Rumours

At a church meeting last Saturday morning in our nearby Heine Brothers coffee shop, I got to hear the entire first side of the Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours," the big-selling 1977 album that would be in my top 20 albums of the rock era list any weekend. Not only were included my favorite, "Go Your Own Way," and the Clinton-connected "Don't Stop (Thinkin' About Tomorrow)" (plus the band's only #1 hit, Stevie Nicks' "Dreams") but also less well known songs like Lindsey Buckingham's "Never Going Back Again" and Christine McVie's "Songbird." (There's already been a blog entry with a not so veiled reference to the opening track on the self-titled Fleetwood Mac album, "Monday Morning.") Many readers know that this relatively new supergroup - combining the rhythm section of the old British blues band Fleetwood Mac (plus bass player John McVie's keyboardist spouse Christine McVie) with the California sound/song-writing team of the duo Buckingham Nicks - were involved in divorces/break-ups (mostly with each other) during the composition and production of the album. Hence many of the songs, including "Go Your Own Way" and "Don't Stop (Thinkin' About Tomorrow)." Part of me still prefers the this album's predecessor (of which "Rumours" is slightly derivative) (along with Mac's underrated "Tusk"), but it's hard to argue with songs like "Go" and - from side 2- "The Chain" and "Gold Dust Woman" (apparently about Nicks' struggles with drugs). A great moment from that high point of American culture, the 1970s, that captured some of the personal troubles and yet persistent aspirations of the period. (For example, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GN2kpBoFs4 ) (Penny and I saw this band towards the end of their hit-making days, in the early 1980s, and then I saw them on a reunion tour in the late 1990s, when Lindsey Buckingham still sizzled on guitar. For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETZQ3MHu4Q4 ) (Rumor has it that Sheryl Crow may be working with the group, taking Christine Mcvie's place.)