1) Intro
2) The band members
3) The studio
4) The songs
5) Track listing & lyrics
6) Songs played on tours
7) Links
Intro
Fleetwood Mac formed in 1967 and are still performing. They have undergone numerous line-up changes, though Mick Fleetwood has been with the band from the start, and has been the band leader since 1970 when founder Peter Green left. John McVie joined the band shortly after they started, and, with Mick Fleetwood, is the stable heart of the band. The band was named after the pair by Peter Green.
The band has had two periods of success linked by four years of unremarkable performance. The first success was in the late sixties as a British blues band under Peter Green. The second was as a transatlantic rock band who became for a while the best selling and most successful rock band on the planet. The band's most creative period was from 1975 to 1979 when they released Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, and Tusk.
The Rumours album was for many years the number one best selling rock album of all time, and though now outsold by albums by Pink Floyd and Michael Jackson, it is still in the top ten. The popular and critical acclaim for the album has grown since its release, and it is now widely regarded as not only a classic album, but as a significant artistic and cultural phenomenon. The story behind the making of the album - the broken relationships which are exposed in the songs, and the unity of the band despite the emotional turmoil - is a major factor in an appreciation of the album. The blend of the older, steady British blues with the more emotionally cutting, edgy, American country rock, formed a musical sound that was appreciated by the two major musical audiences - Britain and America, and spread across the globe. This was an album that combined experience with ambition, reflection with raw emotion, strength with passion, and harmonised it all through three distinct singing voices. At a time when young musicians and audiences were turning to Punk, the more mature, "adult", audience were retreating into the familiar yet mature and reflective world of Rumours, the first adult oriented rock album.
Rumours isn't a concept album. nor does it have a deliberate theme, but the songs do focus on or hint at relationships breaking down and building up. Relationships within the band, between individuals, and in general. When making the album the band members were not always fully aware of the origins of the lyrics, but made guesses or assumptions, and sometimes talked about it in pairs; when deciding on a title for the album they felt that "Rumours" was fitting, as that is how they themselves had come to realise what the lyrics were about.
The album explores relationships, and communication, and the shifting understandings of how we approach the world and each other; it unites the musical sensibilities of an older Sixties British generation who admired the rootsy American music, with the musical sensibilities of a younger mid Seventies American generation who admired the British folk influenced country rock. The unions, connections and relationships, musically, culturally, personally and emotionally, that make up Rumours are a major part of its enduring attraction.
Band members
 |
| John McVie |
Mick Fleetwood, born 1947 in Cornwall to an RAF pilot father who moved his family to various parts of the world where he was stationed, was mainly educated in boarding schools until he dropped out and moved to London in 1963. His first professional band was The Cheynes with Peter Bardens, who released three singles: Respectable in 1963, Going to the River in 1964, and Down and Out in 1965. He then drummed for the Bo Street Runners on their 1965 single Baby Never Say Goodbye, before teaming up again with Bardens in Peter B's Looners to release the instrumental with Peter Green on guitar. The band added Beryl Marsden and Rod Stewart as singers, changed their name to The Shotgun Express, and - after Peter Green left to join Mayal's Bluesbreakers, released two singles - "Funny 'Cos Neither Could I" in 1976. When Shotgun Express broke up, Fleetwood briefly joined Green in the Bluesbreakers before they both left to form Fleetwood Mac.
Christine McVie was born Christine Perfect in 1947 in the Lake District and brought up in Birmingham where her father was a concert violinist and music lecturer. She had classical piano training as a child, and after attending Birmingham art college for five years, during which time she played bass in local band Shades of Blue, she qualified as an art teacher. After briefly working as a window dresser in a London department store, in 1967 she re-joined Shades of Blue, who were now called Chicken Shack, as a pianist. Their first single was "It's Okay With Me Baby", written by Perfect, and she made two albums with the band, having a hit with the Etta James song "Christine Perfect, was finished in 1970. Her solo album included "No Road Is the Right Road", which has a sound that will be found in later Fleetwood albums.
