"IMHO no one can match Linda Ronstadt's energy, quality and excellence in different types of songs and music".
I can think of a few others who, to my ears, are just as excellent in their own way (Emmy Lou Harris, Tracy Nelson, Judy Collins, Linda Thompson spring to mind immediately) but you are certainly right about L. R.'s quality and consistency spanning multiple genres. In that regard, she has no peers. |
Linda Ronstadt, for sure.
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Both are great, McVie obviously less celebrated.
IMHO no one can match Linda Ronstadt's energy, quality and excellence in different types of songs and music. Not a bad looker either....I regret never having seen her live and really am sorry she has gotten ill and not been able to perform in a long time. But she recently one a big Kennedy Center award, so someone must agree with me.
That's singers only of course.....she never wrote much if anything. |
"Its funny to read all the negative comments about one of the most beautiful singers of a generation"
Nicks fans always highlight her sexiness and looks. Her evident pitch problems are the main reason I don't find her singing appealing. . .
In the end, everyone's looks fade. I thought we were talking about vocal abilities, here. |
Stevie Nicks, a goat? You guys haven't heard Shakira, have you?? |
I saw/heard Buckingham & Nicks live in their local San Jose garage band---Fritz---in the summer of ’68 (the opening act at The Santa Clara County Folk/Rock Festival, the headliner the doors. The Electric Flag preceded the doors, and were a tough---impossible---act to follow). Just another local band, no better or worse than many others.
I didn’t hear of their 1973 debut album, but even if I did I wouldn’t have known they came out of Fritz. For some reason, very few San Jose bands had enough professional aspiration/ambition to make the move to L.A. (or perhaps self-confidence). Lindsey and Stevie did. I’m not certain, but I believe The Doobie Brothers got their Warner Brothers deal without making the move from SJ to LA. |
If I have to pick one, it would be Christine McVie. I really like her slightly raspy voice, and I love most of her writings in Fleetwood Mac.
Stevie Nicks has probably one of the most unique singing style/voice in rock. It could be an acquired taste for some people, and I find it to be fatiguing at times. But she's a fabulous backing vocalist on many of the Fleetwood Mac songs with McVie in the lead.
I'm not dismissing Stevie Nicks at all, and I do really like her voice. I think having them both together is what made Fleetwood Mac such a successful band.
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Love them both, disparate styles or no. Always interesting to me how such different talents integrate so smoothly into the 'sound' of the band. wonderful interplay between members. Do I have a preference? Christine McVie |
By the way: Many years later Keltner, Tutt, and Scheff also appear on Elvis Costello's King Of America album, to my taste his best. |
The Buckingham Nicks album was unknown to me as well. Will definitely have to check it out. |
Just today I learned the musicians who appear on the 1973 Buckingham Nicks album include Jim Keltner and Ron Tutt on drums and Jerry Scheff on bass. Damn it, another album I must now acquire. |
Christine for me, but I LOVED Stevie's young voice on The BuckinghamNicks album. My wife and I each brought a copy of that LP into our marriage. |
Peter Green. The Nicks- Buckingham version of the Mac is a completely different incarnation following the departure of Peter Green, who founded the band.
Give a listen to “Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac”; “English Rose” and particularly “Then Play On”…this one of the best albums ever made….
….but between Nicks and Christine Perfect Mc Vie, I will take the latter…. |
I think they are both great in their own way and together. Their voices fit the music they do. |
NicksTo be fair, I may have been mesmerized by a witch |
McVie.
Especially on Bare Trees and Mystery To Me LPs......both prior to either Buckingham or Nicks.
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You don't suck at that level of success! Greatness befalls each of them. |
Since we’re comparing them, we have to compare their work with Fleetwood Mac because Stevie definitely had the better solo career. When comparing their work with Fleetwood Mac, of their biggest hits, Stevie sang lead only on Rhiannon, Dreams, Sara, and Gypsy. Not bad, but Christine sang lead on 8 of their biggest hits, including my personal favorites, You Make Loving Fun and Everywhere. Got to go with Christine on this one. But her solo stuff was not so good. Oh, and as for greatest female rock singer, that has to go to Grace Slick in my humble opinion. |
I like Julie London's voice. Never get tired of it. Yea, she is not rock and roll, but a beautiful soothing voice none the less. |
Stevie has a powerful dynamic voice, is an accomplished writer of evocotive lyrics and music, and was in her prime, an alluring stage presence...the whole package! Christine's softer voice is more easy on the ears, but lacks the punch Stevie brings, and her songs don't carry the poetic weight of her bandmate's, IMO. That they shared a stage and traded off in one of the greatest bands of all time...that's been a joy for all of us, so why worry who's "better"?
