How many of you were around when.....

[becca]

I played my brother's 1975 album bare. I remember hearing that Rhiannon bass line booming and pot smoke in the air from some party of his, he had just gotten the album. I got a casette tape of Rumours (I was 9 too) that lasted a long long time. My brother got the vinyl. I am still kind of sick of those albums though becaue I played them so much. Got Mirage on vinyl in 1982 and loved it too as did my freinds. All three albums have real vivid memories attached to some of the songs. Now I have the CDs I play them sparingly and mostly the McVie tracks. My boyfriend is from Calif. and his brothers were involved in the Tusk tour so I guess they were right there. I was so disappointed in Tusk then even though I was into a lot of quirky new wave and punk/ska at the time. I got it but I just felt so ripped off at the double album and high price I still can't warm up to it. I feel like I have it for the Sara track (which is edited, the one track I really can still enjoy and it's edited, oh well). I guess that's what I think of Lindsey, he ripped people off because he couldn't trim 'his' album but Silver Springs was trimmed from Rumours which was a great track.

So it was great when the good albums were new and exciting but I think the very indulgent Tusk was a big disappointment at the time and sounds dated now outside the times. Even boiled down to one lp it was a dissapointment, not a real FM album really. There was a black hole until Mirage reestablished there actually was any group at all and not a bunch of seperate creators indulging themselves. Tango In The Night was another good album but I don't remember the excitement. Mirage was kind of like having a familiar favorite sweet thing they quit making for some reason back again. Stevie Nicks' Belladonna album was kind of exciting at the time too though, probably because it came before Mirage and we were missing that sound. I remember French Kiss by Bob Welch being everywhere for awhile too and how sophisticated it seemed.

Now I am into the pre 1975 albums and getting into those. I really had my fill of the later stuff, and like the Eagles, it's just not usually something I want to listen to even if it is high quality. It took awhile before I wanted to listen to BeeGees or Abba ever again too however. I still feel burned by Tusk and resent it. I would love to see FM live someday but I am too far and too poor and without Christine I'm not sure it would be as cool.

The 1975 self titled white album really was the biggest thing, and Rumours just built on it, we imagined a series of great albums stretching into the future, but instead we got just two more like those over the next ten years and one double length dud. We didn't know that then though grooving on Over My Head and Say You Love Me and Rhinannon.