Spencer Tweedy Hears Rumours for the First time
 

By Josh Terry, Red Eye Chicago on 9/30/2015

http://www.redeyechicago.com/music/r...htmlstory.html

Blind Spots: Spencer Tweedy has never heard Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours'


For many hardcore music fans, saying you haven't heard an album can take a little bit of humility. When you haven't heard something that's supremely canonical or influential, it takes even more out of you to admit, "No, I've never listened to that." It shouldn't, though. Music is so boundless that even the most zealous listeners have trouble keeping up with everything.

That's why Blind Spots exists, a new feature where music reporter Josh Terry asks an artist about the most famous album they've never heard (this may be a classic, or it might just be something very well-known), plays it for them and interviews them about it. Think of it as not only a fun way to geek out about music but also to see what the fuss is about for these famous records.

Watch our interview with Spencer above

Spencer Tweedy probably has more experience talking about, playing and being around music than most folks twice his age. As you probably know, the 19-year-old is Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy's son, the drummer for the father/son combo Tweedy, a founding member of his long-running rock group The Blisters, the occasional writer of thoughtful and insightful music criticism for the Talkhouse and Rookie (his piece on "Run The Jewels 2" is one of the year's most measured takes) and, most of all, a huge fan—during our first RedEye interview, our conversation went off the rails after just geeking out about The Stooges and Black Flag, among others. So, when I found out Tweedy had never heard Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours," one of the most successful and influential albums of all time, I knew I had to invite him over and play it for him.

Even his dad was pretty surprised that his son hadn't heard freaking "Rumours"; Spencer says the elder Tweedy incredulously asked, "Really? You haven't heard ‘Rumours'?" earlier that night. But Spencer hadn't just not heard that enormous 1977 record; he couldn't recall ever listening to Fleetwood Mac. Not the iconic British/American rock band's 1975 self-titled album. Or 1979's "Tusk." All he knew was that Stevie Nicks was in the group, that "Rumours" has sold a bonkers amount of records (more than 40 million copies worldwide) and that Lindsey Buckingham "shows up sometime." Even the album's famous backstory of intra-band drama, breakups and drug use was news to him. All in all, he was the perfect candidate to experience the record in its purest form, without the baggage of its famous origin story and without the clouding nostalgia from loving it as a kid. Below is Spencer's track-by-track reaction to "Rumours."

1."Second Hand News"

Josh Terry: This one is written by Lindsey Buckingham. Have you heard it before?

Spencer Tweedy: No. I've never heard this, though I'm really curious to see which ones I've heard from the radio or whatnot. This is cool though; there's a really tight groove. Ooh, is that a rototom?

JT: I was talking to your friend Liam Cunningham from Marrow about this feature earlier, and he said the first thing you'll note is Mick Fleetwood's "groove." I'm happy he was right.

ST: What year did this come out?

JT: 1977.

ST: You can hear how it's proto-‘80s, but it's better because it was before they used gated reverb and stuff like that. It's the same recording foundation but before they used all the ‘80s ornaments.

2. "Dreams"

JT: This is a Stevie Nicks song.

ST: It has a pretty badass drum and bass line.

JT: Yeah, this song has my favorite bass part on the whole record. It's cool that there's this voyeuristic element to this record, as each member of the band was going through a breakup. In Nicks' and Buckingham's case, it was with each other. Same goes for John and Christine McVie; so all these songs are about each other.

ST: That's kind of like Richard and Linda Thompson's "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight," which they made while they were struggling in their relationship. By the way, Jim [Elkington of Tweedy and Eleventh Dream Day] has recommended me a bunch of Buckingham Nicks records.

3. "Never Going Back Again"

ST: I know this song, it's a classic! To me, this kind of reminds me of [Wilco's] "Muzzle of Bees." This song is beautiful. It's like pop-John Fahey guitar-picking. But anything guitar where there's picking you can probably compare it to John Fahey.

4. "Don't Stop"

JT: "Don't Stop" is our first track written by Christine McVie, who before joining Fleetwood Mac had somewhat of a blues background. You can totally hear it in the rhythm here.

ST: Almost 12-bar blues but not. Thank god it's not! I think this might be the most boring song on the album so far.

JT: Yeah, wait ‘til we get to "Oh Daddy." This one is fun, but it kind of feels like it came from one of those interchangeable ‘70s bands.

ST: It's ‘70s radio fodder, but it's totally well-executed. I love Fleetwood's drum fills here.

5. "Go Your Own Way"

JT: I'm going to bet you've heard this one before.

ST: I don't think I have actually.

JT: Really? Let's wait till the chorus.

ST: I know you like the Replacements, and with these slap-back echo on these vocals I'm hearing this song almost sounds like an early Mats song. But not really—only because of that effect. I'm not sure I like this song though—the chorus only sounds good because it was before all the dressed-up studio ornamentation that happened in the ‘80s.

