Love songs about John
 

So I know she wrote Don't Stop to John during their divorce and Songbird and You Make Loving Fun are about the lighting director. But do we know if any of the vast array of 'I love you' songs Christine has written were about being in love with John? Very curious. Also, I wish there were some pictures from their wedding. I bet Christine makes a lovely bride.

Spare Me a Little was, at least according to Mick. Early versions of this song date back to 1970, when the couple were experiencing marital bliss.

By 1973, the Mcvies were facing significant personal troubles, so I’m suspecting Dissatisfied, Believe Me, and Why are autobiographical.

I also suspect that Remember Me and Just Crazy Love are at least inspired by her affair with Martin Birch.

By 1974, Birch returned to his wife and the Mcvies were trying to give it another go. Maybe Prove Your Love was about this stage of their lives.

The original lyrics to Brown Eyes (Yesterday’s Tears) are clearly about John. But the rewrite appears to be about Dennis Wilson.

Spare Me a Little and Why stand out as the most obvious examples but Warm Ways maybe also about "giving it another go" before the S&*t hit the fan in '76. Yesterday's Tears is just amazing- too bad they didn't keep that version and I agree it's about John. Most other stuff is about moving on I think.

I may be wrong, but I think Christine has said in an interview that, while some of her songs are autobiographical, many are not and are instead written about various other people or friends of hers. I can't remember if it was Sugar Daddy or Little Lies that this was referring to.

That being said, sooooo many songs sound like they are.

Confirmed: Mick (Oh Daddy), John (Believe Me, Why, Spare Me a Little, Songbird, Don't Stop), Lindsey (Over My Head), herself (Homeward Bound), Curry Grant (You Make Loving Fun)

I would wager that her Tango songs are about Eddy Quintella and her Tusk and Mirage songs are about Dennis Wilson.

"Over My Head" is about Lindsey? When did she say that?

I think she said this in an interview or two after rejoining FM in 2014 but I'm not sure which particular one. Although in the 1977 Rolling Stone mag interview she says Over My Head and Say You Love Me were both written on her portable Hohner piano in the Malibu apartment she shared with John shortly after the Heroes Are Hard to Find Tour. That'd be before she'd met either Lindsey or Stevie.

Perhaps in 2014 she was confusing songs.

Why would someone welcome a new member to the band by writing a love song about him while he is in a relationship with another of your new band members? It makes so sense.

At the Making of Rumours DVD (1997) she said about Songbird: It was about nobody and everybody.

Agreed, I thought it was weird too, but maybe I'm misremembering there. I SWORE I read an interview where she said that, but I can't find it now so maybe I made it up in my head. It certainly makes more sense for it to have been written about John, especially if she's quoted as saying it was written earlier.

Carol Ann wrote in her book that Songbird was also about Curry Grant. I know some people consider her book sketchy but it got a lot of things right so I don't see why it should be ignored.:shrug:

I don’t think OMH or Songbird are necessarily about one person.

you are remembering correctly - everybody was surprised when she said that in 2014, too. it was an audio interview, i believe. she was saying how she thought LB was extremely good looking when he and SN first came at that Mexican restaurant to "interview" for FM, and that OMH is a kind of a "what if" fantasy about gorgeous Lindsey. something like that.

the written earlier part may have been the music or the chords, and maybe she added lyrics later?

The lyrics to "Over my head" definately sounds like they´re about John. That´s the only thing that makes sense to me. Sounds really weird to think they would be about Lindsey, that´s all...:shrug:

Wasn’t Christine just saying ....phwoa you’re gorgeous....but out of reach.

Imagining Lindsey and her, but hey that’s over my head....

yes, that's what she said in 2014.

Yes she did say that—and I don’t believe her.

Don´t believe her either. To me it totally sounds like she´s singing about someone she´s in a relationship with and it all fits with what she had with John I think. Remember she once said that "You make loving fun" was about her dog, and we all know it wasn´t. So I definately don´t believe her when she says "Over my head" is about Lindsey. Just the thought of that is weird, and totally over MY head! :eek:

As has been mentioned Over My Head was supposedly written not long after the Heroes... tour. She probably didn't know Lindsey when it was initially roughed out or if she did then it was just after LB+SN joined the band.

'But every day you hurt my pride'
That doesn't sound like it would be about somebody you've only known for a short time. It does sound like its about a (sometimes) abusive, alcoholic spouse towards the end of a relationship.

'Your mood is like a circus wheel, you're changing all the time. Sometimes I cant help but feel, that I'm wasting all of my time'.
That also sounds like its directed towards a (sometimes) abusive, alcoholic spouse towards the end of a relationship.

Christine might have alluded to the song being written about Lindsey.... but it just wasn't. Either she was genuinely confusing the song with another song (and I don't doubt she could have written something else about him later on) or she's just flat out getting senile.

I think she was just trying to create a touch of intrigue about a song that is forty some odd years old.

Didn't she say this right before her album release with LB? It could have been a ploy to create a tension or narrative that sparked interest. Either way, I ain't buying it. The song is wonderful as a plainspoken love song. The subtext she tried to create for it decades later is lame. But not in the league of saying Landslide was written for Katrina. Or Hillary's election.

That was my first reaction but apparently it was quoted from an interview in 2014 so that's a bit before Buckingham McVie.

It was BBC in 2013/2014 aired before it was public she was joining the band. It was a great interview with everyone but John.

She does talk about how enamored she was w/ Lindsey when she met him.

I believe her premise that it was loosely based around him. She's always been one to change words to make a song flow better rather than have lyrics to match the exact premise she started writing about. Her songs morph.

Thank you!

I’m still not buying the song is really inspred by Lindsey.

I thought it was more that she thought he was gorgeous, but not a warm person. That he was very serious, all business...basically Danny Kirwan Lite.