Stevie Nicks was born 1948 in Phoenix, Arizona; her father was a corporate executive who moved around the South West region of North America a lot. She had her senior education in California where she met Lindsey Buckingham, and with whom she formed the band Fritz in 1966, and for whom she wrote and performed some of her early songs. The band played on the same bill as some notable acts including Janis Joplin who was an early influence on Nicks, but broke up in 1971, with Nicks and Buckingham going on to release Buckingham Nicks in 1973, which included "Don't Let Me Down Again", "Don't Let Me Down Again", "Crying in the Night", "Stephanie", and "Frozen Love" - the track that Fleetwood heard and decided to hire Buckingham for his guitar playing.Lindsey Buckingham was born in 1949 in California, and formed the band Fritz with Stevie Nicks in 1966. His musical history is the same as that of Nicks.
The studio
The album was recorded at the Record Plant in California. The Record Plant studios were designed with the indulgent 1970s in mind. The aim was to provide both top level equipment, and a creative atmosphere, with all the facilities that a successful and rich rock band might desire - including laughing gas on tap, limousines, Rolls Royces and a speedboat in the harbour, a jacuzzi and waterbed, and chefs who specialised in organic food. The studios were designed with "dead" acoustics - which meant that, unlike earlier studios and live venues, the sound was absorbed by the walls and did not reverberate back into the microphones. While reverberation creates an attractive "live" sound, which is desired in some situations, such as a concert hall or where a studio recording is done in one take, it makes modern multi-tracking more difficult. The engineers, Ken Caillat and Richard Dashut, spent some days setting up the microphones to try to create more ambiance from the dead studio, before realising the could do that in the mix.The songs
Side One
"Second Hand News" (YouTube) "Second Hand News" (Spotify)The album opens with "Second Hand News", Buckingham's comment on the break up of his relationship with Nicks. While bitter, reflecting that he is second best, and has been though a rough time, it holds out some hope or at least desire that he be allowed to move on and do his stuff - which is, presumably, making music. It's a fast driven acoustic piece with an electric guitar break at the end. The chorus punches with "pow pow pows", suggestive of Buckingham's desire to fight his way through the situation. It's a fairly popular song - but I'm not keen on it, though a recent live version, with compelling drumming, stronger singing, and a more expansive guitar solo, shows what the song is capable of, and the theme of getting through tough times - such as a relationship breakdown, by being allowed to do one's thing - such as make a record, makes it a fitting opening track.
*Song score: 4/10
"Dreams" (YouTube) "Dreams" (Spotify)
The next track is awesome. "Dreams" is what the album is centred on. It was the most successful single that Fleetwood Mac ever released, and is the reason for the album's popularity and acclaim. Nicks and Buckingham were breaking up as the band starting recording the album, and Nicks went off by herself into the studio room called The Pit, which had been created for Sly Stone. It had a lowered floor with a double bed. And Nicks sat on the bed by herself and composed an early version of the song. Her initial version, however, was not received well by the rest of the band, who felt it was simplistic and dull. Ironically, given that it's about the break up of their relationship, it was Buckingham who took the song and developed it, adding melodic guitar, and structuring the song into three repeating sections, giving it a chant like hypnotic quality which suits both the dream imagery and Nick's ethereal voice. The rhythm section of Fleetwood and McVie both ground the song and drive it forward - the sound they create is familiar Fleetwood Mac, which can be heard in Albatross, and forward from there throughout the band's history - a legacy of Peter Green, and, before that, of John Mayall. It is a great base for Nicks and Buckingham to perform. Fleetwood's drumming is solid and responsive, bringing in a heart beat sound just at the line: "Like a heartbeat drives you mad" and then returns to the regular beat. The lyrics are the best the band have produced - a moment of inspiration for Nicks, and through the lyrics she also produces her best vocal performance - complex, shifting, beautiful and very moving. The story is the breakup of the relationship; of the other partner wanting freedom from the relationship; and the singer