There are many albums that (as a listener) I’ve heard so much that I know it from beginning to end to the point that it’s practically embedded in my DNA. I know that I’m not alone in this either. I actually read that Jason Bonham(son of Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham) used to travel with his dad to Motocross competitions and listen to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours on his dad’s state-of-the-art 8-track player for the duration of the trips. I don’t know the first time I heard Rumours. But, I know that it’s something I’ve known for 33 years of my life and it wasn’t until my own marriage ended that I was able to relate to it in a lyrical sense to the themes of heartbreak, jealousy and betrayal. These are all things that come when a relationship ends and yet you must continue to communicate with the person who hurt you and caused this heartache and pain.
Released in 1977, Rumours was the work of 5 musicians and songwriters in a state of personal and emotional turmoil. Fleetwood Mac originally started as an off shoot of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers where the rhythm section of bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood formed a band to showcase the guitar prowess of Peter Green. Various personnel changes led to the recruitment of guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Lindsey Buckingham and his girlfriend/vocalist Stephanie “Stevie” Nicks. They recorded the band’s 1975 self titled (white album) and brought the band to the forefront of 1970’s pop-rock hierarchy. Soon after that “white” album, Stevie and Lindsey broke up as did keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie and husband John McVie. Even drummer Mick Fleetwood experienced marital strife with his wife Jenny when she moved back to England with his two kids.
At the time of the release of this album, I was 10 years old. One of the things my sisters contributed to my musical growth was exposing me to some great music of the time(they also exposed me to some real stinkers too) In 1977, one of the formats to experience music through was the 8-track cassette. Looking back, the 8-track is a rather amusing format to explain to someone who was born in the mid to late 80’s that has never experienced them. My sister Kathy owned Fleetwood Mac Rumours on 8-track and one of my memories of this album was my sister washing the family station wagon while Rumours blared on her portable 8-track player. My sister was also a fan of watching all kinds of music TV and Awards shows. This is before MTV and so we would watch all the American Bandstand performances and variety shows. She would stay up late and watch the Midnight Special on NBC. I was too young to stay up and watch them. Occasionally, she would wake me up to watch (maybe) Steve Martin do a bit of his comedy act on Midnight Special. But, not more than that. We would watch the Grammy awards and the American Music Awards and stuff like that. I can remember watching those awards shows the year that Fleetwood Mac seemed to sweep the awards. Every time an award was announced, the camera would be on Stevie, Lindsey, Christine, John and Mick and they would stand up to make their way to accept yet another award.
After the success of Rumours, the band (obviously) grew in popularity and released 3 more albums with the same lineup until early 1988 when Lindsey opted out of a tour and ultimately left to pursue his own solo career. In that time, they released Tusk (1979), Mirage(1982) and Tango in the Night(1987) and I remember distinct memories and small discussions about each of those albums. I remember visiting my cousins the summer of 79 or 80 and they had a cassette copy of Tusk as I recall thinking it was a strange and amusing title for an album. In my early high school years, I remember seeing the video for Hold Me in wide rotation on Friday Night Videos, TBS’s Night Tracks and HBO’s Video Jukebox. The image of the band walking through the desert and the pile of guitars in the middle of a sand dune is embedded in my memory. The entertainment media definitely made every album out to be a big event and I even remember seeing bits of pieces of an HBO concert that was recorded too. My friend John even made some comment about Mick Fleetwood being so stoned and out of it during the HBO concert. Looking back at the band’s trouble with drugs and alcohol, it’s not a big surprise and he was probably right. In 1987, they released Tango in the Night and the first single was the (very 80’s sounding) Big Love. I’ve heard that Lindsay basically did that song all himself because of the colossal addictions of the other members. This was yet another album and it was definitely another media event and yet another topic of conversation that would usually start with the question “have you heard the new Fleetwood Mac album and what do you think?”
In early 1988, Lindsey announced he was not doing the accompanying tour and was leaving the band to pursue his solo recording career. The band soldiered on with two new members to replace Lindsey. Soon the drama was gone and the media (and the public) didn’t want to really hear about Fleetwood Mac any more. Stevie Nicks continued to make her own solo records and it just didn’t seem like a big deal like it was in the 70’s and early 80’s.
