Now for me, I don't think Chris was the heart of the band. I think, overall, Mick is. He wasn't a great manager, but I think he's a great mediator and can bring and keep divergent personalities together. As greedy as he is, he has an ego that subverts itself for the good of the band most of the time. As long as you don't sleep with Jenny . . .
But Stevie has said that Christine was like the school teacher and without her, they were just running around like little children, waiting to be called in from recess. I believe that. When we hear demos and things, you can clearly hear Chris orchestrating their rehearsals. I suppose I would call her a "center" of sorts.
I do think she tethered the other two, by being in between them. Someone each of them could play off of, rather than battling each other. I think that was true from 1975 on. I think she stopped a lot of friction, just being another person they could couple with.
One moment that stuck with me from the Dance tour was when Lindsey was announcing the wrong song and Stevie didn't say anything to him. She went to Christine and whispered to her and then, from her piano, Christine called to Lindsey that he was introducing the wrong song. It was a very small thing, but I think it was symbolic of the way the 3 of them communicated. With Christine there, Lindsey and Stevie didn't have to deal directly with each other.
Then, musically, I do think it's uncanny the way Christine and Lindsey were so different, her trained, him untrained, yet they could arrive at such a good and unique place together. That collaboration. You can have a dinner with broccolli, steak and apple pie and you might not salivate over the steak, unless someone serves you just a plate with broccolli and pie, or pie and steak. Only then do you realize you don't have a full meal. That's how the 3 of them balanced each other for me.
Michele
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