FLEETWOOD MAC "RUMOURS" FIRST PRESSING 1977 'KP' BSK-3010 w/ 'CAPITOL MASTERING'

$

20

FLEETWOOD MAC "RUMOURS" FIRST PRESSING BSK-3010 TEXTURED COVER 'CAPITOL MASTERING' & 'KP' IN MATRIX w/ INSERT
FLEETWOOD MAC "RUMOURS" LABEL: WARNER BROTHERS: BSK-3010 RELEASED: FEBRUARY 4, 1977 EDITION: FIRST US PRESSING 1977 w/ 'KP' & 'MASTERED BY CAPITOL' DEADWAX TEXTURED COVER ~ 4-SIDED LYRIC/PHOTO INSERT ~ '0798' PRICE CODE RECORDED: RECORD PLANT ~ SAUSALITO & LOS ANGELES ~ FEB-AUG 1976 RECORDED: WALLY HEIDER RECORDING STUDIOS ` LOS ANGELES MIXING: SOUND CITY, VAN NUYS & RECORD PLANT, LOS ANGELES MASTERING/LACQUERS: KEN PERRY (script 'KP' IN MATRIX) MASTERED AT: CAPITOL MASTERING LAB PRESSING PLANT: CAPITOL RECORDS PRESSING PLANT (WHERE?) (GOLDISC?) MATRIX (SIDE A) : BSK-1-3010 F32 #2 MASTERED BY CAPITOL KP MATRIX (SIDE B) : BSK-2-3010 F31 #3 MASTERED BY CAPITOL KP
CONDITION:  VINYL: VG+ to VG++   INSERT: EX    JACKET: EX-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I've been going thru my massive vinyl record collection these past few weeks and pulling out some LPs that I thought that someone else would like for their collection. I've been collecting records for over 45 years and it's time to pass some of them on to the next generation of collectors.
This week on EBay I am offering up this original,  First Pressing of the great, classic, timeless Fleetwood Mac album 'Rumours'.
This is my original copy that I've taken great care of for many years. See details on Condition below.
This is a classic, beautiful, timeless record and is a must-have for any fan of Fleetwood Mac. 
~~~~~~~~ This is an Original 1977 First Pressing, easily identifiable by the lightly textured, faux-leather album jacket, the "Mastered By Capitol" stamp and the etched 'KP' mark in the runout, the short, simple matrix numbers, and the "0798" price code on the spine. It also has the original 4-sided, fold-open, black & white, lyric and photo insert.
Later 1977 and early 1978 pressings still had the price code and insert, but only early first pressings had the "Mastered by Capitol" and 'KP' marks. As demand for this album took off, other, slightly inferior lacquers and stampers were made and used to press the album, often by less skilled mastering engineers, and often from increasingly higher generation copies of the master tapes.
The matrix numbers also got longer and more complex as more and more pressing plants and individuals were recruited to manufacture this record to keep up with the huge demand. Early pressings had a short, simple matrix number, the catalog number followed by a simple letter or two.
Looking up the various 1977 releases of 'Rumours' on Discogs, there's a zillion different entries, and it's rather confusing.
Of all the earlier pressings, the one that consistently wins shoot-outs and sounds the best to most people's ears is this early first press with the 'KP' mastering initials in the matrix and the Capitol Mastering stamp. These are the pressings that sound best, and the ones you want!
~~~~~~~~~~ Ken Perry's legendary mastering clearly shows on this early First Pressing.
The sound of this pressing is superb: rich bass, vivid treble, clean, clear and brilliant voices. Just excellent. Absolutely every instrument and voice is its own place in the soundspace, all working perfectly with each other.
On this pressing you can hear all the depth and detail of Buckingham’s amazing guitar work, and Mick Fleetwood's percussion, both of which seems 'buried' in other pressings I've heard.
The powerful, tight, time-tested combo of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie provide a solid, driving force that holds all the songs on 'Rumours' together. They don't do any solos or 'show off' but their playing is excellent and amazing thru this whole album. The bass is deep and rich. 
This is an amazingly crisp, well-made album full of timeless, legendary songs, that everybody has heard, but it just gets better with age. Every time you listen to this album, you hear something familiar, yet hear something 'new' that you never noticed before.
it's wonderfully complex; compositionally, emotionally, and sonically, 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The band initially booked 2 months at the Record Plant in Sausalito to record this album, but that turned into a year. Warner Brothers gave Fleetwood Mac a huge budget, thanks to sales of their previous 'self-titled' album from 1975. I've read that it cost over $1 Million dollars, in 1976, to make this album.