6. "Songbird"

*Note: We just sort of listened to this song in silence. I am not sure Spencer really had an opinion on this.

7. "The Chain"

JT: This is my favorite song on the record.

ST: This is great. That's a groove right there. I love Mick Fleetwood's little cymbal fills there. The verses remind me of a later-Who song or something. This is ****ing awesome. There's so much tension with so little instrumentation—it's powerful. And this bassline to break up the song? Oh yeah … This guitar solo is so badass, but it becomes apparent to me that there's a reason why Fleetwood Mac doesn't occupy the same place in my life that the Who does. Like that build-up was so great, but it could've gone to a bigger groove that could have been way harder.

8. "You Make Loving Fun"

ST: I think I'm wanting something else from this band.

JT: The funny thing about this song is that Christine McVie wrote it about her new boyfriend, who happened to be Fleetwood Mac's lighting director. It's still weird to me to think about John playing on it.

ST: Are there lighting analogies? "You put the spotlight on me?" or something like that?

JT: I'm not sure.

[Christine McVie: "This feeling follows me wherever I go"]

ST: [Laughs].

JT: Lindsey's a great guitarist. He's not really the type of player where people go, "He's my favorite," but he does what he does really, really well.

ST: Yeah, that was nice. The general trend is that Fleetwood Mac will lose me in the verses and bring me back in the chorus. This guitar part at the end is so great. Sorry, I'm being negative here.

JT: No, this is great! I think I'm going to wager that you're a Buckingham fan.

ST: I am. Probably mostly Buckingham and Nicks.

9. "I Don't Want to Know"

JT: This is a Nicks song and probably my second favorite song off this record, which might be a controversial choice.

ST: From the first few notes I already like this more. It's interesting, and it sounds really cool. Also, Nicks' voice is honestly the best. It's one of the sweetest ever.

JT: I love how Lindsey is kind of putting on a little bit of a drawl here.

ST: This is a really nice song—it's kind of like a folk song.

10. "Oh Daddy"

ST: Ah, it's the old pan flute. Classic.

JT: A throwback to when it was cool to call your significant other "daddy."

ST: That bass line is cool. I kinda feel like all the minor key songs here are melodramatic.

JT: I like Fleetwood Mac when it's spritely.

ST: Yeah, it's good when it's chipper. I'll probably really like the Buckingham Nicks records. The bright side of the minor key songs is that drum tone. Mac DeMarco is keeping that snare tone alive, man. Doesn't this song remind you of "The Wall"?

11. "Gold Dust Woman"

JT: What do you think of this as a way to way to end "Rumours"?

ST: I think I need to be in the ‘70s and I need to be on my bedroom floor and have headphones on in order to get it. It's not for me right now.

BONUS TRACK

12. "Silver Springs"

JT: I'm going to play you this song which has become kind of the de facto closing track with the reissues here.

ST: The tracklist is different in the reissues?

JT: Yup, I'm very weird that way where I don't usually play any bonus tracks, but with this band "Silver Springs" has become one of its most well-known songs.

ST: I understand not wanting to play deluxe versions; I know how you'd want to stick to the original tracklist.

JT: This pre-chorus right here sounds like a lot of modern indie-pop. Ever listened to Wild Nothing? This sounds like a song from them. I know I'm so anti-deluxe edition extra stuff, but I really think this is the best way to end the record.

ST: I agree, but I just cannot think of Fleetwood Mac as being "my world." It's just a bunch of classic songs and then a bunch of songs that aren't that interesting to me.

Final verdict:

"I can't say that it's not good enough to revisit," says Spencer, who is clear he doesn't want to seem like some whippersnapper set on trashing established rock idols. "The chipper songs are definitely good enough to come back to."

Incorporating the widely used star-rating approach, how many would he give "Rumours" out of four?

"It's heretical, but "I think it's a three stars out of four," he says. "I think it landed where I thought it was going to be—I may have had higher expectations... I can see why it occupies the place in the canon that it does, and I can see why people love it, but as a 19-year-old in 2015 I don't think it's meant for me. But [there's] some great stuff on it and some really awesome sounds—like the drum sounds.

"I think it's meant for a kid going to high school in 1978 in California who's laying on their bedroom floor with headphones on. I'm just trying to think of some place or some way where it would strike me. For me, it doesn't feel too far off from stuff in the same ballpark that I love to feel too mind-blowing—like Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young or Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon.' I just kept on wanting to hear all those things instead."

^Since you're interviewing him, why not just ASK if he has an opinion on Songbird or not?

On the other hand, if he had been silent after Oh, Daddy, I wouldn't have probed any further. I'm silent after that one too, because I'm half unconscious.

Michele

We live in different worlds.

