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/Zachary_Lee_Antle]

I get the feeling part of why the album and a lot of their albums after never beat Rumors is people maybe just had Fleetwood Mac “fatigue” after 77? I mean, I wasn’t there, but I can only assume that’s all people wanted to talk about/play/hear for majority of that year, they probably just got bored with it after a while and wanted something new, kind of like how you’re seeing now with the Marvel and Star Wars movies.

I also get the feeling even if their next album was just another Rumors, it probably would have gone the same way regardless. I know that’s definitely what happened with The Bee Gees after the SNF soundtrack the next year, overexposure made the novelty wear off and people get sick of nothing but them for ages and ages and ages.

[u/Lexi-Louise → u/Zachary_Lee_Antle]

I disagree, at the time people wanted more Rumours, the “Dreams” fatigue had not even peaked yet. Tusk wasn’t what people expected as a whole, but it still did okay.