Maps of Music

Heroes Are Hard to Find (1974)

Where the lyrics of Heroes Are Hard to Find take you, and where it was really made.

The album was made while the band's right to use the Fleetwood Mac name was in court, yet it became the band's highest-charting US album up to that point.

Key places

Mixing at Angel City Sound (1974)

Recording site Motown Recording Studios — The album was mixed at Angel City Sound in Los Angeles, with Bob Hughes as engineer and co-producer. The point marks the city area only. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Ninth studio album by the British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac
• Released 13 September 1974; US release by WEA
• Last album recorded with Bob Welch, who left the band at the end of 1974
• First Fleetwood Mac studio album recorded in the United States, in Los Angeles

Background

• Recorded during a low point; an affair involving drummer Mick Fleetwood's wife caused a temporary breakup
• Manager Clifford Davis formed a new lineup using the Fleetwood Mac name to fill the remaining tour dates
• Several promoters cancelled the shows after learning no earlier members were included; complaints followed in Boise, Idaho
• The band won an injunction against the fake Fleetwood Mac, but Davis won one that barred the real lineup from touring or releasing music
• Welch persuaded the band to move to America, closer to their record label; Christine McVie was hesitant at first
• Bill Graham helped the band convince Warner Brothers that it was the real Fleetwood Mac, and a new contract followed
• The legal dispute with Davis was eventually settled out of court

Recording

• Mixed at Angel City Sound in Los Angeles by Bob Hughes, who also co-produced and engineered the album
• First Fleetwood Mac album recorded with one guitarist
• Fleetwood called it a more sedate affair than the band's earlier albums with Welch, the result of too long in creative limbo
• Welch said the band struggled with material because nobody could clearly articulate a direction

Cover

• Cover designed by Desmond Strobel and photographed by Herbie Worthington using a three-way mirror
• Shows a shirtless Mick Fleetwood with his three-year-old daughter Amelia standing on his shoes
• Worthington later shot the cover of Fleetwood Mac and Rumours

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in London in July 1967 by Peter Green after leaving John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, with Mick Fleetwood on drums.
• The name combines Fleetwood's surname with bassist John McVie, who joined in 1967.
• Early line-up was primarily a British blues band; "Albatross" reached UK No. 1 in 1968.

Members

• Core members over time: Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham.
• Buckingham and Nicks joined at the end of 1974 and drove the band's global success.

Career

• Rumours (1977) is one of the best-selling albums of all time and won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1978.
• The band has sold more than 120 million records worldwide.
• Received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 1979 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
• Received the MusiCares Person of the Year award in 2018.
• Christine McVie died in 2022; Stevie Nicks later said she saw no reason to continue the band.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Cashbox called the arrangements lush and beautiful and found the lyrics enigmatic and haunting
• Billboard praised the string orchestration and the band's move toward more commercial pop
• Record World called it the band's most commercial album with a special soft style
• Rolling Stone found it a pleasant album and singled out Prove Your Love as exquisitely pretty
• Robert Christgau criticized the band for pop cliches and labeled it their worst album to date

Reappraisal

• AllMusic's Hal Horowitz complimented the songwriting of Welch and McVie and called it cohesive and diverse
• Mojo ranked it second to last among all Fleetwood Mac albums, saying the band sounded tired

Records

• US Billboard 200: peaked at No. 34, the highest Billboard placing for any Fleetwood Mac album at that time
• US Billboard FM Action chart: No. 1 in October 1974
• Sold 150,000 copies in the US within a few weeks of release
• UK release delayed by Davis's injunction until the Court of Appeal lifted it

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• After Welch left at the end of 1974, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined and later recorded several multi-platinum albums with the band
• Welch re-recorded Angel, Bermuda Triangle and Silver Heels for His Fleetwood Mac Years & Beyond (2003)
• Christine McVie called the period the most depressing time in the band's career
• Lord Denning, Master of the Rolls, said in lifting the injunction that the strong should not push the weak to the wall
• Sneaky Pete Kleinow played pedal steel guitar on Come a Little Bit Closer

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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