FM's Songbird- Documentary

[cbBen]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUrzkZgVT0Y

[Tusky]

Thanks!

Felt quite uncomfortable at the anti- Lindsey angle to this

[Macfan4life]

I love Stevie's Christine impression when they had the big blowout at her house in 1987.
***in a horrible British accent*** Don't kill each other at my house. go somewhere else to do it

[Street_Dreamer]

I had to skip though this because there seemed to be a lot of the same old drivel that's been rehashed ad nauseum. For this to be a biography of Christine but almost completely ignore her 1984 album is something. I liked seeing the footage of Lindsey working on the Tango album. I'd never seen that before. Of course, Behind The Mask was just skipped. It made it seem like it was in the cards for the five to reconvene following the Clinton inauguration performance with Time not even getting a mention.

[Penguin Emeritus]

Originally Posted by Street_Dreamer

I had to skip though this because there seemed to be a lot of the same old drivel that's been rehashed ad nauseum. For this to be a biography of Christine but almost completely ignore her 1984 album is something. I liked seeing the footage of Lindsey working on the Tango album. I'd never seen that before. Of course, Behind The Mask was just skipped. It made it seem like it was in the cards for the five to reconvene following the Clinton inauguration performance with Time not even getting a mention.

I never like how much band info they skip in stuff like this but i guess they were trying to keep it to an hour or so..? or maybe even chris was less than enthusiastic about discussing certain time periods, which in her mind were maybe "less important". I never liked those added comments from the Heart lady and whoever that other woman was...that crap to me was a waste of time. i would have much rather heard more memories from folks who were in the band w her, or her brother, or from chris herself. but on the whole, i do enjoy that BBC thing.

--Lis

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by Street_Dreamer

I had to skip though this because there seemed to be a lot of the same old drivel that's been rehashed ad nauseum. For this to be a biography of Christine but almost completely ignore her 1984 album is something. I liked seeing the footage of Lindsey working on the Tango album. I'd never seen that before. Of course, Behind The Mask was just skipped. It made it seem like it was in the cards for the five to reconvene following the Clinton inauguration performance with Time not even getting a mention.

Besides the BTM era the last years with Bob Welch in the band when Chris was the only woman was sort of skipped too. But that is typical and was even the case with the Behind The Music segment from 1997.

It was sad when her brother was interviewed how she never played piano when she was living in Kent in isolation. I assume he meant post 2004 after her solo album. Chris also admitted drinking extremely heavy and taking codeine and pain killers. Its so wondeful she got clean and came back.
I admire her honesty and bluntness about Buckingham/McVie. She said it was supposed to be a Fleetwood Mac album but Stevie did not want to do it so they went on without her.

[Villavic]

I think Mister Money is a main factor that decides what to include and what to skip in a documentary. BTM, Time, they choose to skip them in favor of the usual hits, succesful albums. A documentary focusing on these can easily reboost sale figures. It's hard to achieve that with BTM or Time, or so they think. It's the same reason they don't release their deluxe editions.

But it's dissapointing to we the fans to never watch details of those sessions, how she wrote those songs, etc.

[Ulpian]

I think we come at this from a niche perspective. Your average viewer doesn’t care one bit about the albums between Tango and The Dance, and there’s an added element here which is that 1990 onwards was a difficult period for Christine. Her second marriage sounded like it just went downhill during that decade and the work she did with Quintela, which manifested most heavily on BTM and Time, probably wouldn’t be what she wanted to talk about.

[DownOnRodeo]

Note also that 10 mins was edited out by the YouTube channel that posted it, to circumvent a copyright take-down. But yes I think the time warp from Tango to Clinton inaugration was probably as per the original. It's also possible that the documentary makers included a part about those years/albums but they were edited out for time. All in all, way too much Stevie footage in this and not enough of Chris. Yes the cameras would have predominately been on Stevie over the years but it's not like there wouldn't have been ample footage of Chris to show.

