Tusk (album)

This article is about the Fleetwood Mac album. For the Camper Van Beethoven album, a remake of this one, see Tusk (Camper Van Beethoven album).
Tusk
Studio album by Fleetwood Mac
Released October 12, 1979[1]
Recorded 1978–79
Studio The Village Recorder, Los Angeles, California, Lindsey Buckingham's home
Genre
Length 74:25
Language English
Label Warner Bros.
Producer Fleetwood Mac, Richard Dashut, and Ken Caillat
Fleetwood Mac chronology
Rumours
(1977)		 Tusk
(1979)		 Live
(1980)
Singles from Tusk
  1. "Tusk"
    Released: September 1979
  2. "Sara"
    Released: December 1979
  3. "Not That Funny"
    Released: February 1980 (UK)
  4. "Think About Me"
    Released: March 1980
  5. "Sisters of the Moon"
    Released: June 1980 (USA)
  6. "Angel"
    Released: July 1980 (NL)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
MusicHound[3]
Pitchfork Media9.2/10[4]
Robert ChristgauB+[5]
Rolling Stone(favorable)[6]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[7]
Smash Hits9/10[8]

Tusk is the twelfth album by the British/American rock band Fleetwood Mac. Released in 1979, it is considered experimental, primarily due to Lindsey Buckingham's sparser songwriting arrangements and the influence of punk rock and new wave on his production techniques. Widely noted in the 1979 press for costing over $1 million to record (US$3,265,933 in 2016 dollars[9]), it was the most expensive rock album made up to that point.[10] Compared to 1977's Rumours which sold 10 million copies by March 1978, Tusk sold four million copies. Because of this, the album was regarded as a commercial failure by the label and it holds the record for a major-label band having the biggest drop in sales from one album to the next.[11]

The band embarked on a 9-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 UK. In Germany they shared the bill with reggae superstar Bob Marley. It was on this world tour that the band recorded music for the Fleetwood Mac Live album, which was released in 1980.

The album polarized critics and the public alike upon its initial release, although the album has since been reevaluated over time and praised for its experimentation. In 2013, NME ranked Tusk at number 445 in their list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.[12]

Background

Going into Tusk, Lindsey Buckingham was adamant about creating an album that sounded nothing like Rumours, despite encouragement from their label, Warner Bros., who wanted the band to follow up with a commercial record.[13]

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.

Mick Fleetwood decided early on that Tusk was going to be a double album. After their label turned down Fleetwood's offer of buying a new studio to make the record, Fleetwood Mac used some of their royalties to construct their own studio, Studio D.[14]

After the studio was built, Buckingham asked Fleetwood if he could record a couple tracks at his home studio. Fleetwood acquiesced, but told Buckingham that the other members needed to be integrated at some point. For example, Buckingham would play a snare drum track on a Kleenex box in his studio while Fleetwood would overdub his drums later on.[15] Despite this, three tracks were recorded solely by Buckingham: "The Ledge", "Save Me a Place", and "That's Enough For Me". [16]

Bassist John McVie has commented that the album sounds like "the work of three solo artists", whilst Fleetwood later proclaimed that it is his favourite and the best Fleetwood Mac studio album created by the group. Original guitarist Peter Green also took part in the sessions for Tusk, but his playing on the Christine McVie track "Brown Eyes" is not credited on the album.[17] However, on the alternate version (at 30 seconds longer) that was released on 25 Years – The Chain, Green's guitar playing can be heard.

Commercial performance

Tusk peaked at No. 4 in the U.S., spent over five months within the top 40, and was certified double platinum for shipping two million copies.[18] It peaked at No. 1 in the UK and achieved a Platinum award for shipments in excess of 300,000 copies[19]. The album gave the group two U.S. top-ten hit singles, with the Buckingham-penned title track (US #8/UK #6), and the Stevie Nicks composition "Sara" (U.S. #7/UK #37). 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 4½ minutes for both the single and the first CD release of the album, appear on the 1988 Greatest Hits compilation and the 2004 reissue of Tusk as well as Fleetwood Mac's 2002 release of The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac in its unedited form.

Though the album sold 4 million copies worldwide, and earned a Grammy nomination in 1981 for its art designers in the category "Best Album Package", and considering the comparatively huge sales of Rumours and the album's unprecedented recording expense, the band's record label deemed the project a failure, laying the blame squarely with Buckingham.[20] 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.[21] In addition, Tusk was a double album, with a high list price of $15.98 (US$52 in 2016 dollars[9]) ($2.00 more than other double albums).

