Daily Archives: June 19, 2020

#724: Fleetwood Mac – The Ledge

To cut the long story short, Lindsey Buckingham didn’t want to make a second Rumours – an album that was absolutely huge in 1977 and considered a classic in rock history. He cut his hair and went on to follow some unorthodox methods of making songs, recording his vocals in a push-up position and sometimes just playing all the instruments by himself at his home.

A lot of these home-studio recordings ended up on Fleetwood Mac’s double album Tusk, the record that eventually followed Rumours and took a few people by surprise just because of how strange it could get in places. ‘The Ledge’, written by Buckingham, features the guitarist taking on the percussion, bass, and vocals here – and is yet another that is surely directed at bandmate and ex Stevie Nicks, minus the gloss and production value that threaded throughout its predecessor.

The track has this country do-si-do twang to it aided by its 2/4 time signature and the dry timbre of the guitars and drums. While all this make the song an upbeat composition to dance to, one can’t dismiss the bitterness of Buckingham’s lyrics that tease a former lover, telling her that she’ll never find anyone as good as him. There were obviously a lot of strong feelings that carried over from their previous project. Even so, as the second track on Tusk, it acted as a clear statement that this wasn’t going to be a typical Fleetwood Mac album if you hadn’t already guessed by the wealth of material that was on it.