Christine's Song Moods
 

In the liner notes Stevie and Lindsey talked about Oh Daddy being a departure for Christine because she was rarely lonely or eerie in her songs.

I disagree. She might not have been eerie (that's why BTM is such a delightful surprise, because it's so unusual, as is Heart of Stone), but the truth is, to me her songs are not often sunny and bright. YMLF and Don't Stop are exceptions, not the rule.

Even in songs that have an upbeat sound, the words convey loss (SYLM). Many of her songs sound yearning, mournful. Yes, there's a lonely strain in Oh Daddy, but also in Why. Even when her songs talk about love that hasn't flown are a little pensive. She remembers the glorious nights in Estoril, but she also knows there is a coming storm. There's foreboding there. Or you have songs like Love in Store which don't contain foreboding, but seem more concentrated on not losing the love than in reveling in its exhilaration. There's an anxious, sad tone underlying things.

Don't Stop may be her most famous song, but things aren't happy, happy in her tunes. There's a mood underneath them that's always somber and thoughtful and, a bit fearful of getting hurt. I think that's largely due to the tone matching her keyboard stylings. When they get intricate, the song message tends to get a little more intense and complex than it would seem on the surface.

Michele

I think that Christine has a great many songs in which she puts herself down and shows a lack of self worth. I think Little Lies is a good example of that, as is SYLM. In those songs, she submits to somebody who is not doing her much good, but at the same time, paradoxically, is also making her happy. I think that is also true of Hold Me ("the fool paying the dues").

The only direct exposure Stevie and Lindsey had to Christine's material was with the songs in the White Album, all of which were pretty bright, if not all peppy. But had they looked or considered her work from only one year earlier, they'd have recognized that Prove Your Love and Bad Loser are both moody tunes, and Bad Loser in particular is pretty dark. One year before that, Christine's outstanding vocal on Welch's Keep on Going is pretty eerie, and seductive. Her vocal on Hypnotized is one of the most haunting things the band ever recorded.

Oh, but I don't mean what they thought in 1977. Stevie and Lindsey are talking about Christine's work now in the new liner notes, not what they knew about her back then.

Michele

Oh, wow, that makes their comments even less observant! Christine has written and sung many dark moody things since 1977, too. Brown Eyes, Smile I Live For, Sooner or Later, Heart of Stone, Bad Journey, Liar...

They both discussed Oh Daddy for the Deluxe Edition.

Stevie said:

That's probably my favorite Christine song of all time and it's probably one of the only dark songs that she wrote. I loved performing it on stage and singing harmonies with her on it. It's dark and eerie and that's not usually Christine's M.O.

Lindsey said:

Oh Daddy shows another side of Christine. It sounds so lonely and I never thought of Christine as that kind of person, but I think there's probably a good dose of that in her. Christine always knew she could walk away from the insanity of this business and band, and indeed she did. I think Christine had a healthy indifference to life in the music world that kept her from ever needing that much validation.

That is the most accurate assessment of Chris, that I've ever read(from the band, anyway). She created for herself, a completely comfortable lifestyle, and never longed for the spotlight, anyway. Why torture yourself with the road, unless you need the money...?
One smart lady, and unfortunately(for us, now), the heart of FM....

Yeah, that Lindsey quote is right on! Incidentally, I remember my sister and me listening to "Friend" when it first came out and her saying "Gosh, she sounds so unusual, as if she were a lone voice in the wilderness..."

I agree with what Lindsey said on everything except the fact that her sounding lonely is another side of her or at all unique for Oh Daddy. I think at least half the songs she writes have a lonely strain to them, even the ones that hum like SYLM. There's an undertone.

And as for her being able to leave show biz, there was a part of her in her songs that was often somewhere else anyway. Homeward Bound, Hollywood, or even Isn't it Midnight or Temporary One. I don't mean just her yearning for England. I mean emotionally. It's like her heart and thoughts were at a distance from where her physical self was.

Michele