By J.C. Correa

When it comes to groundbreaking albums that have stood the test of time, few have been as culturally seismic and replete with such robust mileage across decades and multiple generations as Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. Its reputation as a beloved collection of mid ‘70s radio staples is only matched (and maybe even surpassed) by the backstage drama associated with its creation; particularly the tumultuous love affairs and simultaneous heartbreaks that took place between four fifths of those who made it. And yet, like any great work of pop music art, the product has largely endured because the songs themselves are revered.   

As it stands, the record will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its release next year. To mark the occasion, renowned Twin Cities-based music journalist and author Andrea Swensson has put together an impressive, detailed account that delves deeply into the backstory, recording, impact, and eventual legacy of this seminal album. Her latest book, Fleetwood Mac & Rumours: 50 Years, will be released later this month, and is sure to have great appeal for fans of the band, and particularly of its Rumours era. 

During a recent conversation with Generation X Wire, Swensson explained that she was prompted to undertake this endeavor because she wanted to award a seriousness to Fleetwood Mac’s music, since most of what’s already been written about them deals with their personal relationships and how that all informed the songs. “The drama behind the band, and their breakups, their reconnections, their affairs and drug use, all these things are very fun to write about because they’re spicy. But I feel like at a certain point in their growth as a band it just totally overshadowed what they were actually doing technically, as songwriters, as musicians, on all these different instruments,” she observed. “I wanted to focus on how these songs were actually recorded. I touch on a little bit of the drama, but I didn’t want that to be the focus of the book, I wanted it to really be about the music.”

As host of the official podcast on Prince – and having written extensively about him (including liner notes for some of his posthumous releases), as well as her state’s local scene – Swenson acknowledged that another thing that drew her to this new assignment was the unique opportunity it presented. “I really wanted to branch out and take some of the skills that I’ve gained through meticulously researching Prince and try that on a different artist and see what I could uncover and learn about someone that isn’t from Minnesota,” she admitted. “Why has this remained such a timeless album and collection of songs? I’m fascinated by its continued relevance in an almost mysterious way. There are so many albums that came out in the ‘70s that are fabulous albums, really great recording quality and songwriting, but we don’t still hear all those songs or talk about those bands.”

Like many people of her age perhaps, Swensson concedes that she was introduced to Fleetwood Mac through her parents, who she claims are huge fans. “I was listening to their albums on vinyl as a child in memories that aren’t even fully formed in my brain,” she confessed. “Their songs have just been such a big part of my world my whole life.” Though Rumours clearly represented the pinnacle of the band’s popularity and commercial success, many casual listeners may be completely unaware that that particular iteration of the group was actually far removed from how it all began. Started in the late ‘60s by blues guitarist Peter Green, the outfit was at first primarily operating in that specific style, before gradually branching out musically into other terrain. Swensson’s book dutifully covers these initial years in order to give readers a better understanding of what it took to get the band into the famed version that would eventually be known as “the Rumours five.” That lineup would include founding drummer Mick Fleetwood, along with fellow Brits John and Christine McVie (bass and keyboards/vocals, respectively). From the American side of the pond, they were complemented by Lindsey Buckingham (guitar/vocals) and lead vocalist Stevie Nicks. “My dad really loves the Bob Welch era, just the few albums immediately preceding when Stevie and Lindsey joined the band,” added Swensson. “That’s the era he always gravitates towards. My mom loves the hits. She graduated the year that Rumours came out.” 

From the way she spoke about the record, Swensson seems to concur with her mother. When asked what aspects of the album stand out to her the most, the author singled out the iconic track “The Chain” as a great example of amazing performances given by the entire personnel. “They really put their cards on the table of what they each had to offer. The way that their voices all come together is so powerful that it makes you wonder why they weren’t doing that on every song,” she opined. On that same note, she described Nicks’ ending of “Gold Dust Woman” as truly hair raising. “The interesting thing about those sessions is that they went into the Record Plant as rising rock stars, but not necessarily famous yet. And then by the time they left three months later, their album that came out the year before had started climbing the charts and they were suddenly the talk of the town. When Stevie was working on “Gold Dust Woman” there were people buzzing around the studio. There was a journalist in the control room just watching her sing. So, you just think about the amount of pressure that they were suddenly under to make more hits and to keep building on this momentum,” Swensson marveled. “The fact that she was able to go into the room and give that kind of performance with that kind of spotlight shining on her at all times, to me that makes it even more impressive.”

It’s not surprising that an album as celebrated as Rumours has been reissued multiple times over the years in various editions. Equally unsurprising is the fact that Swensson has a clear personal favorite among these. “The Super Deluxe Reissue has the most vault material, early demos and things that never got released. It’s so interesting to me to piece together the trajectory of how these songs came to be,” she enthused. “My favorite track on that is the Stevie Nicks demo of “Dreams” because it’s just her alone at this little keyboard. To hear something that is now so memorable and so iconic – but it’s just mostly in her head, and she’s trying to get it out and convey what she’s hearing – it is totally hypnotizing. Her vocal delivery on the demo is incredible. She was feeling and conceiving that whole world of “Dreams” in her mind, and I just think it’s invaluable to hear things like that where you get to really trace it back to the roots.”

