They had been a British blues band of some repute, but with the departure of Bob Welch, the latest guitarist to leave their union, husband and wife pairing John (bass) and Christine McVie (keyboards) along with drummer Mick Fleetwood found themselves reduced to a trio.
Similarly, struggling Californian folk-pop duo, guitarist-singer Lindsey Buckingham and vocalist Stevie Nicks, themselves romantically attached, were at a loose, low-ranking end, being 18 months on from their ‘Buckingham-Nicks’ duet album that had sunk without trace.
With Fleetwood and the McVie couple experiencing declining album sales, studio operative Keith Olson, who had produced sessions for each of the disparate parties, recommended Buckingham as a replacement for Weir. The incoming guitarist suggested his partner Nicks should also be enlisted – thus in January 1975, the latest and least expected incarnation of Fleetwood Mac was formally unveiled, not that the rock world at large paid much heed at the time.
The newly formed quintet, however, would soon have the attention of the record buying public and the music press, their success immediate and substantial. The self-titled album (July 1975) was the tenth to be issued under the Fleetwood Mac banner, but in terms of sales went light years beyond what the previous nine had managed – by the end of the year it had easily outsold the rest put together – the group within months going from the margins to massive widespread acclaim.
With the recruitment of Buckingham and Nicks, they eased away from the blues/rock sound of yore to present a more pristine, pop-orientated sound, quickly reflected in the songwriting contributions of the two new members, which induced Christine McVie to bring a lighter touch to her piano ballads.
Due to spawning three huge-selling hit singles ‘Rhiannon‘ (written by Nicks) and two McVie compositions (‘Say You Love Me’/Over My Head’), the album remained in the upper reaches of the U.S. top ten for almost 18 months, reaching number one in September 1976 when it dislodged ‘Frampton Comes Alive‘, a transition that reflected just how much soft-rock was dominating the mainstream agenda.
By this point sessions had begun in regard to recording a follow-up, but the process was proving difficult. Having just completed a sell-out U.S. tour through the summer of 1976, the band, by now fueled by copious amounts of cocaine and alcohol, found they had relatively little to show for two months work conducted at the Record Plant in Sausalito, the five members not only dissatisfied with what they had so far created, but literally and metaphorically speaking at their wits end with one another.
In the course of their sudden rise to a rock stratosphere very few inhabited, Buckingham and Nicks had split as a couple, the McVie’s were well down the road to divorce and barely speaking to one another, while the marriage of Fleetwood to wife Jenny was also on the rocks – the emotional instability evident at every turn given a further twist when Nicks and the drummer embarked on an affair.
‘There were break-ups and realignments which had a tremendous effect on their music‘, recalled engineer and co-producer Richard Dashut some years later. ‘Defences were wearing thin and they were quick to open up their feelings. Instead of going to friends to talk it out, their feelings were vented through their music. It created a certain sensitivity. Personal lives were a shambles and the album was about the only thing left.‘
In an effort to put focus back on producing a record rather than problematic inter-group relationships, the band upped sticks and headed to Los Angeles in order to cut new material or reinvigorate what had already been recorded.
Entire tracks were stripped back to the basic drum or bass part and rebuilt from scratch. The operation, while painstaking, also proved highly productive and with each successfully captured song Fleetwood Mac edged closer to completion of an album that if the previous effort created a storm, this offering would hit like a hurricane.
As word began to spread in relation to Fleetwood Mac becoming the essence of sex, drugs and rock and roll, speculation regarding the romantic liaisons within the unit became rife, no shortage of inference either that label Warner Bros had high expectations for the album under construction.
Nobody at the time would have seen the irony in a taster from the record, the Buckingham-penned ‘Go Your Own Way‘ being issued in the same December week in 1976 as the Sex Pistols caused outrage by swearing at interviewer Bill Grundy on U.K. television, each band, for different reasons, rarely out of the headlines during the following year.
Suffice to say the new Fleetwood mac single galloped into the U.S. top ten, while the Sex Pistols found their ‘Anarchy in the U.K.’ release shunned by British radio stations – ‘Go Your Own Way‘ was engaging and unfailingly catchy (everything, for all its virtue, the Pistols release was not) and furthermore the bitter-sweet lyric cast all manner of allusions for whom it was intended.
Given the gossip and high level of fascination surrounding the attachments and detachments within the group, none of the others baulked at the title suggested by bassist McVie for the soon-to-be-released collection – ‘RUMOURS‘ (February 1977) a fitting mantle for a high-quality album which put their personal dramas firmly in the public domain.
Rarely, if ever, had an album been so candid in revealing the tension, at times toxicity, existing between members of the same band, the three songwriting contributions from each of Buckingham and Nicks pretty much apportioning fault to the other in the wake of their eight year relationship coming to and end.
The lyrical potshots are cutting, (particularly on the part of Buckingham) and calculated to hurt – ‘One thing I think you should know/I ain’t gonna miss you when you go,’ he sings dismissively on ‘Second Hand News’ and while Nicks is more abstract when reminiscing, on her stand-out composition ‘Dreams‘ she is no less pointed, ‘But listen carefully to the sound/Of your loneliness.’
