Features

Geeking Out with Lindsey Buckingham (by Alex Bleeker)

Law and Order

AB: Absolutely. I think that’s a great way to look at it. I wanted to ask you some quick questions as a geeky fan, things I always wanted to know.

LB: [laughs] Ok.

AB: What kind of slap back are you using on Law and Order —on the vocals and maybe sometimes on the drums? Was that a tape delay? Was it a space echo?

LB: Law and Order, that was 1981.

AB: I just love the vocal sound on that record, especially with the delay.

LB: I wish I could remember what exactly it was. It’s not like we didn’t have digital outboard gear then, but more than likely it was a tape echo. I’m guessing.

AB: I often listen to that record, and whenever “It was I” comes on somebody invariably asks if it’s Stevie Nicks singing the lead before realizing that it’s your voice sped up. Is that a parody? Is that an intentional dig at all?

LB: No. Sometimes I would slow my voice down to make it come up a little smaller. And the funny thing about Stevie and me, one of the reasons that we blend so well when we sing is that our voices are not dissimilar; I mean she obviously has her own vocabulary of expression that I may not have in terms of her warble and all that stuff. But the timbre of it is very similar; it’s the mask of it, if you will, it’s a little bit nasal. So if you do that to my voice, which I think I did on that particular track, it does begin to take on Stevie-ism. It’s not the first time I would’ve done that.

AB: Do you speed up your guitar playing? That seems like a sort of signature for you but I was never sure if it was actually sped up or if you were able…

LB: Sometimes, sure, why not. I’m not the world’s…I’m not Eddie Van Halen.

AB: So like the solo at the end of “Gypsy,” is that sped up?

LB: Oh “Gypsy”? No, not “Gypsy.”

AB: No? That’s live?

LB: Oh yeah.

AB: This one’s tangential—if you had to give up for the rest of your life oral sex or cheese, which would you choose?

LB: Cheese.

AB: Did you ever—this is very random, very out of left field—have any meaningful interaction with Michael Jackson? Maybe around “Heal the World” or something?

LB: No, I didn’t. You know, the only thing I remember from that is [that] we were at A&M and I went into the bathroom at the studios…and he was in there, in the bathroom. He was in front of the mirror just sort of primping, I guess because they filmed that and whatever. And it just struck me how wound up he seemed to be. He heard the door open and someone walk in—and it wasn’t like people weren’t going in and out of there, but he just was in there by himself—and I just walked in to use the stall or the urinal or whatever, and he was just like “Uh!” and looked over at me; it was like deer in the headlights. I [thought] “Wow,” this guy is not that comfortable with himself. That was the sense I got.

AB: That’s interesting. Well, I guess we have to go, but thanks so much for talking to me.

LB: My pleasure! I appreciate your comments.

AB: Yeah, of course man. Seriously, keep it up. It’s rare for me to continue to like the work of people who are sort of legacy acts, like you are. So it’s high praise.

LB: Well, a lot of times it’s either that you paint yourself into a corner and then forget why you’re doing it, or you just don’t care anymore. Those are the two traps, and if you can avoid those, [then] there’s no reason you can’t keep reinventing yourself as long as you want. That’s the way I look at it.