In 1992, Lindsey finally released his first solo album 4 years after leaving “the Mac” called Out of the Cradle. I was working as a manager of Tape World in Omaha’s Crossroads Mall and we received a promo CD copy of this album. We were always receiving promo copies of some kind. I took the CD home and put it in my home stereo and the production just floored me. The vocals and instruments would swoop from one speaker to the another across the room and take me on an aural adventure. It was incredibly inventive and performed with excellent musical prowess. But, the songwriting was very catchy and very pop oriented. But, It was so good that I went back to work and my assistant manager and I would talk endlessly about how good this was. Then, we would start talking about Fleetwood Mac to the point of obsession. In those days, the record companies were always coming up with a reason to release some kind of box set and Fleetwood Mac was no exception. Warner Brothers released a Mac box set called the Chain. My assistant manager-Kevin bought it and made cassette copies of it so we could listen to it on the store.
Also at this time, was the big 1992 Presidential election year where Bill Clinton was using Mac’s Don’t Stop as his campaign “theme song”. I’m not the kind of person who likes it when a song is associated with something or someone other than the original theme of the music. Eventually, Clinton asked the band to reunite and play for his presidential inaugural ball. Music fans and Mac fans took notice and it was once again…a big event. But, this was definitely a reason to take notice of some great music. With the combination of the exposure through Clinton’s campaign, Lindsey’s Solo album and the new box, my interest in “the Mac” was blooming. I even woke up one morning listening to Omaha’s Z-92 as my alarm went off to the sounds of the lead off track Second Hand News. By this time, I decided I would no longer wait to own the one album I had vaguely known since I was 10 and just buy it. I would dub it onto a cassette for portability purposes and had it with me almost all the time.
Fast forward from 1993 to the summer of 1997. The band regrouped with Lindsey, Stevie, Christine, John and Mick for a full fledged reunion concert and MTV special called The Dance. Once again, this was an event. There was a concert video, DVD and CD released. Everyone I knew that was a fan of pop music was talking about the reunion concert. Guitarists and musicians were bowled over by Lindsey’s guitar picking style during his solo turn on Big Love. We talked about Stevie’s emotional rendering of Landslide and the maniacal look on Mick Fleetwood’s face as he provided the unique backbeat to all the songs.
1997 was also the 20th anniversary of Rumours. VH1 highlighted the album on their new Classic Albums Revisited show. Of course, I was excited to see this show and suddenly saw(as they pushed the faders up and down) the intricacies of that album. John McVie is truly a genius of the bass guitar. His bass line break in The Chain and Go Your Own Way are so incredible and undeniable. Christine McVie takes a bluesy shuffle like Don’t Stop and turns it into a pop music classic. The fantastic vocal harmonies of Christine McVie, Lindsey and Stevie compliment each other flawlessly. But, what still floors me every time is the layered guitar sounds that Lindsey constructs during the intro to Go Your Own Way.
The Lazarus-like renaissance and transformation of a London-based blues band into the cutting edge Los Angeles-based world champions of Adult Oriented Rock is one of the greatest stories in rock’s rich history.I’ve heard the stories that Stevie and Lindsey tell of each other. After the dissolution of my own marriage, I try to relate how these guys somehow make it work in a civil sense. They are forever linked with this band and the music they’ve written and made for this band. In a sense, the music is the offspring or children of their creative union. So, they are connected through those songs much like I am connected to the mother of my son whom we are both very proud of.
Is it hard for Stevie and Lindsey to be around each other? Is it hard (or tense…or uneasy) for any divorced or separated couple to be around their former love? I can only speak for myself…..and my answer is…….well….er….um……..YES! If you’ve never been divorced, I’m not sure you would know. I have and it’s hard to know that the person who was your everything is suddenly not. Now, Imagine you are on the world stage like Lindsey and Stevie and your “drama” is a “Big event” to your fans and the media for years and years after the breakup. By now, I don’t feel like my drama is anywhere near as big as theirs. But, for myself, the music of Fleetwood Mac-Rumours helps me to get through my own breakup and heartaches knowing that someone can express their feelings through music and somehow I can relate to it.
Even as I write this, I have stopped and started this blog many times to try and figure out how to express my appreciation for an album that I first heard as a 10 year old boy and that grew into a love for the music and eventually as a tool of therapy for myself as a 43 year old man. All I can say is that I hope that I’ve conveyed those feelings as I’ve written this blog.
Thank you!
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