Classic Albums: Fleetwood Mac – Rumours
Picture: B-
Sound: C+ Extras: D Main Program: B+
It can be mocked, bent, mutilated, stamped, and spoofed by
many comedians, but the fact of the matter is, Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 album Rumours
is a masterwork of despair and the questioning of what it takes to have an
enduring relationship. Coming at the
end of the counterculture’s classic run in Rock, the chemistry that made the
Lindsay Buckingham/Stevie Nicks era of the band peak caused record sales and became
a landmark commercial success to match the critical accolades. Eagle Vision has reissued the Classic
Albums installment on the making of the album, originally issued by Rhino
at the dawn of the DVD format.
It is also one of the earliest programs produced and
broadcast form the series, so old that it was in the initial batch of
broadcasts that hit the VH-1 network, and was produced in 1997. The show is tremendous, packing a ton of
information in its 75 minutes running time, including all the tracks on the
album, how the members came together to make it, and even how the legendary Silver
Spring was left off of the album.
Since then, of course, it was a big hit off of the band’s live album The
Dance and was finally re-included on the stunning multi-channel DVD-Audio
edition of the Rumours that Warner Bros. issued in 2001.
What is especially impressive about this particular show
is that it showed how savvy the series’ producers were and how well done such
shows could be. As a matter of fact, it
was an idea that was way overdue, covering the stories behind some of the most
important albums ever made, one that lived on after VH-1 dropped out. The show begins with how Peter Green was
about to leave the band as Buckingham was told about the opening. He and Stevie (at the time listed as Stevi)
had issued their famous Buckingham/Nicks album, which had received a bit
of attention. Needless to say they
accepted and history was made.
The songs covered in order of how they are discussed in
this special:
1) Rhiannon
2) You Make
Loving Fun
3) Dreams
4) Second
Hand News
5) Go Your
Own Way
6) Gold
Dust Woman
7) Never
Going Back Again
8) Don’t
Stop
9) Songbird
10) Oh, Daddy
11) Silver Springs
12) I Don’t Want To Know
13) The Chain
The album set a record for most Top Ten hits at the time
and all the cuts became highly played on radio worldwide. Though it is not often said, many of these
songs are modern standards, and the album just delivers still to this day in
its honesty about life and the way people have to deal with each other. It helped build the record industry and is a
classic perfect for the focus of such a show.
If you have never seen the program or heard the whole album, get this
ASAP!
The 1.33 X 1 full frame NTSC video is a little sharper and
clearer than the Rhino DVD, which is just so old, there is no way it could
compete. The new interview footage is
mixed with stills and some older footage of the band performing at times. This remains one of the best DVDs on the
band ever issued. The Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo has no surrounds, which was the case on the Rhino release, but that
featured slightly more articulate PCM 16Bit/48kHz 2.0 Stereo. However, neither DVD can compete with the
stunning audio remastering from the original masters on the DVD-Audio of the
album (MLP sound: A-). That disc also
has a new and totally different set of extras on the making of the album. Like Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick
Road, Eagle and Warner ought to offer a set of both discs. The only extra on this Eagle reissue is a
discography, which is more than the Rhino cardboard-snapper version, which only
had a promo for the company. Classic
Albums: Fleetwood Mac – Rumours is exceptional and strongly recommended.
- Nicholas Sheffo