The band wanted this album polished and perfect. They wanted every song to be a potential hit, and they essentially achieved that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~ Most all of the songs on this album were written predominately by one of the band’s three primary writers; Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks & Christine McVie.
With everybody mad at their spouses and each other at the time, the only two who still seemed to get along were Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie, so they put together basic Piano and Guitar structures of everyone's songs for the others to flesh out.
Lindsey Buckingham effectively told Stevie to 'Go your own way' and he commandeered the rest of the band, focusing all his attention on making 'Rumours'. The original working title was “Yesterday’s Gone”. 
Buckingham was an excellent musician and songwriter, had his ear tuned into current trends in music, and had his own vision of what the album should be. It was Lindsey, more than anyone else, who was able to polish the songs everyone else wrote and contributed, and give them a radio-friendly and album-ready feel.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lindsey opened up side 1 of Rumours with his "Second Hand News," inspired by his discovery and exploration of 'new' women in his life, post Stevie. "Second Hand News" became the album's first single.
It's interesting to me how so many of the songs on 'Rumours' sound upbeat, slick, and smooth but were basically 'F- You' songs written as attacks or opinions of each other. Many of the songs on the album demonstrate Lindsey's amazing ability to 'shine shit' and make them sound modern, slick and commercial, despite their dark roots.
Buckingham's "Go Your Own Way" is upbeat, catchy and driving, but is also another total f- you song. Stevie sings beautiful harmonies over her ex-lover's lyrics essentially calling her a slut and always 'shackin' up.
It proves the theory that popular hit songs have a certain 'it' factor and 'feel' to them that often has little to do with lyrics or musicianship. Adversity can create great music.
"Never Going Back Again" is another song about lost love and lost relationships that pre-dates Fleetwood Mac and was an older, vintage, 'Buckingham Nicks' composition that Lindsey updated for the album.
After Lindsey's opening dig at his ex-lover, Stevie gets her turn to twist her knife with the fantastic 'Dreams", an introspective song where she sings about what she had, what she lost, and what she gained after her breakup with Buckingham.
The story is that she wrote the song as a soft ballad in just a few minutes at the cabin in Sausalito, captured it on a small cassette recorder, took it into the studio the next day, and insisted that the rest of the band listen to it and work it up.
They turned her sad tune about the loss of love, "Dreams", into an amazing song and it became Fleetwood Mac's only #1 hit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Stevie Nicks was an amazing artist in the early days of Fleetwood Mac. She had one of the most immediately identifiable voices in rock, low and deep, like it’s bubbling up from her unconscious. She can sound innocent, sexy and vulnerable, but also commanding and assertive. 
Stevie's voice can be smooth as silk or hard as nails, often both, during the same song. There's multiple examples of that on this album. Her songs and vocals on this record are a snapshot of a woman at a very specific, tumultuous time in her life.
Stevie had a natural ability for writing lyrics that reflected her own everyday life and her uncertainty about relationships and the future, but her lyrics had something truthful and universal about them that many people could relate to, especially her female fans.
She was feminine, but certainly not timid, and wasn't afraid to give her opinion, her point of view, and tell her side of the story, warts and all.
Stevie Nicks had a perfect voice for a 70's rock singer and made her feelings, emotions and opinions very clear in a field that was heavily dominated by loud, assertive male Cock-Rock singers.
Stevie, in those days, often took the stage in a white dress, banging her tambourine decorated with long flowing lavender ribbons, looking very cute and 'sexy', but she had the inner power, mystery, grit and strength of a Witch and her lyrics were truthful, biting, and anything but 'girlie.'
One of her songs on this album "Gold Dust Woman" really sums up her power and independence, but also her vulnerability to the men and 'substances' around her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1970's Fleetwood Mac was very unusual and unique in that they were a massive rock & pop band, in a predominantly male industry, but were fronted by two powerful assertive women who were writing and performing their own songs and material.
Stevie Nicks gets most of the attention in 70s Fleetwood Mac, but the real driver, songwriter and powerhouse to many of their best tunes was Christine McVie. Christine, unfortunately, often gets overlooked, but she was an essential part of Fleetwood Mac going back many years.
