Rumours, 35 Years and the Night I Almost Got Killed for Changing a Record

Hitfix has a great read about Fleetwood Mac’s excellent Rumours album, released 35 (actually 36) years ago.  There is a new deluxe edition, that I’ll have to check out (here’s the Spotify link).  Though my favorite Fleetwood Mac era was the earlier, unknown by most yuppies, blues era, there is no denying that Rumours is one of the best records ever made.

The quintet took a year to record “Rumours” in Sausalito, Calif. at the Record Plant. While they were in the studio, their self-titled 10th album (and the first to feature Buckingham and Nicks) was gaining traction and was a clear sign that moving from the blues-based sound of the previous efforts to a pop-oriented sound was the right move commercially. That was only confirmed with “Rumours,” which spent 31 non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

Along with Frampton Comes Alive, Europe ’72, At Fillmore East and Hotel California, Rumours constitutes a material part of the soundtrack to my high school years.  We played the absolute heck out of those records.

In fact, Rumours (and, more importantly, Stevie Nicks) was so beloved by my crowd that some cat actually tried to stab me one night for talking it off the turntable at a party.  The turntable arm was up and one side (side 2, the one with The Chain and Gold Dust Woman) had played repeatedly for hours and hours.  Fortunately, another dude tackled him from behind before he could complete his honor killing.

I think we put Hotel California on after that.  Only dudes in that band, and no one’s going to try to kill anybody over Don Henley.