Dennis Wilson and Christine McVie

[PickupExcitations]

If I’ve got it right, Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac was once engaged with Dennis. How did it happen? How did they know each other and how did they break up? And by the way, how did the band members react to the relationship?

[c-man]

"If I’ve got it right, Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac was once engaged with Dennis." - Yes.

"How did it happen?" - He proposed, she accepted. Not sure of the proposal details, but knowing Dennis, it was likely overly romantic (if one can be that). He used to do things like having a heart-shaped hole dug in her lawn and filled with flowers, and hiring violin players to back him while he serenaded her with "You Are So Beautiful".

"How did they know each other" - They met at the Village Recorder. The first time they met, she was there recording backing vocals for a musician named Danny Duma (according to the Steven Gaines book). According to Christine, Dennis did not make an impression on her at this time. The next time they met, though, was also at the Village Recorder, supposedly during a Fleetwood Mac session (for the Tusk album), and this time, things clicked...they ended up playing piano together for hours and hours.

"and how did they break up?" - After a couple of years, she grew tired of the downside of Dennis being Dennis, and asked him to move out.

"And by the way, how did the band members react to the relationship?" - Which band? According to the new book "Get Tusked" by engineers Ken Caillat and Hernan Rojas, the other members of F. Mac were pretty dismissive of Dennis and his ideas for one of Chris' songs, "Brown Eyes", early in the sessions...but after a particular act of self-depreciating humour (notice how I spelled it!) on Dennis' part, he endeared himself to them, and they were much more accepting of his input on another of her songs, "Over And Over" (this book is a great read, as is Caillat's previous one, "Making Rumours"!).

You know that Christine sings backup on Dennis' song "Love Surrounds Me", right? And that Dennis is pictured with Christine, holding a baby, in a small shot in the inner sleeve of Tusk?

[Rob Dean]

This subject also raises the question of the rumoured Demos that DW and Christine recorded , does anyone have any details ? PLEASE

[SBonilla]

This subject also raises the question of the rumoured Demos that DW and Christine recorded , does anyone have any details ? PLEASE

They may have been demos. They may have intended them to be masters. The 2" Dennis Wilson/Christine McVie tape box I saw was on a shelf in the control room of Track Record, a 24 track studio in Hollywood. . I don't recall the titles listed on the spine. I remember being very excited, tho. This would have been around 1982. The Beach Boys had some of their tapes stored there. There was lots of Stephen Moffitt engineered live stuff and a Smile reel in their tape room. Maybe others; don't know. A close friend of mine (and an extreme Beach Boys fan) was the studio's receptionist at around that time - that's how I know about the tape room. I recorded there a number of times.

[Rob Dean]

SBonilla, super stuff THANKS
I do recall seeing a list of song titles somewhere years ago, but can't find it anywhere on the interwebber 

[Rocker]

IIRC Jon Stebbins mentioned that their version of "Here comes the sun" was better left in the vaults. I hope I'm not misremembering and putting words in Jon's mouth.



EDIT:
Sorry, "Here comes the sun" was recorded with Karen, not Christine.

[c-man]

SBonilla, super stuff THANKS
I do recall seeing a list of song titles somewhere years ago, but can't find it anywhere on the interwebber 

I would think if they were posted anywhere, it would be here:
http://www.danaddington.com/denny/releasedmusic.html