Influence
 

Okay, I think there needs to be a new thread here!

I was trying to think of which artists appear to have been influenced by Christine's songs and musicianship. Any ideas?

I've heard Tori Amos say that she was very fond of Christine.

This kind of surprises me...I know she loves Stevie.

I know that she has covered 'Songbird', but I have never heard of her mentioning Christine specifically. Got a link?

Lots of people have covered Songbird so there would be an influence there.

I'm not sure whether her influence would extend beyond FM where it was probably only noticed after she'd left.

Gail

OK...so technically I don't have squat to add to this thread ... but...

When I listen to Bob Seger's song - The Fire Inside - it has this great piano part and I think of Christine every time I hear it.

I know that Waddy Wachtel worked with Seger for a while, so maybe... there was some sort of FM connection. (Maybe ...I need to get out the liner notes and see if it is Christine banging away on the white & blacks...) :shrug:

T.D.

I think every woman who plays an instrument in a pop or rock band has been influenced by Christine -- although most of them probably don't realize it. I think Christine, by being a musician in a rock band and not making a fuss about it, made it acceptable for women to play instruments in bands, not just sing.

I think because she was one of the first women who played in a band, wrote songs, and performed, she was important. I can't remember which program I saw about Sheryl Crow, but the narrator mentioned that Christine was a role model.

Good point. I struggled to think of anyone who you could say was influenced by Christine. But as you say she has been a role model for women who want to sing and play in a band.

Gail

I totally agree. When she was in Chicken Shack & then in Fleetwood Mac, she was the only female musician in a band. She was even slightly defensive about it in that 1976 People Magazine article.

I'm sure she mentioned in the "My Top 12" interview that she thought she might have been the only female who played an instrument in a band in the 60's.

It's funny but I never think of her as a trail blazer. Probably because she makes so little fuss herself.

I think that FM might have been one of the first bands to include two women who actually wrote songs.

Gail

I know! It's strange. Here she was, playing heavy rock in the early seventies, part of a band that opened for the likes of Deep Purple and Savoy Brown, and people rarely acknowledge it.

I remember VH1 (was it VH1?) did its 100 most inluential women in rock. Christine was like 71 or something. I thought What! Outside of singers, women had virtually no place in rock before her. She also wrote her own songs--something few women did before, Carol King and Bonnie Bramlet being notable exceptions.

But she wasn't merely a singer-songwriter, or a chick singer, she was a band member. And a great player, too.

I think the fact that CM was never the stand out star in FM (before, during, and after BN) makes her less of an obvious choice for a musical influence to younger artists. But, I think her music surely was if for no reason other than FM's great success in the Rumors line up, though her talent extends far past that time period.

iawtc. :wavey:

WHAT! I beg your pardon; Christine most certainly WAS the standout star, as far as I'm concerned. And that's not just my opinion; which songwriter had the most hits?

As far as her place in rock history as a pioneering woman singer/songwriter/musician, at the time there were a few other women who performed all three roles (Carole King and Joni Mitchell come to mind) but they were solo performers. Christine performed those three roles IN A BAND, on an equal basis with men in the band. Despite many years of awareness of gender inequality issues in our society, it is still difficult for a woman to succeed in any male-dominated profession, the way Christine succeeded in the extremely male-dominated profession of rock music.

There still aren't a lot of women in rock who perform all three roles in a band, on an equal footing with the guys. There have been plenty of all-women bands since Chris got her start in music, some of whom have been very successful, but to this day it continues to be fairly rare for a woman to be a success in all three roles in a mixed-gender band. I have a huge, huge amount of respect for Christine that she was able to succeed at this, and for so many years, and that she never saw the need to point out to the world that she was a rock 'n' roll pioneer. She was never one for self-promotion; she just was a musician doing her job.