Release history

An alternate version of Tusk was released on Record Store Day 2016.[22]

Track listing

Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
1."Over & Over"  Christine McVieC. McVie4:34
2."The Ledge"  Lindsey BuckinghamBuckingham2:08
3."Think About Me"  C. McVieC. McVie and Buckingham2:44
4."Save Me a Place"  BuckinghamBuckingham2:42
5."Sara" (Edited to 4:39 on earlier CD pressings)Stevie NicksNicks6:22
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
1."What Makes You Think You're the One"  BuckinghamBuckingham3:32
2."Storms"  NicksNicks5:31
3."That's All for Everyone"  BuckinghamBuckingham3:03
4."Not That Funny" (Another mix than the original LP version)BuckinghamBuckingham3:11
5."Sisters of the Moon"  NicksNicks4:42
Side three
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
1."Angel"  NicksNicks4:54
2."That's Enough for Me"  BuckinghamBuckingham1:50
3."Brown Eyes"  C. McVieC. McVie4:27
4."Never Make Me Cry"  C. McVieC. McVie2:18
5."I Know I'm Not Wrong" (Another mix than the original LP version)BuckinghamBuckingham3:05
Side four
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
1."Honey Hi"  C. McVieC. McVie2:41
2."Beautiful Child"  NicksNicks5:21
3."Walk a Thin Line"  BuckinghamBuckingham3:46
4."Tusk"  BuckinghamBuckingham3:37
5."Never Forget"  C. McVieC. McVie3:34

A 2-disc remastered version of the album was released in 2004, featuring the entire, unedited version of the original album on the first disc and various demos, outtakes and alternate versions on the second disc.

2015 deluxe edition

A 5-CD deluxe edition featuring many unreleased demos, live tracks and an Alternate Tusk was released on December 4, 2015.

Tusk was also issued as a 180-gram 2-LP set.

Disc two: singles, outtakes, sessions

  1. "Think About Me" (Single remix)
  2. "That's All for Everyone" (Remix)
  3. "Sisters of the Moon" (Remix)
  4. "Not That Funny" (Single remix)
  5. "Sara" (Single edit)
  6. "Walk a Thin Line" (Song #3 — 3/13/79)
  7. "Honey Hi" (Alternate version — 10/18/78)
  8. "Storms" (Alternate version — 11/30/78)
  9. "Save Me a Place" (2nd version — 10/10/78)*
  10. "Never Make Me Cry" (Version — 4/17/79)
  11. "Out on the Road" (aka "That's Enough for Me" Demo — 12/19/78)*
  12. "I Know I'm Not Wrong" — Lindsey's Song #1 (Demo)
  13. "I Know I'm Not Wrong" (10/10/78 version)*
  14. "I Know I'm Not Wrong" (11/3/78 version)*
  15. "I Know I'm Not Wrong” (4/25/79 version)*
  16. "I Know I'm Not Wrong" (8/13/79 version)*
  17. "I Know I'm Not Wrong" (1/23/79 version)*
  18. "Tusk" (Demo — 1/15/79)*
  19. "Tusk" stage riff (Demo — 1/30/79)*
  20. "Tusk" (Outtake track — 2/1/79)*
  21. "Tusk" (Outtake mix — 1/23/79)*
  22. "Tusk" (USC version — 6/4/79)*

Disc three: the alternate Tusk

  1. "Over & Over" (4/2/79)*
  2. "The Ledge" (3/13/79)
  3. "Think About Me" (2/18/79)*
  4. "Save Me a Place" (10/18/78)*
  5. "Sara" (3/10/79)
  6. "What Makes You Think You're the One" (2/24/79)*
  7. "Storms" (6/2/79)*
  8. "That's All for Everyone" (10/20/78)*
  9. "Not That Funny" (5/19/79)*
  10. "Sisters of the Moon" (11/12/78)
  11. "Angel" (4/2/79)*
  12. "That's Enough for Me" (9/29/78)*
  13. "Brown Eyes" (with Lindsey and Peter Green, 9/20/78)*
  14. "Never Make Me Cry" (2/8/79)*
  15. "I Know I'm Not Wrong" (11/2/78)*
  16. "Honey Hi" (10/11/78)*
  17. "Beautiful Child" (10/9/78)*
  18. "Walk a Thin Line" (4/6/79)*
  19. "Tusk" (7/19/79)*
  20. "Never Forget" (6/29/78)*

Disc four: Tusk tour live I

  1. Intro (Wembley, 6/26/80)
  2. "Say You Love Me" (Wembley, 6/26/80)
  3. "The Chain" (Wembley, 6/20/80)
  4. "Don't Stop" (Wembley, 6/27/80)
  5. "Dreams" (Wembley, 6/20/80)
  6. "Oh Well" (Wembley, 6/20/80)
  7. "Rhiannon" (Tucson, 8/28/80)
  8. "Over & Over" (St. Louis, 11/5/79)
  9. "That's Enough for Me" (Wembley, 6/21/80)
  10. "Sara" (Tucson, 8/28/80)
  11. "Not That Funny" (St. Louis, 11/5/79)
  12. "Tusk" (St. Louis, 11/5/79)