Even when collaborating daggers are drawn, Nicks writing the verses and Buckingham the chorus to side two opener ‘The Chain‘ a powerful track credited to all five members – the lyrics reflecting the differing perspectives of their parting.
In contrast the four songs attributed solely to Christine McVie are generally speaking optimistic, on occasion poignant pieces with their heart in the right place rather than sullied by spite.
Not since the aggregation of Crosby, Stills and Nash coming together eight years before had three so distinctly different writers been active within the same outfit, yet if the songs on ‘Fleetwood Mac’ were an agreeable, if uneven set, on ‘Rumours‘ each of the Mac practitioners are never far from tip-top form.
True, as was sometimes the case on CSN offerings, there are times when a Fleetwood four are playing out roles as session players on the work of a fellow member. But what gives edge and cohesion to Mac-made melodies is the durable, yet dynamic rhythm section graft of McVie and Fleetwood whose partnership, by now of ten years standing, offers a solid platform on which the three composers can stand their songwriting wares.
First into the spotlight is Buckingham whose ‘Second Hand News’ opens the record. Sounding for all its worth an updated Buddy Holly song – with a hint of ‘Jive Talkin‘ a recent hit for the Bee Gees – the writer initially comes across as despondent (‘I know there’s nothing to say/Someone has taken my place’), but from behind a surging acoustic guitar work, from which the rest of the troupe take their lead, ultimately sounds defiant, (‘Been down so long/I’ve been tossed around enough‘).
This high calibre pop piece also revealed that along with their L.A. based contemporaries in recent times, Jackson Browne (‘Late for the Sky‘) and the Eagles (‘Pretty Maids All in a Row‘), Fleetwood Mac could also conjure a song where the title is only heard in the last line.
The next up ‘Dreams’ introduces Nicks as a singing/songwriting member of the ensemble, she taking a more abstract, less jaundiced view of the dissolved relationship between her and Buckingham.
Nicks wraps a suitably sultry vocal around an alluring R & B melody which the band deliver with impressive precision. According to the composer the song was written in ten minutes, testament surely to her creative instincts at the time, Nicks is guarded about the future from her own standpoint (‘Now here I go again/I see the crystal visions/I keep my visions to myself), and philosophical when it comes to Buckingham (‘Women they will come and they will go/When the rain washes you clean, you’ll know’) – the writer later reflecting, ‘Lindsey and I were at opposite angles but really singing about the exact same things‘ when it came to the material they each submitted to ‘Rumours.’
Buckingham is to the fore once more on ‘Never Going Back Again‘ a track he performs as a solo offering, his breezy vocal heard above complex acoustic guitar patterns. The shortest cut on the record at a little over two minutes, according to the composer it was written about a rebound affair following his break-up with Nicks, going on to describe the piece as ‘naïve’. Nevertheless, it is a charming effort that bolsters his reputation as an innovative guitar player.
The jousting between Buckingham and Nicks is ended by the upbeat ‘Don’t Stop’ that marks the entry of Christine McVie into the fray. In what amounts to a pep-talk to herself following divorce from bass player John, (‘Why not think about times to come?/And not about the things that you’ve done?/If your life was bad to you/Just think what tomorrow will do‘), the band deliver the song with great aplomb, the smooth keyboard work of the writer nicely offset by a jagged electric solo from Buckingham.
With the lead vocals shared effectively between Christine and Lindsey, the ‘Yesterday’s gone/yesterday’s gone‘, refrain of the chorus is sung with particular vibrancy. But if this stands as an ode to embracing the future, Buckingham with ‘Go Your Own Way‘ still has scores from the past to settle.
Asserting himself as an acerbic lyricist and forceful guitarist, the overlapping acoustic and electric guitars are captured to great effect, while words are fired out like poisoned darts in not sparing his former partner the slightest disdain:
‘Tell me why/Everything turned around/Packing up/Shacking up’s all you wanna do.’
Irrespective of the lyrical hostility, ‘Go Your Own Way‘ is a superbly crafted rock song, few inclined to dispute its top-billing when Rolling Stone magazine drew up a list of the twenty greatest Fleetwood Mac songs.
Different altogether in sentiment, yet no less resonant, is ‘Songbird‘, the serene McVie piano ballad that closes side one.
For maximum atmospheric ambience the song was recorded with McVie singing and playing to herself at the otherwise empty Zellerbeck Auditorium in Berkeley, California. The tender words, put together with poetic simplicity, resound with heartfelt emotion while reverberating against the spacious, but silent backdrop:
‘And I wish you all the love in the world/But most of all, I wish it from myself/And the songbirds keep singing/Like they know the score/And I love you, I love you, I love you/Like never before.‘
Adapted by Buckingham from various unused backing tracks recorded in Sausalito, these random instrumental passages were skillfully woven together to produce ‘The Chain’ – a daring piece that becomes even more emotive when Nicks and Buckingham begin trading lyrical barbs.
