Christine McVie - Christine McVie

I have a soft spot for this album. Back in '84 I got this solely based on "Love Will Show Us How" A mini master class in pop perfection. When I lost my records, I replaced this with a CD, and then recently for whatever reason a near perfect record showed up in the dollar bin - so I had to drop the buck.

I know this is probably not the popular opinion, but of the solo efforts from the Fleetwood Mac camp this is the album I like best. Oh sure Lindsey Buckingham released Go Insane in '84 as well, and I really liked the title track, and I appreciated how weird he got, but it wasn't something I pulled out very often - and of course I no longer have it (you never know, that could change one day). Then there was the witchy woman herself, Stevie Nicks, who I will admit had some great songs, but mostly I found her voice irritating.

So here we have Christine who must have figured it was time to do a solo effort as well - and no doubt this cost a boatload of money to produce, and while there were two modest hits off the album, the aforementioned "Love Will Show Us How" and the opening cut from side two "Got a Hold on Me" I suspect expectations from the label were a lot higher, and it would be twenty years before she'd drop another solo effort.

Still, here we have an album that is really solid, and Christine's voice has a warmth and ease of delivery that makes me feel like she's singing to me through the speakers. Especially on songs like "Who's Dreaming This Dream" where she knocks it out of the park. What I find really cool listening now is how much I missed originally. I was too focused on the two hit songs and I failed to really let the album sink in. It's not that I didn't listen to it - I played it a fair bit, but often it was spinning in the back ground, and so much of my music was played in the car, and mix tapes were the rule of the day, I tended to pick the "best" songs and then shelve the records.

For the album she wisely chose to assemble a core band

Todd Sharp who played guitar, co wrote many of the songs, and sang
George Hawkins who anchored the album on bass and vocals
Steve Ferrone laid down the groove and probably has one of the greatest liner pictures I've ever seen. I love his picture, makes you want to have a beer and shoot the shit as you know this guy had stories and has seen things

Then of course she had guests - she's freakin' Christine McVie. From her day job both Lindsey and Mick make appearances and former Blind Faith members Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood lend a hand, the latter providing backing vocals on a few songs.

The album was produced by Russ Titelman and mixed by Elliot Scheiner.

It's strange to sit and really listen to this now and if I'm being honest this album is more akin in spirit to Linda Ronstadt and Karla Bonoff and Andrew Gold from the mid 70s. That's not meant to be a shot those albums have a timeless quality to them as well, and Christine's album is great all the way through - it just seems like an album out of time. Considering what was coming out in '84 her album seemed like a deliberate attempt to craft songs with real musicians and write songs the way she knew how, rather than try to incorporate drum machines and synthesizers and show how cool and relevant she was. With the benefit of hindsight was the right call. The album doesn't sounded dated in the way so many albums from this period ended up, which is kind of refreshing - this still sounds great.

The closest this album comes to being of it's time is her picture on the liner. She's got a little Cyndi Lauper pigtail, and a bolo tie. Considering she was only in her early 40s it's kind of amazing to think of how much she'd already accomplished.

Sadly Christine McVie passed away November 30, 2022 at the age of 79 - she was still out there showing the kids how it was done, pretty much right up to the end.

Garfield - Strange Streets

I'd seen this before in the bin, but kept flipping through the stacks. I'd see it a few more times, each time stopping to look at it a little more. There was something kind of cool about the cover where the stylized Celtic knot had the dotted yellow line - it was a strange street for sure. I pulled the record out of the jacket and I was struck by the centre image. There was the familiar Mercury label, the same one I'd seen a thousand times on BTOs Head On album. Well, I'd bought things based on odd associations before - like when I had to buy anything that Solid Rock Records released (this was generally a good thing) who knows maybe this was a hidden gem. There weren't any real scratches or rash, just a lot of dirt and dust - it seemed to clean up okay, but we'll see how it goes. The album opens with the title track, and this wasn't straight ahead pop, or rock. It was leaning to the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough the vocals reminded me of Mi

Hoodoo Gurus - Mars Needs Guitars!

The first time I got this album it was a gift from my old roommate Otto. For a goofy little nebbish he would occasionally surprise me with some left of field musical treasures. Although, I still think he was reaching a little when he brought home the new "Led Zeppelin" album by Kingdom Come and forced me to listen to "Get it On" over and over again. I'd not listened to Mars Needs Guitars in a long, long, long time. The first thing that I jumped out at me was how David Faulkner's vocals reminded me of his fellow countryman Peter Garrett from Midnight Oil. I think the reason this never occurred to me was at the time I didn't have any Midnight Oil until Diesel and Dust in 1987. I'm not saying it was all the time, but there were a couple of songs where it stood out. Not a bad thing, just a thing. Even at the time this felt slightly out of step with what was going on in 1985. It seemed like everyone was using drum machines and synthesizers and having t

Saturday Night Fever - The Original Movie Soundtrack

It was going to happen sooner or later. Nostalgia is a cruel Mistress...she can dull the sharpest edges and over time can even soften the hardest of opinions. I found this in the dollar bin, and frankly at a dollar I was worried about what this would cost me. Not only from a monetary perspective, but my time, and more important my credibility. Fourteen year old me was screaming "Don't you dare. DON'T DO IT! Put it down. Walk away!" Then there was grey bearded me holding it and looking at it, thinking, "How bad could it be? I actually kind of like "Staying Alive" and me buying this record won't bring disco back, and no one will have to know I bought this." I pulled the album out of the bin, and carefully took out the records. They'd seen better days, and there were a couple of decent scratches that would no doubt make their presence known later. The jacket was in decent condition, and both of the albums had the original sleeves. I dusted the

Old Enough to Forget

Search This Blog