Looking For a Good Book

I am not an ardent Fleetwood Mac fanatic. I have perhaps four of their albums, purchased between the mid-1970’s and mid-80’s and of course I listened to them on the radio back in those pre-internet days. And while they are someone I listened to, they definitely took a backseat to bands like the Beatles, the Eagles, ELO, Queen, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and many many others. BUT … when ranking my favorite albums of all time, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours is always in the top five, often my number one pick.

Clearly I’m not the only person who really likes this album and author Alan Light (a senior writer to Rolling Stone magazine) examines the album, its ability to reach new audiences every generation, and why we seem to be constantly drawn to it.

Light goes into some detail about the creation of the album. It seems to have been common knowledge to fans that the band was going through a lot of personal affairs and break-ups with each other and then writing songs about it, making Rumours an album about break-ups that make Taylor Swift’s work sound like puppy love split (I’m going on hearsay … I’ve never actually listened to a Swift song).

I like having the context behind the songs. Certainly the anger and sense of betrayal is obvious to many, but I have to admit that I get completely absorbed in the music, in the sound and only fleetingly (pun intended) listen to the lyrics. Knowing more about what was behind the songs will necessarily change how I listen to this album in the future.

Light quotes guitarist Lindsey Buckingham:

“You can look at Rumours and say, ‘Well, the album is bright and it’s clean and it’s sunny,’ but everything underneath is so dark and murky,” said Lindsey Buckingham. “What was going on between us created a resonance that goes beyond the music itself.”

In addition to taking a look at the source material and the band’s origins and changes, Light examines the songs on the album individually – including the song “Silver Springs” which wasn’t on the original album release, but a song about which much is detailed in the book.

These chapters about the individual songs didn’t really go into deeper detailed about the songs themselves, but generally Light takes a look at how these songs have resurfaced and found new listeners. From television shows like Glee, to early TikTok posts, to Saturday Night Live, most of the songs on the album continue to get air time. And because the music is good and the lyrics still have meaning, new listeners find themselves seeking out the album and the band.

Something Light notes which I’m sorry to say never occurred to me – “Rumours is the single best-selling album in US history with songs that are mostly written and sung by women.” Thinking on some of my other favorite artists and albums (again, think Beatles, Eagles, ELO, and Queen) and there’s a lack of female voices.

Overall, I appreciated this deep dive into one of the best albums of all time. I’m not convinced that Alan Light answers the subtitle (“Why we (still) love Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours“) and while he does address why the songs keep popping up, the exploration of where these songs have appeared in modern media didn’t feel quite necessary.

Looking for a good book? Don’t Stop by Alan Light is a well-researched, deep look into the making of and continually purchased and revered album, Rumours, by Fleetwood Mac.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Don’t Stop: Why We (Still) Love Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours

author: Alan Light

publisher: Atria Books

ISBN:  9781668054376

hardcover, 288 pages