EThere were never many white female blues singers, even in England, the European motherland of white blues; to mention would be Maggie Bell from Stone The Crows and Elkie Brooks from Vinegar Joe, who attracted attention because of their rarity value, but whose often unnecessarily forced singing the will to artistic exertion was mostly noticeable.
Christine Perfect was made of different stuff. She knew how to assert herself in the blues biotope of the influential producer Mike Vernon right from the start, was represented on the first two records of the band Chicken Shack as a singer, pianist and songwriter, married the bassist John McVie and came to Fleetwood Mac under a new name. when, under the leadership of Peter Green, they played even blacker than the police allowed. Christine McVie’s profound musicality was always a little overshadowed by the melodramatic love stories with which Fleetwood Mac, spectacularly reinforced by the Americans Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, supplied the public with in their highly commercial phase from 1975 to 1979; also the warlock Buckingham was too dominant at this time.
She contributed the silverware
Not only are the songs written for the three major albums “Fleetwood Mac”, “Rumours” and “Tusk” part of the silverware of this long-lived band – when Clinton became president, “Don’t Stop” even became the epitome of left-liberal soft rock -; their contributions in the eventful phase of upheaval after Peter Green’s departure with frequently changing guitarists were a constant with the subtle blues feeling and a solid rock shuffle, which faded a little in the absolute superstar times. Her title track to Heroes Are Hard To Find (1974) alone is worth the price of the record, not to mention the irresistible piano-boogie Say You Love Me (1975).
She intoned all this and more with an apathetic, at times almost aseptic-looking but light-footed alto. In addition to Stevie Nicks, who subscribed to the part of the spun fairy and sometimes seemed a bit boneless musically, Christine McVie was a stability factor even as a trained blues rocker, who was less involved had to struggle with form fluctuations and also sang late hits like “Little Lies”, which had already been ironed out too much. A decidedly chummy normality, compared to Nick’s, surrounded her, who can claim to be the first of anyone who has ever played with Fleetwood Mac to have released a solo record – that of an out-of-print period, “The Legendary Christine Perfect Album”. renamed work became what it is itself: legendary. Now Christine McVie has died at the age of 79 – yesterday’s goneunfortunately.
