ROCK
Fleetwood Mac Rumours (Warner Bros.)
In 1977 they were everyone’s favorite rock ‘n’ roll soap opera, this band of ex-spouses and ended lovers, and it’s often been said that genuine raw emotion played a key role in the artistic and commercial success of Rumours and the initial Buckingham-Nicks version of Fleetwood Mac.
“The truth about Rumours,” says singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks in the liner notes of the superb 35th-anniversary reissue of the album, “is that Rumours was the truth.”
Singer-singwriter-guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and Nicks had broken off a longtime relationship. Founder-bassist John McVie and singer-songwriter-keyboardist Christine McVie’s marriage ended in divorce. Founder-drummer Mick Fleetwood and Nicks were “rumoured” to be sleeping together. And so on.
But miraculously, they all stuck together musically. Indelible songs like “Go Your Own Way,” “Gold Dust Woman,” “Don’t Stop” and “Dreams” resulted.
The three-disc expanded edition includes a live disc recorded at ’77 dates in Oklahoma City and Tulsa (Buckingham can be heard noodling the chords to “Tusk,” which was yet to be born) and a third disc has alternate takes, the outtake “Planets of the Universe” and demos from the “Rumours” studio sessions. The pricey deluxe edition includes all this plus an additional outtakes disc, a DVD and a vinyl version of the album.
Gene Triplett / OKC / Friday, February 8, 2013
