Rumours: How Fleetwood Mac’s Greatest Album Almost Tore Them Apart

“Everybody was pretty weirded out”

Buckingham and Nicks joined a group with its own internal problems. Singer-songwriter and keyboardist Christine Perfect had married bassist John McVie and joined Fleetwood Mac in 1970 after a whirlwind romance, but their relationship had deteriorated through years of touring and infidelities, and they separated during the band’s 1975 US tour to support their self-titled tenth album, the first record made with Buckingham and Nicks.

Improbably, considering the behind-the-scenes turmoil, Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled 1975 album saved the band. Recorded in just three months in early 1975, it saw the newcomers’ songs beautifully complement Christine McVie’s, giving the group a sonic makeover. Nicks’ Rhiannon and Landslide were hazy, mystic pop with dark undercurrents, Buckingham’s Monday Morning made for a playful, West Coast-inspired opener; dig a little deeper, however, and there’s already the barbed, restless energy he’d make his own. And perhaps the competition was good for Christine McVie, who was inspired to pen the dreamy Warm Ways and Over My Head.

Still, Fleetwood Mac wasn’t an instant success. It was only after giving 1975 over to relentless touring that the new line-up made up for lost ground, and by the time the album finally reached No.1 in the US, in September 1976 (15 months after release), they’d already been holed up for six months recording what would become their next record..

“If you took out the bad stuff, there wouldn’t have been a Rumours”

One of many surprising Fleetwood Mac facts from this era, Rumours was originally recorded under the working title “Yesterday’s Gone” – perhaps a reflection of the group’s collective mindset as they entered the studio. Time on the road had caused ructions in the already volatile Fleetwood Mac line-up and once the group’s penchant for hedonism was added to the mix, the new sessions were fraught. “Everybody was pretty weirded out,” Christine McVie told Rolling Stone. “Somehow Mick was there, the figurehead: ‘We must carry on. Let’s be mature about this, sort it out.’ Somehow we waded through it.” The McVies managed to record Rumours while barely speaking to one another, while Buckingham and Nicks were prone to explosive rows. Meanwhile, Buckingham and John McVie were butting heads, with the bassist throwing a glass of vodka in the guitarist’s face after a particularly tetchy stand-off.

Unsurprisingly, the psychic unrest manifested itself in the songs, which ran the whole gamut of break-up emotions, from heartbreak (Oh Daddy) to resignation (Dreams), anger (Go Your Own Way, Second Hand News) to moving on (Don’t Stop, You Make Loving Fun). As Nicks said in 2003, “If you took out all the bad stuff in the band, the songs wouldn’t have happened. There simply wouldn’t have been a Rumours if everything had been fabulous.”

Finding their sweet spot

But if Rumours only amounted to late-night diary entries and barbed asides, we’d not be talking about it today. Winningly, the album married the psychodrama of the lyrics to bulletproof melodies, gleaming production and dazzling musicality. These are songs and performances that mix sorrow with euphoria, make sunshine-pop out of agitation, and they’re all underpinned by a slinky, fabulously indulgent sound – all heavy harmonies and muscular rhythm section.

On release, Rumours spread like wildfire, selling ten million copies in its first year alone and giving the estranged group the incentive to stay together. The albums that followed would see them stretch out and continue to enjoy huge success, but Rumours represents their sweetest spot – the point where burgeoning talent met established musicianship and a whole lot of emotional upheaval and decadence to forge something magnificent that we still can’t get enough of.

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