Lol...I like the random car honk in "Sugar Daddy"...

Christine's songs on Tusk have sort of a less is more, intimate feel to it, which I love. Most of her songs on there just consist of her voice and a couple other instruments, and her lyrics are especially honest and emotional...sorta giving us a rare glimpse of who she was at the time. And God...I love "Never Make Me Cry"!

I have to go with Rumours and Tango in the Night, though it's close for Mystery to Me (I should relisten to those songs). On Tango, it's clear Christine was the MVP of the album: two hits with Little Lies and Everywhere, and I love Isn't It Midnight, which is a pretty strong rock song from Chris with great guitar work. And Rumours, it's hard to deny the greatness of You Make Loving Fun. I love Oh Daddy, the intricacies of the sounds of that song, its production. The poignancy of Songbird. Yes, Don't Stop isn't at the same level as the other songs, but Christine was certainly at a career peak for the Rumours album, as were arguably Stevie and Lindsey. There's a reason that album is considered one of the greatest albums ever made (apart from sales and the pop culture phenomenon), everyone brought their A-game. I do wish, like The Beatles or The Stones, the overall greatness of one album could have translated to several more albums of equal or greater quality (that were perceived in that manner when they were released).

Mystery To Me...that's a definite. "Believe Me", "Just Crazy Love", "Why"...superb! "The Way That I Feel" is kind of so-so; but, she did a GREAT vocal on Bob Welch's "Keep On Going"!!

Future Games..."Morning Rain" & "Show Me A Smile" not too shabby of a debut on a FMac album. With a little editing "Morning Rain" could've been a good single, but it suffered from the era it was recorded, with the whole "jam" mentality. (plus, she probably needed to raise the key a bit. It's just a little bit too low for her range)

Bare Trees..."Spare Me A Little Of Your Love", good, but not great (however later live versions with the BN harmonies improved it quite a bit); "Homeward Bound", suffered from the same things as "Morning Rain", just a little bit too low of a key for her voice.

Penguin...now here's where she starts to take off..."Remember Me", "Dissatisfied", "Did You Ever Love Me?"...GREAT songs.


Heroes Are Hard To Find...a little dip in quality, but still pretty good...the title cut is catchy, why it didn't do better in the charts is a head-scratcher. "Come A Little Bit Closer" & "Prove Your Love" were standard CMcVie fare..."Bad Loser" is off the hook! One of my favorite Christine songs of all-time.

Penguin & Mystery To Me:
1973 was a VERY GOOD YEAR for Christine McVie!

Mirage and Tango.

I'm one of the 4 people who actually like "Only Over You" and "Wish You Were Here"...

Counting me, 5 :nod: Just doesn't mean I think Mirage was high on the list of Christine's best work, however.

Agreed. All of her BTM songs are great, with the exception of "Do You Know".

Now THAT'S what they should have dusted off for the Dance tour instead of "Everywhere"!

You'd think putting his stamp on a song they recorded after his departure would be right up Lindsey's alley (and by alley I mean ego ;) ).

I think as far as early 90s love songs go, Do You Know is quite lovely. It's one of the few songs on that album I can stand!

I suppose it's not horrible, but it does put me to sleep without fail every time I hear it... :o

I'm so glad someone else is as rabid about Christine's songs from the Penguin & Heroes albums as I am. Christine's songs off those two albums are just flawless :nod:. I've always hated Christine has dismissed those pre '75 Mac songs, because they're every bit as good as anything she's ever done. And the lady never releases anything short of perfection. :nod:

As far as my two favorite Christine albums, I've been chewing on that all week. I'm leaning towards Tusk as my favorite. As utterly perfect as her Penguin songs are, there's only 3 of them... so I guess my #2 will have to default to Tango, simply because there's more goodness to behold. :laugh:

Six, unless you included me already... :nod:

:thumbsup: Cool!

As I was frantically searching in vain for a different Fleetwood Mac song of hers, I found an mp3 of a VERY, VERY, VERY early version of "Morning Rain" from a BBC broadcast. It was SO new at the time, that they hadn't even titled it yet and the BBC announcer said that they had to come up with a name for it for the broadcast, so they told him it was titled "Start Again". The lyrics are similar but different from the Future Games track, but musically (instrumentally) it was almost identical.