Rather than being up front, in the spotlight, Christine was content in the background, playing beautiful keyboard music and melodies.
Her songs on this album, especially "You Make Lovin' Fun" and "Don't Stop" are fantastic, upbeat and pure fun. 
The other members of Fleetwood Mac often referred to Mick Fleetwood as "Big Daddy" when it came to business and record company decisions. Christine's song "Oh Daddy", was written about Mick's pending divorce and is a sweet, touching, melancholy song about the tough situation he was in.
McVie's songwriting is more pure, sweet, heartfelt and direct, compared to Lindsey or Stevie, and many fans like her honest approach. She seems like a real woman, easy to identify with, very down-to-earth. She composed four songs on Rumours.
“Songbird” on this album was performed and recorded in a concert hall to capture the ambiance perfectly. It's an absolute beauty and sonically, it's near perfect. It's many fan's favorite Christine song.
Christine McVie’s consistency as an excellent songwriter is one of the more overlooked aspects of Fleetwood Mac’s career.
“The Chain” is the only song on the album that was composed by all of the members of the band.
It actually originated from a pair of demos by Christine and Stevie, that were blended together. That's why the song seems to have 2 parts and the tempo changes in the middle. Those bass notes during the tempo transition in "The Chain" shake the walls.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This album isn't all from a female perspective. In fact it's 'magic' is that it manages to find a perfect balance between male and female points of view. The songs on this album have a fantastic balance of lightness and darkness, love and hate, admiration and disgust, truth and lies. It's a perfect, flawless record pulled together from the wreckage of the real lives of the people who created it.
In my opinion, one of classic rock's best, most endearing and longest lasting albums.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This album is full of amazing songs, with amazing arrangements, and amazing performances. The songs just flow from one to the next. It's fun and pleasurable to listen to.
It's deep, intimate and personal, yet upbeat and fun. A very tough trick to pull off, and they do it flawlessly. 
The songs sound like a friend's story being told to just you. Somehow you get personally involved in their story.
There's a song for everyone on 'Rumours'. Everybody can identify with it. Everyone can easily recognize their own 'story', their own piece of themselves within the amazing songs.
Lindsey, Stevie and Christine had amazing ability to write songs that were personal, about themselves and their lives, but sounded like they were written about everybody. 
Rumours is a superb mid-70s rock masterpiece. It's full of catchy hooks and perfect melodies, all done with perfect, crisp production.
This album is a testament to the band’s three primary songwriters and their ability to overcome adversity to create a perfect timeless album.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Although 'Rumours' is full of pleasant, easy-going, melodic pop/rock songs, the album’s creation and production was anything but cool and steady. 
By the time the members of Fleetwood Mac came together as a group to start recording this album in 1976, the individual band members were as far apart as possible in regards to their personal relationships. Their various connections and bonds were starting to fray and come apart. 
After knowing each other for many years, and 6 years of domestic and creative partnership, including making an album together, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were divorced, but continuing an on and off relationship with constant fighting. 
Christine McVie and bassist John McVie had recently divorced after eight years of marriage and refused to speak to each other, except when working on songs. 
Drummer Mick Fleetwood faced his own divorce after discovering his wife had an affair with his best friend. 
Add to that the fact that the entire band had raging Cocaine habits at the time and it was a real mess. The band's Coke consumption was legendary.
Their cocaine use during their most recent tour was so enormous and expensive that Mick Fleetwood had to put his foot down and ration the band to 'only' a Heineken beer bottle cap full of Coke, for each bandmember, to get them thru each night's show.
It was later revealed that Fleetwood and Nicks also started a relationship around this time. 
All that personal turmoil and drama was written about in the music press at the time, leading to many unsubstantiated rumours, which ended up giving the album its title. "RUMOURS"
Fleetwood Mac was falling apart spectacularly. It was the recipe for a disaster waiting to happen, but despite all that was going on in their personal lives, instead of channeling the hate, anger, frustration and pain that was bubbling under the surface onto each other, they managed to turn all that energy into their songs and music to create a fantastic album, one of their best.
It's amazing that a record as good as 'Rumours' could have been made under those circumstances, but it's stunning in just how perfect the record ended up turning out. The final record sounded clean, fun, glossy on the ouside, but underneath was the brutal, dark, complicated truth.
