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  #31  
Old 10-18-2021, 07:32 AM
jbrownsjr jbrownsjr is offline
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You’re welcome. I love her playing. It has real character...she’s not an anonymous session musician.
I listened to that and GDW. Just brilliant. Are there more?
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  #32  
Old 10-18-2021, 04:10 PM
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I listened to that and GDW. Just brilliant. Are there more?
Not that I have seen/heard. Wish there were!
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  #33  
Old 10-19-2021, 07:34 AM
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Not that I have seen/heard. Wish there were!
Wish you were here to listen with me. There's distance between us.
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  #34  
Old 10-20-2021, 08:31 PM
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Wish you were here to listen with me. There's distance between us.
But you’re on my mind. As I lay here in the darkness…
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  #35  
Old 10-20-2021, 09:53 PM
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Christine is the only person who could have joined Fleetwood Mac after Peter quit.

Unlike Danny or Jeremy, she’d been the center of attention in Chicken Shack, even though it was Stan’s band. Of the first four Chicken Shack singles, three were Christine’s, while she only got two songs on the first album and four on the second. It was big enough to get her a solo stint she wishes we’d forget about.

She’d been playing on Fleetwood Mac albums since April, 1968, ten months after the band formed, and was John’s wife within a year of the band’s debut gig. Actually, they were married before Danny was officially in the band.

And, as a result, she was a massive part of their inner circle.

Jeremy and Danny strike me as having been especially fragile, and bringing in someone, i.e. Jeff Beck, wasn’t going to fly.

Adding Christine wasn’t adding someone new, but it was adding someone who they were comfortable with and who’d already dealt with the pressure if being the focal point in a band. She was exactly what they needed and the only way they could move beyond Peter Green.
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  #36  
Old 10-21-2021, 08:13 AM
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Christine is the only person who could have joined Fleetwood Mac after Peter quit.

Unlike Danny or Jeremy, she’d been the center of attention in Chicken Shack, even though it was Stan’s band. Of the first four Chicken Shack singles, three were Christine’s, while she only got two songs on the first album and four on the second. It was big enough to get her a solo stint she wishes we’d forget about.

She’d been playing on Fleetwood Mac albums since April, 1968, ten months after the band formed, and was John’s wife within a year of the band’s debut gig. Actually, they were married before Danny was officially in the band.

And, as a result, she was a massive part of their inner circle.

Jeremy and Danny strike me as having been especially fragile, and bringing in someone, i.e. Jeff Beck, wasn’t going to fly.

Adding Christine wasn’t adding someone new, but it was adding someone who they were comfortable with and who’d already dealt with the pressure if being the focal point in a band. She was exactly what they needed and the only way they could move beyond Peter Green.
Not bad, this analysis, not bad at all. I have to somewhat disagree, though, on the thesis of Christine having been "the center of attention in Chicken Shack". This is dependent on the angle from which one is looking at that band.

As I'd already pointed out, I certainly share this view in musical terms. But one mustn't forget that Stan Webb has always been a kind of eccentric and pretty egotistic character. And so he sort of "used" Christine in the band in a way, that was beneficial for himself on one hand and the musical aspects of the Shack on the other. What I mean is this: Of course he was aware of her musical potential and power and the way the band would benefit from that. That was furthermore helped by the fact of Christine being a rather attractive female band member. Nevertheless he always kept an eye on Christine not getting in the way of the "star" role he saw himself in.

Her part in 45 releases of CS - that was to CATCH the attention. On the LPs this looked quite different - Stan made sure to have the lion's share of attention there to himself. Even more so on stage.

There's a concert video of CS live in France 1968 on a double bill with "The Gun". They played a mere half hour 5-song set. Webb wouldn't let Christine be featured singing AT ALL . . . or even playing only one single solo chorus! Would you believe that?! I also remember reading a concert review once, where the author mentioned that Christine only got to sing the odd number in order to get Mr. Webb a breather for a while.

And then there's Webb's mostly dreadful guitar soloing. There's good reason for him not being mentioned in a row with the really remarkable Brit guitar heroes - because he never could compete up there with them. Instead he put on some mock virtuosity, additionally trying to mask his shortcomings with uninspired use of a wah-wah pedal and his "famous" stage antics like walking into the crowd by way of an over-dimensionally long cable - all this just to draw attention permanently on himself.

