The credit for that lies largely at the feet of Buckingham, who took the original blues sound of Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, dipped it in a little Beach Boys-esque sunshine and presented it with a lack of pretension which was unmistakably Southern Californian. Because what this rocky alliance of musicians somehow managed to do is transform their inner turmoil into a sublimely uplifting pop record which perfectly embodied the sense of fun, experimentation and return to innocence which was emerging in the charts following the psychedelic rock and war-driven music of the ’60s. However it is not the secret stories behind the album which have made it the stuff of legend, it is, of course, the music. The band’s raw emotions were exacerbated by immense pressure to produce a successful follow-up to 1975’s ‘Fleetwood Mac’ - which had spawned their biggest hits to date, ‘Rhiannon’ and ‘Say You Love Me’ - not to mention the trappings of their newfound wealth and fame, namely an insatiable appetite for booze and cocaine along with rapidly-inflating egos and conflicting musical visions. “We spoke to each other in clipped, civil tones, while sitting in small airless studios, listening to each other’s songs about our shattered relationships,” remembers Fleetwood. To say the atmosphere was tense wouldn’t begin to cover it. The tempestuous relationship between sultry singer Stevie Nicks and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham had finally reached breaking point silken-voiced keyboardist Christine McVie had just left her bassist husband John (only to embark on a relationship with the band’s lighting director under his nose) and lofty drummer Mick Fleetwood was on the verge of a divorce.
Yet, despite the album’s phenomenal success, it is a miracle it was ever made.Ĭreated in the aftermath of no less than three acrimonious splits, ‘Rumours’ rose like a phoenix out of the grubby ashes of grief, despair and loss which every member was experiencing when they entered their Sausalito studio in 1976. Its astounding enduring appeal means the songs are instantly and universally recognisable, inspiring countless cover versions, continued radio airplay and their use as the soundtrack to - among other things - a presidential campaign, the BBC’s Formula 1 coverage and most recently (and sacrilegiously) a whole episode of Glee. Released two years after their eponymous breakthrough record, Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’ went on to become not only their most successful album but one of the biggest-selling albums of all time, shifting in excess of forty million copies and earning itself a place in practically every list of greatest albums since.
0 kommentar(er)
