{"id":7241,"date":"1977-04-21T10:23:00","date_gmt":"1977-04-21T09:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fleetwoodmac-uk.com\/wp\/?p=7241"},"modified":"2025-06-18T13:44:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T12:44:27","slug":"go-your-own-way-to-californ-i-ay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fleetwoodmac-uk.com\/wp\/go-your-own-way-to-californ-i-ay\/","title":{"rendered":"Go Your Own Way \u00a0to Californ-i-ay | Rolling Stone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fleetwood Mac blooms in the sun<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rumours – Fleetwood Mac
\nWarner Bros. BSK 3010<\/p>\n

By John Swenson
\nRolling Stone Magazine
\n21 April 1977<\/p>\n

Rock & Roll has this bad habit of being unpredictable. You never can tell when a band will undergo that alchemic transmigration from lead to gold. The medium of transformation is almost always a hit single, but such turnarounds often swamp a band in notoriety it can’t live up to.<\/p>\n

But in Fleetwood Mac’s case the departure of guitarist Bob Welch who’d reduced the band to recutting pointless and pretentious versions of old standards amounted to the biggest break they ever had. With that and the addition of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac suddenly became a California pop group; instead of laborious blues\/rock jams they started turning out bright little three-minute singles with a hook in every chorus.<\/p>\n

Christine McVie now leads a classic vocal group working out of the oldest popular tradition, love songs. Vocal harmonies are the meat and potatoes of California’s pop identity, and Fleetwood Mac is now one of the genre’s main proponents, with three lead singers of comparable range and tone. Taken individually, only McVie’s voice has much character, but she anchors their vocal arrangements, since Nicks’ low range and Buckingham’s high range approximate her dulcet, evenhanded timbre.<\/p>\n

Despite the interminable delay in finishing the record, Rumours proves that the success of Fleetwood Mac was no fluke. Christine McVie sounds particularly vital, on ‘You Making Loving Fun,’ which works for the same reason ‘Over My Head’ was a smash. The formula is vintage Byrds: Christine sings the verse simply, with sparse instrumental background, and the chorus comes on like an angelic choir high harmonies soaring behind her with 12-string electric guitar counterpoint ringing against the vocals.<\/p>\n

This Byrds touch is Lindsey Buckingham’s province, and it’s used most successfully on the single, ‘Go Your Own Way,’ which employs acoustic guitar backing throughout, with best effect on choruses. Mick Fleetwood’s drumming adds a new dimension to this style. Fleetwood is swinging away, but not in the fluid roll pattern most rock drummers use. Instead of pushing the rhythm (Buckingham’s acoustic guitar and John McVie’s bass playing take care of that) he’s punctuating it, playing against the grain. A touch like that can turn a good song into a classic.<\/p>\n

Buckingham’s contribution is the major surprise, since it appeared at first that Nicks was the stronger half of the team. But Nicks has nothing on Rumours to compare with ‘Rhiannon,’ her smash from the last album. ‘Dreams’ is a nice but fairly lightweight tune, and her nasal singing is the only weak vocal on the record. ‘I Don’t Want to Know,’ which is pure post-Buffalo Springfield country-rock formula, could easily be confused with any number of Richie Furay songs.<\/p>\n

Buckingham’s other two songs here are almost as good as ‘Go Your Own Way.’ ‘Second Hand News,’ ostensibly about the breakup of his relationship with Nicks, is anything but morose, and completely outdoes the Eagles in the kiss-off genre. Again the chunking acoustic guitar rhythm carries the song to a joyful chorus that turns average voices into timeless pop harmony. It may be gloss, but it’s the best gloss to come along in a long time. ‘Never Going Back Again,’ the prettiest thing on the album, is just acoustic picking against a delightful vocal that once again belies the bad-news subject matter.<\/p>\n

