Fleetwood Mac: Rumours

It was the summer of 1978 and our family was on our usual vacation to Pennsylvania, travelling from North Carolina where we lived. My mom’s younger sister had just graduated high school and she was getting married to her high school sweetheart. The reception was where my knowing of this album started.

The album was actually released over a year earlier but it was so popular that the radio was still playing a lot of music from this album over a year later. It was enough that by the time I was at that reception and hearing it yet again, I was kind of sick of it. I don’t know if songs were played more than once at the reception but it sure felt that way to me and that’s one of my strongest memories of that particular event.

My feelings toward this album mellowed just a bit over the next several years. I’m not really sure at what point I changed my mind but I know by the mid-80s I had begun to really enjoy this album. It was a few more years before I saw the band in concert the first time. This wasn’t with the classic line-up since Lindsey Buckingham had left the band by this time and Rick Vito and Billy Burnett had taken his place. I will be honest and say their parts in that performance haven’t really stayed with me over the years and didn’t come anywhere near a Lindsey Buckingham performance. Even so, I really did enjoy the concert and from that point I got into Fleetwood Mac in a much bigger way, buying their albums and also becoming a big Stevie Nicks fan too.

But this is really the album to start it all and these days I can appreciate it much more than the preteen I was in the summer of 1978. It was a tumultuous time for the band with two members divorcing each other, two breaking up a relationship and the other having his own relationship woes. As awful as it must have been for them, this work of art emerged and is for me what represents the band despite the fact the band has evolved again and again over the years.

The album includes some absolutely brilliant songs but one part of the record that appeals to me most is the harmonies of Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham. The song “The Chain” seems to be the best example of this and in some ways is the standout song for me. It’s an angry song that draws you in from the first notes and makes you a part of it. It became the first of many sing-alongs when we saw the band play last year.

“Songbird” is a song that didn’t really appeal to me when I was younger but I now hear it and I’m in awe of the beautiful way Christine plays and sings it. I also really like the hopefulness of “Don’t Stop” in amongst the anger and angst of many of the other songs. This one’s another one with great harmonies too.

“Dreams” is a song that is great to hear with the headphones on. It’s got a magical and mystical feel to it that I liked from early on, well before I paid any attention to the lyrics. Stevie’s voice on this is fragile and delicate and takes you to another place while you are listening.

Lastly I want to mention “Gold Dust Woman”, which is another Stevie classic I adore. Not so much the fragile voice here but a firm narrative of someone going through a rough time in life and using “gold dust” to deal with things. The performance of this song was an absolute highlight of the concert we saw last year. It was dark and scary and full of that mysticism that goes well with so many Stevie Nicks songs.

I can’t leave this without mention of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, the constants throughout the history of the band. They make a brilliant team and it’s their rhythm work that makes this album truly sparkle musically. With some great guitar work by Buckingham and keyboards by Christine McVie, it adds to an amazing team effort.