Lindsey Buckingham: C o' D?

Classic

Lindsey Buckingham finally releases a new album, Under The Skin, on 10/3. He tells USA Today

[It's] kind of a reduction. There are basically no drums, very little bass. On a musical level, I've been trying to distill things. This is the best time in my life, and that's a great thing to be able to say when you're 56, and didn't become a father till you were 48.

He plans another “more rocking” album next year and (finally) a solo U.S. tour. “It's a turnaround, time-frame-wise, for someone who's been sort of the Terrence Malick of rock,” he admits.

anyone have a copy of this interview?

and i guess quite the water polo player..my friend and i were perusing his mom's high school yearbook (i think a school in Palo Alto?) only to find Lindsey mid ball-toss in the pool...He signed something lame, like "Kristen--Government was classic. Big Love...LB" (not verbatim, but something trivial). And that, friends, is my Lindsey Buckingham story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yllqie08a7U

Out of the Cradle is a great album and some of his guitar noodling is incredible.

Love it.

I just bought Out of the Cradle. Seems good so far (his guitar playing is, as always, amazingly clean and crisp (and he can be bluesy, too)). Crazy comparison, but Surrender the Rain sounds a little like a Richard Hawley song, to me (not a bad thing at all!).

Anyone else have this disc? Like it?

beautiful record.
probably his best solo record.

Haven't heard it in years, but I agree it's his best, with consistently beautiful guitar. "Soul Drifter" and "Turn it On" (is that the right title?) are favorites.

I know they're solo discs, but now I'm wishing that Buckingham gave his solo songs more of a full-band feel. Down on Rodeo, for instance, from Under the Skin, has a great SoCal-drenched band feel (obv., the presence of Fleetwood Mac and John McVie helps), and it worked beautifully.

Buckingham is god.

UH

I guess that's more true than "Clapton is God," but still...

Classic (but not god).

He's a brilliant guitarist. I'm pleased at the love he's getting on this thread, instead of just hailing him as a mere singing/songwriting/producing genius. My favourite Lindsey look is the besuited, droopy afro'ed one on the inside sleeve of the 1975 album. Someone post an image, please!

he turns 60 this year

60? Wow. He looks younger. See the photo on the cover of Under the Skin.

He is classic for "Tango In The Night" alone. Although that album is usually underrated when compared to their most popular mid 70s work.

He's classic for a lot of the Fleetwood Mac stuff, but his solo discs have a very different sound and feel (not worse, by any means, just v. different).

I may be misreading, but it looks like Under The Skin is available from Amazon for 99 cents.

'Under the Skin' was a tremendously strong album. Man, such a shame that it barely received any attention at all.

I may be misreading, but it looks like Under The Skin is available from Amazon for 99 cents.

Sadly, I'm not surprised. It's amazing to me that such a talented -- and successful (with his band) -- artist has had such trouble finding an audience.

maybe thats because he became too old for the youngsters and too "arty" and minimalist for the mainstream listeners.
or u can blame it on bad marketing.

I still spin "Go Insane" on Dj nights. Such a great single.

Under the Skin is very nice, yes. I thought I'd never want to hear another Stones cover until "I Am Waiting" started to play.

this is pretty much the best clip on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yllqie08a7U

-- Stormy Davis (diamond),

This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.

Damn. What was that clip, Stormy?

new album out in a couple of months!!!

god his last one was amazing

http://i34.tinypic.com/3450940.jpg
My favourite Lindsey look

I don’t believe the background vox are so much “autotuned” as sampled, manipulated and sequenced into little melodies.

Otm. He's a master at this.

pic.twitter.com/6BM5o0vy2F

— SNL Hosts Introducing the Musical Guest (@snlhostsintro) October 10, 2021

COBURN!

L Buckz a lil keyed up…

https://videopress.com/v/nyhChSvF

like neil young in crazy horse mode but the backing band is actually tight.

That performance reminds me that "Trouble" is built on the same two-chord progression and the same tempo as "Dreams". This can't have escaped him, I wonder if it was an intentional statement: "See what I can do with this pattern!"

Yeah, or "See what I can do with this cocaine!"

Better quality:

https://vimeo.com/442118162

Plus even bigger coke energy:

https://vimeo.com/442118899

xxpost They're not the same chords at all, though, are they?

That performance reminds me that "Trouble" is built on the same two-chord progression and the same tempo as "Dreams". This can't have escaped him, I wonder if it was an intentional statement: "See what I can do with this pattern!"

― Halfway there but for you,

Well observed

https://vimeo.com/442118899

Ah, the power of coke! Man, if would've unnerved the shit out of me if he was making the same crazed faces at the show I went to.

It's hard to tell from the mix, but it sounds like he tweaked "Bwana" into a Chuck Berry-style rocker - probably would've been better if the studio version was like that.

I tend not to credit coke with Buckingham's flights of fancy. He was by all accounts a rather unhinged guy in the studio without drugs.

OTOH these performances were on SNL in '81, so I wouldn't rule out cocaine being involved in this particular case.

Actually '82: https://bronwynjoan.com/blog/2010/09/12/classic-snl-review-february-6-1982-james-coburn-lindsey-buckingham-the-cholos-s07e11

Buckingham's backing band is mentioned in the montage as "The Cholos"; this is actually an early version of Mick Fleetwood's Zoo, who would appear without Buckingham in November 1983. Most episode guides list just Fleetwood with Buckingham on this appearance, but they also mention Buckingham in the 1983 show. Perhaps the confusion comes from this appearance.

...

Buckingham seems pretty twitchy and agitated in these performances, almost as if he were on cocaine.

Apparently "Bwana" was the first song!