Disc five: Tusk Tour live II

  1. "Save Me a Place" (St. Louis, 11/5/79)
  2. "Landslide" (Omaha, 8/21/80)
  3. "What Makes You Think You're the One" (St. Louis, 11/5/79)
  4. "Angel" (St. Louis, 11/5/79)
  5. "You Make Loving Fun" (Wembley, 6/20/80)
  6. "I'm So Afraid" (St. Louis, 11/5/79)
  7. "World Turning" (Wembley, 6/22/80)
  8. "Go Your Own Way" (Wembley, 6/22/80)
  9. "Sisters of the Moon" (Wembley, 6/22/80)
  10. "Songbird" (Wembley, 6/27/80)

(* = Previously unreleased)
All live tracks are previously unreleased.

Personnel

Additional musicians

Production

  • Fleetwood Mac - producers
  • Richard Dashut - producer
  • Ken Caillat - producer, engineer, remastering
  • Richard Dashut - engineer
  • Rich Feldman - assistant engineer
  • Hernan Rojas - assistant engineer
  • Ken Perry - mastering

Design

  • Peter Beard - photography
  • Jayme Odgers - photography
  • Norman Seeff - photography
  • Vigon Nahas Vigon - art direction, design

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/Sales
Australia (ARIA)[26] 2× Platinum 140,000^
France (SNEP)[27] Gold 167,600[28]
Germany (BVMI)[29] Gold 250,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[30] Platinum 300,000^
United States (RIAA)[18] 2× Platinum 2,000,000^

^shipments figures based on certification alone

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (1979/80) Position
Australian Kent Music Report[31] 2
Austrian Albums Chart[32] 4
Canadian RPM Albums Chart[33] 11
Dutch Albums Chart[34] 3
French SNEP Albums Chart[35] 3
Japanese Oricon LPs Chart[36] 27
New Zealand Albums Chart[37] 1
Norwegian VG-lista Albums Chart[38] 6
Spanish Albums Chart[39] 18
Swedish Albums Chart[40] 8
UK Albums Chart[41] 1
US Billboard 200[42] 4
West German Media Control Albums Chart[43] 3

Year-end charts

Chart (1979) Position
Australian Albums Chart[31] 35
Canadian Albums Chart[44] 69
French Albums Chart[45] 62
Chart (1980) Position
Australian Albums Chart[31] 17
Canadian Albums Chart[46] 70
Dutch Albums Chart[47] 65
US Billboard Pop Albums[48] 20

