The Fleetwood Mac album Lindsey Buckingham called too “generic”
What really made Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours such an iconic album?
Well, there were several determining factors that came into the equation. First, and most importantly, was the music. While the band in their former guises had flirted with the realms of blues rock, this was now Fleetwood Mac at their dream pop best. Lindsey Buckingham’s guitar solos were the missing piece of the sonic jigsaw, blending perfectly with the air-tight rhythm section while Stevie Nicks quietly became the songwriting force they never knew they needed.
Then, there was, of course, that drama that came with this new formation. Arguably, the key ingredient in this recipe of sonic drama, the tales of heartbreak, betrayal and forbidden lust made all of the songs in the direct uniquely captivating. Knowing that they were all based on factual events that happened between the members of this one small band, Rumours became a musical soap opera that those not even musically inclined lapped up.
It is essentially what made the album and its title so perfect. It encapsulated the essence of Chinese whispers that existed within the band, without being overt about it. Anything more would have undercut the subtly of the album and perhaps hinted towards the entire thing being more contrived than it actually was. Ultimately, it captured a crucial chapter in the band’s career that was simply unrepeatable.
Which they soon learned on their 1979 follow up Tusk, which started to see this sonic outfit come apart at the seams. The tension that made Rumours so compelling was no longer becoming slightly jarring, and the music suffered for it, and to be frank, most of their subsequent follow-ups carried on in the same vein. Tried as they did to adapt to the changing times of music, they never quite managed to create something that was as creatively succinct as their 1977 effort.
Who was to blame was a question asked by many critics. But in true Fleetwood Mac fashion, it was one that was addressed with a fair amount of squabbling and finger pointing. Lindsey Buckingham was largely blamed as the troublemaker in the band and so when they embarked on their first effort without him, he was relatively quick to return the criticism.
“Well, Behind the Mask which still had Stevie and Christine, I certainly listened to it maybe once, but I didn’t put too much into it because the music was already becoming more generic. When I heard that Dave Mason was joining, my initial reaction was, ‘Oh, that could be good.’ But apparently, it wasn’t. Then when I heard that they were doing this nostalgia package tour with REO Speedwagon and Pat Benatar, I was like, ‘What happened?’”
The penny must have dropped for Nicks also, who left the band after that record, leaving them to continue on with their slump, with the follow-up record Time. It was a slow fizzle out from a band who burned brighter than any others. But given the personal nature of the records that were so successful, it could never carry on that way.
