Fleetwood Mac's Tusk

Description

After Rumours became the best-selling single album of all-time, Fleetwood Mac asked Warner Brothers Records to buy them a studio (the label refused, costing both Warner Brothers and the band significant cash in the long run) and then handed the reins to their guitarist and resident perfectionist Lindsey Buckingham. "You know," Buckingham said, "we had this ridiculous success with Rumours. We were poised to do another album, and I guess because the axiom 'If it works, run it into the ground' was prevalent then, we were probably poised to do Rumours II. I don't know how you do that, but somehow my light bulb that went off was, 'Let's just not do that. Let's very pointedly not do that.' " Here, Rob Trucks talks to Lindsey Buckingham, as well as members of Animal Collective, Camper Van Beethoven, the New Pornographers, Wolf Parade, and the USC Trojan marching band in order to chart both the story and the impact of an album born of personal obsession and a stubborn unwillingness to compromise.

Rob Trucks lives and obsesses in Long Island City, New York.

[The] journalistic revelations and general insight add yet more layers to the double album's controversial standing. * The Austin Chronicle * Trucks doesn't spend much time analyzing songs; the book is a tribute to the auteur spirit ... Readers may skim Trucks' long digressions into his own autobiography, which is too bad because they contain some interesting anecdotes, especially regarding the popularity of the Buckingham Nicks album in the author's native Alabama. The real draw of the book, however, are interpolated testimonials from indie rockers such as Camper Van Beethoven's Jonathan Segel and Dave Portner of Animal Collective. -- Kirk Curnutt * Paste Magazine *