The Visitor is an album by Mick Fleetwood, released by RCA Records in 1981. All the songs were recorded in Accra, Ghana between January and February 1981 at the "Ghana Film Industries, Inc. Studio" and produced by Richard Dashut, and were later mixed in various studios in England. The album has been re-released several times, including a US CD release by Wounded Bird Records on October 18, 2011.
Background
At the conclusion of Fleetwood Mac's Tusk Tour, the band agreed to take an extended hiatus to pursue individual projects.[5] Fleetwood had expressed interest in making a record rooted in African music in 1978,[6] although this idea was not fully realized until he travelled to Ghana. During the trip, he formulated the idea of collaborating with local musicians in Ghana and asked Warner Brothers to finance it. However, the record label turned him down as they were unwilling to give him $500,000 to fly the necessary equipment out to Ghana and arrange for the recording sessions. RCA Records eventually agreed to fund Fleetwood's plan, so he flew out to Accra, the capital of Ghana, where Fleetwood and his manager Mickey Shapiro scouted the area for musicians.[5]
Fleetwood's original plan was to send mixing desks and tape machines to local musicians in Ghana so they could record at their home localities, although he decided against this as the road conditions in the country rendered it impossible to transport the equipment.[5] Fleetwood instead arranged for studio sessions with Faisal Helwani, who had the only functioning professional studio in Accra.[7]
Fleetwood had originally asked Bob Welch, a former member of Fleetwood Mac, to appear on The Visitor, but Welch was too busy to participate. Instead, George Hawkins accompanied him on the trip. He later appeared on Fleetwood's I'm Not Me album from 1983 as a member and co-lead vocalist of Mick Fleetwood’s Zoo.[8]
Two tracks on The Visitor were covers of Fleetwood Mac songs: "Rattlesnake Shake" was originally recorded for the 1969 album Then Play On, and "Walk a Thin Line" first appeared on the 1979 album Tusk. Peter Green sang lead vocals and played lead guitar on "Rattlesnake Shake", and was credited as Peter Greenbaum. Fleetwood, who was in Henley at the time, convinced his former brother-in-law, George Harrison, to appear on "Walk a Thin Line".[9] Hawkins recalled that they played "Walk a Thin Line" for Harrison, who thought that the song could benefit from slide guitar. "Our eyes lit up and Richard Dashut had him set up and ready to go in about ten seconds, before he had a chance to change his mind."[10]
Following the seven-week recording session in Ghana, Fleetwood returned to England for the purpose of mixing and overdubbing the existing tracks. These sessions took place at a studio situated in a mill that was owned by Jimmy Page. In total, the album cost five-hundred thousand dollars to make, and Fleetwood failed to recuperate those losses through album sales.[11]
^Fleetwood, Mick; Bozza, Anthony (October 2014). Play On: Now Then & Fleetwood Mac. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company. pp. 253–254. ISBN978-0-316-40342-9.
^Fleetwood, Mick; Davis, Stephen (1990). Fleetwood: My Life and Adventures with Fleetwood Mac. New York: William Morrow and Company. pp. 248–249. ISBN0-688-06647-X.
^Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 114. ISBN0-646-11917-6.
