I gave the album Fleetwood mac a listen recently. never listened to it from beginning to end before. this was the first that featured Lindsey Buckingham and stevie nicks. I was stunned at how amazing it was. from beginning to end it featured stellar songwriting, precise musicianship, and fabulous production (by buckingham, himself). like a great beatles album we are all so used to, it had hit after hit. this is a major league band with major league talent.
then I gave rumours a try. and miraculously, it was even better. the band was going thru an odd transformation at the time. unlike most bands, fleetwood mac in the mid-'70s were professionally and romantically intertwined, with no less than two couples in the band, but as their professional career took off, the personal side unraveled. bassist john mcvie and his keyboardist/singer wife Christine mcvie filed for divorce as guitarist/vocalist buckingham and vocalist stevie nicks split, with stevie running to drummer mick fleetwood, unbeknown to the rest of the band. these personal tensions fueled nearly every song on Rumours, which makes listening to the album a nearly voyeuristic experience. you're eavesdropping on the bandmates singing painful truths about each other, spreading nasty lies and rumors and wallowing in their grief, all in the presence of the person who caused the heartache.
this is one of rock's great masterpieces. and i'm embarrassed to not having known it as thoroughly as I do now.
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Topic: fleetwood mac (Read 1500 times)