ESSENTIAL ALBUMS (#37): Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (1977)

On its 11th record, Fleetwood Mac crafted a bittersweet masterpiece fuelled by perhaps one of rock’s most infamous melodramas. 

Released in 1977, the intensely personal Rumours has become the seventh highest-selling studio album of all time with over 45 million copies sold worldwide. Also winning the five-piece a Grammy award for Album Of The Year in 1978, the iconic record not only features Fleetwood Mac’s best work but some of the best songwriting of all time.

The seminal LP featured the fifth incarnation of the band - the duo of guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and vocalist Stevie Nicks joining Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie and John McVie two years previous following the departure of Bob Welch. A transition triggered on 1975’s eponymous release, Rumours completes Fleetwood Mac’s progression from a band of blues clichés to one of bright pop singles and immaculate songwriting.

Inescapably intrinsic to Rumours, the romantic turmoil plaguing the band during its creation has been well documented. Christine and John McVie were going through a divorce after eight years of marriage; Buckingham and Nicks were going through a breakup, ending their on/off relationship; Fleetwood had discovered that his wife was having an affair with his best friend; and to deal with their respective personal dramas, Nicks and Fleetwood had their own affair. All of this was compounded further by inaccurate press reports and circling, ahem, rumours. The saga surrounding the recording of the album lead to the brutally honest and excruciatingly emotional love songs, which dominate the track listing.

Rumours working title during early recording sessions was 'Yesterday's Gone', taken from the chorus of 'Don't Stop'. The majority of the recording was done at Record Plant Studios in Sausalito, California, with producers Ken Caillat and Richard Dashut, though Fleetwood and John McVie retained ultimate creative control. Later recording was moved to various studios around Los Angeles. Stories of Fleetwood Mac’s pursuit of sonic perfection in the studio are infamous - Buckingham’s acoustic guitar was restrung every 20 minutes while recording 'Never Going Back Again' to achieve the same bright sound of a fresh set of strings on every take. And during sessions for 'The Chain', five days were spent producing the perfect drum sound for Fleetwood. 

Songwriting duties were mainly shared between the vocal trio of Nicks (‘Dreams’, ‘I Don’t Wanna Know’, ‘Gold Dust Woman’), Buckingham (‘Second Hand News’, ‘Never Going Back Again’, ‘Go Your Own Way’) and Christine McVie (‘Don’t Stop’, ‘Songbird’, 'You Make Loving Fun’, ‘Oh Daddy'). While at its core is an unfinished track by Christine McVie written a year earlier, ‘The Chain’ is the only track on the record credited to all five members of Fleetwood Mac. After using McVie’s ‘Keep Me There’ as a starting point, Buckingham borrowed a guitar section from a track he recorded with Nicks in 1973 called ‘Lola (My Love)’. Nicks contributed lyrics to the track later in the album’s production.

Rumours cover, featuring Fleetwood and Nicks (as her on stage persona, Rhiannon) was the result of a joint effort by photographer Herbert Worthington, and designers Desmond Strobel and Larry Vigon. A curious detail of the cover, the wooden balls (actually, toilet chains) hanging from Fleetwood’s crotch actually continue a long- running gag. After ripping them off the toilets in a club after a gig, the drummer began to wear the lavatory chains dangling between his legs during the band’s performances and eventually they became a good-luck charm of sorts. 

Unfortunately not making the cut on the original track listing due to the constraints of ‘70s vinyl pressing, Nicks’ ‘Silver Springs’ (which was unsurprisingly written about Buckingham) featured on later reissues and became somewhat of a cult favourite with fans.