So in rough times, Buckingham dug in and did his stuff. Kramer, a snapshot of a turbulent break-up and its ensuing tremors, dominated the Academy Awards. But who really thought for a second that Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie and Mick Fleetwood would have anything to do with it? With the band flying higher than any other and cash pouring in almost as fast as the blow, a sprawling high-priced mess was expected.Īnd who was going to stop them? Who said they couldn’t and shouldn’t make a sprawling, high-priced mess? Things inside and outside of rock music were fuzzier than usual in 1979: the economy sucked, the Rolling Stones and Grateful Dead were wading in disco, music had gone handheld (to much skepticism) with the first Sony Walkman, a fiery Ted Kennedy was about to challenge incumbent President Jimmy Carter for the Democratic nomination, and Kramer vs. It was no secret that Buckingham was hot for the New Wave and punk sounds creeping into the mainstream sphere. While their love lives remained in remarkable flux, with notable third parties entering into the calculus (looking at you, Don Henley), the most pertinent question was how Fleetwood Mac would move on, musically, following Rumours’ atomic success. It’s an overflow of emotion, a lyrical and musical conversation between band members who’d been through interpersonal hell, and a bold c’est la vie statement. Rumours, which at last count has sold somewhere around 400 billion copies, is perhaps the ultimate hallmark of rock yuppiedom – undoubtedly what The Big Chill characters were listening to before finding out that Alex slit his wrists and flipping on the ‘Nam-era pop/soul switch and all its ensuing nostalgia. While this last talking point is tossed around more than any discussion of the actual music when Tusk comes up today, some context is beneficial. With a $1 million recording budget, it was the most expensive album of all time upon release. It’s also probably the only one to successfully (and miraculously) bridge that “genre” with English folk, New Wave, rockabilly, free-verse poetry and punk. Coming from the furthest corner of the deepest left field, it was one of the boldest and most overlooked albums by a band in the twilight of the classic rock era. Tusk is difficult, disparate, 20 tracks and nearly 75 minutes long, and Rumours doesn’t hold a candle to it. “ When times go bad/ When times go rough/ Won’t you lay me down in tall grass/ And let me do my stuff,” Lindsey Buckingham pleads in the opening verse of “Second Hand News.” This song, of course, opens Rumours, and couldn’t introduce that album’s wistful hedonism and jealousy better – but it’s perhaps a more appropriate parable for the struggle and eventual artistic accomplishment surrounding Tusk, the band’s 1979 follow-up. Revisit is a series of reviews highlighting past releases that now deserve a second look.
0 kommentar(er)
