TAPE: Fleetwood Mac – full length program

February 4, 1977. Fleetwood Mac‘s eleventh album Rumors appears. The Magazine Rolling Stone prints There’s a photo on its cover that sums up the band’s complex situation: keyboardist Christine McVie turns her back on her husband, bassist John McVie. Singer Stevie Nicks cuddles with drummer Mick Fleetwood while her official partner, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, stands off to the side, leafing through Playboy.

Rumors turned a lot of things upside down: For the first time, an album gave both genders equal “speaking time” – the songs were written equally by the female and male band members. And the ingrained cliché of the rock star, adored by hundreds of female fans as a sex symbol, also seemed to have had its day Rumors are honest and realistic. They are about love, disappointment and separation.