35 years ago today, Lindsay Buckingham’s Go Insane was released (7/3/84). To which I say, “only 35 years?” While this album was considered a low point for some, I listened to this album much more than any of the Fleetwood Mac offerings. The “Insane” title track has always been a motto and guidebook for my unguarded self in energetic times. This album was the last time Lindsay sounded “young” to me. After this the music and the megastar aged fast. The video (below) is overly precious and dated of course, but don’t let that stop you. The vid story pace, carnival-striped menswear, and faux-ponderous images recollect the naiveté of the time.
If my comments sound to you like I’m damning Insane with faint praise, I’m not. I seldom revisit twentieth century music because there are too many dense memories to run from and most of them are jagged and slippery fast. The simple fact that I bring up Go Insane at all means I can state unequivocally that it was one of the best, most memorable and most interesting works of its’ time. And it has aged extremely well.
Here’s a gratuitous link to Lindsey’s “Holiday Road,” which no reference to his work in the 80s should be without.
Here too is a superfluous link to 2009’s “It Was You,” starting at :37, right where the amazing vocal hook begins.
35 Years Ago: Why Lindsey Buckingham got so dark and weird on “Go Insane”
The second song below is Buckingham’s “D.W. Suite,” a “Heroes and Villains” type of roller coaster ride which was written upon the occasion of Beach Boy Dennis Wilson’s passing.