On the other end of her tempestuous dynamic with Buckingham, Nicks was known to have had a solid friendship with Christine McVie, that remained so across the decades. “They were basically in a fishbowl. There was this expectation fueled by the sexism of the industry at that time that women are catty, and there can only be one, and one is going to have to dominate the other in order to even exist. And they just didn’t feel that way,” Swensson emphasized. “They wanted to be friends, they wanted to have a partner in this hurricane of attention and pressure and drama that they were both dealing with in their personal lives, and I think they really saw each other as a port in the storm, and someone that they could trust and have as a confidant. I think when you go through an experience as intense as the one that they went through, that means you’re just bonded for life, even if you don’t see each other. I think that is the true nature of most female friendships, but our culture wants us to think that that’s not true.”

Though Fleetwood Mac last performed in 2019 (with Mike Campbell and Neil Finn replacing Buckingham), the band was dealt a fatal blow with the unfortunate passing of the aforementioned McVie three years later at the age of 79. Like millions of other fans at the time, Swensson reacted strongly to the news. “It’s so sad because obviously she was so talented. She wrote many of their biggest hits. The spotlight was really shining on Stevie as the frontwoman, and then this tumultuous Stevie-Lindsey dynamic, and (McVie) was content to be this kind of stationary figure on the side behind her stack of keyboards just plugging away. But in a way I think it allowed her to be overshadowed and underestimated, and I think there’s been a real awakening around her true talent and what she did. It’s really tragic that it took her passing away for people to finally have that conversation and really start to recognize her gifts. And of course, it put this finality on this band. It just drew this line of where the story of Fleetwood Mac ends,” Swensson lamented. 

Still, she holds out hope that Buckingham will find a way to reconcile with Nicks in a manner that will result in a future collaboration. “Reading so much of their press coverage and interviews, and watching so many of their performances, there is obviously something between them that goes beyond a relationship or a band,” Swensson acknowledged. “There’s a soul connection. And I do think as you age and you start to look back on your life you don’t want those loose ends to be out there. I would imagine that they both have a feeling that eventually there’s gonna have to be some kind of peace. Whether that means singing or making music together again, who knows? But I do get the sense in their most recent public interviews that there’s maybe a reconnection happening.”

Taking a moment to reflect on the true legacy of Rumours, Swensson described the album as pioneering in a bare-all kind of way that is very common nowadays. “We expect to know everything about our celebrities now. We want to know who they’re dating and what they’re doing, what their mental health struggles are, and that’s all just out there for people. In the ‘70s it wasn’t,” she noted. “There was a lot of rumor mill type of stuff going on, but it was really unique for someone like Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham to be writing so autobiographically and so honestly about things that were literally happening to them at that moment.” To further make her point, Swensson used an excellent contemporary example. “When you think about a Taylor Swift or someone who has made a whole industry out of this kind of confessional-song storytelling, I think they were really early in that, crystalizing something and really paving a route for more people to take in the future.” In the end, Swensson feels strongly about this style of music’s timeless relevance. “This music, which you can describe as pop-rock, Americana, singer-songwriter, it keeps having resurgences, and new generations of listeners are gravitating towards that because it is, in a way, kind of pure. You’re just hearing the voice, you’re hearing the instruments, you’re hearing the emotions behind what they’re saying, and there’s not a lot of additional layers getting in the way of that. It’s a very straightforward expression.”

Despite her best attempts to interview all five of them, Swensson’s book ultimately does not include the direct participation of any of the members of Fleetwood Mac. With an Apple TV documentary scheduled to come out next year to coincide with the album’s anniversary, the band has refrained from participating in other projects in the meantime. “It’s funny because once the book got announced, then the label reached back out to ask for some copies of it,” Swensson ironically pointed out. “They’re definitely aware that I’ve been working on this, even though it wasn’t a partnership. I know someone that plays in Stevie’s band that’s from Minneapolis, so even to just get to hand her the book at some point would be a real honor, so we’ll see.” In the meantime, Swensson is stoked about being scheduled to do some events around the February anniversary next year. “It turns out there’s a lot of Fleetwood Mac cover bands in America,” the author jokingly declared. “I’m excited, I’ve been in touch with a couple already, and I’m hoping to find some more. I think it’ll be really fun to just travel around a little bit with the book and see some of these bands and talk to other people about how this music has stayed alive.”

Order Fleetwood Mac & Rumours: 50 Years on Amazon here.

Follow Andrea Swensson on her website, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and Instagram.