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40 Years of Excess: The Making of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours

Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours is a monument to excess; fueled by enormous budgets, sleepless nights and mountains of cocaine. Earlier this year, the album celebrated its 40th anniversary and we decided to take a look at what exactly went into the recording and mixing process of this classic album.

Rumours was recorded over 12 months at The Record Plant in Sausalito, California in 1976. Even the studio owners thought Fleetwood Mac were going overboard. Chris Stone said, "They would come in at 7 at night, have a big feast, party till 1 or 2 in the morning. And then when they were so whacked-out they couldn't do anything, they'd start recording." Well, apparently they were on to something.

It’s hard to believe, but Rumours was Fleetwood Mac’s 11th studio album. It was produced and engineered by Ken Caillat and Richard Dashu, and released by Warner Bros Records in 1977. It stayed at the top of the Billboard charts for 31 weeks. In 1978, it won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Since then, it's gone on to sell over 40 million copies worldwide, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time.

While Rumours was the band's most successful album, their eponymous “White Album” from 1975 also reached number 1 on the Billboard charts. During the recording process for Rumours, the band were raking in royalties from tracks like "Over My Head,” "Say You Love Me,” and "Rhiannon."

Some bands crack under the pressure of fame and fortune, and Fleetwood Mac were no different.

According to Rolling Stone, cocaine was such an integral part of making Rumours the band "seriously considered thanking their drug dealer in the album credits.”

Mick Fleetwood wrote about it in his autobiography Play On; "The tales of excess are true, but we'd all be dead already if we weren't made of stronger stuff. Coke was less of a pleasure and more of a necessity. Helping combat fatigue during the grueling multi-hour sessions – and tortuous emotions."

This is an excerpt from 40 Years of Excess: The Making of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, originally published by Vintage King. Read the full version here.


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