Making Rumours

Steve Stiefel, Ken Caillat

Description

Inside the making of one of the biggest-selling albums of all time: Fleetwood Mac's Rumours

Fleetwood Mac's classic 1977 Rumours album topped the Billboard 200 for thirty-one weeks and won the Album of the Year Grammy. More recently, Rolling Stone named it the twenty-fifth greatest album of all time and the hit TV series Glee devoted an entire episode to songs from Rumours, introducing it to a new generation. Now, for the first time, Ken Caillat, the album's co-producer, tells the full story of what really went into making Rumours—from the endless partying and relationship dramas to the creative struggles to write and record "You Make Loving Fun," "Don't Stop," "Go Your Own Way," "The Chain," and other timeless tracks.

• Tells the fascinating, behind-the-music story of the making of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, written by the producer who saw it all happen
• Filled with new and surprising details, such as Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham's screaming match while recording "You Make Loving Fun," how the band coped with the pressures of increasing success, how the master tape nearly disintegrated, and the incredible attention paid to even the tiniest elements of songs, from Lindsey playing a chair to Mick breaking glass
• Includes eighty black-and-white photographs

Foreword by Colbie Caillat ix

Foreword by John Shanks xi

Preface xiii

1. Ken's Wild Ride 1

2. Starting Rumours 23

3. Go Your Own Way 50

4. Oh, Daddy 73

5. You Make Lovin' Fun 101

6. Songbird and Gold Dust Woman 118

7. Don't Stop 136

8. Fleetwood Mac Comes Alive! 160

9. "I Quit!" 193

10. The Boys Are Back in Town 209

11. "You're Fired!" 233

12. Fleetwood Mac Explodes 267

13. The Chain: Keep Us Together 299

14. The Final Mix 324

Epilogue 345

Acknowledgments 349

Index 353

Sujets

• Styles
• Genres
• Grammy Awards
• Album of the Year
• Lindsey Buckingham
• Rumours
• Stevie Nicks
• Fleetwood Mac
• Rock
• Music
• Grammy Award

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 05 mars 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781118282366
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Contents
Foreword by Colbie Caillat
Foreword by John Shanks
Preface
Chapter 1. Ken s Wild Ride
Chapter 2. Starting Rumours
Chapter 3. Go Your Own Way
Chapter 4. Oh, Daddy
Chapter 5. You Make Lovin Fun
Chapter 6. Songbird and Gold Dust Woman
Chapter 7. Don t Stop
Chapter 8. Fleetwood Mac Comes Alive!
Chapter 9. I Quit!
Chapter 10. The Boys Are Back in Town
Chapter 11. You re Fired!
Chapter 12. Fleetwood Mac Explodes
Chapter 13. The Chain: Keep Us Together
Chapter 14. The Final Mix
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Index

