautifully recorded basement tape.[12] Another reviewer from Rolling Stone pointed similarities in the guitar work between "Not That Funny" and a Go Insane track, "Loving Cup".[13] Raoul Hernandez of The Austin Chronicle said that "Not That Funny" perfectly demonstrates Buckingham`s ability to craft pop/rock songs, and that it reveals the "staleness" of Rumours.[14] In his review of Tusk for NME, Nick Kent described "Not That Funny" as "a Cajun-style bruising thump-up with a fade-out all too redolent of more White Album idiocies."[15]

In Rock of Ages: The Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll, the authors characterised "Not That Funny" as an "anti-pop song that is little more than Buckingham yelling `Well, it`s not that funny, is it?`, over and over until his vocal cords fray and shred and finally give way."[16] Ed Harrison of Billboard thought that song`s instrumentation evoked a "youthful new wave band."[17] Record World dismissed "Not That Funny" as "a rock pounder which has a beat but nothing else." They also questioned its release as a single and predicted that the song would struggle commercially.[8]

Retrospectively, Marcello Carlin of Uncut described it as a "disturbing" song "on which Buckingham’s near-psychotic guitar and vocal screams approach Pere Ubu territory."[18] In his piece for Melody Maker`s Unknown Pleasures guide, Simon Reynolds drew comparison to Faust`s "It`s a Bit of Pain" (1973), and praised Buckingham`s "hornet-in-your-earhole fuzz solo".[19] David Bennun of The Quietus wrote that "Not That Funny" resembles the music of Devo.[20] Annie Zaleski of The Guardian has commented that while some of Fleetwood Mac`s songwriting peers of the 1960s and 1970s "incorporated dance influences and synthesisers" to varying levels of success, the group`s "new wave nod", "Not That Funny", was a "transformative" example.[21]

Personnel

• Lindsey Buckingham – lead vocal, electric, acoustic, and bass guitars, Chamberlin, drums
• Christine McVie – additional vocals