The Ledge (song)

"The Ledge" is a song by British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac, released in 1979. It is the second song from the multi-platinum Tusk album and was composed by Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. The band rehearsed “The Ledge” several times for the Tusk Tour, although it was ultimately not included in the set.

Background
"The Ledge" was introduced to the band under the working title "Can't Walk Out of Here" in June 1978. During that session, Buckingham was the last to arrive at the studio, which was uncharacteristic of him according to producer Ken Caillat. Earlier that day, Stevie Nicks had played a demo of "Storms" while Christine McVie brought in "Over & Over" and "Brown Eyes", but Buckingham insisted that the band work on "The Ledge" first.

Following the playthrough of "The Ledge" on his cassette, Buckingham plugged his Gibson Les Paul into a Marshall amplifier into a direct box so that Caillat could achieve the proper guitar tone. Once this was accomplished, Buckingham directed Caillat to turn all of the knobs 180 degrees in the other direction. Caillat objected to this, arguing that it would ruin the guitar tone. After further discussion, they ultimately came to an agreement to emphasize the bottom end of the instrument.

Recording
On June 24th, the band minus Nicks ran through several passes of "The Ledge". For these series of run-throughs, Buckingham used a Fender Statocaster as opposed to the Gibson Les Paul he used the previous day. Engineer Hernán Rojas plugged the Stratocaster into a Fender Twin amplifier, which was set up in an isolation room and picked up by two microphones. John McVie was stationed next to Mick Fleetwood’s drum kit, which included a 26-inch kick drum muted by a pillow and a snare drum that was "tuned so high it sounded as though he was hitting a trash can lid." The drums were tuned by Richard Dashut, who made it a practice to adjust the tension of the drumheads before every recording session. Christine McVie initially played a bluesy part on a Yamaha keyboard, but Buckingham asked her to switch to a Hammond B3 organ after the first take. The band spent the next two hours completing seven takes of the song before Buckingham called the session off.

The final version that appeared on the album was primarily recorded at Buckingham’s home studio with a bass guitar and an electric guitar tuned down an octave. Buckingham wanted the guitar to resemble the higher notes of a bass guitar, "not like a baritone guitar, where it’s correct, but where it’s actually a little incorrect". His original intention was to include the other members of Fleetwood Mac on the recording, but he instead removed their parts and recorded all of the instruments himself, reckoning that "there was nothing for John or Christine to do."

Buckingham recalled that "The Ledge" provoked a strong reaction from some people he encountered and stated that he was surprised by this response, believing that nothing he did on the song was "that radical". He called "The Ledge" one of his favorites on Tusk "because it goes by so quickly that it almost sounds rushed." In his book Get Tusked, Caillat described the song as "lyrically edgy yet so musically pleasing that they didn’t come off as spiteful." Buckingham himself said that his intention was to make the lyrics sound musical, although he stated that there could have been "something subconscious about the lyrics."

Critical reception
Kris Needs of KQED said that the song is "a complete change of pace" from the opening song on the album, Over & Over. Sam Anderson of The New York Times Magazine described "The Ledge" as "a noisy, bouncing fuzz-monster that makes no kind of sense in the universe of mainstream ’70s radio pop. The band's signature vocals are buried in the mix, roughed up, uglified; there are chants, whispers, moans and shouts. It sounds as if it were recorded live on a whaling ship in heavy seas. You can practically hear the record executives shrieking in the background." Pitchfork wrote that "The Ledge" was a memorable and strange song "in which the band’s signature harmonies are overridden by a guitar that’s been tuned down and turned up."

Rolling Stone labeled "The Ledge" as "the album’s most punk-influenced track". The publication also ranked the song number 47 on its list of the best Fleetwood Mac songs, calling it a "happily demented leap into post-punk primitivism and noise for its own sake."

Personnel

 * Lindsey Buckingham – guitars, bass, drums, lead and backing vocals
 * Mick Fleetwood – possible snare drum