This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Copyright 2012 by Ken Caillat and Steven Stiefel. All rights reserved
Photo credits: pp. 2, 19, 20, 33, 59, 167, 170, 176, 177, 179, 180, 181, 217, 241, 243, 282, 283, 321, 329, 335, 341,342, 343, Ken Caillat; pp. 6, 7, Biff Dawes; p. 10, Jeffery Husband; pp. 12, 13, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 40, 41, 60, 138, 184, 190, 197, 198, 202, 210, 211, 212, 214, 234, 237, 239, Herbie Worthington; pp. 18, 21, 24, 26, 27, 153, 158, 178, Nina Urban Bombadier; p. 34, Sally Fleetwood; pp. 35, 46, Record Plant; p. 53, Christina Conte; pp. 55, 163, 207, 326, Cheryl Geary; p. 191, Sam Emerson
Published by John Wiley Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Caillat, Ken.
Making Rumours: the inside story of the classic Fleetwood Mac album/Ken Caillat with Steven Stiefel.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-118-21808-2 (cloth : alk. paper); ISBN 978-1-118-28460-5 (ebk);
ISBN 978-1-118-28236-6 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-28286-1 (ebk)
1. Fleetwood Mac (Musical group). Rumors. I. Stiefel, Steven. II. Title.
ML421.F57C35 2012
782.42166092 2-dc23
2012004081
To Mick, John, Christine, Lindsey, Stevie, Richard, and of course my mentor, Wally Heider
Foreword
by Colbie Caillat
Whenever I hear a song from Fleetwood Mac, I get a big smile on my face. Hearing their music reminds me of my childhood growing up in Malibu. My family lived in a little brown house on a cliff overlooking the ocean (the hill right above where the restaurant Duke s is, which used to be the Sea Lion back then). My big sister, Morgan, and I would play in the backyard in our blow-up pool with our golden retriever, Laz, and we d blast Second Hand News, Go Your Own Way, Songbird -all my favorites! Whenever I hear those songs my eyes fill with happy tears from beautiful memories with my family when I was a little girl! Those were the days.
Because of Fleetwood Mac, I learned to write meaningful and honest music with soaring melodies, and the importance of being able to listen to an album from start to finish. Working with my dad has been such a fun experience. I feel lucky that he s been a part of my last two records. I ve learned so many things recording with him.
Every song of mine that he s produced has honestly been my favorite. He s such an enthusiastic producer and puts his heart into every project he works on. He has so much fun making music and wants every record he does to sound classic and timeless. He brings in unique and creative ideas, sounds, and instruments to each song.
I know he learned so much from being a producer on the classic Fleetwood Mac records Rumours and Tusk , and he s sprinkling some of that into the music of today.
Today when I hear Second Hand News, it makes me want to get in my car and drive up the coast of California on a beautiful sunny day, windows down, hair blowing in the wind, singing this song at the top of my lungs!
I hope you enjoy my dad s book as much as I did.
-Colbie Caillat, Grammy Award-winning singer
Foreword
by John Shanks
Rumours is an album I carry with me emotionally: the sound, the songs, the playing, the tension. It s like Dark Side of the Moon : perfect as a whole, but with songs that stand alone as individual moments and that are hits. It s one of the records that made me want to be a producer, a writer and, without a doubt, a guitar player.
It not only has some of the greatest guitar playing, the drums and the bass are haunting and beautiful and strong, the arrangements add up to pure sonic perfection, and the singing and harmonies are some of the most beautiful ever.
It s amazing that a record that features three singers feels so connected. Even though the band members were each hurting and falling apart, they turned their personal pain into collective grief and love.
In this way, Rumours exemplifies what great records should be. You bare your soul for all to share.
There is such joy and sorrow in the record that I still feel when I listen to it. From the darkness of Gold Dust Woman to the hope of The Chain and Don t Stop, each song is its own movie.
Every day as I scan the radio dial for something to listen to, I always stop and reflect on the songs from Rumours when they pop up, because they still sound great and they re better than most stuff out there.
I m sure it was not an easy one to record and make, but Ken and Richard made it seem effortless.
The record still sounds as fresh and as important today as it did when it was released. And it will sound the same way tomorrow. So thank you.
-John Shanks, six-time Grammy nominee and Grammy Producer of the Year
Preface
Making Rumours is about the journey that a handful of people, myself included, took during the mid-1970s. It s about how being part of the phenomenon of the Rumours album not only changed our lives but touched millions of other lives around the world forever. It is also the story of a perfect album, made out of flaws in the human spirit, sometimes through agonizing determination, love, lust, and a force of will that made failure unthinkable. It s a success story of epic proportions-not always pretty, but a dramatic illustration of greatness delivered, of passion embraced. It is my story, and I want to share it with you.
Yet this book is not really about me-it s about the music on the album. I want to take you on a journey so that you can understand what it was like being in the studio making Rumours. Imagine the control room of the recording studio being similar to the cockpit of a plane, nearly airtight, soundproof, and cramped. Imagine the band and the engineers all coming into that room, taking their seats, adjusting to get comfortable. Then I start the engines. The lights go down, and I turn up the speakers, as we leave everyone and everything else outside. We re alone for the next ten to fourteen hours. I spin around in my chair, look back at the band, and say, What do you guys feel like working on today?
What happens next is magic.
After Rumours was released, the world went insane over what we d created, and everyone wanted a piece of us. We were famous-myself in the industry, the band all over the world. We weren t just fifteen-minute famous either but forever famous. What we had wasn t just success, it was crazy success.
Suddenly, my world changed-money flowed and offers rolled in from other bands that wanted the producers of Rumours to work with them. Life became insane and exciting, and my path, like everyone else s, changed, sped up, and flew by.
Today, more than thirty years later, when people meet me they still say, Hey, you recorded Rumours. I love your work. Thank you! Rumours sat at number one on the charts for thirty-one weeks and, as of this writing, has sold more than forty million copies. It s taken me all of those thirty-plus years to complete my journey. It has culminated with the certification of my first number-one album since making Rumours , my own daughter Colbie Caillat s second album, Breakthrough .
Rumours thrust my life into a great detour, one filled with the music I had worked so hard to be a part of, filled with the force of great personalities, splendid talents, and iron wills, and the current of that music has carried me through a life I never expected.
In January 1976, Fleetwood Mac s personal cathars