Side 1 or Side 2? Rumours
 

I think this poll has not been asked before. Thinking on vinyl albums, which side do you like more? Side One or side two? Let's start with (the original) Rumours:

Side one
1. "Second Hand News"
2. "Dreams"
3. "Never Going Back Again"
4. "Don't Stop"
5. "Go Your Own Way"
6. "Songbird"

Side two
7. "The Chain"
8. "You Make Loving Fun"
9. "I Don't Want to Know"
10. "Oh Daddy"
11. "Gold Dust Woman"

Side 1. All day.

I voted side 1 too, but it's hard to choose actually.

side 1 - other than Dreams that i would need to skip, all other tracks i could listen to over and over.

side 2 - i'd listen to every other song - The Chain, IDWTK, and GDW (i know i know YMLF may be a great song, but i don't like it much :shrug: )

so side 1 wins 5:3.

I picked side 2 because it was You Make Loving Fun being the new single that convinced me to buy Rumours. After I played it for the first time I fell in love with The Chain and Gold Dust Woman. Side 1 got so much radio airplay, so while I still love those songs, side 2 remains my precious jewel.

Gee this is a hard question, but I'm going with side two because what could be better than opening with the Chain and closing with Gold Dust Woman.

Side one has Dreams and Go Your Own Way on it so..... ya

I had to go with side two. Too many years of NGBA and Don't Stop. I could go the rest of my life without ever hearing those again, and never miss them.

Interesting question posed!

Side 1 made them millionaires and radio darlings.

Side 2 proved they, as a collective, were artists of substance and distinction.

It's a generalization but...

Back in the 1980's and 1990's, a local classic rock radio station in CT used to have "album side weekends" where they would play an entire side of an album with no breaks. Whenever they played Rumours, it was always side 2. Never heard them play side 1.

Side one. I like songs on both sides but since the Lindsey songs are my favorite, side one it is.

I thought this was going to be difficult. Then I thought about it for about 5 seconds and realized Side 2 was the clear choice for me. It has more songs that I absolutely adore and no song that I dislike (unlike Don't Stop. Sorry Chris!) Much as I like tracks 1-3, for me the album doesn't really hit its stride til GYOW comes on.

If I could only switch out Oh Daddy for GYOW. But side 2 wins anyway.

another way to analyze this can be by the songwriter:

Side one: 3 LB songs, 1 SN song, 2 CM songs

Side two: 2 SN songs, 2 CM songs, 1 FM song

for me, there's no doubt that 3 stellar LB tracks (according to everybody in the top 2 LB albums thread at least?) win over any side where there is no LB penned songs.... unless you count the arrangements and the guitar solo that makes the Chain what it is.

no matter how much i love The Chain and Gold Dust Woman, and IDWTK is cute, they cannot live up to the side one on which almost every track is stellar (Don't Stop haters aside, i think it's a stellar song, and even boring Dreams cannot drag it behind the side 2).

i'm not sure that i understand the "side 1 was commercial, and side 2 was artistic" argument. is IDWTK or Oh Daddy really more artistic than GYOW or SHN?

If Dreams is boring, then what is Songbird? A sleeping pill?

Songbird is very pretty, to me.

i can't listen to Dreams, sorry. :shrug:

Side One has Dreams and Go Your Own Way... but then it has the maahoosively obnoxious song that is Don't Stop.

While every song on Side 2 is a killer, even Oh Daddy has this haunting quality that flows oh-so-nicely into Gold Dust Woman.

Side 1 wins it for me. Side 2 has The Chain and Gold Dust Woman. But YMLF and IDWTK Weigh it down a lot. I'm on and off with Oh Daddy.

I only skip Don't Stop on side 1.

Mick

How do those two songs fit together in an equation like this? They're completely different. It's like saying "if Dreams is boring, then what is Rabbit Heart by Florence and the Machine?". I can't make sense of the logic.

I see what you mean. But the songs are less dissonant, less exploratory on the whole than the ones one side 2. IDWK is an exception--a great pop tune in the manner of SHN and NGBA. But Oh Daddy, GDW, The Chain, heck, even YMLF, seem edgier in terms of tone and color than the hits on side one.

The harmonies, the chords, the solos, and the layering of instruments on side two, at least to my ears anyway, show the band stretching out a little farther than they did before.

Forget voting.I play the whole darn album.

Dreams and Gold Dust brought me to the album .The other tunes follow.

Side 2 for me.
I never get sick of The Chain and GDW.
You Make Loving Fun is my favorite Christine song ever.

Jamie

As hard as it is to vote against The Chain and YMLF, I just don't care for IDWTK, and Oh Daddy doesn't do much for me either. I do like GDW a lot, too, but that's still only three great songs on side two, as opposed to side one, which has 6 excellent songs. I wouldn't dream of skipping any of them. Side one is the easy choice for me.

Side One - Lindsey - Nuff said

I always skip Songbird. Never cared for the song.Oh Daddy is another one I can live without but won't always skip and I've never understood why none of Lindsey's songs were placed on side 2.

I know, but the entire album is so carefully sequenced! At least there's balance, insofar as he sings on two of the songs on side 2. The weirder omission is Christine from side 2 of Tusk. After "Think About Me" she doesn't return as a lead until 10 songs later.

1 word: GYOW



I agree. It's so strange. It's almost like there's a BN album sitting in the middle of Tusk ;)

You know, I didn't notice this until about a week ago when I was listening to Tusk. I just thought....it's been a while since a Christine song.

