The curious persistence of yet another cultural artifact from the 20th century.
Way back during the first year of the Jimmy Carter presidential administration, a hybrid British/American band released a record album/8-track tape called Rumours. It was famously created among the fractured and spiteful relationships among the respective married/might-as-well-be-married couples in the band. Like The Beatles’ White Album and Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, other legendary albums born amidst personal sturm und drang, there was an edge and an artistry rarely matched in the artists’ catalogues.
I came across a link to a Guardian* article about the persistent sales of the album, especially in vinyl sales. I’m not fussed enough to check but Rumours was already the second or third best-selling recording of all time for years. Classic albums always sell, but to sell in the five-figures every year since the vinyl was re-released is astonishing.
The punchline in the last graf floored me:
I give Ken Caillat, who co-produced Rumours, the last word on the LP’s staying power. “I think the combination of the young band members – and that half of them were British and half of them were California hippies – and that the lyrics were fueled by each of the couples breaking up simultaneously, made the songs relatable to people of all ages,” he says. “The band members were only in their 20s, so I suppose their youth and optimism shines through to this day.”
I have to laugh at the bolded part because “youth” and “optimism” become antonymic post-puberty for too many people. I was never more God-hating nihilistic, pessimistic, etc. than I was at age 18 through the entirety of my 20s. It took every minute of my 30s, 40s, and 50s to grow up and grow out of this.
The Guardian article touched on two things that reasonably explain the continued popularity of a 45-year-old collection of recorded songs. First, Stevie Nicks has somehow turned herself into an elder icon. A lot of younger women look up to her as a beloved ur-mother, even as Nicks proudly admitted to aborting a pregnancy for the sake of her career. Nicks gives frequent interviews to star-struck young writers, she does all the chat shows, she even starred in episodes of American Horror Story in which the characters worshipped her status as composer and singer of the Welsh witch radio anthem, “Rhiannon,” from Fleetwood Mach’s eponymous album before Rumours.
Secondly, Rumours is an album of great songwriting executed through fine, one-of-a-kind musicianship. Just look at the endurance of The Beatles. If you’ve got the songs, if you play and sing them just so, welcome to the Hall of the Immortals. It’s as simple as that, and as rarely attained.
That said, I have to say once again that there is so little going on culturally that we are constantly looking to the past, and this isn’t a sign of good times to come. As happy as I am that younger folk are discovering 20th century popular music acts that could write and play and sing their own songs, still. We are all Lot’s wife now.
* I feel bad enough reading a Guardian article. There's no way I'm linking to it.
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