2009 tour: Aren't you glad Christine retired from touring?

[nicepace]

Originally Posted by jbrownsjr

Christine was a musician vs an entertainer... which quite often contrasted the other two in my opinion.

Interesting way of putting it. This is why in my thinking Chris was the heart of that band ... the absolute center. She kept the band grounded. You know the picture on the inside of 'Tusk' where Stevie and Lindsey are floating around up by the ceiling of a room, and Chris and John are standing on the floor with bemused looks on their faces ... that picture tells a lot about their characters and relationships with one another.

I really enjoyed In The Meantime and also thought Gift of Screws was solid..

I haven't actually heard 'Gift of Screws.' I lost interest in both Lindsey's and Stevie's solo stuff after the first couple of records.

As far as buying into this "Unleashed tour" not going to happen for me... The same songs just keep getting worse... and the price just keeps getting worse...

I agree. I go to a lot of concerts but my tastes tend to run to lesser-known performers from the indie world, where typically you can buy a ticket for $25 and if you get there early you can sit in the front row. If this were FM with Christine I'd spend the two hundred bucks or whatever it is, but not for the band as it is today. I wonder how ticket sales are going to go, actually, with people hurting financially the way they are.

By the way, what exactly is being "unleashed" ... it looks to me like it's a same old thing tour. How can they possible claim it's a greatest hits tour when they're not going to perform "Over My Head," "Hold Me," "Say You Love Me" and all of Christine's other hits.

[michelej1]

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

[sywlindseyfan]

very wel put Michelle, and I just looooove the Christine story, I can't get emough of mama Christine