not wanting to stand in the way of that desire. It's never stated in the lyrics if the singer is still in love, or even wants the relationship to continue - nothing is quite pinned down. There's the sense in which the singer is suggesting that the partner will regret the breakup, and the singer may even be taking some pleasure in that regret, though that is never stated, merely hinted at in mentions of rejection - "Players only love you when they're playing", and in the hope that the partner will recognise that rejection - "When the rain washes you clean... you'll know". The rain imagery is repeated with the line "thunder only happens when it's raining" - the idea that arguments happen when a relationship is breaking up. The rain, the playing, the dreaming imagery all intertwine to create a song that is bigger than itself - the imagery feeding on itself and growing. Nothing is quite pinned down, and each person will take something different, something new from the song - and that is the mark of a truly great lyric - the way it feeds the imagination.*Song score: 9/10
"Never Going Back Again"
For the third track we return to a Buckingham song. It's a minor song consisting of some jaunty country-folk acoustic guitar picking with Buckingham's thin and strained voice working its way through some cryptic lyrics which appear to refer to the relationship breakdown, but are ambiguous enough to be as much about the beginning of a relationship as the end. The link goes to a live version in which Nicks joins Buckingham to sing the song in a moment of tender awkwardness.
*Song score: 4/10
"Don't Stop"
After that trivial pause we come to Christine McVie's first song on the album, and the second strong song. The lyrics are very positive, saying look forward to what's to come, and forget the past. Though not expressly written about the breakup of her relationship with McVie, it has been read that way, and Christine McVie acknowledges in interviews that she might have had John in mind while writing it. The song is very pleasant, though quite simple. It works mainly through a very effective arrangement by Buckingham who starts the song with some soaring strings added to the simple repeated piano chords, and some rat-a-tat drumming from Fleetwood who goes on to give the song the distinctive Fleetwood Mac blues rhythm. Buckingham and McVie share the singing, sometimes alternating verses, sometimes duetting. It was the second successful single released from the album proving to be enduringly popular with its infectious happy beat and sunny optimism. The link is to a live version with the Trojans Marching Band who played on "Tusk". It's an appropriately good fun upbeat addition to the song. There's another interesting live version where the band reformed after 10 years specially at Bill Clinton's request and did the one song for his 1993 Inaugural Ball. The band look and sound awful - but it's an intensely emotional moment, Buckingham sounds as if he's on the verge of tears; meanwhile everyone is smiling broadly and Clinton is clapping along happily. Technically it's not a great performance, but the optimism of the song captures the optimism of that moment, of that Inaugural Ball, and the warmth and vulnerability of the five performers who seem so unlike major pop stars, more like familiar friends, is a key to the popularity of the band. The emotional lives of all five members has been explored in song and documented through interviews and articles down the years that audiences do feel almost intimate with these musicians.
*Song score: 7/10
"Go Your Own Way"
The album now comes to Buckingham's third and last song. It's the best song he's written, and is another of the album's strong points. It was the first single released from the album, and paved the way for the album's success. The song was written after Buckingham had heard Nicks' "Dreams"; it is a response to that song, and in an earlier version the line "Another lonely day" was "Another rainy day" - a direct reference to "Thunder only happens when it's raining". As is typical of Buckingham's songs. there's a lot of bitterness in among the potential tenderness, and Nicks has said in interviews she was particularly hurt by the line "Shacking up is all you wanna do". There's a pleasant Everly Brothers country-pop feel to the song, with ghosts of "When Will I Be Loved", which is coupled again with the Fleetwood Mac British Blues rhythm, and then a smooth FM radio guitar solo which Buckingham clearly picked up from The Eagles, perhaps from "One of These Nights". The marriage of the different musical styles, coupled with the tender aggression of the lyrics makes it a compelling and attractive song.