He also seems kinda ... puffy.

in the studio without drugs

According to the making-of-Tusk book, no Buckingham-focussed session could begin without a multiple-joint-rolling ceremony.

I read that too in the memoir by the ex.

I don't credit coke with Buckingham's creativity, but it's hard NOT to credit it to his physical behavior in those clips. That could've been the template for the coke-up werewolf (sans fur) on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Anyway, on another topic, I have to say I'm really digging his new album more and more. I'm tempted to say it's his most listenable album, partly because it's so compact and well-crafted - only 36 and a half minutes, but not a moment is wasted IMHO.

Techie interview in the latest Tape Op magazine is great.

I was excited for it, and they do their best, but it's quite remarkable how hard it seems to steer Bucky away from the same old stories/drama.

tape op has the best interviews imo

"i don't mind" is nice

I dunno. I found that Larry Crane (Tape Op head and interviewer) expertly steered it away from a potential rundown of how dysfunctional things got in FM yadda yadda back to righteous talk of home studios, consoles and production techniques. They seemed to vibe well and I'm glad, for one, that most of the talk stuck to studio stuff.

Oh, it's definitely a good interview! Crane did the best he could steering the conversation in interesting directions, even when Bucky dangled out the familiar drama as bait. I wish there was time/space for an even deeper dive, because I'd love to know about his work with the Fairlight, with pitch shifting vocals, speeding his guitar up, and so on. Or why he's done so relatively little production for others.

ilx-adjacent musician brad laner wrote swan song on the new record! https://www.spin.com/2021/11/jordon-zadorozny-brad-laner-lindsey-buckingham-swan-song/?fbclid=IwAR3URcrasLJ7D_1jES0lb-u_x-PU4kVoSDJ71kICDTbrrbOD0q5uXgM8qA8

LMAO, a lot of times you'll see a longtime musician like Dylan, McCartney or Prince discuss decades later how they amaze themselves when they look back at their work (i.e. "where did this come from?" or "how did I write this?") It's funny how this plays out with Buckingham stumbling on a demo he recorded 20 years ago and whoops, I guess I DIDN'T write that!

I have to imagine this sort of thing is a common occurrence amongst songwriters. I recall about 15 years ago I thought up a really nice, pretty arpeggiated melody over an elegant descending chord sequence - I was in the shower at the time but thought it was so good I threw on a towel, jumped out, and wrote down the chords and recorded myself singing the melody so I wouldn't forget it by the time I was dried off. Around the time I was working out the lyrics a few weeks later, I heard "my" song playing on the piped-in music at a McDonalds I occasionally stopped at on the way home, then realized the song I thought I'd written was something i merely heard at a previous fast-food stop when I wasn't paying much attention. To this day I don't know what song I unintentionally almost copped; this was pre-Shazam.

Greil Marcus really likes the new album too. He's always been a huge FM fan (of the Peter Green era, of Christine McVie's songs, and of the Buckingham/Nicks-era), but IIRC he's never cared much for their solo work. A search of his complete Real Life Rock Top 10 albums reveals no entries on anything Buckingham's done on his own.

Top 10 columns, not albums

kind of like the episode of the John Laroquette Show where he discovers a manuscript of his from 30 years ago and it's amazing and he's trying to recreate something new in that vein for publishing, but he can't find the inspiration, so he sends the manuscript to the publisher and it's an Ernest Hemingway novel that he had typed up for his Typing final years ago

I recall about 15 years ago I thought up a really nice, pretty arpeggiated melody over an elegant descending chord sequence

I did this once and it turned out to be "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Warrant

rocket, rocket, all of my rocket sauce

He's been doing "reaction" videos with his daughter, pretty adorable:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRAKnFUlfUo

just to be safe I think we need like a two-week moratorium on reviving threads with any rockers over 70. brief moment of panic here.

Yeah, sorry, I thought of that immediately. But life goes on (for some)! At least the video provides some levity.

Yes, I saw the Eric Burdon thread and feared the worst.

just to be safe I think we need like a two-week moratorium on reviving threads with any rockers over 70. brief moment of panic here.

― Evans on Hammond (evol j)

you went insane?

I don't think I've heard solo Lindsey except for the Vacation theme song, which I deeply love for nostalgic reasons and the dog sounds crack me up.

But listening to that song in the reaction video, it's very Kate Bush! And there's not really a lot that sounds like her.

his albums are awesome, you should listen to them all.

I was skeptical but they are indeed great. The deluxe edition of Anthology is a great place to start and for awhile I found copies for cheap - like $10. (Sadly he hasn't sold that many records for his solo work in a long while, so it wasn't a surprise.) Out of the Cradle is probably the best of them. The latest one is really good too, maybe my second favorite partly due to its consistency.

Not a solo album, but the album he did with Christine McVie is up there with his best F Mac work.

The other two (minus Stevie) are on that as well, because it was supposed to be a Mac album.

It made so happy whenever he talked about Christine in the last five years of his life; he always respected her but he kept emphasizing what a pro she was, what a superb melodist and singer, etc.

*It made me

And those two harmonized like a dream. Sometimes it's hard to tell them apart.

Has there been a McVie vs Nicks thread? My wife and I get contentious about this. I like them both but prefer McVie, who my wife can’t stand.

just to be safe I think we need like a two-week moratorium on reviving threads with any rockers over 70. brief moment of panic here.

― Evans on Hammond (evol j), Wednesday, June 11, 2025 1:46 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

my life for the past 3 years when the neil young thread gets abruptly revived

And those two harmonized like a dream. Sometimes it's hard to tell them apart.

extremely otm

"Think About Me" and "Hold Me" among the singles.

Hell, probably mentioned (by me and others) how even on "Don't Stop" it's sometimes easy to miss when their voices swap.