Heroes Are Hard to Find (CD - 1974)

Additional personnel: Pete Kleinow (pedal steel guitar).

Recorded at Angel City Sound, Los Angeles, California in July 1974.

When Fleetwood Mac cut 1974's HEROES ARE HARD TO FIND, the band had been winnowed down to a quartet. American singer-songwriter Bob Welch rounded out the British trio of John McVie, Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie. Having just won a court battle with an old manager to keep the rights to the band's name, the Mac recorded eleven songs that took them far beyond their blues roots. Welch and Christine McVie split all the songwriting and the result was a record populated by murky songs (Welch's "Angel," and "Bermuda Triangle") with occasional shards of wry optimism shining through (the title track and "Come A Little Bit Closer," both penned by McVie).

McVie and Welch occasionally swapped places. Welch gives his normally drawling vocals a brighter, Beach Boyish tone on "She's Changing Me" and Christine McVie takes the mike for the sinister rumblings of "Bad Loser." HEROES was Welch's last album with Fleetwood Mac, and the brooding style of singing and composing that he brought to the group helped redefine its sound, paving the way for Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, who joined the Mac on their next album. minimize