*Song score: 6/10
"Songbird"
Side One of the album closes with the second of McVie's four songs. It's a traditional sounding folky song and feels like it could have been written at any stage in McVie's career - it would not be out of place on any of the previous Fleetwood Mac post-Peter Green albums. It consist of McVie singing solo with the piano. It's a charming and sweet love song, a pleasant come down after the edgy "Go Your Own Way". Until 1997 it was a regular encore piece in live sets - usually the final song, sung by Mcvie at the piano alone, as in the link to a 1977 show in Japan.
*Song score: 6/10
Side Two
"The Chain"Side Two opens with the most ambitious and musically interesting song. This is the only song credited to all the members of the band, and the lyrics give a feel of holding together a relationship, holding together a band, and building an album of songs about broken relationships. The song was created from separate parts that the band then worked together. The first part was an instrumental that evolved from a song called "Keep Me There", in which John McVie added the distinctive fret less bass riff. Steve Nicks added some lines from a song she was working on, called "The Chain", with McVie adding further lines in the studio. Buckingham added in the opening parts from "Lola (MyLove)", a song from the Buckingham Nicks album. And the rest is history!
*Song score: 8/10
"You Make Loving Fun"
"You Make Loving Fun" is a typical McVie song - pleasant, optimistic, charming, but unadventurous. It is what it is - a cheerful song about how nice her new relationship is. What makes the song more interesting is that it is part of the mix of songs about relationships recorded by a band that were going through relationship changes. Divorced from the album, the song is fairly ordinary. Nice, but ordinary.
*Song score: 5/10
"I Don't Want To Know"
"I Don't Want To Know" is a brisk Stevie Nicks song which both Nicks and Buckingham sing, and which has odd clapping moments. It is not a popular song, and has not been included in live shows since the original Rumours tour. It feels like an undeveloped song, and while the lyrics do again concern the break up of the Nicks-Buckingham relationship, the track feels like an album filler.*Song score: 3/10
"Oh Daddy"
"Oh Daddy" is the last McVie song. It's about Mick Fleetwood, known as the Big Daddy, and his wife, Jenny Boyd, who had just got back together again after being apart for two years since Fleetwood had caught her having an affair with the band's former guitarist Bob Weston. The lyrics loosely pull together notions McVie had about Fleetwood - that he was in charge of the band, that he was the only parent in the band, that - even though they had just got back together, Boyd was having an affair with Fleetwood's best friend. It's a confused, complex song, that despite - or because of - its lack of definition, creates allusions that tap into the album's other relationship themes.
*Song score: 3/10
"Gold Dust Woman"
The final song on the album is a Nicks' song that blends some of her familiar country-rock style with a brooding earthy blues feel. The lyrics hint at drug use, and both the theme and the scary voodoo feel don't sit comfortably with the rest of the album. It's proved to be a popular song though, due to the intensity of the mood created.
