Is Rumours an album of catchy pop tunes

[CarneVaca]

Originally Posted by dissention

The one on the Rumours bonus disc, dude. It's fantastic.

Damn, why don't I remember that? I'll have to play it on the way home.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by CarneVaca

Damn, why don't I remember that? I'll have to play it on the way home.

The biggest difference is that there are more vocals from Stevie and those vocals are brought up right up front into the mix. Great harmony!

[glitter_fades]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye

Man what a comotion one word can make. It seems many didn't like the word just. MAybe I should've should Is Rumours Mainly a Catchy Pop Album.

It's not only "just" that makes a difference to me. It's the word "pop" I have trouble with. To me, pop music in the 70's was a very different sound than I first heard on Rumours. If pop is simply an abbreviation for popular music, ok maybe I'd say that Rumours is seen as pop today.

I still think of pop as a style/genre of formula music made by record companies to cash in with the average listener. The Mac was not in that category with Rumours. Music driven by individual artists who were mostly singers, not rock bands like FM, fit that image in my mind. Also, phantom groups like the Partridge Family and the Archies, even the Beach Boys music recorded by studio players, comes to mind when I think of pop. People who grew up in the 60's and were teens or adults in the 70's probably know what I mean.

Music written and performed by rock bands of players/singers/songwriters were not considered pop then. Another aspect for me, to borrow from Courtney Love, "rock has to have a guitar in it." Pop music was usually absent any electric guitar except rhythm. Today the boy bands and entertainers like J Lo and Britney are pop. Even MJ and JJ were/are pop. With pop and rap dominating the radio it's hard for me to say who's rock now because I don't listen to much new music, but I'd call Evanescence rock like the Mac (not just for the girl.)

Does this make sense to anyone but me?

Older and younger fans see it differently and probably so do Europeans and Americans, though I don't see how. To illustrate, when the first single (GYOW) from Rumours was released in Feb '77 it charted at #40 in Britain, while the top 5 singles of that week in the UK were:

#1 When I Need You -Leo Sayer (a real rock star )

#2 Don't Cry for Me Argentina (show tune) Julie Covington (who? )

#3 Don't Give Up on Us Baby - David Soul (U.S. TV personality, one hit wonder )

#4 Boogie Nights - Heatwave (Disco )

#5 Don't Leave Me This Way-Harold Melvin And The Blue Notes (Soul/Disco )

The closest to anything like GYOW in the top 40 is way down the list with Boston at #22 More than a Feeling. That's a classic rock single now but back in the day it was considered quite an earful. It eventually got played to death but the people buying Leo Sayer were not listening to Boston or the Mac. By the end of the year when Rumours was #1 on the album charts some of the Leo Sayer and David Soul fans were also buying Rumours but so were the Boston fans.

In the US the top 10 singles of 1977 were:

"You Light Up My Life" - Debby Boone (First chart appearance: 9/17/77; Highest position: #1)
"I Just Want To Be Your Everything" - Andy Gibb (5/28/77; #1)
"Evergreen" - Barbra Streisand (1/8/77; #1)
"Undercover Angel" - Alan O'Day (5/7/77; #1)
"I Like Dreamin'" - Kenny Nolan (12/11/76; #3)
"Dancing Queen" - Abba (1/22/77; #1)
"Torn Between Two Lovers" - Mary MacGregor (12/25/76; #1)
"Higher And Higher" - Rita Coolidge (6/11/77; #2)
"Best Of My Love" - The Emotions (7/2/77; #1)
"Southern Nights" - Glen Campbell (3/5/77; #1)

The entire list from '77 is music of singers not rock bands.

Finally, the fact that Rumours only had one single make it to #1 means it was not simply an album filled with just a bunch of pop singles so much as it was a ****load of great music everyone could appreciate.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by glitter_fades

"You Light Up My Life" - Debby Boone (First chart appearance: 9/17/77; Highest position: #1)

One of the worst songs ever recorded and it totally creeps me out. Awful, awful, awful. I heard Debby Boone livies in a convent these days.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by dissention

One of the worst songs ever recorded and it totally creeps me out. Awful, awful, awful. I heard Debby Boone livies in a convent these days.

Ya know - i liked it when it first came out - I thought it was sappy, but pretty. But at the one millionth hearing in a week, I got tired of it

[sodascouts]

Originally Posted by dissention

No, it's just that some people are so uncomfortably anal that they're determined to make everyone else just as uncomfortable. Don't sweat it, man. If people want to quarrel over a word, just sit back and laugh.

"Meet Linda. She's a stay-at-home mom."

"Meet Linda. She's just a stay-at-home mom."

You don't see a difference in connotation here? Perhaps I'm over-senstive... but I certainly am not out to make other people uncomfortable. Frankly, I'm surprised your response is so strongly negative to someone pointing this out - I don't think it's so horribly anal to note it. I apologize if doing so has caused anyone a great deal of anal anguish.

[Hawkeye]

now that I think of it Just makes a HUGE difference in the question. Oh Well no use trying to rewrite history

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by Lux

. . . Maybe looking back it's all become pop now, due to it not only being literally popular, but also an influence on the mainstream, therefore nothing so outrageous. The Beatles were always pushing the boundaries of pop slightly. . . .

This is exactly my point about Rumors

[wondergirl9847]

What's it supposed to be? If not a catchy pop album, then what? To answer that, we probably have to try to define Fleetwood Mac. That's pretty much impossible. They are a blues/pop/rock/country-ish/jazz fusion. Something for everyone.

I'd say if you WANT it to be a catchy pop album, it's that. If you want it to be an experimental masterpiece, it's that. Masterpiece...that's what I'd say.

[Mari]

Originally Posted by sodascouts

"Meet Linda. She's a stay-at-home mom."

"Meet Linda. She's just a stay-at-home mom."

You don't see a difference in connotation here?

exactly!

[dissention]

Originally Posted by sodascouts

I apologize if doing so has caused anyone a great deal of anal anguish.

I was simply commenting on what I found to be ridiculous. I've been called a nitpicker, but not that big of one; it's just silly.

[CarneVaca]

Originally Posted by glitter_fades

It's not only "just" that makes a difference to me. It's the word "pop" I have trouble with. To me, pop music in the 70's was a very different sound than I first heard on Rumours. If pop is simply an abbreviation for popular music, ok maybe I'd say that Rumours is seen as pop today.

It is true that Rumours was considerably different from the other pop music making the charts at the time, but if "pop" is an abbreviation for "popular" how can anyone at this point argue it's not pop? It remains one of the most popular albums of all time. Pop is an evolving thing. (One might say "devolving" in light of the current radio fodder.)

[CarneVaca]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

Ya know - i liked it when it first came out - I thought it was sappy, but pretty. But at the one millionth hearing in a week, I got tired of it

I bet you still have it in your collection and play it all the time. You probably have alternate takes too.

[CarneVaca]

Originally Posted by Lux

The greatest thing is though, the Beatles were not exactly studying the avant garde themselves, for the most part, they just pulled it out of their arse (not literally mind you). Eh, here comes my love for Lennon again........no, I shall resist.

Someone more well-versed on the Beatles could probably address this better. But they had to be influenced by something. I suspect they had been paying attention to some classical music as well as Middle Eastern and North African rhythms.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

Ya know - i liked it when it first came out - I thought it was sappy, but pretty. But at the one millionth hearing in a week, I got tired of it

Well, there's no accounting for taste.