The 1982 album Mick Fleetwood thought was too overlooked: “We took some blows for it”
One of the most successful records ever made was Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours (that’s true).
While the band no doubt enjoyed how successful the record was, there’s no escaping the fact that it is the byproduct of absolute chaos. The band was going through a period of serious friction, as different members were falling out, affairs were happening, and an overreliance on certain substances was impeding a lot of creative decisions.
This kind of atmosphere is reflected on the album. While the songs that fill up the record are exceptional listens, there’s not a whole lot of cohesion holding them together, which is because each person who was working on the album decided to put whatever they were experiencing into a song, and if it was good enough, it made the cut, regardless of how different it sounded from other tracks on there.
For instance, you have an upbeat love song like ‘You Make Loving Fun’, which was written by Christine McVie. The track wasn’t about her husband and fellow band member, John McVie, because their marriage was completely crumbling. However, she had begun seeing the band’s lighting director, and opted to write a song about how he was rekindling love for her.
“I thought I was drying up,” said McVie. “I was practically panicking because every time I sat down at a piano, nothing came out… Then, one day in Sausalito, I just sat down and wrote in the studio, and the four-and-a-half songs of mine on the album are a result of that.”
Alternatively, you then have songs like ‘The Chain’, which are much heavier in nature. This was a track written by Stevie Nicks about her and Lindsey Buckingham’s relationship as it was slowly falling apart. You can hear her distress and frustration in every single word, and it acts as a great reflection of how much an individual effort Rumours was. Despite it being released by the band as a whole, each member contributed in their own, separate ways.
Though Rumours was a success, when it came to their next album, Lindsey Buckingham wasn’t keen on repeating the process. He wanted to make a record that felt much more concise, following the same theme and having an overarching sound. As such, the idea of collaboration essentially went out the window when it came to making the next record, and he wrote Tusk pretty much all by himself.
Tusk was considered a failure, and it led to Buckingham wanting to step out of the driver’s seat. Then, for the next album, Mirage, Fleetwood Mac went back to their old ways and made a record which was much more of a group effort, as plenty of different voices were added to the mix. It certainly didn’t do as well as Rumours, even though the writing processes were very much aligned.
Mick Fleetwood always thought this seemed a tad unfair, which is why he refers to Mirage as one of the few overlooked Fleetwood Mac albums. It was the result of multiple different writing processes, and the band came close to falling apart completely. It all culminated in a record which Fleetwood still thinks doesn’t get enough credit.
“I don’t think it’s wrong to say it’s overlooked. There’s no doubt that having come off Tusk, there was a conscious effort to make Mirage into more of a band album,” he said. “Because Tusk had been very much Lindsey’s vision. And it was a great one – along with [1969’s] Then Play On, it’s probably my favourite Fleetwood Mac album.”
He concluded, “So it was a highly successful creative moment. But at the time, we took some blows for it, and Lindsey in particular, because the album wasn’t as successful as Rumours. How could it be, anyhow? But that being beside the point, I think Lindsey sort of handed back the mantle on Mirage. It was, ‘Let’s just do this as a band.’ That was the vibe going into it.”
