Fleetwood Mac Releases the Classic Album "Rumours" this Week in 1977

-
By 1976 the classic line up of Fleetwood Mac were in a very strange situation. Stevie Nicks & Lindsey Buckingham had just broken up, as did bassist John McVie & his wife pianist/vocalist Christine McVie. On top of that Mick Fleetwood the leader & drummer of the band had just divorced his wife Jenny, who was the sister of Patti Boyd. (George Harrison & Eric Clapton's ex).

They decided to stay together as a band and do their second album together. They recorded the album in California, around the San Francisco & Hollywood areas. There were alot of awkward times in the studio but from February to August 1976, they would put together a masterpiece album. The songs were mostly written about each other, which is why the album was called Rumours. The music they were making made everyone feel better about the personal situations they were in.

Rumours opens with a Lindsey Buckingham song with a catchy sing a long beat, "Second Hand News" a term fitting for the album title.

It segues into the Stevie Nicks classic "Dreams". Stevie wrote the song very quickly on a piano, in between studio time recording the album. It was her more positive view on her & Lindsay's breakup. The band decided to record it the next day. Her seductive angelic voice takes the listener away to far off place, as Fleetwood's drums leads the songs back ground. The song was released as the first single off Rumours and stayed all summer long hitting #1 in June. It was Fleetwood Macs only #1 single.

The second single off the album was Christine Mcvie's "Dont Stop". It was her song about moving on after eight years of marriage to John Mcvie. "Yesterdays gone" she sang, as the song went all the way up to #3 on the US charts.
Buckinghams "Go Your Own Way" was another single off the album & reached #10 on the charts. Its Lindsey's version of his breakup with Stevie Nicks. A little more colder & harsher version of the story. It's regarded a classic and maybe his best commercial work.
Side One of the album closes with McVies beautiful "Song Bird" which use to be the final number at many Fleetwood Mac shows.

Side Two opens with the great "The Chain". The song is credited to all five members of the band and although not a single, has received huge airplay on FM radio over the years making it another Mac classic. The dueling of the vocals between Nicks & Buckingham seems to be both taking out their aggressions on one another. The music is fantastic right through to its climatic jam ending, with John Mcvies bass lines leading the charge.

"You make Loving Fun" was another Christine Mcvie song, and the most positive upbeat romantic song on the album. It was the fourth & final single off the album and it to was a top 10 hit, peaking at #9.
"I Don't Want to Know" is a Stevie Nicks song with a nice beat that I always liked, telling her ex lover to move on & not drive her crazy.

The album comes to an end with another Stevie classic "Gold Dust Woman". It's about Stevie's struggle with drugs, cocaine mainly "take your silver spoon & dig your grave". The music takes us on a mystical hazy trip as the lyrics tell us to "pick up the pieces & go home", after the illusions of love have been shattered. Great stuff. Along with "Dreams" & "Rhiannon" this is some of Stevie's most popular work during her Mac days.

Rumors was released in February 1977 and spent 31 weeks (8 months) at #1 on the US album charts. Overall it was on the charts for over 2 1/2 years- 130 weeks. It won a Grammy for album of the year & is one of the top selling albums of all time. It has sold over 30 million copies world wide and is considered one of the best Rock albums of all time.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ON NOVEMBER 13th................. The Odd Couple Lives

-
Image
"On November 13, Felix Unger was asked to remove himself from his place of residence. That request came from his wife. Deep down, he knew she was right, but he also knew that someday, he would return to her. With nowhere else to go, he appeared at the home of his childhood friend, Oscar Madison. Several years earlier, Madison's wife had thrown him out, requesting that he never return. Can two divorced men share an apartment without driving each other crazy?" This was the opening dialogue of centerfieldmaz's favorite TV show: "the Odd Couple". This dialogue was used for the first two seasons. It is also featured on the third season of the DVD releases as well. The narration was done by actor Bill Woodson. The famous Odd Couple theme was written by non other than Neil Hefti, originally for the 1968 Odd Couple movie. Niel Hefti also did the classic Batman 1960's TV series theme song & music for that, another centerfieldmaz favorite TV sh
Read more

