Rumours (Fleetwood Mac, 1977)

I've chronicled a number of bands that spawned during the British blues boom that would evolve into substantially non-bluesy territory. There was no dominant trend; these artists would move into prog, hard rock, proto-metal, folk, and pop. The usual pattern was that most of these bands earned a little extra success denied to their former purist colleagues, but would quickly destabilize and implode. For example, take a band like the Groundhogs or Jethro Tull, which was rapidly consumed by a single member, rendering the "band" irrelevant. Some, like Pink Floyd or the Moody Blues, would suffer debilitating personality conflicts. Fleetwood Mac, one of many bands born in the cradle built by John Mayall and his Bluesbreakers, took a somewhat different path and soared to startling success, with this album, Rumours, being the apex of the "reborn" band.

By 1974, it was clear the old Fleetwood Mac was tottering on the edge of irrelevancy. Original leader Peter Green was mentally unstable and left the band in 1970. The band then sifted through a number of singers and guitarists, some as edgy as Green, while bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood, hardly "leaders" sat in the middle of the vortex. In 1975 they went in a boldly different direction by adding Lindsey Buckingham on guitar, along with his girlfriend Stevie Nicks. And the rest was history. Like its predecessor, Rumours sounds nothing like any of the older Fleetwood Macs since two of the three major contributors were new to the band and given full latitude to write songs in their own style (Christine McVie would continue to serve as the other third of the band's creative outlet, while Fleetwood and John McVie historically wrote little to nothing).

Most (not quite all) of the songs on this album still get regular airplay on the radio and other outlets. "Don't Stop" of course was a huge hit in the 1992 as the official anthem of Bill Clinton's successful presidential campaign, and I think "Go Your Own Way" was in Forrest Gump. I can even remember as a kid hearing these songs on the "modern" radio station, circa 1982 or so, while Buckingham's "Never Going Back Again" was used for some children's programming segment on PBS back in the day. Even more than the previous album, Rumours became the soundtrack of a generation, not bad for a band that started life as a particularly pure vein of British blues. Of course the band around this time was experiencing quite a storm in the media and among themselves, hence the apt title of the album. That's well chronicled elsewhere and I don't have the stamina to dissect all of that.

Rumours was also a high point for the irreversibly changed Fleetwood Mac. In spite of high anticipation for 1979's double-album Tusk, it was clear the band was showing signs of overheating, like everything swirling around this album finally started to catch up with them. The 1980's are better known for Stevie Nicks' solo work than that of Fleetwood Mac and although the band was technically still "together" more than officially disbanded. Aside from 2003's Say You Will, they haven't been much of an active recording unit, though the live The Dance did wonders to resuscitate their image and they have no problem selling out arenas to this day.