Well, you DO know that Lindsey DOES appear on one track each on both BTM and Time, right??

The only song from the BTM album (including the outtakes) that I can't stand is "The Second Time" (yes, that even includes "Lizard People"! Which is where I think Mick came up with the intro to "In The Back Of My Mind")

I think if they'd had Richard Dashut engineer/produce BTM instead of Greg Ladanyi (RIP, Greg), it would've sounded a whole lot cleaner & would've probably not gotten as much flak.

I think I've heard this!!!

I adore them. Closed both sides beautifully and made Mirage into a type of lullabye really.

Michele

I also love all four of Christine's Mirage songs, I just don't think there her best songs. :cool:

Yeah, it was floating around in the pre-rumours forum a while back. Her vocal on it is WAY better than the album version. I think the band chose the final version because of Kirwan's blistering guitar work, as well as Christine's switch from electric to acoustic piano. But they dropped a key and her voice sounds too low on it.

That first versions sounds poppier, more radio friendly, like a Traffic single from the late sixties...

Here is one of the threads for Morning Rain/Start Again:
http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showth...ing+rain+start

I guess it is just a matter of taste. I personally love those songs and was drawn to Tusk initially because of Lindsey and Christine's songs.

:D. Brown Eyes is especially a favorite of mine.

Count me in there, I love "Only Over You" and never understood the hate for it.

I found this poll much harder to vote on. Christine was good on so many Mac albums IMO. The only album where I wasn't a huge fan of her songs overall was Mirage.

Penguin and Heroes often get lost in the shuffle. Christine's pre-75 work is just so good that it deserves a lot more attention than it gets. A song as catchy as Did you Ever Love Me ought to have been covered many times over by contemporary artists, it's that good. It's also an utter shame that Bad Loser or Prove Your Love aren't on classic rock frequent rotation. :nod:

I still think Why is one of the best songs she ever wrote. There isn't a song I can think of that captures a sort of melancholy optimism better. It breaks my heart whenever I hear it.

I also have a soft spot for Come A Little Bit Closer, which is superb.

Bob Welch
 

Check out the Pre-Rumours forum for Bob Welch's corresponding thread. :cool:

No one has voted for Time. It's a ropey album, to be sure, but Nights in Estoril and Sooner or Later are good; All Over Again is lovely, if a little too reliant on synthesiser; I Do and Hollywood are happy, catchy songs. They aren't her best work, but I think they're not far off par with BTM.
:shrug:

I almost wondered if her Tango/BTM/Time songs shouldn't all be under one happy, Eddy Quintela-collab umbrella? If her first three Mac albums are, it makes as much sense that her last three be, too. Those Chris songs are very easily grouped together in terms of sound and songwriting quality.

I think, though, that her Time songs are simply too similar and overshadowed by their (albeit maybe only slightly) superior Tango counterparts to really get any actual votes. Doesn't necessarily mean people are hating on Time (although really, probably a lot of people are ;) )

Christine's Time songs are okay and all, but to me they sound more like solo songs that FM band songs. From what I've heard around here, they pretty much are! :cool:

I think BTM and Time could be lumped together as 'good'-ish, but Tango is sublime. It stands alone. Lindsey's production and collaboration just send some already fantastic Christine songs soaring up amongst her best.

I've never really been sure what Eddy Quintela contributed to, say Little Lies etc. I'd be keen to know. Oh, though Everywhere is hers alone, so there's another reason to leave Tango out from under the Quintela Umbrella ;)

Yeahhhhh. I admit I was sort of wanting to take that back a bit, almost immediately after I hit "submit". There are noticeable differences between her Tango songs and the others. But in my head I do tend to group them all together and enjoy them all for very similar reasons.

Nice to see Mirage getting some love. You could make an argument that this was some of her bet work as well. Some of her backing vocals on Gypsy, Book of Love and even... ack... Oh Diane... really nice touches...

I think Lindsey is under rated on this album too.

I also love the way Christine says the word, "Mirage". lol :laugh:

Tango was her at her peak I think, Everywhere and Little Lies still sound great today.

Rumours was my second choice as You Make Loving Fun is my favourite song of hers.

