Maps of Music

Tusk (1979)

Where the lyrics of Tusk take you, and where it was really made.

The band was offered its own custom studio to buy, but Fleetwood's attorney chose to rent it even though the producer believed buying would be cheaper.

Key places

Custom studio at The Village Recorder (1979)

Recording site Village Recorders — The band rented a custom studio named Studio D at The Village Recorder, which Geordie Hormel had offered to build for them. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Tusk: twelfth studio album by the British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac
• Double album released 12 October 1979 in the US and 19 October 1979 in the UK by Warner Bros. Records
• Considered more experimental than earlier albums, partly due to Lindsey Buckingham's sparser songwriting arrangements and post-punk influence
• Production costs about $1.4 million, the most expensive rock album recorded to that date
• Nine-month world tour promoted the album, with stops including the US, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK

Background

• Buckingham was adamant about making an album that sounded nothing like Rumours
• Mick Fleetwood decided early on that Tusk would be a double album
• Dennis Wilson offered the band the Beach Boys' studio, but the band backed out after learning it would pay for the facility even if unused
• Geordie Hormel offered to build a custom studio for the band at The Village Recorder
• Producer Ken Caillat suggested buying the studio, but Fleetwood's attorney chose to rent it; the studio was named Studio D

Recording

• Several Buckingham songs were recorded at his home studio on a 24-track machine, with him playing all instruments
• Engineers aimed for a darker sound with fuller low frequencies and more treble
• Tape was run at 30 inches per second with a Dolby noise-reduction system to reduce tape hiss
• Caillat described Buckingham's behavior in the studio as a source of tension
• Production costs rose beyond a million dollars, far more than Rumours

Cover

• Three photographers from different disciplines were selected to design the album sleeve instead of Herbert W. Worthington
• Peter Beard's photo of Caillat's dog Scooter biting his leg became the cover art

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Disc 1

Disc 2

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in London in July 1967 by Peter Green after leaving John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, with Mick Fleetwood on drums.
• The name combines Fleetwood's surname with bassist John McVie, who joined in 1967.
• Early line-up was primarily a British blues band; "Albatross" reached UK No. 1 in 1968.

Members

• Core members over time: Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham.
• Buckingham and Nicks joined at the end of 1974 and drove the band's global success.

Career

• Rumours (1977) is one of the best-selling albums of all time and won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1978.
• The band has sold more than 120 million records worldwide.
• Received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 1979 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
• Received the MusiCares Person of the Year award in 2018.
• Christine McVie died in 2022; Stevie Nicks later said she saw no reason to continue the band.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Rolling Stone: In his review for Rolling Stone, Stephen Holden emphasised the experimental nature of the album, comparing it to the Beatles' White Album
• The Village Voice: Robert Christgau praised Buckingham's production and experimentation while dismissing the contributions of McVie and Nicks
• Music Week: Music Week thought that the album did not have the same impact as Rumours
• Cashbox: Cashbox called the record the band's most adventuresome LP to date
• Record World: Record World called it a highly progressive disc that takes more than one listen to digest
• Billboard: Ed Harrison found enough material to classify it as an artistically successful venture

Reappraisal

• AllMusic: Retrospectively, AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine found the album timeless and comparable to Rumours in quality
• Pitchfork: Amanda Petrusich found the album self-indulgent and terrifically strange
• Blender: Clark Collis felt the album lacked enough quality material to justify a 2-disc collection
• Record Collector: Kris Needs felt McVie's tracks had best stood the test of time

Records

• Peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 and spent almost nine months on the chart
• Certified double platinum for shipping two million copies
• Peaked at number one in the UK, with platinum for shipments over 300,000
• Two US top-10 singles: the title track and Sara
• Sold four million copies worldwide
• Grammy nomination in 1981 for Best Album Package
• NME ranked it number 445 in its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list in 2013

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album was remade in its entirety by the American alternative rock band Camper Van Beethoven and released in 2003.
• Warner Bros distributed the album to retail record stores one week earlier than planned to counter the circulation of poor quality tape recordings.
• For certain songs, Buckingham played a Kleenex box as a snare drum and Fleetwood overdubbed his own drums over Buckingham's demos.
• The studio's mixing console was nicknamed Tusk because of fake tusks mounted on the device.
• Tusk was one of the first albums to be digitally mixed, the same year as Ry Cooder's Bop Till You Drop.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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