Never Break the Chain: Fleetwood Mac and the Making of Rumours

by Cath Carroll

This insightful behind-the-scenes look at the making of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours explores the strong personalities behind the band and the creative tensions between the members that helped to shape the lyrical content of this era-defying, classic album. Original research and new interviews with those who were there reveal the technical challenges and excessive drinking and drug abuse that went on during the album's production. The complex relationships within the group and each individual's contribution to the album are discussed. The two rocky romances within the band, including the breakdown of John and Christine McVie's marriage and the increasingly strained relationship between Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, are also discussed, as are the songs on the album they influenced. The stories that inspired and created one of the most popular and significant albums of all time are unearthed.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Art

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cath's book recounts the history of the British blues band turned rock superstars, Fleetwood Mac, with a heavy emphasis on their historic album, Rumours. It's an interesting enough read, with lots of nice information about the recording of Rumours, but doesn't really have the direct input from members that could have made it more compelling. The analysis of the band's career in interesting and thorough. While the white Fleetwood Mac album and Tusk are pretty well represented, their later albums get short shrift. It would have been nice to know a little bit more about the recording of the Mirage and Tango in the Night despite the lack of controversy around the band at that time.

[Dan Shonka · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a bit of a surprise to me. Based on the title, I expected the book to be more focused on the Rumours album. Instead it is a pretty solid history of Fleetwood Mac from start to (more or less) finish. It discusses the band's British blues roots, the personnel changes and how those gradually evolved the band's music/sound. I consider myself a lukewarm Fleetwood Mac fan. As a blues fan, this book has given me some ideas of what albums I should add to the collection. Rumours was such a big hit (though its immediate predecessor, Fleetwood Mac may have been many fans' favorite of the two), it was tough to follow up for the band. Cath Carroll covers that portion of the band's history as well. There are bits of text given to the excesses of the times and the band's fame, but all tastefully done without a lot of salacious details. Best of all, this is a well written, easy and entertaining read if you're interested in blues/rock/pop music.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who knew very little about the story behind Fleetwood Mac or the personalities of its members, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Despite the subtitle, the book doesn't just focus on the making of "Rumours"; it tells the story of the band's formation and continues into the late 90s. I appreciated that while the book is personal without getting salacious, and appreciated the author's insights into the unique conditions that culminated with one of the greatest rock albums of all time.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have become quite interested in Fleetwood Mac's music in recent years, and obviously my go-to album has always been Rumours. It speaks to me in a certain way, as it did to a lot of people. I am not old enough to remember Fleetwood Mac in this era, although my dad has this book. I picked it up after watching a few documentaries about their career and a concert from the late 90s.

This is called Fleetwood Mac & The Making Of Rumours. Arguably their most popular and stand out album, I was expected a brief biography about the band and their various incarnations, and more indepth about each song, perhaps the lyrics, and a breakdown of who sang what and obviously what was going on behind the scenes. This is what the book makes it out to be, from the blurb, to the title.

What I got was a biography about Fleetwood Mac. You would not be going into this book blind, and most of the biographical stuff, I already knew from the documentaries. The band don't even go to start recording Rumours until page 98, and the book goes into the Peter Green-Fleetwood Mac era, the backgrounds of the main titular stalwart stars, how Nicks & Buckingham came to join them, and what they did before Fleetwood, and the first album with the famous fivesome. It's quite a nuisance to get through, when you thought you'd be reading a book focusing primarily on the album. You are not going to pick up this book, without at least having some knowledge about the band.

Other albums are covered as well, including their albums post Rumours, although it does get more brief as time goes on - Tusk gets the most talked about after Rumours, whereas Mirage etc, only briefly gets mentioned. Buckingham leaving/being fired, gets touched upon as well (I wonder if Christine still wanted to break his limbs), and my opinion is, after seeing their stage show, he did take over quite frequently and thought he was bigger/better than Fleetwood. That is just my personal opinion though.

It also feels like it's aimed at people who have knowledge of how to make music, or the author has some knowledge of this. A lot of the recording studio sequences were quite indepth, especially when Buckingham was trying to put his stamp on things, and it does get quite technical. Most of this I didn't understand apart from the basics, although I don't feel that this detracted from the book as much.

To be fair, if this has been more marketed as a biography about Fleetwood Mac, I think I would have felt better about it, but I think the blurb was all wrong for this, or the author got carried away. Or got told to pad it out more, when she discovered that she was just repeating what the world already knew about Rumours. There's nothing really new included here, that you won't have already known from documentaries/the internet/Mick Fleetwood's biography/interviews with the band themselves.

It is quite sad to now be reading this after Christine's sad passing, and to know that the famous fivesome will never perform together again. Is it worth picking up? It's a slim little volume, so won't take long to read. IF you've already seen the documentaries, or have other books about the band, I would give this one a miss.

[Madrileña Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

I went into this expecting juicy gossip and insider stories. None of that. Barely any cocaine, which, for Fleetwood Mac is just plain boring. Kind of a snooze fest. Only recommended for musician Fleetwood Mac fanatics.

[Lindsay Berube · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely learned a lot about the history of Fleetwood Mac but would have liked to have had more detail about the meanings behind the songs.

[lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t learn anything in this book that I previously knew. So really, this whole book was a waste of time.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm interested in the way things are created, so I thought this book would explain how the album that became part of music lore came to be. It does talk a lot about how the individuals came together as couples splitting apart and shows how this impacted the songs. Mostly, what it seemed to come down to was great timing coupled with enormous talent. I would have liked some more explanation of how the songs were created. There is a lot of detail about how they were put together, but not much about how they originated - the songs seemed to appear and the band played them.
Most of the content of the book seems to have been gleaned from the press of the time, other books, and (later) online interviews. It's not a bad book, and is certainly worth a read if you have an interest in Fleetwood Mac, but I did expect a bit more.

[Ian]

Recommended.

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not great writing, but still a great history of that part of pop history that is blunt and honest.

[꧁ k e l s e y ꧂ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was exactly what it sounds like. If you’re having your phase of loving the band this is enjoyable.