As for the somewhat anti-Lindsey sentiment, it's just unfortunate that the documentary was produced during the "era" of that 2018 lineup. In her comments on the current lineup and Lindsey's firing/absence, you can tell from her voice and what she says that she's just working with the cruddy situation that got handed to her. Had her interview been filmed a bit later after that lineup had fizzled out to its inevitable demise, I'm sure she would have mentioned a more staunch position that the Rumours five are the best lineup. As it stands, it may as well have been produced by Irving Azoff.

I think it's sad that Billy didn't get more of a mention considering the key role he played with Chris in the 80s, in both her solo band and Mac. Perhaps if they'd cut out one minute of footage of Stevie spinning they would have found time for it.

Not enough John either. Yes he doesn't interview as well as the others but without him there'd be no Chris in Fleetwood Mac.

I just pictured an alternate timeline where Chris stayed as housewife/tourwife and never joined the band. Bob Welch presumably would have kept them going for a few years. And Mick still would have stumbled onto Buckingham Nicks. Just imagine all those amazing Chris songs we would have missed out on. Without Chris the White Album mightn't have done a great deal better than the Buckingham Nicks album.

[Villavic]

Originally Posted by DownOnRodeo

I just pictured an alternate timeline where Chris stayed as housewife/tourwife and never joined the band. Bob Welch presumably would have kept them going for a few years. And Mick still would have stumbled onto Buckingham Nicks. Just imagine all those amazing Chris songs we would have missed out on. Without Chris the White Album mightn't have done a great deal better than the Buckingham Nicks album.

Interesting. That would have been a complete different scenary. The pre-Rumours lineup with Bob without Chris would have produced different albums, I don't know if they had emigrated to USA the same year they actually did. Or if they would have done it anyway. Chris would have accepted to be a housewife in a different country? Probably the divorce would have been brought forward?

But yes the White album would not have been so successful. Only if they could have gotten the record company support, Rhiannon would have been a hit. Cause as Mick recalled, in 1975 "the attitude of Warner's execs was decidedly ho-hum". So with a weaker album, I don't know how much support they would have achieved.

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by DownOnRodeo

Note also that 10 mins was edited out by the YouTube channel that posted it, to circumvent a copyright take-down. But yes I think the time warp from Tango to Clinton inaugration was probably as per the original. It's also possible that the documentary makers included a part about those years/albums but they were edited out for time. All in all, way too much Stevie footage in this and not enough of Chris. Yes the cameras would have predominately been on Stevie over the years but it's not like there wouldn't have been ample footage of Chris to show.

As for the somewhat anti-Lindsey sentiment, it's just unfortunate that the documentary was produced during the "era" of that 2018 lineup. In her comments on the current lineup and Lindsey's firing/absence, you can tell from her voice and what she says that she's just working with the cruddy situation that got handed to her. Had her interview been filmed a bit later after that lineup had fizzled out to its inevitable demise, I'm sure she would have mentioned a more staunch position that the Rumours five are the best lineup. As it stands, it may as well have been produced by Irving Azoff.

I think it's sad that Billy didn't get more of a mention considering the key role he played with Chris in the 80s, in both her solo band and Mac. Perhaps if they'd cut out one minute of footage of Stevie spinning they would have found time for it.

Not enough John either. Yes he doesn't interview as well as the others but without him there'd be no Chris in Fleetwood Mac.

I just pictured an alternate timeline where Chris stayed as housewife/tourwife and never joined the band. Bob Welch presumably would have kept them going for a few years. And Mick still would have stumbled onto Buckingham Nicks. Just imagine all those amazing Chris songs we would have missed out on. Without Chris the White Album mightn't have done a great deal better than the Buckingham Nicks album.

You are right. This was produced in 2018 with the new lineup thus this glossy spin put on the new lineup. When Chris says she was happier than ever on the 2018 tour part of me did not believe her. If she loved Lindsey so much how could she love to perform his songs without him against his will especially coming right off Buckingham/McVie.
But if you notice Chris gives Stevie cover in a subtle way because Chris keeps mentioning through the segment the constant fighting between Stevie and Lindsey and how it never stopped, changed and got worse. Then she sort of implies everyone is "happy" and they no longer have to deal with it.
I would not go as far to call it "anti Lindsey" spin but its definitely a glossy portrayal of the 2018 lineup and how happy and perfect they are.
Remember Rolling Stone's 1982 Fleetwood Mac "Happy At The Top." Nothing further could be from the truth. Stevie would not even partake in the interview and they all needed a break from eachother.

