Fleetwood Mac: Rumours
Bud Scoppa, Phonograph Record, April 1977
I'M CONVINCED there's gonna be heavy bidding on the movie rights to this story. A legendary but unstable British rock band emigrates to L.A., where its sound gets sunnier while various guitar players and singers come and go. Then the band solidifies into (catch this wrinkle!) two couples, as the enigmatic bassman (a founding member) and his sweet-singing wife (a star in her own right back in England) hook up with a pair of foxy Californians, the guy an ace guitarist, the gal a tawny seductress with a spoiled-brat pout of a voice. Then there's the lanky, lonely English drummer in a key character role. Just days after they team up, they record an album, which (you guessed it) becomes a huge hit, spurred on by an eerie single written and sung by the new bombshell. Suddenly they're big stars, playing football stadiums and posing for poster-sized shots in the rock mags.
Total word count of piece: 627
Best Databases: RBP is Runner-up in Best Niche category
Video: Johnny Marr talks about Rock's Backpages
RBP on Spotify: The genius of Judee Sill
RBP Album Club in Chicago, June 30th: Paul Yamada and Liam (Plush) Hayes celebrate a Curtis Mayfield classic
Essential Listening: Roy Trakin meets the Replacements in '87
Essential Reading: Andrew Smith's history of the first dotcom boom
RBP Album Club, July 11th: Nick Hornby and Nick Coleman celebrate Southside Johnny's debut
Join the Facebook group now