*Song score: 4/10
Comment
While the album has two great songs, and a handful of very good songs, the bulk is decent or weak. Though combing British Blues with Country Rock, the music on the album lacks drive and ambition, mostly following a safe, predictable and pleasant path. The singing is mostly pleasant and competent rather than outstanding, though the three voices are used well. The musicianship is very professional, with some very solid (though sadly often uninspired) rhythms from McVie and Fleetwood, and some highly competent and sometimes impressive guitar playing from Buckingham. Christine McVie's keyboard playing does not stand out at all. The two great songs, "Dreams" and "The Chain", do cast their spell over the rest of the album, making it sound and feel stronger than what it is. The story of the relationship breakups drive the greater impact of the album, and touch each song with fairy dust, making them sparkle and vibrate to an extent they never could without that background story. The album made a significant impact at a time when musically the world's attention was turned to New Wave, Punk, and the emerging Indie, Synthpop and New World musics - Rumours was music for a new audience: the older generation who had grown up with British Blues, Folk, and Country Rock, and who felt a little alienated by the newer musics. Rumours was Adult Orientated Rock, and it was the first AOR album to have a significant and lasting impact. However, while the format was important, it's difficult to trace any discernible musical or lyrical influence, and its impact on the marketing importance of AOR may be more to do with the audience selecting the album rather than the album creating an audience. The audience were already there, and they picked this album to buy. However, the sum of all these parts makes for a fascinating album, and the continuing cultural attention paid to the album makes it stronger and stronger as each year goes by. It's an album it would be foolish to ignore or disregard. It's not on the same level as genuinely great works of art, such as Starry Night, Macbeth, or The Waste Land, but it is compelling, entertaining, genuinely moving in places, and certainly a classic. |
| The complete album |
Total songs score: 27/50 (59 / 11 = 5.4 x 5 = 27)
Sum of the parts score: 7/10
Impact score: 9/10
Influence score: 5/10
Package score: 3/5
Extra: 12/15
Complete score: 63/100
Track listing & lyrics
Side One
"Second Hand News" - Buckingham
I know there's nothing to say
Someone has taken my place
When times go bad
When times go rough
Won't you lay me down in tall grass
And let me do my stuff
I know I got nothin' on you
I know there's nothing to do
When times go bad
And you can't get enough
Won't you lay me down in the tall grass
And let me do my stuff
One thing I think you should know
I ain't gonna miss you when you go
Been down so long
I've been tossed around enough
Couldn't you just
Let me go down and do my stuff
I know you're hopin' to find
Someone who's gonna give you piece of mind
When times go bad
when times go rough
Won't you lay me down in tall grass
And let me do my stuff
I'm just second hand news
"Dreams" - Nicks
Now here you go again
You say you want your freedom
Well who am I to keep you down
It's only right that you should
Play the way you feel it
But listen carefully to the sound
Of your loneliness
Like a heartbeat.. drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering what you had
And what you lost...
And what you had...
And what you lost
Thunder only happens when it's raining
Players only love you when they're playing
Say... Women... they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean... you'll know
Now here I go again, I see the crystal visions
I keep my visions to myself
It's only me
Who wants to wrap around your dreams and...
Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
Dreams of loneliness...
Like a heartbeat... drives you mad...
In the stillness of remembering what you had...
And what you lost...
And what you had...
And what you lost
Thunder only happens when it's raining
Players only love you when they're playing
Say... Women... they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean... you'll know
"Never Going Back Again" - Buckingham
She broke down and let me in
Made me see where I've been
Been down one time
Been down two times
I'm never going back again
You don't know what it means to win
Come down and see me again
Been down one time
Been down two times
I'm never going back again
"Don't Stop" - McVie
If you wake up and don't want to smile,
If it takes just a little while,
Open your eyes and look at the day,
You'll see things in a different way.
Don't stop, thinking about tomorrow,
Don't stop, it'll soon be here,
It'll be, better than before,
Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone.
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.
Don't stop, thinking about tomorrow,
Don't stop, it'll soon be here,
It'll be, better than before,
Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone.
All I want is to see you smile,
If it takes just a little while,
I know you don't believe that it's true,
I never meant any harm to you.
Don't stop, thinking about tomorrow,
Don't stop, it'll soon be here,
It'll be, better than before,
Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone.
Don't you look back,
Don't you look back.
"Go Your Own Way" - Buckingham
Loving you
Isn't the right thing to do
How can I ever change things
That I feel
If I could
Maybe I'd give you my world
How can I
When you won't take it from me
You can go your own way
Go your own way
You can call it
Another lonely day
You can go your own way
Go your own way
Tell me why
Everything turned around
Packing up
Shacking up is all you wanna do
If I could
Baby I'd give you my world
Open up
Everything's waiting for you
You can go your own way
Go your own way
You can call it
Another lonely day
You can go your own way
go your own way
"Songbird" - McVie
For you, there'll be no more crying,
For you, the sun will be shining,
And I feel that when I'm with you,
It's alright, I know it's right
To you, I'll give the world
to you, I'll never be cold
'Cause I feel that when I'm with you,
It's alright, I know it's right.
