‘Secret Love’: The missing ‘Rumours’ gem that ties the story together
There’s nothing more annoying than feeling torn about something others love, like you’ve somehow been left out of the secret, seeing a different version of it than everyone else. There’s nothing worse than hearing, “you either get it or you don’t”, as if that’s a valid excuse to dismiss all the reasons something might not land, even when it feels like something’s missing. All of this rings true. Art is subjective, after all…except when it comes to Rumours. In that case, you either get it or you don’t.
If we’re ignoring the obvious success of the album for a moment, Rumours is actually fairly polarising, to the point where we even once ran a for and against feature arguing its worthiness of the “classic album” label. Safe to say, then, that some genuinely do get it while others don’t, which usually, as is now clear, comes down to whether the songs are as timeless and ingenious as they seem or whether the record’s legacy (or mystification) has elongated its relevance.
After all, most of us are familiar with the infamous Rumours story, where disagreements and breakups almost ruined everything but somehow didn’t, and even made the music better, because they were able to somehow constantly exist on the edge of falling apart while tapping into a level of artistic excellence you can only truly reach when your head’s fully gone. It’s storytelling cryptonite, is what it is: it’s the typical tale of people who loved and hated each other all at once to the point of accidental genius.
But while this mess will always be one of the best things about it, there always seemed to be something just beyond reach that wasn’t quite touched upon with as much fervour as the other phases, memories as emotions. We’ve got embittered resignation in ‘Dreams’, pure brutality in ‘Go Your Own Way’, gorgeous lamentation in ‘Songbird’, longing in ‘Landslide’, and, of course, a powerful clusterfuck of mixed strengths in ‘The Chain’. But what about peaceful surrender? Sure, there are moments of that if we look hard enough, but is there anything that feels like a real, final sense of resolve?
Well, apparently, there was, but it got booted off. Nicks wrote ‘Secret Love’ about an affair and intended it to be for Rumours, but it was removed for reasons unknown. However, it offers a perspective that the record seems to otherwise lack, a kind of vulnerability she injects into many of its songs but without the usual bitter edge. Almost like a final closing segment of last thoughts, the kind that would have offered a completely new perspective.
Perhaps that’s why, when she brought it to 2011’s In Your Dreams, her producer, Glen Ballard, said, “Where has this little gem been hiding?” A gem that was taken from the threads of Rumours without a second thought, despite it offering a different kind of melancholy that quite literally says, “I am not asking forever from you, I’m just asking to be held for a while.” There’s a deeper, more cutting story there, one of the typically Rumours-esque heartbreak, but it’s also one that recognises how much you go through when listening to the album before offering one last moment of respite: “You need some rest, my darling. It’s best.”
These aren’t just the words that close the song; they’re also the words that feel missing from the broader Rumours story, leaving it with a taste of something constantly on edge without any real conclusion. We experience the fights, the fallouts, the moments of sentimental reflection, and everything in between, but it becomes harder to find the moments offering a more distant perspective, where we realise we’ve been through a lot, and now we deserve to make peace with it all.
That said, maybe it’s better that Rumours remains prickly to the touch. Without anything that offers a broader reflection, perhaps that’s what makes it seem more resonant and timeless, because life doesn’t always give you closure or a definitive ending to a particular chapter. Sometimes, it’s ongoing, and sometimes, we never get solutions, even if it feels like getting it is the only way to move on. Suppose in that way, ‘Secret Love’ might be the album’s missing piece, but its absence makes its story feel even stronger.