Remembering Vixen Founder / Guitarist; Jan Kuehnemund (1961-2013)

-
Image
centerfieldmaz was shocked to learn of the sudden passing of Jan Kuehnemund, the founding member of the all female metal band Vixen. Jan was a fantastic guitarist, song writer & women pioneer in Heavy Metal. I am a huge fan of hard rock all girl bands & Vixen were one my long time favorites. Janice Lynn Kuehnemund was born November 18th, 1961 in St. Paul Minnesota. The female guitarist formed one of the first all female Metal bands in Minnesota with singer Janet Gardner while in high school in 1980. By 1985 they moved the band to Los Angles California, to be part of the Heavy Metal scene. In 1987 the classic Vixen line up of Jan Kuehnemund (lead guitar) Janet Gardner (vocals/ guitar) Share Pederson (bass) & Roxy Petrucci (drums) formed & released their debut album the following year. Vixen 1988 In a world of all male Heavy Metal bands during its heyday, Vixen were groundbreaking in being an all female metal band. The Runaways, with Joan Jett & Lita Ford
Read more

Remembering Bobby Ojeda's Tragic Boating Accident (1993)

-
Image
Steve Olin, Tim Crews & Bob Ojeda March 22 nd 1993: was an off day from Spring Training, for three Cleveland Indians pitchers; Former Mets 1986 World Champion pitcher; Bobby Ojeda, Tim Crews & Steve Olin. The three friends, took out an 18-foot open-air bass boat & went out fishing & gator hunting in the darkness of the evening on Lake Nellie in Clermont, Florida. Tragedy struck, when the boat rammed into a private dock that jutted out some 250 feet into the still waters. Two other Cleveland Indians personnel had arrived to meet the fishing party just as the horror took place. They heard Bob Ojeda saying they needed help. The two men jumped into the water and called out for someone to call 911. 27 year old pitcher; Steve Olin was killed instantly. 31 year old pitcher; Tim Crews was alive but was struggling to breathe suffering from massive head wounds. Bobby Ojeda was in & out of shock, he was suffering from head lacerations but was coherent. The
Read more

Remembering Mets History (1979) SNL's Chico Escuela Visits Mets Spring Training & Attempts a Career Comeback

-
Image
Bill Murray interviews (Garrett Morris) Chico Escuela In March 1979, original Saturday Night Live cast member; Garrett Morris joined the Mets at Miller Huggins Field for Spring Training. At the time the Mets were still holding Spring Training in St. Petersburg Florida.  Garrett Morris was posing as  the fictional Mets player, Chico Escuela who wore uniform #5 (cinque).  Escuela was doing his famous spoof of the Latin players of the time, posing as a popular infielder from the Dominican Republic that didn't speak much English. His legendary catch phrase was "baseball been berry- berry good to me". "baseball been berry-berry good... to me" The Chico Escuela character appeared nine times during on SNL's fourth & fifth seasons. He debuted on December 9th, 1978, in a Knight of Columbus sketch as a guest speaker. He then became the Weekend Update Sports reporter, where after being introduced by Jane Curtain, he would reply "tank you Hane". Chico woul
Read more

The History of Yogi Berra & the Yoo-Hoo Chocolate Drink

-
Image
Yogi Berra & Yoo-Hoo's  history go back to the 1950's. Yogi had met the Oliveri Family, the owners of the Yoo-Hoo company at a Country Club function near his home in New Jersey. Natale Olivieri started bottling the chocolate drink in 1928 in Garfield, w Jersey. By the late 1950's he Yoo-Hoo product wasn't selling all that well. Mr. Olivieri asked for Yogi's opinion at the new Jersey function. Berra said he actually liked the soft drink & started promoting it along with his teammates. Soon Yogi put Yoo-Hoo on the map, appearing in commercials, advertisements and supermarkets promotions.  Berra would show up at the factory in Carlstadt, New Jersey & became a hero to the factory workers. He soon became a Vice President of the company owning a large amount of Yoo-Hoo stock. In his auto biography Yogi wrote "One time I was in the office and the phone rang, I always answer a ringing phone, the woman on the other end asked if Yoo-Hoo was hyphenated. I
Read more