Cover versions

References

  1. ↑ "...group's new Tusk album scheduled to be released today..." (October 12, 1979). "A Star for Fleetwood Mac". Los Angeles Times: E44.
  2. ↑ Mawer, Sharon. Tusk at AllMusic
  3. ↑ Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel (eds) (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide (2nd ed.). Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 434. ISBN 1-57859-061-2.
  4. ↑ Petrusich, Amanda (17 July 2016). "Fleetwood Mac: Tusk". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
  5. ↑ Robert Christgau review
  6. ↑ Rolling Stone, 13 Dec 1979
  7. ↑ "Fleetwood Mac: Album Guide". rollingstone.com. Archived from the original on November 1, 2011. Retrieved August 11, 2015.
  8. ↑ Starr, Red. "Albums". Smash Hits (November 1–14, 1979): 29.
  9. 1 2 Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Community Development Project. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
  10. ↑ Cormier, Roger. "15 Albums That Cost a Fortune to Make". Mental Floss. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
  11. ↑ "15 Albums That Cost a Fortune to Make". Retrieved 2016-09-02.
  12. ↑ Rocklist.net NME: The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time : October 2013
  13. ↑ Graff, Gary. "Lindsey Buckingham on Fleetwood Mac's Risk-Taking Classic Album 'Tusk': Exclusive Premiere". Billboard. Retrieved April 2, 2016.
  14. ↑ Evans, Mike (2011). "Superstardom". Fleetwood Mac: The Definitive History. 387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016: Sterling. p. 165. ISBN 978-1-4027-8630-3. "It was Mick Fleetwood, however, who made the first decision concerning the new record: that it was going to be a double album. Given that just the one disc of Rumors took so much time to complete, he realized that a double would be far more expensive in terms of studio costs alone. The answer, Mick proposed, was to buy their own studio...the Warner executives turned the idea down without a second thought...So instead of working in their self-owned setup, the band spent a small fortune of its own royalties advance having a custom-designed annex, Studio D, built at the Village Recorder in Los Angeles
  15. ↑ "Fleetwood Mac Create Tusk, 1979". Stevie Nicks Info. Retrieved September 18, 2016.
  16. ↑ "Lindsey Buckingham: Musician Magazine No.33". Fleetwood Mac UK. Retrieved September 18, 2016.
  17. ↑ "Fleetwood Mac/Peter Green". Fleetwood Mac. Retrieved Sep 9, 2011.
  18. 1 2 "American album certifications – Fleetwood Mac – Tusk". Recording Industry Association of America. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH
  19. ↑ "British album certifications – Fleetwood Mac – Tusk". British Phonographic Industry. Enter Tusk in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Click Search
  20. ↑ Rooksby, Rikky (1998). The Complete Guide to the Music of Fleetwood Mac. Omnibus Press. p. 115. ISBN 0-7119-6310-X.
  21. ↑ Fleetwood, Mick; Davis, Stephen (1991). My Life and Adventures in Fleetwood Mac. p. 219.
  22. ↑ Sheppard, Jack. "Record Store Day 2016: David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac and Bob Dylan lead releases". Independent. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
  23. 1 2 Forte, Dan. "Lindsey Buckingham - Musician Interview, June 1981". Fleetwoodmac-uk.com. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  24. ↑ Irvin, Jim (2016). Tusk (2015 Remastered) (Liner Notes). Fleetwood Mac. Los Angeles: Warner Bros. Records Inc. p. 14. Publisher Warner Bros #2HS-3350.
  25. ↑ Giles, Jeff. "35 Years Ago: Fleetwood Mac Tries Something New With 'Tusk'". Ultimate Classic Rock. Retrieved July 27, 2015.
  26. ↑ NO certyear WAS PROVIDED for AUSTRALIAN CERTIFICATION.
  27. ↑ "French album certifications – Fleetwood Mac – Tusk" (in French). InfoDisc. Select FLEETWOOD MAC and click OK
  28. ↑ "Les Albums Or". infodisc.fr. SNEP. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
  29. ↑ "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (Fleetwood Mac; 'Tusk')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie.
  30. ↑ "British album certifications – Fleetwood Mac – Tusk". British Phonographic Industry. Enter Tusk in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Select Platinum in the field By Award. Click Search
  31. 1 2 3 Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  32. ↑ "austriancharts.at Fleetwood Mac – Tusk" (ASP). Hung Medien (in German). Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  33. ↑ "Top Albums/CDs - Volume 32, No. 12" (PHP). RPM. 15 December 1979. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  34. ↑ "dutchcharts.nl Fleetwood Mac – Tusk" (ASP). Hung Medien (in Dutch). MegaCharts. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  35. ↑ "InfoDisc : Tous les Albums classés par Artiste > Choisir Un Artiste Dans la Liste" (in French). infodisc.fr. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  36. ↑ Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970-2005. Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.
  37. ↑ "charts.org.nz Fleetwood Mac – Tusk" (ASP). Hung Medien. Recording Industry Association of New Zealand. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  38. ↑ "norwegiancharts.com Fleetwood Mac – Tusk" (ASP). Hung Medien. VG-lista. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  39. ↑ Salaverri, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (1st ed.). Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
  40. ↑ "swedishcharts.com Fleetwood Mac – Tusk" (ASP) (in Swedish). Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  41. ↑ "Fleetwood Mac > Artists > Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  42. ↑ "allmusic ((( Tusk > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums )))". allmusic.com. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  43. ↑ "Album Search: Fleetwood Mac – Tusk" (in German). Media Control. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  44. ↑ "RPM Top 100 Albums of 1979". RPM. 22 December 1979. Retrieved 3 October 2011.
  45. ↑ "Les Albums (CD) de 1979 par InfoDisc" (PHP) (in French). infodisc.fr. Retrieved 3 June 2013.
  46. ↑ "RPM Top 100 Albums of 1980". RPM. 20 December 1980. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
  47. ↑ "Dutch charts jaaroverzichten 1980" (ASP) (in Dutch). Retrieved 2014-05-01.
  48. ↑ Nielsen Business Media, Inc (20 December 1980). Billboard.com – Year End Charts – Year-end Albums – The Billboard 200.
  49. ↑ Adams, Gregory (September 7, 2012). "Flowers Of Hell Reveal Odes Details". Exclaim!. Retrieved September 9, 2012.
Preceded by
Reggatta de Blanc by The Police		 UK Albums Chart number one album
4-10 November 1979 		Succeeded by
Greatest Hits Vol. 2 by ABBA
Preceded by
The Wall by Pink Floyd		 New Zealand Chart number-one album
6 April 1980 		Succeeded by
Music by Candlelight by Gheorghe Zamfir & Harry Van Hoof
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