Buckingham Nicks recordS? Right on, I didn't realize there was more than 1.....sarcasm......:D

so LB "shows up sometime" - does that mean he comes around to hang out with members of Wilco or something?

it's slightly amusing to read he thinks he'd like "Buckingham Nicks" music better than FM when parts of most songs he actually likes the best are Fleetwood's and McVie's.

Ugh kids these days.....

I didn't know who Wilco were and I had to search because they aren't famous in my country (and I'm becoming lazy with my musical tastes), but they aren't a classic rock band and they are relatively recent.
But I don't comprehend how he could be "the occasional writer of thoughtful and insightful music criticism" with such little musical knowledge.
Also the interviewer should have made him listen to something live from Fleetwood Mac.

Well, I knew more about Wilco than Fleetwood Mac (honestly, I couldn't have picked Stevie out a line-up...) until March 2013, so I'll stick myself into the 'ignorant - relative - youths' category, lol. Interesting article in some ways, but not always well-written or considered, I don't think. Still, interesting.

This thread reminds me of a thread on the Electronics repair forum I belong to.

Some young ones dont know what a VCR is .Nevermind a 8 track tape or cassette is.

I'm glad to see some of the younger generation is liking vinyl.

Only the nerds that age know what that stuff is.

I know who Wilco is and his pop Jeff Tweedy is and there tunes are OK.
I dont know much about his son.

I figure the wealth of the vast internet .these kids could get more education for free about anything in the world then in a classroom.

Some rather hang on Facebook,Twitter and other social sites or play games online.

I wish the kids talk more with their parents and grandparents about their childhood and things they had when they were their age.

I'm so happy and enjoy learning about things that were around before I was born.Thanks to the internet for giving me a hand doing so.Also thanks to a close friend who is 96 years young can teach me about WW2 and other wars.The depression years .The first day of TV and radio broadcasting.Hollywood golden era.Local town history. Joe lived it and I love chatting with him about old times.

Sorry about the long post.

When the guy said he'd never heard GYOW, I just concluded that he'd lived in a closet. His Wilco father probably kept him caged for most of his youth and it's the dark truth he's not ready to talk about yet.

Michele

As a longtime fan of Wilco (but not nearly as long as of Fleetwood Mac), I've actually always thought there's a bit of a parallel between the music of the two groups -- although it's hard to put a finger on what it is. I think it's because both Mac and Wilco have a heavy emphasis on beautiful melodies, but with an edginess, too. Both groups are also known for studio experimentation and perfectionism, and both are known for balancing sunny pop-rock songs with darker, moodier material. As far apart as the two bands are sonically, it just feels like there's something in their essence that they have in common, even if it's only a frontman who's pulled back and forth between the desire to be an "artist" and the desire to make catchy, hook-filled music.

Check out the Wilco song "A Magazine Called Sunset" and see if you don't hear a slight hint of Lindsey's Tango b-sides or his songs on Mirage.

But yeah, based on this interview, Jeff's kid seems like a bit of a jerk.

Please delete this thread so no one will ever have to learn about spit twoody or wilwhateverco. What a waste of digispace...

I think it's a blatant lie. I mean, even I had known Go your own way when I didn't know who Fleetwood mac were at the time. Same for The chain. I had heard them in this musical pit I live so he must have heard it some times in his life.

That's why they call it Blind Spots, it's that one thing you should know but don't. There is a ton of music out there now, and some of it that's 50 years old isn't on everyone's priority list (just like I'm assuming was also true in the 1970s and 1980s). Radio doesn't unite people the way it did even 15 years ago. It's surprising he hasn't heard some of these, but then again, to think that every single person has is also unrealistic.

I don't think he came off as a jerk at all, he just doesn't have any connection to this music, and he really doesn't have to. There are tons of bands that I have no connection to and my opinion about them would probably be blunt, but it's not malicious at all. I thought his opinion was fun to read precisely because he hasn't ever heard it and has no connection to it, and this is coming from someone who loves "Oh Daddy."

Re. Wilco and Fleetwood Mac, they're both from (or half from) a folk rock tradition. I wasn't surprised Tweedy Jr liked the Buckingham or Nicks stuff more and really didn't care for the "Don't Stop" shuffle, if he grew up at all influenced by his dad's music.

There's music that I have no connection to, yet I found that it was inescapable growing up, if I listened to any radio station or public music at all. There are songs I don't like, by artists I don't know, but when you play the tune I'd say, "Oh, I didn't know the name of it, but I've heard it a 1000 times."

Now, if you stay in one genre and close yourself off to anything else, I can see why you wouldn't hear something, but from what we know of this guy's background he did have access to diverse music and while it would be no surprise that he's not into FM and may not even know who they are, I would think he'd have heard tracks that are played everywhere, non-stop like it or not.

Michele