On a recent Friday at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, retired USC band director Dr. Arthur C. Bartner, 85, scanned the 50-yard line until he spotted an old collaborator: Mick Fleetwood, 79. They embraced, and Bartner later said Fleetwood’s expression showed a deep appreciation for their long friendship. “You made my career,” Bartner told him. Fleetwood then joined the Trojan Marching Band to play “Tusk” once more — 46 years after the original session that linked a wildly popular rock band with a college marching band.
The story began in 1979, after the runaway success of Rumours. With a then-extraordinary $1 million budget for their follow-up, Fleetwood Mac was exploring new directions. Mick Fleetwood, inspired by a brass parade he saw while sleepless in Barfleur, Normandy, imagined a marching band answering a driving guitar riff Lindsey Buckingham had been playing. He phoned USC’s band offices and, after confirmation from assistant director Tony Fox, arrangements began.
Bartner and Fox met Buckingham and Fleetwood at Village Recorders to sketch out parts, then worked with the Spirit of Troy to refine them. Fleetwood proposed an ambitious live recording at Dodger Stadium. The