Fleetwood Mac’s change from British blue to California folk-rock is not as outlandish as some might think. The early Sixties blues scene in England had as much to do with rural American folk music as the urban blues sound, which was predominantly a guitarist’s passion anyway. Christine McVie is much closer to a singer like Fairport Convention’s Sandy Denny than to any of England’s blues shouters. Without altering her basic sensibility McVie moves easily into the thematic trappings of the California rock myth. She’s always written love songs, and sings her ballads with halting emotion. ‘Songbird,’ her solo keyboard spot on Rumours, is elevated by its context from what would once have been referred to as a devotional blues into a pantheistic celebration of love and nature.<\/p>\n

So Fleetwood Mac has finally realized the apotheosis of that early Sixties blues crusade to get back to the roots. It’s just that it took a couple of Californians and a few lessons from the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and the Eagles to get there.<\/p>\n

(article sent to me by Dark Angel, with thanks)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fleetwood Mac blooms in the sun Rumours – Fleetwood Mac Warner Bros. BSK 3010 By John Swenson Rolling Stone Magazine 21 April 1977 Rock & Roll has this bad habit of being unpredictable. You never can tell when a band will undergo that alchemic transmigration from lead to gold. The medium of transformation is almost … Continue reading Go Your Own Way \u00a0to Californ-i-ay | Rolling Stone<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":false,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3,7,13,14],"tags":[79,31],"class_list":["post-7241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-archive-pages","category-fleetwood-mac","category-release-info","category-reviews","tag-fleetwood-mac","tag-rumours"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p31Ax0-1SN","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1956,"url":"https:\/\/fleetwoodmac-uk.com\/wp\/fleetwood-mac-and-the-rolling-stones-earn-more-than-one-direction-in-the-us-telegraph\/","url_meta":{"origin":7241,"position":0},"title":"Fleetwood Mac and the Rolling Stones earn more than One Direction in the US | Telegraph","author":"fmfanuk","date":"March 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"By\u00a0Aime Williams 6:34PM GMT 11 Mar 2014 Daily Telegraph The two 70s bands break into the top ten for US earnings in 2013 Fleetwood Mac and the Rolling Stones are the only British bands to break intothe top ten of an annual list ranking recording artists by their US earnings\u00a0for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fleetwood Mac"","block_context":{"text":"Fleetwood Mac","link":"https:\/\/fleetwoodmac-uk.com\/wp\/category\/fleetwood-mac\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fleetwood Mac in concert in New York ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fleetwoodmac-uk.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/stevie_2849086b.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fleetwoodmac-uk.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/stevie_2849086b.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fleetwoodmac-uk.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/stevie_2849086b.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4232,"url":"https:\/\/fleetwoodmac-uk.com\/wp\/british-blues-new-book-heralds-early-days-of-fleetwood-mac-dailymail\/","url_meta":{"origin":7241,"position":1},"title":"British blues: New book heralds early days of Fleetwood Mac | Daily Mail","author":"fmfanuk","date":"October 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By Associated Press Oct 6th, 2017 LONDON (AP) - Mick Fleetwood was 16 when he left school, told his parents he wanted to pursue a career in rock 'n' roll, and went to London in search of gigs. A common tale, true, but this one has a happy ending. Fleetwood\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fleetwood Mac"","block_context":{"text":"Fleetwood Mac","link":"https:\/\/fleetwoodmac-uk.com\/wp\/category\/fleetwood-mac\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fleetwoodmac-uk.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/wire-1486807-1507300468-633_634x422.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fleetwoodmac-uk.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/wire-1486807-1507300468-633_634x422.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fleetwoodmac-uk.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/wire-1486807-1507300468-633_634x422.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":242,"url":"https:\/\/fleetwoodmac-uk.com\/wp\/fleetwood-mac-there-will-never-be-a-final-tour-until-we-drop-dead-says-stevie-nicks\/","url_meta":{"origin":7241,"position":2},"title":"Fleetwood Mac: There will never be a final tour until we drop dead says Stevie Nicks","author":"fmfanuk","date":"December 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) 12\/5\/2012 Catholic Online New tour coincides with 35th anniversary of band's breakthrough album, 'Rumours' Is one\u00a0ever too old to rock and roll? Never,\u00a0the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones has declared to the world. 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