Are you a little bitter that Stevie was the one to get the number-one hit?? LOL I wonder if there are any stories of Lindsey being pissed off about that; we all know there are always stories. It is a bit surprising that of the band's catalogue of great songs, there wasn't at least one more chart topper.

It's funny, I find Dreams to be one of the most sonically interesting and deceptively simple Fleetwood Mac songs. The studio recording features a perfect marrying of vocals and guitar work that isn't as pop or ephemeral as the Tango songs or even Gypsy, and the stellar chorus really showcases the vocal blending and tone of the three lead singers. I almost always skip Don't Stop (it's like Landslide for me, an iconic song but I just can't listen to it), and I really have to be in the right mood for Go Your Own Way. But Dreams is probably the one song on side one I never pass over. It never feels corny or overplayed, and I always seem to really connect to it. Maybe it's the quality of longing in Stevie's voice?

But when considering both sides, I have to go with Side 2. It's interesting that when the poll was first made, side one had nearly 100% of the votes. The Chain is a fantastic opener and stands for me as one of the greatest songs of the Rumours era. It's amazing that all five members are credited to the song, and I wish they had produced a few more total efforts. You Make Loving Fun might be my favorite Christine song. When it begins, that groove, gah...I love it! I heard it on the radio when I was driving and I love when a great song catches you by surprise. I Don't Want to Know is not one of my favorites, but Oh Daddy has been a song that has definitely grown on me over time. I didn't appreciate it at first, but it came on once and got me off guard, which made me really pay attention to its simple structure paired with its intricate instrumentation and guitar. And what can I say about Gold Dust Woman, besides it being one of Stevie's greatest contributions to Fleetwood Mac, a rock classic and distinctly autobiographical song. Its production was incredible, and the eclectic sounds and psychedelic flavor give the album an eerie yet appropriate ending that doesn't quite end but keeps going on, like the relationships of the band members.

:lol: what a weird train of thoughts?

i just don't like the song, it's just not the kind of music i like. that's all. :shrug:

i understand you must really really like it, since you seem to be really adamant about going through different threads and defending this song everywhere someone says they don't like it. just let it go, we all have very different tastes in music on these boards - that's what you get with FM and all these different songwriters who were a part of the band throughout decades of its existence. :laugh:

Just wanted to tease you as a Lindsey fan, and knowing you don't particularly care for Dreams (and Sara for that matter). Yes, I have defended it a few times, but I just thought it should be pointed out that some people's reaction to so-called 'stale' live performances of the song were possibly unfairly influencing their evaluation of the studio recording.

Yes. Given the sequencing on both records, I am inclined to think Rumours was intended to be as savored as a whole, with the songs heard back-to-back, whereas with Tusk, in the spirit of fragmentation, the listener is encouraged to jump around or take in one side at a time without listening straight through.

Results from my contest/poll for least fav from Rumours two years ago. http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/poll.p...ts&pollid=1294

Excellent poll setup/system, Villavic! Fairly split results so far. Kinda surprised as Oh Daddy and IDWTK don't get much love, but with The Chain, GDW and YMLF, the scales get rebalanced.

I gotta go with Side 1. It has my favorite songs - Dreams, Don't Stop, and Go Your Own Way, but Side 2 has YMLF and Oh Daddy.

I really didn't notice that until know, vivfox. I mean vocally is on The Chain and I Don't Want to Know. I seem to remember a Ledgie speculating that the reason why SS didn't make the album was to give Lindsey a strong vocal presence on Side 2. If SS had made it instead of IDWTK, Side 2 would be severely lacking Lindsey's vocals.

Well I guess I'm voting for the side with more Lindsey, elle! :lol:

I haven't about whether or not Lindsey was upset about not having a #1 hit. I've heard about Christine's unhappiness about not achieving a #1 hit, although Don't Stop hit #3 on the top 40 singles chart. Perhaps this is better for another thread...:cool:

:rolleyes: This isn't really directed at you, betheblues, I know you were (mostly) teasing, but I am constantly amazed at how often this bit of trivia is brought up in fandom generally. It's nice for Stevie's own validation, but it's not really all that meaningful. Do people who use this as a defence for the Dreams-hype honestly not have a single US #1 hit that they dislike? Serious question.

You can just say you love the song. It's ok to love a song. ;)

I totally understand. Someone pointed out to me that after Think About Me on side one of Tusk, Christine doesn't have any songs on side two and we don't hear from her again until ten songs later. It had never even occurred to me.

Hahaha only for fun.. Oh my gawd. This is like having the red -blue states divided on election day.

Stevie fans,Lindsey fans,Christine fans having their say here.

Poor Mick and John got left behind.

We could use the Nicks/Buckingham or the Buckingham/Nicks team in 2016.

Side 2, no hesitation. I need nothing more from Rumours other than The Chain and Oh Daddy at this point.

I think the band themselves (at least Stevie) recognize side two as the more sonically dissonant side of the LP. I love that aspect of side 2 and it made me want to vote for it, but at the end of the day I love "Go Your Own Way" enough for two songs so I stuck with side 1. But it was really tough, as have been a few of these polls. Each side has a song I sometimes skip without guilt ("Songbird" and "I Don't Want To Know", though I like them), and if "Silver Springs" had made it on to side 2 somehow it'd probably be utterly impossible to choose.