Tusk is the twelfth studio album by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac, released as a double album on 12 October 1979 in the United States and on 19 October 1979 in the United Kingdom[6] by Warner Bros. Records.[7][8] It is considered more experimental than their previous albums, partly as a consequence of Lindsey Buckingham`s sparser songwriting arrangements and the influence of post-punk.[9] 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 $5.88 million in 2023), making it the most expensive rock album recorded to that date.[10][11]

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. On this world tour, the band recorded music for the Fleetwood Mac Live album, released in 1980.[12]

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 ranked Tusk at number 445 in their list of "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".[13] The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[14] In 2000, it was voted number 853 in Colin Larkin`s All Time Top 1000 Albums.[15]

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. would have liked us to follow."[16] Mick Fleetwood decided early on that Tusk was to be a double album.[17] Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, who was dating Christine McVie at the time, offered to host the band at the Beach Boys` studio, which they were about to renovate. While the band initially agreed to this idea, an attorney for the Beach Boys later told Fleetwood Mac that they would still have to pay for the facility even if they decided not to use it. Fleetwood Mac subsequently backed out of the deal and approached Geordie Hormel, who offered to construct a custom studio for the band at The Village Recorder and presented them with an option to either purchase the studio or rent it. Fleetwood Mac producer Ken Caillat suggested that the band purchase the studio, reckoning that this would be the cheaper option. However, Fleetwood`s attorney opted to rent the custom studio, which was named Studio D.[18]

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."[19]

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. For certain songs, Buckingham played a Kleenex box as a snare drum and had Fleetwood overdub his own drums over Buckingham`s demo.[20]

Several songs were recorded with Buckingham playing all of the instruments, including "The Ledge", "Save Me a Place", and "That`s Enough for Me".[21] 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."[22] Buckingham had expressed interest in starting a solo career during the making of Tusk so in an effort to appease him, the rest of the band acquiesced to Buckingham`s desire to create a more experimental album.[23]

I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall when Warner Bros. put that on in their boardroom and listened to it for the first time.[24]

—Lindsey Buckingham

Buckingham – infatuated with bands such as Talking Heads – was "desperate to make Mac relevant to a post-punk 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` lo-fi Smiley Smile had been to Pet Sounds. Much of it sounded clattery, half-formed, with strange rhythmic leaps and offbeat tics."[25] Journalist Adam Webb described the Tusk recording sessions as a "cocaine blizzard" from which Christine McVie`s then-boyfriend, Beach Boy drummer Dennis Wilson, "never really came out."[26] Music historian Domenic Priore claimed that, for research purposes during the album`s recording, Buckingham accessed the master tapes for the Beach Boys` unreleased album Smile, and that the tracks "That`s All for Everyone" and "Beautiful Child" most strongly exemplify its influence.[27]

Bassist John McVie 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.[28] "You got that sweetness [from Nicks and McVie] and me as the complete nutcase," Buckingham observed. "That`s what makes us Fleetwood Mac."[29]

Artwork

Rather than solicit the services of Herbert W. Worthington, who created the cover art for Rumours, the band opted to select three photographers from different disciplines to design the album sleeve for Tusk.[30] Peter Beard, who specialised as a documentary photographer, was enlisted to supply images for the album sleeve and spent two weeks in the recording studio taking Polaroids of the band and its inner circle. He also augmented this footage with images of elephant tusks.[23] During one of those sessions, Beard took a photo of Caillat`s dog biting his leg, which ultimately became the cover art for Tusk. Fleetwood had originally promised Nicks that the cover art would feature an image of her twirling and dancing; Nicks later told Caillat that she placed a curse on his dog for "stealing her cover".[31]

Norman Seeff recalled that he encountered some difficulties in assembling all five members into one location and likened the experience to "herding cats".

It was like being a sort of a school teacher in the kindergarten because everyone was having their own wonderful time...Each of them was individually fascinating, but together you could feel an electricity between everyone. And I’m working with all the stories of what was going on with them, and then they start to touch each other and flow with the music. It was magic, because rather than being five separate people they became one.[32]

Jayme Odgers was responsible for creating the upside-down photograph found in the booklet, which featured Fleetwood clinging to a chair on the ceiling, Buckingham and Nicks suspended in the air, and both McVies firmly planted on the ground. When Odgers proposed the idea, the band was uncooperative and refused to be in the same room together, so Odgers instead took photographs of the band individually in different poses. Odgers pieced together the separate shots into a more cohesive photograph and credited the band`s obstinance for achieving the final product. "Unbeknownst to them, my photographic forte was putting separate images together seamlessly, so I pushed on. Had they all been willing to be photographed together, the image never would have looked like it does." The photo also served as a point of contention for Warner Bros, who opposed its inclusion in the booklet. According to Odgers, Fleetwood informed him that the band spent two hours discussing the fate of the image; Fleetwood ultimately convinced Warner Bros to keep the image on the grounds that it would potentially elicit further discussion amongst the public. In 2016, a black-and-white version of Odger`s photo was used as the front cover of the Alternate Tusk album, a collection issued by Rhino Records consisting of alternate takes and live recordings.[30]

Release and reception

Tusk peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 in the United States and spent almost nine months on the chart. It was certified double platinum for shipping two million copies.[43] It peaked at number one in the UK and achieved a platinum award for shipments in excess of 300,000 copies.[44] The album gave the group two US top-10 hit singles, with the Buckingham-penned title track (US number eight/UK number six), and the Stevie Nicks composition "Sara" (US number seven/UK number 37).[45]

In his review for Rolling Stone, Stephen Holden emphasized the experimental nature of the album, comparing it to the Beatles` "White Album" in that "Tusk is less a collection of finished songs than a mosaic of pop-rock fragments by individual performers."[2] Robert Christgau of The Village Voice was more ambivalent, lauding Buckingham`s production and experimentation, while dismissing Christine McVie`s and Stevie Nicks`s contributions.[46] Retrospectively, AllMusic`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.[33] Amanda Petrusich of Pitchfork found the album "self-indulgent" and "terrifically strange".[38] Contemporary and retrospective reviewers alike have noted the stark contrast between the album`s lush opening track, "Over & Over", and jarring production of the following track, "The Ledge".[47][48]

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).[49] Fleetwood, however, blames the album`s relative failure on the RKO radio chain playing the album in its entirety prior to release, thus allowing mass home recording.[50] In addition, Tusk was a double album, with a high list price of US$16.00, or $56.00 in 2019 terms.[51] The band originally considered the idea of releasing Tusk as two single albums each with the price of $7.98, but the record label decided against this.[52]

Further releases from the album "Not That Funny" (UK-only single release), "Think About Me", and "Sisters of the Moon" 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 41⁄2 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.[53]

The album was remade in its entirety by American alternative rock band Camper Van Beethoven and released in 2003.

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 – vocals, guitars, bass guitar,[54] keyboards,[55] drums,[54] percussion[56]
• Stevie Nicks – vocals, piano
• Christine McVie – vocals, keyboards
• John McVie – bass guitar
• Mick Fleetwood – drums, percussion

Additional musicians

• Peter Green – guitar (on "Brown Eyes")
• USC Trojan Marching Band – horns and percussion (on "Tusk")

Production and design

• Fleetwood Mac – producers
• Richard Dashut – producer, engineer
• Ken Caillat – producer, engineer, remastering
• Rich Feldman – assistant engineer
• Hernán Rojas – assistant engineer
• Ken Perry – mastering
• Peter Beard – photography
• Jayme Odgers – photography
• Norman Seeff – photography
• Vigon Nahas Vigon – art direction, design

Charts

Certifications

Certifications for Tusk

See also

• Album era