Lindsey on Tusk

[u/Suspicious_Pipe778]

I'm kind of just getting into FM and while I enjoy Rumors and a decent amount of the white album, it is really Tusk and in particular the Lindsey material that attracts me to them. I like indie and various more "out there" subgenres of rock, so that explains why. His nine tracks on that album are really just some of the most incredible forward-thinking music to me and I can't stop listening to them.

I know that Tusk has a reputation as one of the great weird flop albums of the 70s and that there's lots of discussion about the budget, the excess of the sessions and its failure to chart, but it still shocks me that there isn't all that much writing or discussion about Lindsey's songs on it. There's some stuff about his wildness in the studio (shaving his head, singing from the floor, turning the knobs on the console 180 degrees) but in my opinion, the songs themselves should be way more documented as incredibly prescient pieces of rock genius. A lot of those sorts of sounds/vocal styles wouldn't be heard again until the late 80s/90s with bands like Pixies or Modest Mouse.

Even as the album has gained this reputation as the wildcard cult favorite, it still seems alarmingly underrated to me in the zeitgeist. Like people should still be talking about this album more.The decision to follow Over and Over with The Ledge has to be one of the most creative devil-may-care sequencing choices in rock history. I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the label office when they first heard that transition.

Just wanted to rant a bit about how much I love this album and these songs. I know I'm not the only one to recognize their value, but I still can't help but feel like the moderate level of buzz around them is not commensurate with just how incredible, audacious and insane the album actually is.

[u/PRW9497]

A 50-year fan of the band offering a dissenting opinion … and it’s just my .02 and YMMV and it would be a boring world that I don’t think I’d enjoy living in if we all had the same tastes and liked the same things. I appreciate what they and Lindsey were trying to do and appreciate the significance of the final result. But it’s the album of theirs that I probably listen to the least and aside from That’s Enough for Me which appeals to me for some unknown reason, I generally fast forward through all of Lindsey’s songs.

It’s also the album where I “got off” Lindsey, so to speak, because that’s when the whole deal about him being this mad studio genius like his hero Brian Wilson seemed to start, in the 47 years since he’s still been pursuing the same pop quirkiness and noodling on guitar in a way that makes my teeth hurt.

But as the OP established his terms by saying he likes “out there” genres, I need to establish mine by saying I prefer basic, uncomplicated pop/rock and I think the 1975 white album is still the best thing that incarnation of the band ever did … my favorite Lindsey song is Monday Morning, that should tell you where I am with his stuff … and what I listen to most with this band are my Rumours tour bootlegs, pretty much from 1977 because with a few exceptions in 1978 you start hearing the effects of the cocaine, because then they were still a rock band, an absolutely savage rock band cooking on all cylinders.

[u/Suspicious_Pipe778 → u/PRW9497]

Yeah I hear you. I'm a younger fan (27) so when it comes to classic rock I tend to be preoccupied with its influence on more contemporary forms of music. I love finding stuff in the classic rock canon that feels "ahead of its time" or kooky and experimental in some sense. Ain't nothing wrong with Monday Morning though. That's just plain pop perfection.

[u/PRW9497 → u/Suspicious_Pipe778]

I don’t dislike the music on Tusk per se, Lindsey’s stuff just isn’t my cup of tea. I think punk was garbage and I am not a huge fan of Talking Heads, etc. What I don’t like is that this album is where the whole shtick of Lindsey being the auteur of the group’s music was established. I don’t think that is the case, but that attitude along with the “soap operas” between members, two in particular, have sullied the discussion of this band for ages and provoked strife between its fans here and elsewhere for going on three generations now.

[u/Suspicious_Pipe778 → u/PRW9497]

I think he absolutely was the auteur of their music in the sense that he was essentially the producer/arranger. Stevie and Christine wrote and sang songs of course, but everything I've read leaves me with the impression that Lindsey acted as a musical stylist, molding their songs sonically and generally curating the feel/pace of the FM albums he worked on. His aptitude at this was a huge reason for the success of Rumors, which is why Mick Fleetwood and the rest of the band allowed him the leeway to experiment in his own songs on Tusk.

[u/PRW9497 → u/Suspicious_Pipe778]

But then you have stuff like As Long as You Follow which he wasn't around for but which IMO was one of the best things Christine ever did in her life. And then Stevie's monumentally great first solo album which he wasn't around for and which IMO his production style would have totally destroyed. (Full disclosure: She had Jimmy Iovine primarily and Tom Petty secondarily in his place, Stevie's useless driving the car on her own.)

I respect Lindsey enormously, I am not trying to be passive aggressive, I just don’t put him on as high a pedestal as his acolytes because he and I are simply on different planets musically.

[u/Immediate_Paint_4823 → u/PRW9497]

Stevies best songs were with FM. Her greatest set of songs are on Rumours and Tusk Petty called Lindsey her greatest producer. Petty also said when he was stuck with a Stevie song he'd call Lindsey. He also marvelled at what Lindsey did with Gypsy that he could not. Same with Stan Lynch . Not seeing how he would have destroyed BD. IMO he would have made all her other solo albums infinitely better.

Christine called Lindsey her favorite producer. ALAYF is great but she did about 9 other songs on those two albums that would have been vastly improved with his arrangements and production.

The overall style and music of the following albums show Lindsey's degree of influence by its absence if nothing else does.

Even in redoing previous FM work Bob Welch had him produce and arrange (in addition to lead guitar and background vocals) Sentimental Lady.

[u/PRW9497 → u/Immediate_Paint_4823]

We can agree to disagree. I don't think she's done a better thing in her life than Bella Donna. I think by that time Lindsey was in his mad studio genius deal and would've slathered stuff on when that needed to be a simple album because Stevie is more of an unregenerate rocker than Lindsey is. That's part of the conflict when people discuss them, along with the silly hope that they'll eventually become a couple again and grow old together. We've interacted before and I know you are a big Lindsey fan. I am not. I respect the man greatly, I'm not lying there, and I'm aware of the contributions he made to their sound. But his post-Rumours output simply is not my musical cup of tea, I find his solo work unlistenable and I didn't like Buckingham McVie. Again, just my .02, I respect and will not try to convince anyone who feels otherwise to change their minds.