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The follow-up to Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" (1977), one of the best-selling albums of all time, "Tusk" was considered something of a commercial disappointment, even though it sold about 4 million copies.
Artistically, however, "Tusk" (1979) was a stunning success. The album was ambitious, edgy, experimental and exciting — all those things follow-ups to blockbusters rarely are because the tendency on the part of the artist is to play it safe.
Buckingham would later find out his bandmates were among those who wished they had hewed more closely to the Fleetwood Mac formula in hopes of repeating the numbers generated by "Rumours" (about 30 million sold worldwide).
"The band, in the wake of the comparatively moderate sales, there was a kind of politic that came down and said, 'We're not going to do that anymore,' " Buckingham, 59, said during a telephone interview from a Chicago motel room.
Buckingham, a singer, songwriter and guitarist who also was the architect of Fleetwood Mac's sound during its commercial heyday, got the message. The next two Fleetwood Mac albums — "Mirage" (1982) and "Tango in the Night" (1987) — were both approximations, however tepid, of "Rumours." There was no attempt to break new ground.
Buckingham — who is married and the father of three children, ages 4, 8 and 10 — would save his more adventurous music for his solo career, which he kicked off in 1981 with "Law and Order."
"The only place to explore the left side of one's palette at that point was to make solo albums," Buckingham said. "By virtue of the fact that they are the left side of the palette, generally speaking, I don't think you reach as many people. So given that as a basis for what I've done in solo work, I have never necessarily expected big commercial success nor have I enjoyed it.
"I do these things for the validity of doing the work and for keeping myself alive as an artist and getting out and doing the shows."Buckingham, who will perform tonight at Reading's Sovereign Performing Arts Center, is touring in support of "Gift of Screws," his latest solo album which was released last month.
The album is getting a big promotional push from Warner Bros., and it might be the best of Buckingham's career. Impeccably produced, "Gift of Screws," which takes its title from a poem by Emily Dickinson, shows the full range of Buckingham's talent.
The guitar playing and singing are first-rate throughout but it is the songs that set the album apart from most of his earlier work. Buckingham has had a tendency in the past to write songs that never sounded fully formed, as though they were musical fragments inspired by a guitar solo or a catchy riff that never flowered into a complete tune.
That's not the case with "Gift of Screws," where every song counts. There's not a stinker in the bunch and some can compete with the best in Buckingham's catalog.
One of the standouts is "The Right Place to Fade," a rocker that closes with a ferocious guitar solo that can take its place alongside the one on Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way."
"That song does in a strange way hearken back to some Fleetwood Mac references," he said.
Another is "Treason," a thoughtful ballad that closes the album.
"It isn't necessarily about treason in any sort of political sense, although you can certainly overlay some sensibility that would apply to what's going on in America today and how the country is being run," he said.
(766) (739) (45) (10) (2) (2)Buckingham, a notoriously slow worker, has picked up the pace considerably in recent years. "Gift of Screws" follows on the heels of "Under the Skin," which was released just two years ago. He also figured mightily in the making of "Say You Will," a Fleetwood Mac album released in 2003.
After touring behind "Say You Will," Buckingham said he told his bandmates about his plans to make a pair of albums for himself.
"What I had to do to get two albums out in fairly short order and tour is to say to the band: 'Look, don't bother me for three-plus years and let me do this and then we'll talk about Fleetwood Mac again, Buckingham said. "Maybe that's something I should have done before."
He said plans call for the members of Fleetwood Mac — Buckingham, singer Stevie Nicks, drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie (singer-keyboardist Christine McVie left the band a number of years ago) to reconvene next year.
"We're talking about touring first and then we're talking about making an album after that," he said. "I'm good with that. We have to have a different sort of mantra this time, which is something more to do with enjoying each other more as people and letting the musical agenda take a back seat so we can just sort of appreciate each other and have fun with each other as people."
That's hasn't always been the case within the band as the personal dramas that brought the bandmates together and drove them apart have often threatened to upstage the music.
Buckingham left the band after making "Tango in the Night" because he needed to regain his sanity. The other members tried to go on without him but it quickly became an untenable situation and the band fell apart.
Buckingham, Nicks, Fleetwood and the two McVies were reunited by former President Bill Clinton, who brought them together to play "Don't Stop" at his first inauguration in 1992. The band reunited for real later that decade for a tour and the live album "The Dance" (1997).
Buckingham said he plans to remain an active member of Fleetwood Mac.
"There doesn't seem any reason for me to remove myself, because it's a great band and it's a whole other scale," he said. "I don't think I will ever have that kind of an audience as a solo artist. It's just nice to have both."
Lindsey Buckingham, today, 8 p.m., Sovereign Performing Arts Center, 136 N. 6th St., Reading, $36-$46, 610-898-7299.
E-mail: jferguson@lnpnews.com
