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ALBUM REVIEW

FLEETWOOD MAC

RUMOURS

Released -  March 24, 1977 on Warner Bros. Records. Produced by Fleetwood Mac, Richard Dashut and Ken Caillat

Lindsey Buckingham - Lead Vocals & Vocal Harmonies; Guitars 
Christine McVie -  Lead Vocals & Vocal Harmonies; Pianos; Synthesizer
Stevie Nicks - Lead Vocals & Vocal Harmonies
John McVie - Bass
Mick Fleetwood - Drums & Percussion

All songs written by Fleetwood Mac.

REVIEW

Gosh, what an excellent album this one is! Most of the songs on here were written about fellow band members, with most of the songs dealing with the breakup of Christie and John McVie's 8 year marriage, and the ending of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks' 8 year common law marriage; with both of the relationships coming to an end at the same time.

The two best songs on Rumours and perhaps two of their all around best known tracks are Christie McVie's "Don't Stop" and Buckingham's "Go Your Own Way". "Don't Stop" was Christie's way of getting over what at first was a bad breakup with John. It has to go down as one of the nicest break-up songs ever written to anybody, packed full of positive thoughts and wishes. It also of course, be it years later, became known as Bill Clinton's theme song for his election to President of the United States.

"Go Your Own Way" was Buckingham's goodbye song to Nicks, who wasn't too fond of all the lyrics. As Nicks put it, "I never shacked up with anybody while we were together" and she wanted her former mate to remove the soon to be famous lyric in the song that suggested she did. Buckingham never did remove those lyrics.

There are five more tens on this LP. One of them is the opening tune "Second Hand News", which Buckingham didn't write about Nicks, but about a girl he had a very short affair with after he broke up with Nicks. "Dreams", written by Nicks and about leaving Buckingham, is another winner and was the only U.S. number one hit song for the group. "You Make Loving Fun", sung by Christie McVie, was about the guy she dated after breaking up with John. "I Don't Want to Know" was actually written by Buckingham and Nicks together, before their breakup, but for whatever reason only Nicks got the writing credit. Then we have "The Chain". This one was credited to the entire band, mainly because of the way the music to the song came about. The lyrics were from two different songs that Nicks and Christie McVie had written separately and were then combined.

There are two other great songs on Rumours. "Never Going Back Again" is one of them. The only problem with this ditty is it's too short, clocking in at just two minutes. "Gold Dust Woman", which closes out the album, is the other great one.

- Keno, January, 2010

To listen to some soundclips from RUMOURS, or to purchase it, click on: Rumours

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