[TrueFaith77]

Originally Posted by michelej1

I don't think Christine's interviews are exactly at variance with the public's perception of her. If anything, I might think of her as being at variance with herself. Meaning she sometimes describes her role as one thing, when in reality it was quite a lot more.

I don't know if it was an article or an essay someone wrote, but I recall reading a discussion of the passive, pliant, needy nature of Christine's song lyrics. Oh, think about me, every once in a while, type pleas. I'll be here waiting. And of course, many of her songs do have that element. Even Lindsey said that he thought Christine's influence made Stevie's music less agressive and masculine than it had been before, which I found an odd observation. In fact, I might argue that he made Christine more feminine sometimes (i.e. Hold Me).

At any rate, my reaction to that article about the docile nature of Christine's song lyrics was to think, well that's fine but look at her life. She got to where she was on strength, skill and talent and I don't think she played second fiddle to anyone in that band, man or woman. She might have been a doormat in her love life and maybe her lyrics reflected that, but in her professional life she was not at all subservient. For me her songs didn't have to make a statement, because the life she led as a musician and songwriter, spoke for her. She didn't have to talk about equality, because she exemplified it.

And many of the things I know about her, aren't something I've heard her discuss in interviews. She doesn't talk about how she pretty much led rehearsals for the group. Kept things on track. I hear her do that on demos. If I listened to her in interviews, I would think she just sat back in a corner being a quiet part of the rhythm section and that wasn't the case. Before joining FM, I don't think she was just sitting at home waiting for John to return from the road and give her a sense of completion either. I think what she said and did were sometimes two different things, and one doesn't necessarily contradict the other, it just provides a fuller picture.

Michele

Christgau might be the (original) source for the Stevie-Christine dichotomy in his review of Rumours:

[T]he cute-voiced woman writes and sings the tough lyrics and the husky-voiced woman the vulnerable ones

I disagree with Christgau. To me, Stevie's songs signify a far more delicate emotional state--she can't get over Lindsey and she keeps the battle going (dooming him to not be able to get over her) in "Silver Springs," "Dreams," "Gold Dust Woman" (she's driven to cocaine by heartache!), "I Don't Want To Know" (she can't handle the truth... a repeated Rumours motif). Meanwhile, Christine, says to her ex: "Don't Stop!" (get over it!), on "Songbird" she bears the collective's pain through her muse, "You Make Loving Fun"--she's over it and feeling good and comfortable with her womanly needs, and I've written on the blues-bearing complexity of "Oh, Daddy".