Lindsey Buckingham has never exactly set out to make a solo album. A confirmed studio addict, he methodically experiments with sounds and structures until enough of the pieces form the basis for songs that then cry out to be completed and recorded. On his second Elektra album, Go Insane, lyric ideas inspired some of the experiments, and the songs are tied together by a common thread.

*It’s really about going insane in the mildest possible sense, he explains. “It’s about having your sense of reality tested through various circumstances until you’re not really sure where reality lies and you have a choice of letting yourself continue to be insane on some level or of reeling yourself back in.”

Buckingham admits that he particularly “reels himself in on” Side One, which contains the hit single “Go Insane” followed by the tune “Slow Dancing.” “Both of those songs have certain esoteric aspects about them, he says, “although their form is not as challenging as some of the other things on the album. They draw you right in.”

The first side finishes with “Play in the Rain”, a song that continues onto Side Two. “We originally had the version that ends Side One” explains Lindsey, “but it seems like it would be very interesting to continue that particular thing which is probably the most experimental piece on the album.

“That, as the beginning of Side Two, and the next song on that side are rhythm pieces, Then it goes into ‘Bang the Drum’, for which we sent John, the second engineer, into a schoolyard to record kids playing. That song is certainly influenced by the Beach Boys use of vocals, and it is a prelude to ‘D.W. Suite’. It shifts from being non-melodic and purely rhythmic into harmonies in major keys. In fact, the whole second side is pretty much in that frame of mind, going from minor to major keys.

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