Yesterday's Gone, But It Still Sounds Great (Rumours: Expanded And Remastered - Fleetwood Mac)

Member Name: opinions4u

Product:	Rumours: Expanded And Remastered - Fleetwood Mac
Date:	15/09/02 (181 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's a damn fine record, Guitars, Songwriting

Disadvantages: Dodgy cover

Being a mere youth, I discovered this album in the relatively modern times of 1988. A mate had convinced me to travel down to Birmingham and the NEC to see a dated band called Fleetwood Mac on a May Saturday night.

Second track in they did a cover of the BBC Grand Prix theme music and I never looked back. Monday morning it was off to the record shop to hand over £10 for a CD of Rumours. The credits put me right on the Grand Prix theme!

So, playing a 1977 release in 2002, does it stand the test of time and should those not yet exposed to Rumours invest?

The band at the time of writing the album included Mick Fleetwood on drums and John McVie on bass, the two who gave the band its name. McVie?s wife Christine (formerly Christine Perfect) and American singer songwriter Stevie Nicks, with her talented song writing partner Lindsey Buckingham made up a team whose personal lives were going through turmoil.

That turmoil, highlighted by the breakdown of the two main personal relationships within the band, was probably the key to the extraordinary song writing that presented Rumours to an audience that was beginning to leave mainstream music and find the joys of punk.

Each of the eleven tracks tells its story. As an extremely talented writer herself, it is perhaps a shame that Nicks only gives us two glimpses of her abilities on Rumours, but Dreams, recently covered by The Corrs, is of the highest quality. Telling the tale of a woman accepting a need for freedom in her man but warning him of loneliness ahead, she encapsulates the death of her own relationship with Buckingham and gives the world a song to cherish.

Christine McVie has one of the clearest voices in music. Songbird, which ended that Birmingham night in 1988, is one of those moments in life where you simply have to stop and listen. Sentimental, yes. Contrasted by the rockier feel of Don?t Stop, also written
by McVie but sung predominantly b
y Buckingham again focuses predominantly on the relationships theme, but despite the meaningful lyrics its just a damn fine rock track with some marvellous guitar work.

Buckingham himself pens the best track, Go Your Own Way, effortless guitar and cracking lyrical content again drawing on the failing of a relationship.

Other great moments, particularly You Make Loving Fun, fill the 39 minutes of musical history on this album, but it is The Chain, credited to all five band members, the is perhaps the easiest to remember. Drawing on the blue roots of the band in the sixties, John McVie develops the bass line dramatically as Mick Fleetwood, with his brushes and drum sticks, hammers away to a crescendo of magic that used to open Formula One Grand Prix coverage on the BBC.

It is extraordinary that within the emotional turmoil of their intermingled personal lives that a band could put together an album as marvellous as Rumours. All the more remarkable is that the music stands the test of time and the band thrived beyond 1977.

If you have never heard Rumours, like the sound of a fine guitar and appreciate genuine song writing talent, then this is an investment well worth making.

All good record shops and Amazon.co.uk stock it. Presumably Ebay do as well, but I'm not going to mention that as their advert on this site is irritating me at the moment!

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