She chides him (‘Run in the shadows/Damn your love/Damn your lies‘) and he maligns her (‘And if you don’t love me now/You will never love me again/I can still hear you saying/You would never break the chain’). This latest lyrical joust between the two is set to an ominous, undulating melody incorporating the most prominent bass guitar break since John Entwistle appeared front and centre on ‘My Generation‘ by The Who in 1965, the song taken to an energetic conclusion by haunting harmony vocals and exciting segment of driving rock.
After such dark-rooted fury McVie once again offers light, sounding sassy and exuberant on the instantly likeable ‘You Make Loving Fun.’
Set to the engaging sound of a rhythmic clavinet, the writer is found in celebratory mood – McVie by now romantically attached to Fleetwood Mac lighting director Charles Curry – at having found love again, ‘I never did believe in miracles/But I’ve a feeling it’s time to try/I never did believe in the ways of magic/But I’m beginning to wonder why.’
So joyfully infectious it could not miss in giving the band a huge hit single, reaching the U.S. top five in September 1977.
For her other individual second side contribution McVie contributes ‘Oh Daddy’ which rather than ruminate on a daughter/father relationship, contemplates the complexities of a love affair where equilibrium remains elusive.
For McVie this is an unusually downcast piece (Nicks once describing it as ‘one of the only dark songs Christine ever wrote’), the writer casting herself as the offender rather than victim. In a pensive, brooding track the narrator lacks the emotional strength to leave a faltering relationship, ‘Why are you right when I’m so wrong/I’m so weak but you’re so strong/Everything you do is just alright/And I can’t walk away from you.’
‘Oh Daddy‘ along with ‘I Don’t Want to Know‘, a pleasant if somewhat slight affair from the pen of Nicks resurrected from her duo days with Buckingham, represents a drop-off in overall quality as side two unfolds. Both of these tracks make the final cut at the expense of ‘Silver Springs‘ an expressive soft-rock ballad by Nicks with topical Buckingham break-up subject matter. It sounds an authentic ‘Rumours‘ song opposed to its inferior early-70s, Poco-styled replacement, Nicks apparently furious at the omission of ‘Silver Springs’ when outvoted by the others on the eventual track listing.
Things are brought to a close amid the improved circumstances of ‘Gold Dust Woman‘, although those facing the protagonist are anything but, her existence shaped by a propensity for sex and drugs now a long-term love affair has ended.
Despite the obvious inference, twenty years later Nicks revealed in an interview the lyric was based on an amalgamation of women she knew through the period and not autobiographical, ‘My symbolic look,’ she called it, ‘at somebody going through a bad relationship, doing a lot of drugs and trying to get through to the next thing.‘
With overtones of ‘One of These Nights‘ by the Eagles, although with more folk orientations, the disconcerting lyric ‘Rock on, gold dust woman/Take your silver spoon and dig your grave‘ permeates through melodic progressions that creep out from an L.A. shadowland, the final line, ‘Pick up the pieces and go home‘ a fitting way to end an album whose overarching themes have been recrimination and redemption.
On release ‘Rumours‘ exceeded every expectation Fleetwood Mac and Warner Bros had for the record spending 31 weeks on top of the U.S. album charts (where it dislodged the huge-selling Eagles L.P. ‘Hotel California’), selling eight million Stateside copies before winning the 1977 Grammy for Album of the Year.
In fact ‘Rumours‘ continued to sell in such vast quantities that in time it became an album that went beyond the parametres of critical evaluation, its artistic merit seemingly equated to colossal sales (ironically back in 1977 it was eclipsed by the Sex Pistols debut set in many polls for most ‘important‘ album of the year).
Indeed, on their most recent list (2020) of the 500 Greatest Albums Ever Made, Rolling Stone magazine placed ‘Rumours‘ seventh, which would strike many as an over-inflated appraisal of its qualities, while even more fanciful was a 1998 rating by Q Magazine that placed it third (behind ‘London Calling’ and Dark Side of the Moon’) in Best Album of the 1970s stakes.
Seriously, a record that at source is a smartly played, intriguing melodrama, but one that asks no moral or sociological questions, rated higher than say ‘Sticky Fingers‘ or ‘Who’s Next‘?
But if listening to it again for the first time in thirty years has brought a sense of the record being overrated, it is counterbalanced by a notion that nobody among the 33 million worldwide to have bought a copy has ever felt short-changed by ‘Rumours‘ – and that does make it somewhat unique.
FLEETWOOD MAC – RUMOURS (Released 4/2/1977):
Second Hand News/Dreams/Never Going Back Again/Don’t Stop/Go Your Own Way/Songbird/The Chain/You Make Loving Fun/I Don’t Want to Know/Oh Daddy/Gold Dust Woman;
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Bob Weir???
Bob Welch don’t get no respect . . . .
Hello – hope you are well.
Error on behalf of the author duly rectified (who cannot believe he made such a mistake!) – thanks for the nudge.
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Neil
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