The artists who encouraged Christine McVie to embrace rock music
Growing up, Christine McVie knew her heart belonged to the blues. Although her father introduced her to classical music, her brother’s interest in jazz and blues enlightened her creative interests, setting a path for everything she would go on to create as a musician. “I got hooked on it, then I just got hooked on the blues. Even today, the songs I write use that left hand; it’s rooted in the blues,” she said.
In the years leading up to her meeting John McVie and joining Fleetwood Mac, Christine’s art college diploma led her to become a window dresser in London until one day, a friend walked by with a life-changing offer. “Hey, we’re trying to form this blues band, Chicken Shack. Are you interested in playing piano?” asked Andy Sylvester.
McVie had worked with Sylvester in art college, casually performing blues hits as a means to explore their shared musical interests. Their second go of it meant McVie really had a chance to shine, delivering covers of hits like Etta James’ ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’ and winning an award for her vocal ability. However, in true McVie fashion, she regarded the accolade as more telling of the industry’s lack of female vocalists rather than a reflection of her musical ability.
It’s challenging to think of someone like McVie as possessing anything akin to self-criticism, given her distinctive vocal tone and exceptional range, but in the early days, she didn’t think she had anything special. “I didn’t aspire to be on the stage, playing piano, let alone singing, because I never thought I had much of a voice,” the singer told Mojo. “But, my option was window-dresser or jump off the cliff and try this. So I jumped off the cliff.”
However, her voice wasn’t the only thing that transitioned over time—so did her musical interests. Being an integral part of Fleetwood Mac often meant taking elements of folk and blues and infusing them with more contemporary-leaning rock aspects. Although McVie didn’t immerse herself in rock spaces as much as she did blues, being challenged by Bob Welch opened her up to the power of genre-blending.
Discussing 1971’s Future Games, McVie reflected on the band’s evolving sound and how Welch opened her up to the power of embracing rock. “We started being a bit more adventurous,” she explained. “Trying different things. Then Bob joined [on guitar in 1971]. He had a West Coast, Wes Montgomery jazz sound that had a really great feel to it, and I just started harmonising with him.”
By trusting Welch’s interests and background, McVie helped establish the signature Fleetwood Mac sound, utilising the ethereal quality of harmonies when rock was entering a significant transitional period. “Bob had this honey voice, and so did I,” McVie said. “We sounded great together and worked well in the studio, me at the piano and him on guitar. Mick would make sure Bob stayed within the boundaries of a commercial song, because, given the chance, Bob could just take off into space.”
Harmonies are an interesting concept when talking about Fleetwood Mac, not just because much of their sound depended on how their voices and instruments blended together but also because much of their greatest music came out of their most fiery moments. Rumours, for instance, thrived because of all of the fractured dynamics that occurred behind the scenes.
McVie, however, learned how to utilise her own interests while constantly learning from others, like Lindsey Buckingham, who always felt like a puzzle piece she had been missing. “Lindsey gets me,” she once said. “and I love working with him. As with everything in Fleetwood Mac, it’s chemistry. I feel like I’ve come home. The prodigal daughter returns.”
But rock—in every aspect of the word, mentality and musical approach—enabled her to take the band’s unique chemistry and merge it with her personal experiences to write music and lyrics that resonated beyond the restrictive nature of blues. As she concluded: “We definitely love harmonies, and, yeah, I’m good at pathos. I write about romantic despair a lot. That’s my thing, but with a positive spin.”