[Villavic]

It's sad she begins the doc saying she thinks it's unprecedent that any member in any band has gone for 15 years and returned to the same people. Well yes that was true in 2014 but listening it in this video when Lindsey is not with them anymore, and then Neil Finn appears on the screen, made me feel, more than angry, very sad. And it wasn't an unprecedent thing. It could have been if they had continued playing and making new records, but they didn't, and there are some precedents of brief reunions. Pink Floyd reunited with Roger Waters in Live 8 after 20 years, for example (amazing show!). But that was it.

And they said good things about Bob Welch, but during the few minutes he appears, none of the other members of the early 70s appear. Hum.

Again, another questionable affirmation by Mick is that he wrote he introduced Dennis to Christine (Christine had loved Dennis with all her heart (we all did), and he was a fascinating if exhausting episode in her life. I felt some responsibility, because I had introduced them.), but now I see Richard saying that Dennis asked him to introduce them.

Time and BTM lineups not detailed or even mentioned, but nice to see Rick in that gig almost at the end.

I definitely enjoyed this video anyway. A lot. Thanks for sharing. I remember it was in the BBC webpage but from my country it was blocked.

[WalkAThinLine.]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

But if you notice Chris gives Stevie cover in a subtle way because Chris keeps mentioning through the segment the constant fighting between Stevie and Lindsey and how it never stopped, changed and got worse.

She mentioned this during the segment on The Dance. I'm curious on how acrimonious things were between Lindsey and Stevie during The Dance Tour. Based on the comments Christine gave, it appears that their dynamics were still relatively negative. I'm curious if this also contributed to her decision to leave the band soon after Lindsey rejoined.

[Penguin Emeritus]

Originally Posted by Ulpian

I think we come at this from a niche perspective. Your average viewer doesn’t care one bit about the albums between Tango and The Dance, and there’s an added element here which is that 1990 onwards was a difficult period for Christine. Her second marriage sounded like it just went downhill during that decade and the work she did with Quintela, which manifested most heavily on BTM and Time, probably wouldn’t be what she wanted to talk about.

I think it's pretty telling how she barely even said two words about Ed in that documentary. it's like she just didn't even want to remember that phase of her life at all.

--Lis

[Penguin Emeritus]

Originally Posted by DownOnRodeo

I think it's sad that Billy didn't get more of a mention considering the key role he played with Chris in the 80s, in both her solo band and Mac. Perhaps if they'd cut out one minute of footage of Stevie spinning they would have found time for it.

Not enough John either. Yes he doesn't interview as well as the others but without him there'd be no Chris in Fleetwood Mac.

I just pictured an alternate timeline where Chris stayed as housewife/tourwife and never joined the band. Bob Welch presumably would have kept them going for a few years. And Mick still would have stumbled onto Buckingham Nicks. Just imagine all those amazing Chris songs we would have missed out on. Without Chris the White Album mightn't have done a great deal better than the Buckingham Nicks album.

They really did have too much of stevie in some areas... her spinning in rhiannon wasn't really vital to a doc about chris.

i wanted to hear more from john also, even though his memory isn't the best. (He did not ask her out just after the windsor jazz and blues festival...he's off by like 6 months.. nor did they marry after 7 weeks of knowing each other. he was in the states for 6 weeks and came back and proposed 4 days later. chris says they had been dating casually for about 6 mos and her version of the story is the one i'm going with lol.) but there was so much more they could have asked him...nosy questions of mine include, were you surprised when she quit chicken shack to be a housewife, and do you think she enjoyed that phase? What was the hardest adjustment to living in CA when you moved to america? How do you think chris grew and developed as a songwriter? just little things, but stuff that he was there to witness since they obviously lived together for a long time.

for me it's so hard to imagine a fleetwood mac without chris joining it. her contributions were so important.

--Lis