Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album - Hardcover

by Ken Caillat (Author), Steve Stiefel (Author)

Inside the making of one of the biggest-selling albums of all time: Fleetwood Mac's Rumours

Fleetwood Mac's classic 1977 Rumours album topped the Billboard 200 for thirty-one weeks and won the Album of the Year Grammy. More recently, Rolling Stone named it the twenty-fifth greatest album of all time and the hit TV series Glee devoted an entire episode to songs from Rumours, introducing it to a new generation. Now, for the first time, Ken Caillat, the album's co-producer, tells the full story of what really went into making Rumours--from the endless partying and relationship dramas to the creative struggles to write and record "You Make Loving Fun," "Don't Stop," "Go Your Own Way," "The Chain," and other timeless tracks.

• Tells the fascinating, behind-the-music story of the making of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, written by the producer who saw it all happen
• Filled with new and surprising details, such as Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham's screaming match while recording "You Make Loving Fun," how the band coped with the pressures of increasing success, how the master tape nearly disintegrated, and the incredible attention paid to even the tiniest elements of songs, from Lindsey playing a chair to Mick breaking glass
• Includes eighty black-and-white photographs

Front Jacket

Rumours generated four top-ten singles, topped the Billboard album charts for thirty-one weeks, and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1977. It went on to become the fifth bestselling album to date--forty million copies and counting--and Rolling Stone's twenty-fifth greatest album of all time. And it turned a band that had struggled to make a name for itself for nearly two decades into a household name. In Making Rumours, the album's coproducer Ken Caillat tells the wild, poignant, and exhilarating story behind the album's creation. Its potent combination of rock-star melodrama, technical insights, and compelling portraits of five brilliant but troubled young artists at their creative peak will forever change the way you hear the album.

Trouble was brewing well before sessions began at the Record Plant in Sausalito in January 1976. John and Christine McVie were getting divorced. Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham had joined the band as a couple more than a year earlier, but now they were in a constant state of war. And, unknown to anyone but Caillat's coproducer, Richard Dashut, drummer Mick Fleetwood had just learned that his wife was divorcing him and taking up with his best friend.

From the first session, which featured the rudiments of "The Chain" and John McVie improvising the critical bass part that ties it all together, to the final sessions that tempered and polished the songs' vocals, Caillat reveals how these conflicts, fueled by drugs, alcohol, and the pressure of making the album, tore the band apart. But making the music pulled them back together.

Stevie and Lindsey had screaming matches between takes of "You Make Loving Fun," and John and Christine bickered constantly. During takes, however, everyone collaborated brilliantly and did whatever it took to get the sound they needed. Lindsey played a beat against a leather chair on "Second Hand News"; Mick stood atop a ladder, tossing sheets of glass to the floor for the haunting end of "Gold Dust Woman"; and Christine, at Ken's suggestion, took the stage in an empty theater to record her splendid "Songbird" vocal.

Woven through all of this drama and artistry, Caillat presents a virtual master class in how to produce a great album. He describes everything from microphone placement and how to liven up a "dead" room to how to work with difficult artists and what to do when your master tape begins to degrade nine months into the process.

Packed with scores of never-before-published photos from Caillat's personal collection, Making Rumours is a must-read for Fleetwood Mac fans, rock history buffs, and anyone who loves a behind-the-scenes account of great musicians at work and play.

Back Jacket

Praise For "Making Rumours"

"If you've ever wondered what it's like to cut an album with a legendary band who made one of the most popular rock albums in sales and airplay history, then this is the book for you. It's just an incredible story about how songs like 'Dreams' or 'You Make Loving Fun' were created, and the talented musicians who made them, with the help of the producers and engineers who put them down on tape and brought them to life."--Tom Johnston, the Doobie Brothers

"It's hard to imagine the tensions and freak-outs that go on behind studio doors when a band is making a follow-up to a number one album. But throw in broken relationships between band members and an endless supply of cocaine, and for me as a producer, the next step would be to light the fuse and walk away. Ken Caillat, though, ran the course, and you get to read how he survived (well, almost)."--Dave Stewart, award-winning songwriter/producer and founder of Eurythmics

For one year in the studio there were massive quantities of drugs, alcohol, tempers, jealousy, doubts, and insecurities. Three couples separated and three couples cheated. But that's just the backdrop.

The real story is how the five talented but troubled young musicians of Fleetwood Mac managed to make one of the greatest albums ever recorded. In Making Rumours, coproducer Ken Caillat takes you behind the scenes to witness the personal, creative, and technical challenges he and the band overcame to make music history.

Author Biography

Ken Caillat coproduced Fleetwood Mac's classic 1977 album, Rumours, for which he won the Grammy for Album of the Year. He also produced the group's Tusk, Mirage, and Live albums, as well as their box set, The Chain. He has worked on albums with everyone from George Carlin, engineering his epochal Class Clown, to the London Symphony Orchestra. He is the father of Grammy-winning singer Colbie Caillat, and he produced her number one album, Breakthrough.

Steven Stiefel has written several books, including contributions to two by LL Cool J. He also works as a magazine writer and editor. His fiction has appeared in the Georgia Review and McSweeney's.