As a pure singer, give me Linda Ronstadt any day. Or Annie Lennox. Or Aretha. Or... |
I don't know about "singers"--Linda Ronstadt is a SINGER, or "vocalist" if you will. BUT, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5i7j0VhEHwThe singing STYLES fit the song, and NEITHER are "vocalists" in the old school way--
Ella Fitzgerald, Rosemary Clooney, Bette Midler, The Andrews Sisters, etc. But, it is a GREAT song, so...I think many (rock) groups record the "best" choice for a specific song--Beatles, Stones, etc. Buddy Holley was clearly NOT a "vocalist" but a "stylist" like most today. A "singer" or "vocalist" today might be Diana Krall... Both Nicks and McVie are fine at what they do...I can't sing a lick, so I appreciate what ALL of them do. Oh, I like them both... Cheers! |
Christine Perfect.
Just bought McVie/Buckingham and her voice is still pretty good.
JD |
I have been listening to Christine Perfect since she was with Chicken Shack back in the late 60's. Stevie Nick's not so much.
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For me its got to be the Gypsy. I've had a crush on her since I was a kid.
Its funny to read all the negative comments about one of the most beautiful singers of a generation
Especially from for those in the crowd that the older they get the better they were.
Pat Benetar anyone?
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@dwmaggie...White dopes on punk; saw them in Oakland way too long ago....way too fun...:) |
The McV...a Legend before The Nicked went Earth Goddess and became chubby to prove it....*LOL*
"...Stop draggin' my heart around!"
Okay.
🙄 |
Saw them both with Fleetwood Mac in 1977 at a Heart Fundraiser, in Phoenix. Check out the seminal album Buckingham Nicks, their first and only recorded LP together. Rumor at the time was her father paid for the studio and record pressings. All things said they both had their strength and weakness.
As a side note, at that time, Evolution Records tried to sell me a 45 of the Beans. How did I know they would change their name to The Tubes. Such is life. |
+1 for Peter Green. What a voice!
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Why the either/or? Why must we humans insist on rating and ranking incommensurables? Christine is a great writer/vocalist. Stevie is a great writer/vocalist. Neither is the GOAT, but then who is, or should be? Is anything better than Della Reese's Puccini adaptation "Don't You Know?" Depends on the mood and the occasion. To the best of my knowledge, Christine Perfect McVie has never written or performed lead vocal on any song that wasn't a straightforward love song. But that's her genre, and hers are always sincere, never sappy. Stevie Nicks covers a wider range in a more abstract way, but is more distant, less warmly lovable. Take your pick, depending on mood and occasion. But "who's best?" is a false forced choice which I decline to make. Except that Christine doing "I'd Rather Go Blind" with Chicken Shack was a hell of a launching pad. |
Christine Perfect with Stan Webb. |
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Christine McVie hands down! |
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Great post. I’ve had many heated debates over this topic. McVie has always been better to my ears. Listen to her in “warm ways”. Puts a smile on my face every time. |
Definitely C McVie. Never understood the respect given to Stevie. Her vocals give me the heebie-jeebies. |
My favorite Mac LP is Live in Chicago, but of the two women in question, my nod would go to Christine. Partly because I think she is the superior song writer, and therefore sounds better when singing her own tunes. |
Stevie sexily purrs. Christine sounds like a wholesome '60's folkie who somehow found herself in a rock band. Yeah, I prefer Stevie. |
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Both good but McVie is the best Fleetwood Mac. |
McVie any day by a wide margin. Plus she plays the keys. |
@middlemass:
" Neither. But Stevie used to be hot"
. . and what, exactly, does this have to do with music ????
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Both can play in my band. Love Stevie’s harmonies and christines lead vocals. |
Stevie always sounds like she's singing with a clothespin on her nose; and if she sings one more song about Sarah... |
Frankly I like Stevie's version better. |
The singer is Emily Jolland, BTW... |
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Neither. But Stevie used to be hot. |
By the way:
There is a pic somewhere on the 'net of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham on stage at Mother Butler High School in San Jose, California, when the two were members of local group "Fritz". The pic was taken in 1967, I believe, and Stevie has a "flip" hairdo (you old geezers know what I mean) and is wearing a formal gown! Mother Butler was a Catholic girls school, with a strict dress code. I had performed there the year before, and was required to wear a dress shirt and tie. ;-) |
“Ha! I have for years associated Nicks' singing with not a billy goat, but rather sheep. Baaah.”
Lol. |