And the songbirds are singing,
Like they know the score,
And I love you, I love you, I love you,
Like never before.
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, like never before.
Side Two
"The Chain" - Fleetwood Mac
Listen to the wind blow
Watch the sun rise
Run in the shadows
Damn your love
Damn your lies
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.
List to the wind blow
Down comes the night
Run in the shadows
Damn your love
Damn your lies
Break the silence
Damn the dark
Damn the light
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.
"You Make Loving Fun" - McVie
Sweet wonderful you,
You make me happy with the things you do,
Oh, can it be so,
This feeling follows me wherever I go.
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.
Don't, don't break the spell,
It would be different and you know it will,
You, you make loving fun,
And I don't have to tell you you're the only one.
You make loving fun.
You make loving fun.
"I Don't Want To Know" - Nicks
I don't want to know the reasons why
Love keeps right on walking down the line
I don't want to stand between you and love
Honey, I just want you to feel fine
Finally baby
The truth has come down now
Take a listen to your spirit
It's crying out loud.
Try to believe
You say you love me, but you don't know
You got me rocking and a-reeling
Oh
I don't want to know the reasons why
Love keeps right on walking down the line
I don't want to stand between you and love
Honey, I just want you to feel fine
Finally baby
The truth has been told
Now you tell me that I'm crazy
That's nothing that I didn't know
Trying to survive
You say you love me, but you don't know
You got me rocking and a-reeling
I don't want to know the reasons why
Love keeps right on walking down the line
I don't want to stand between you and love
Honey, take a little time.
"Oh Daddy" - McVie
Oh Daddy,
You know you make me cry,
How can you love me,
I don't understand why.
Oh Daddy,
If I can make you see,
If there's been a fool around,
It's got to be me.
Oh Daddy,
You soothe me with your smile,
You're letting me know,
You're the best thing in my life.
Oh Daddy,
If I can make you see,
If there's been a fool around,
It's got to be me.
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, baby
If I tried.
"Gold Dust Woman" - Nicks
Rock on, gold dust woman
Take your silver spoon
And dig your grave
Heartless challenge
Pick your path and I'll pray
Wake up in the morning
See your sunrise,loves, to go down
Lousy lovers, pick their prey
But they never cry out loud
Did she make you cry
Make you break down
Shatter your illusions of love
Is it over now, do you know how
Pick up the pieces and go home.
Rock on, ancient woman
Follow those who pale
In your shadow
Rulers make bad lovers
You better put your kingdom up for sale
Did she make you cry
Make you break down
Shatter your illusions of love
Is it over now, do you know how
Pickup the pieces and go home.
Songs played on tours
"Second Hand News"
1977 (Frequent - usually encore)1982 (Frequent - usually opener)
"Dreams"
1977 (Frequent)1982 (Frequent)
"Never Going Back Again"
1977 (Frequent)1982 (Frequent)
"Don't Stop"
1977 (Infrequent - sometimes encore, sometimes opener, sometimes absent)1982 (Frequent)
"Go Your Own Way"
1977 (Frequent)1982 (Frequent - usually last main song)
"Songbird"
1977 (Frequent - usually final encore song)1982 (Frequent - usually final encore song)
"The Chain"
1977 (Frequent - various places in set)1982 (Frequent - usually 2nd song)
"You Make Loving Fun"
1977 (Frequent)1982 (Frequent)
"I Don't Want to Know"
1977 (Not seen)1982 (Not seen)
"Oh Daddy"
1977 (Frequent)1982 (Usually)
"Gold Dust Woman"
1977 (Frequent)1982 (Not seen)
Links:
BBC Documentary: Don't Stop - 2009
Classic Albums
109 April 2019
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