To cut a long story short: By the time Christine had earned her Melody Maker award, her stint with CS has been over since 5 months already. To the average consumer it's always been STAN WEBB's CS - only the real blues aficionados appreciated the fact that Christine was the true secret weapon, and quite rightly so . . . even more in hindsight, and certainly in a group like this here, where Christine is the topic.

Last edited by lazy poker; 10-21-2021 at 10:24 AM..
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  #37  
Old 10-21-2021, 09:59 PM
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^^^

Truth is, most of the bands that rode the British blues boom were sub-par. Chicken Shack was more typical than Mac. When I listen to those first two albums, it’s Christine’s voice and piano that stand out. Webb’s guitar work, while above average and compellingly frenetic, is not nearly as distinctive as Green’s or Kirwan’s. His voice and songs are unoriginal, too. The rhythm section is...passable.

Still, it’s true that Stan Webb was the main focal point on stage and on the records. Discerning ears heard Christine and celebrated her talents. I think the most remarkable thing about her work on those first two records is her ability to understand and interpret the blues through her own compositions. She could comp with the band on blues standards from Buddy Guy and Sonny Thompson, but when she assumed the lead, she did so with original material. “It’s Okay with Me Baby” is structurally very straightforward and simple, as are all her CS songs, but the limits of expression she reaches from three basic chords is remarkable.
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  #38  
Old 10-22-2021, 07:43 AM
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^^^ Love all this, and may I add that her soloing skills were fantastic but also shoved under the rug in so many instances. I remember discovering these albums sometime in the 90's. She's such a great blues player who was told not to outshine the men.
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  #39  
Old 10-22-2021, 10:13 AM
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^^^ Love all this, and may I add that her soloing skills were fantastic but also shoved under the rug in so many instances. I remember discovering these albums sometime in the 90's. She's such a great blues player who was ignored as to not outshine the men.
I doubt she would want to outshine them. That's never been her style.
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Christine McVie- she radiated both purity and sass in equal measure, bringing light to the music of the 70s. RIP. - John Taylor(Duran Duran)

Last edited by jbrownsjr; 10-22-2021 at 06:38 PM..
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  #40  
Old 10-22-2021, 06:38 PM
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I doubt she would want to outshine them. That's never been her style.
Of course she's as elegant as she is rough, but not at all my point.
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  #41  
Old 10-22-2021, 09:01 PM
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All that said, Christine was the only vocalist to have a hit in Chicken Shack (which I get was released around the time she left). I completely agree that it was Stan’s show, but I suspect having one of the only women on the British Blues scene in the band made an otherwise average British blues band stand out. She was the one who had the singles and got to briefly be a solo artist. I think she experienced a certain type of pressure just being one of like two women in an otherwise sausage party, but also as someone who had a minor hit that made her the perfect addition to a band that was in a fragile place.
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  #42  
Old 10-22-2021, 09:19 PM
jbrownsjr jbrownsjr is offline
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All that said, Christine was the only vocalist to have a hit in Chicken Shack (which I get was released around the time she left). I completely agree that it was Stan’s show, but I suspect having one of the only women on the British Blues scene in the band made an otherwise average British blues band stand out. She was the one who had the singles and got to briefly be a solo artist. I think she experienced a certain type of pressure just being one of like two women in an otherwise sausage party, but also as someone who had a minor hit that made her the perfect addition to a band that was in a fragile place.
When you look at her career path in that regard, and the trajectory of where she journeyed to. And then finally where Christine ended up... It's quite an incredible story of talent, poverty, luck, love, divorce, booze, drugs, depression, pills, and sweet sweet success. I'm in awe of this story and the artist. She did all this whilst quietly taking the spotlight. (Yes Tony, that "whilst" was for you. )
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Last edited by jbrownsjr; 10-22-2021 at 09:21 PM..
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  #43  
Old 10-23-2021, 02:30 PM
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When you look at her career path in that regard, and the trajectory of where she journeyed to. And then finally where Christine ended up... It's quite an incredible story of talent, poverty, luck, love, divorce, booze, drugs, depression, pills, and sweet sweet success. I'm in awe of this story and the artist. She did all this whilst quietly taking the spotlight. (Yes Tony, that "whilst" was for you. )
I’ve been whilsted!
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  #44  
Old 10-24-2021, 09:20 AM
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I’ve been whilsted!
Among other things.
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