Where is that article that talks about what Christine said was her favorite three albums? I remember it being posted on the Ledge perhaps a few months back. I'm wanting to say she said, Rumours, '75 Mac, and Mystery to Me. :cool:

That's right, she did. I read it as saying Rumours was third out of three and Mystery to Me was her favourite. The way she says it is ambiguous!

It was from MOJO magazine and I think you're right about the ones she said.

To be fair I'd probably put FM and MTM in my top 5, along with Rumours, Tango, and Tusk as far as her contributions go.

I voted for Behind the Mask and Tango because she saved those two albums. With out her they would have been horrible. Otherwise this poll would have been impossible to judge. I think she had done an amazing job at staying consistently good on all the albums even though I find her to be a little too adult contemporary/mainstream pop sometimes. But hey, she was the hit machine and had more of them then the other two. The only album I thought she was weak on is Tusk. Besides Over and Over and Think about me, its just too dull and boring. I do like the three part harmony on Honey Hi.

I first started listing to the band in 1997 when I was 12 and my family drove from Alaska to NC in a motor home. My parents accidently packed up all the cds so we listend to The Dance over and over. Its funny how during an interview around that time she said she hoped kids would pick up the band from thier parents lol. I thought Christine was the weakest link back then, but I appreciate her a whole lot more now that I am a little older. I have actually gotten all her pre rumours FWM albums. they are all really good. especially Mystery to Me. There is a song on Bare trees that talks about her just wanting to go home away from the jett setting/ limelight life. I thought that was pretty funny.

As I already said, she can be a little too easy listing sometimes and its hard to listen to only her songs for too long at a time. (I have her 1984 album and will get In the mean time at somepoint) The best part of FWM- the dynamic between the three singers. You can't get bored listing to them! Thats why I can't figure out how someone could hate one of the band members and still like FWM. favor one over the others yes, but hate one?

^^^ I agree with a lot of what you said about Christine. I think she was "a little too adult contemporary/mainstream pop sometimes." And I think she was weak on Tusk. Yes, being easy listening has definitely contributed to a sometimes negative image of the band as being pure pop and not as substantive. But for people who know the band and its history, the dynamic between the three singers is really unparalleled.

What a lovely story about listening to The Dance in the motor home! I was the same as you. I really got into FM off the back of that CD. However, conversely I felt Christine was strongest - I suppose because she was able to carry her talent so lightly (unlike the other two) and because she seemed to me to combine first-class musicianship with a voice that could melt your heart. But over the years I have come to appreciate Stevie and Lindsey a little more!

The song on Bare Trees is Homeward Bound and it just shows you how long she stuck it out before she packed her things and retired. All those years in FM, in the back of her mind, she would much rather have been making a roast dinner and doing the gardening. :laugh:

Yep, there were times towards the end of her time in the band where her songs were guilty of being a little too AC. I think maybe As Long As You Follow was the point where she plunged into that category, although I think it's a beautiful song and probably her last really good FM studio track. The AC thing has been used as a stick to beat her with by music snobs, but without her ear for a tune they just would not be where they are today.
:blob1:

For me Mystery to Me is easily her best. I like "Morning Rain", "Homeward Bound" and "Remember Me" a whole lot from her first three, but on MTM all her songs are great.

OTOH Mirage is easily her weakest and she's the weakest leg of the trio on that one, IMO. I agree that she's MVP or perhaps co-MVP of Tango (with Lindsey of course), I think you can make a case for that on one of the 90s albums too (of course I don't even remember them well enough to say which so my opinion of them probably means nothing).

I used to be so bored with "Brown Eyes" but now I've fallen a little in love with it. Still if you show me a list of Christine's songs by album, Tusk wouldn't get me the most excited. They sound great within the album and have an important function there though.

For second place it would be either Heroes ("Bad Loser" is pretty epic), the white album (because I actually like "Sugar Daddy"), or Rumours ("Oh Daddy" is a really unique Christine song). It's hard for me to pick. It's good the poll's closed.

I like the cut of your gib.

Thanks Ulpian and Dragonfly. I was trying to find the thread, but I didn't locate it. I'm suprised MTM was up on her list. I wonder how she feels about Tango in the Night? :cool:

Hm. Good question. She doesn't seem to think TITN is one of her best, maybe because those recording sessions weren't a happy affair by all accounts.

She seems very focused on the early stuff she did with Bob Welch and the 75 album.