Sara Loves Christine

[vivfox]

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Songbird — Fleetwood Mac

Christine McVie and I share a birthday, July 12th, forty years apart. I always preferred her over Stevie Nicks, and discovering our shared fact made it seem all the more meant to be. I like Stevie plenty, but Christine always seemed more straightforward, less wrapped up in the theoretical. Her songs remain in her immediate feelings at the time of writing, and I prefer that over Stevie’s sometimes forced storytelling. Christine talks about herself; Stevie talks about herself while also pretending to be someone else. Or maybe Stevie really is all those characters in one, I don’t know. I do know that I identify more with Christine’s vulnerability, and the first time I heard “Songbird,” I had to stop what I was doing and listen. I had never desired the ability to play piano more in my life, knowing it would be one more way to get inside the song, to feel it as it was meant to be felt. Hearing “Silver Springs” on the radio may have turned my attention to the band, but Christine’s voice made me stay. I’m not sure she gets enough credit for how much she added to the band.

When I first started listening to Fleetwood Mac, I did not have any of the music myself. My dad’s Greatest Hits CD disappeared into my room for a little while, but most of their music that he owned was on vinyl and some of that was dubbed onto cassette. The cassettes, unused by him 90% of the time, disappeared into my room with the understanding that I would not take them out into my car. The newer stereo in my room could be trusted, but inserting an old cassette into the tape player of an old car really rolled the dice on whether or not it would eject intact.

After binging on the self-titled album, Rumours, Tusk and Mystery to Me, I made my own mixes. I had a cassette that was half Christine, half Stevie. (At the time, I underappreciated Lindsey Buckingham, but now he’s the one making the most interesting music.) I played the Christine side more often, and every time “Songbird” came on, I still paused to listen:

To you, I would give the world
To you, I’ll never be cold
Cos I feel that when I’m with you, it’s all right
I know it’s right.

Christine wrote the song for Mick Fleetwood, a man battling all sorts of personal issues at the time, but it came to represent the hope that they could all overcome their troubles. Playing the song as a set-closer, Christine has said that she found it impossible not to cry each time.

And I wish you all the love in the world
But most of all, I wish it from myself.

What I like about Christine’s songwriting is the mix of melancholy and optimism. Every time her heart is broken, I can feel it, and every time she is swept up in new romance, I remember my own experiences. She’s very real, aware of her weaknesses and above all, not afraid to devote herself to another person.

http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot...leetwood%20Mac