Making Rumours by Ken Caillat with Steven Stiefel
♫ If you wake up and don't want to smile,
If it takes just a little while,
Open your eyes and look at the day,
You'll see things in a different way.
Don't stop, thinking about tomorrow,
Don't stop, it'll soon be here,
It'll be, better than before,
Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone.
Why not think about times to come,
And not about the things that you've done ♫
I was followed on Twitter by Ken Caillat. He had written a book on how he made an album called Rumours. I grew up on classic rock, and of course Fleetwood Mac, so I was pretty excited to have a producer follow me. I figure I’d give him a review!
Making Rumours is a biography with a wild ride, provided by Scooter and Ken's Audi ;) We go behind the scenes to see what it was like working with Ken, Richard, and the members of Fleetwood Mac. I love how Ken tells the story and places us with him in the late 70’s.
It's amazing to see all the technical ingenuity that went into making “Rumours”. Now days, it’s a lot easier for the producers to mix, layer, and cut out parts; as it’s all digitally mastered. Most people don’t realize what went into making a single song and the hours behind it. If there was to be any layering of music, there were several cassette tapes. Each tape would have a different instrument or a sound a band member wanted. When play simultaneously, you can really hear each layer. Once the band members loved all the layers, it was played and recorded on another tape. That way, they had a set layer they could use and make changes too. Even editing down a song required precision: Ken had to find the exact spot in the recording and cut the cassette tape and tape it back up and hoped he edited the right amount out. In a way, I wish music was like this still. Most singers/bands rush though everything to get a song/album out, and don’t put much work into a song. Or they will spend time on certain songs, and not enough time on the rest of an album.
“Back in the 1970's, the music business was great. We have plenty of time and money to finish an album properly. I think that's missing today. Artists are forced to finish their albums too soon, and they don't get to put the frosting and love into what they want. A manager of a band I once worked for asked me, "Why are you spending so much time on that song? The other one's the hit! By the time someone hears that song, we'll already have their money! Be smart, Ken! "Listen I don't work that way," I said to him "I want to make everything as good as it can be! I refuse to shortcut any song before it has as much attention as it deserves. I don't want any losers on my album, if possibly avoid them."
What made the book fun were all the antics that happened with Ken. He has this pup named Scooter and all the mischief he gotten himself into! My favorite one was where he gotten “suck” while doing his dirty deeds. Ken had to squirt Scooter off his girlfriend with the water hose a couple times. Ken also goes on to tell us about his lady friends and his experiences with drug use.
While the book was entertaining, it also got dark at times with Fleetwood Mac. They were heavy drug and alcohol users. A lot of the time, they were in fights or one member shows up, where another member won’t. It was really hard at times. I couldn't have imagined Ken and Richard keeping any sanity while trying to make the Rumours album. Maybe that’s why the drugs helped the producers and Mac reclaim the top of the charts? Thinking back, if there wasn't any drugs or alcohol… I bet this album would have sounded totally different, even with the songs. In their darkest moments, Fleetwood Mac rose with outstanding songs, carefully written. As we learned about each member and their hardships, Ken saw something extraordinary in them.
“Every song was written or produced on the spot in the studio, often when we'd had little sleep. It was part of my job, along with Richard's, to manage the feelings of the band. Sometimes their emotions were volatile, and we always had to juggle their temperaments. In retrospect, I can say that it was almost like being a parent, trying to raise your kids the right way, all the while working hard and not to screw it up. I realized I had a huge responsibility trying to manage a dysfunctional family and a talented group of musicians; without having any real authority of them."
The only problems I had with this book were:
All the music technical parts. I am not by any means a producer or recorder, but it got a tad bit boring. With all the information about the setup of each recording studio to how each and everything worked. I wasn't really wanting an in depth description about it, but I got it. I do love how the chapters were split up by each song. We get a detail look inside each song and what hardships went into the final production.
Also, with Ken’s experiences with the drugs; it makes me wonder how Ken remembered everything. Ken claims he didn't smoke too much, because he had to keep a level head to record and produce, but unless he wrote down what he did or such… it just takes away some credibility. However, I can look past this and really enjoy the adventure with all his beautiful girls and crabs incident. ;)
All in all, this was a great inside story of how Ken and Richard produced “Rumours”. Honestly, I read this book to read about the drama of the band, but Ken didn't get to in depth. It’s more about the origins of the songs, the recording ideas, and the building measurements of each song. Ken made nothing sound so amazing, to what we now know as Fleetwood Mac today! Please go and read this book! It’s about a Classic Band that made real music come alive.
“Making rumors is about the journey that a handful of people took during the mid-1970’s. It's about how being part of the phenomenon of the Rumours album not only change our lives but touch millions of other lives around the world forever. It is also the story of a perfect album, made out of flaws in the human spirit, sometimes through agonizing determination, love, lust, and a force of will that made failure unthinkable. It’s a success story of epic proportions-- not always pretty, but a dramatic illustration of greatness delivered, of passion embraced. It’s my story and I want to share with you.”