'Rumours' is the sound of a band working in perfect unison, despite their worlds crumbling around them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CONDITION: I tried to show good hi-resolution photos of the cover, labels and vinyl in my pictures.
This is my own personal copy that I purchased back in 1977, when it was a 'new' release and have taken great care of it since. It's been kept in an inner poly sleeve and shelved/sleeved properly for many, many years. 
VINYL: The vinyl still looks quite nice. Bright and shiny, with only a couple of light hairlines and very mild evidence of play. No serious scuffs, palpable scratches, dings or damage. A beautiful used original copy. 
I'll call it conservatively at least VG+. I tried to show some close-up pictures of the vinyl to show how good it still looks. I'm sure you'll be happy with it.
The Deadwax has all the 1977 First Pressing indicators as listed above, including the 'CK' mastering and the 'Mastered by Capitol' stamp.
I've had this record for decades, but have never cleaned it, other than my trusty old 'DiscWasher' brush. I took great care of my records, but this would benefit from a good deep cleaning to make it really jump out of the speakers, more than it already does.
LABELS: This is pressed with the classic early, Warner 'Palm Tree' labels. As you can see, the labels are clean and bright. No marks, writing or damage. The spindle holes are still sharp and clean, suggesting minimal playing and my careful handling over the years.
JACKET: As you can see from my pictures, this still looks great for a 50 year old OG copy. This record tends to be found with significant jacket wear, shelf wear and ringwear, but this copy looks great. The famous iconic cover photo of Mick and Stevie is clean, bright and glossy.
This is the slightly textured original cover with the price code on the spine. It has very mild shelf wear, no ring wear, and still looks great.
Corners are sharp, spine straight, no seam splits. Beautiful.
The original insert, actually 2 of them, that's how it came, is clean and bright. It has lyrics and photos.
You can see from my pictures that it's still quite nice. Overall a very decent, rare, original first pressing. A true survivor, and still just the way I purchased it nearly 50 years ago. I'm sure you'll love it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~ Clean copies of early First Pressings, like this one are hard to find. This album is a must-have on vinyl, if not for the great music, at least for the classic album jacket art alone. 
~~~~~~~~~~~ ** NOTE: I'm selling this rare 'Collector' record "AS IS" and "NO RETURN". It's rare, and as described, and I'm sure you'll be very happy with it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I’m recently retired and downsizing and letting go some gems and rarities from nearly 45 years of vinyl record collecting. Check out the many other fantastic 45s and 33s coming soon to my page!
All records have been carefully evaluated and graded by me. I visually inspect all records under bright light, personally gently clean them with a soft cloth and then, if unsure, play them on a modern high-end turntable to get a true picture of condition. Please look at all the high-resolution pictures I added. They are all my own and are of the actual record being sold. The pictures are part of the description and can show small details, label variations, and condition better than I can put into words. 
My grading is fair and honest. I have had over 3,400 happy and satisfied EBay customers over the years, with 100% positive feedback, and I have been buying/selling on EBay for well over 25 years, so please bid with confidence!
I'm a 0ne-man operation, this is a hobby, not my job. I do this for fun. I do this because I love music, love collecting vinyl and want others to share in that same experience. I take my time listening, researching, grading, listing and packaging. I will NOT sell any record that I personally would not want in my collection.
As you well know, packing and shipping rare records requires special care and attention, therefore, shipping cost within the lower 48 states is $5.00 on this item. If you would like insurance, or anything faster than Media/Economy Mail, please let me know and I can arrange it for you. I’ll work with you to make sure you’re happy!
I will gladly combine multiple records, or other items on my page, and make the shipping much less for you. I don’t inflate the shipping costs; they are what they are. I strive to keep them as low as possible. See my feedback for comments on my quality packing and shipping.
All items are packaged with sturdy cardboard mailers and appropriate padding. I take pride in my packaging and shipping and package all my records as if I were sending them to myself. I refuse to use cheap flimsy packaging material when sending my vinyl. I treat them as if they were my own and mail them the same way. 
All orders are processed and shipped within 2 business days of receipt. We package and ship our vinyl records with the greatest care, using proper packaging to ensure that your rare and collectible vinyl records arrive in pristine condition.
Payments can be made by any of the multiple options that Ebay offers.
I will be happy to exchange feedback with anyone I complete a transaction with.
THANK YOU for looking and reading if you got this far.  -- JOHN