5 Classic Albums Made by Bands That Couldn't Stand Each Other

The biggest band in the world in 1983 could barely stand to be in the same room. The video above digs into how The Police made their masterpiece Synchronicity while recording in separate spaces just to keep from killing each other, before the whole thing imploded at the peak.

Here is the strange truth about rock. Some of the greatest albums ever made were born from pure poison, bands at war who somehow turned the hatred into magic. Here are 5 classic records made by people who could not stand each other. See if you agree...

Watch the video: Why The Police Really Broke Up and subscribe on the Rock with PJ Pat channel for more rock breakdowns.

1. Fleetwood Mac, Rumours: two couples falling apart at once

This is the gold standard of making art out of heartbreak. While recording Rumours in 1976, Fleetwood Mac was a band of exes. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were splitting up. John and Christine McVie, married, were divorcing and not speaking off the mic. Mick Fleetwood was going through his own marriage falling apart. So they all sat in a studio, fueled by who knows what, and wrote brutally honest songs aimed directly at each other. Nicks wrote "Dreams" about Buckingham. Buckingham fired back with "Go Your Own Way." They had to harmonize on each other's breakup songs every single day. The result became one of the best selling albums in history. Pure pain, turned into perfection.

2. The Beatles, Let It Be: the greatest band on earth coming apart

By the time the Beatles started the sessions that became Let It Be in early 1969, the four best friends who conquered the world could barely agree on anything. The tension was so thick that George Harrison actually quit the band for a stretch during filming before being coaxed back. Paul and John were pulling in different directions, business fights were everywhere, and the warmth had curdled. And yet, out of that misery came the iconic rooftop concert, their final public performance, and songs like "Let It Be" and "Get Back." The biggest band in history was actively breaking up on camera, and still made magic on the way out the door.

3. Pink Floyd, The Wall: a band ruled by one man

Pink Floyd's The Wall in 1979 is one of the most ambitious rock albums ever made, and it was created inside a band turning toxic. Roger Waters had taken near total control, and the sessions were a power struggle. The friction got so bad that keyboardist Richard Wright was pushed out of the band during the project, then ended up playing the live shows as a hired musician rather than a full member. The irony is almost too perfect. An album literally about isolation, walls, and a man cutting himself off from everyone was made by a band building walls between each other in real time. The masterpiece and the meltdown were the same thing.

4. The Eagles made Hotel California while quietly going to war

The Eagles sound smooth and sunny, but behind the harmonies the band was a pressure cooker. Through the Hotel California era and into the next record, the tension between Don Henley, Glenn Frey, and guitarist Don Felder kept rising. It boiled over famously at a 1980 benefit concert in Long Beach, where Frey and Felder spent the whole show whispering threats to each other between songs, basically counting down the minutes until they could throw hands offstage. The band broke up right after and stayed broken for 14 years, joking that they would reunite when "hell freezes over." They made some of the most beloved music in American rock while privately despising the gig.

5. Oasis: the Gallagher brothers turned fighting into a brand

No band wore their hatred more openly than Oasis. Brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher built their entire legend on sniping at each other, in the studio, in the press, and on stage. Noel wrote the anthems, Liam sneered them into immortality, and the two of them spent years trading insults that were sometimes funnier and more vicious than anything their rivals could write. The constant warfare powered a run of huge records that defined Britpop, even as it made every tour a ticking bomb. It finally blew up for good backstage in Paris in 2009, when Noel walked out after one fight too many. They proved you can hate your bandmate and still make him sound like a god.

More on What Rocks: 5 Bands That Survived Losing Their Singer, 5 Misunderstood Love Songs You Should Not Play at Your Wedding, and The Rise and Fall of Grunge.

Wear it loud

If your favorite records came out of beautiful chaos, gear up like a true believer. Two picks for the certified rock heads:

Rock Hand Sign Graphic Tee →
For fans who know the stories behind the songs.

Volume Knob Rock Baseball Cap →
The quiet Spinal Tap nod for anyone who knows the answer is always one louder.

So that is 5 classic albums born from bands that could barely stand each other, from Fleetwood Mac's exes to the Gallagher brothers' endless war. The Police belong right in that club. Maybe that is the secret nobody wants to admit. Sometimes the friction is the fire, and the music is what is left when it burns.

If you missed the Police video, the embed is right at the top of this post. Subscribe to the Rock with PJ Pat YouTube channel for more rock breakdowns.

Got a band or an album you want me to dig into next? Hit me on YouTube, Facebook, or drop me a message at its1louder.com. Always reading.

Long live rock and roll!

PJ Pat