CoronaVinyl Day 106 (RS Greatest Guitarists 51-100): Rumours by Fleetwood Mac

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

For the next two weeks plus, I'm going to be using several of Rolling Stone magazine's many "greatest of all-time" lists for CoronaVinyl, and we're starting with Rolling Stone's 2015 list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All-Time.  I'm breaking it into two parts, with today featuring a guitarist ranked between 51 and 100.  Coming in at #100 was Lindsey Buckingham, best known as the guitarist for Fleetwood Mac's most successful period.

You may or may not know that Fleetwood Mac started as a British blues band in the late '60s, before morphing in the early to mid '70s as to what we commonly think of as "Fleetwood Mac."  Drummer Mick Fleetwood (the "Fleetwood" in Fleetwood Mac) and bassist John McVie (the "Mac") were two of the founding members and have remained in the band throughout its existence.  In 1970, John's then-wife Christine joined as a keyboardist and vocalist.  After a couple lineup changes, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks joined prior to the band's eponymous 1975 album to round out the most famous and successful of the band's lineups.

1977's Rumours was the band's second album with that "classic" lineup, and it was a monster.  It's one of the 32 albums hanging on my office wall.  The album is largely considered their best work, and it's easy to see why.  Despite the band being in the throes of massive drug use and internal relationship problems -- with John and Christine McVie having divorced in 1976 and Buckingham and Nicks's relationship on ice, with Nicks and Fleetwood soon to become an item -- they managed to hold it together for the sake of the music.

Rumours was a huge success, hitting #1 on the Billboard album chart for 31 weeks, as well as #1 on the album charts in the UK and various other countries.  It was the best-selling album of 1977 and has gone on to sell over 40 million copies worldwide.  It is certified double diamond in the U.S., meaning it has sold over 20 million copies in the U.S. alone.  On top of that, it won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1978.  It produced four Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100:  "Dreams" (#1), "Don't Stop" (#3), "You Make Loving Fun (#9) (written by Christine McVie about her affair with the band's lighting director), and "Go Your Own Way" (#10).  It also has several other songs that have gotten significant radio play over the years, like "Second Hand News," "I Don't Want to Know," "The Chain," and "Gold Dust Woman."

The Spotify version of the album is the deluxe version, with 40 songs -- or 29 more songs than the original version.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Go Your Own Way"
Written and sung by Buckingham, "Go Your Own Way" shows off what I think he did best as a songwriter, which is straddle that line between pop and rock.  It's a song about breaking up, which can be said about several songs on this album.  Buckingham also shows off his guitar prowess with a nice solo.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "The Chain"
This is probably my favorite Fleetwood Mac song.  All five members got a writing credit on this one, and it's certainly written by a band that was struggling with its internal tensions, but realizing it has to stay together.  After the punchy verses and beginning part, the song builds while the chorus repeats.  Then, John McVie jumps in with a great little bass riff, with only Fleetwood's drums behind him, before it builds into a ripping guitar solo from Buckingham.