Hypothesis : I have enough courage to have an opinion about this album.
Lie : I have enough courage to listen to this album.
If it could be said that one dreary morning in nineteen seventy-six, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, John McVie, Christine McVie and Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac ’decided’ to cut an album at The Record Plant, Sausalito, California it would be true but for the part where the decision was theirs. Just a few months before ’Rumours’ (1977) (The name, incidentally suggested by John McVie) life had decided for them. ’
Rumours’ was recorded amid breaking relationships and torn lives.Far from the clever juxtaposition of lyric, melody, rhythm and harmony that defined pop music, Rumours had(and to this day does)laid out bare the truth of what happened. Every song on this album is a friend in anguish, a lover torn, a knight of hope. How many dimensions, I dare not count. There are no ’best tracks’ on this album. Personally, I could tell you what each song is about, but I shall refrain; for in doing so here, I will be a liar.
Noteworthy in the case of the otherwise imperceptive listener is the perfect three-voice(L.Buckingham, S.Nicks, C.McVie)harmony over the perfect gel of the instruments. Engineers Richard Dashut and Ken Ken Caillat have taken this album to the realm of impeccable.
Aside from all this, ’Rumours’ was the 1977 Grammy Album of the Year, and the 6th most successful recording of all time, selling more than 30 million copies and riding for 30 weeks at #1 on the U.S. album charts.
On a personal note, the first time I heard anything from ’Rumours’ it was these words :
’’Thunder only happens when its raining
And players only love you when they’re playing
Women they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean you’ll know...you’ll know’’
- ’’Dreams’’ Stevie Nicks (Rumours, 1977)