“A line in the sand”: the Fleetwood Mac album that shaped Lindsey Buckingham’s thinking
Over the course of their 35-year on-and-off existence, Fleetwood Mac put out 18 studio records full of blues and soft rock. Some of them, like 1995’s Time, made little impact upon release, passing audiences by or turning critics away. But others, like their iconic 1977 magnum opus, Rumours, served to cement Fleetwood Mac’s place as one of the most famous and fabled bands in rock and roll history.
Across their discography, there is a lot of work to be proud of. This is particularly true for Lindsey Buckingham, who forged many of Fleetwood Mac’s most enduring hits and their most experimental efforts as one of the driving songwriting forces in the band. On Rumours, for example, Buckingham contributed his penmanship to the folky ‘Never Going Back Again’, the classic rocker ‘Go Your Own Way’ and the sprawling epic, ‘The Chain’.
As Rumours gathered in acclaim and adoration, both due to its soft rocking sound and the relationship drama that bubbled beneath, those tunes became some of Buckingham’s most successful. Still, they weren’t the songs that he took the most pride in. He was much more enthusiastic about his work on the band’s 1979 follow-up album, Tusk.
At odds with the mammoth commercial appeal of Rumours, Buckingham led the band in a new direction sonically with Tusk. He sought to step out of Fleetwood Mac’s soft rock comfort zone to pull from the burgeoning post-punk scene and more avant-garde influences. It was a decision that wouldn’t necessarily pay off when it came to record sales, but it paid off for Buckingham’s personal creative fulfilment.
When Malcolm Gerrie interviewed Buckingham and asked him which Fleetwood Mac record he was most proud of, he definitively answered with Tusk, describing it as a “line in the sand”. He acknowledged that that line remains in the sand for him, even now.
“It was a choice that I made,” he explained, “But it was a line in the sand that got drawn that still has very much to do with the way I still try to think today.”
It makes sense that Buckingham took the most pride in Tusk. While Rumours had been a fairly collaborative effort, with songwriting contributions and direction from across the band, Tusk felt like it was Buckingham’s passion project.
There were, of course, songs penned by Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie, but it certainly seemed like Buckingham was driving the sound of the project. Nicks even recalled spending most of her time watching from the control room.
It was also a bold move for him to take, one that justified some pride. Rather than jumping on Rumours‘ commercial success and trying to replicate it, Buckingham was committed to trying something new, to pushing the band to the limits of its sound. In the process, he produced some well-loved tracks like ‘Tusk’ and ‘Sara’, but, more importantly, he had committed to a vision and refused to compromise on it for commerciality.
Buckingham’s passion for Tusk certainly wasn’t reflected in responses to the record at the time of release, but his pride is still unwavering. Beyond the lack of commercial success and the overpowering success of Rumours, Tusk shaped Buckingham’s direction going forward as he embarked upon a solo career and pushed his songwriting into new realms.
