Heroes Are Hard to Find

Did You Know?

• The cover art features a shirtless Mick Fleetwood with his chest puffed out and his three-year-old daughter Amelia standing on his shoes.
• The lace underwear worn by Fleetwood on the cover was given to him by Sandra Vigon, who at the time was staying at photographer Herbie Worthington's house.
• Herbie Worthington, who photographed the cover using a three-way mirror, later supplied cover art for Fleetwood Mac and Rumours.

Background

The band recorded this album during a particularly rough stretch. Bob Weston had an affair with drummer Mick Fleetwood's wife, which caused the group to temporarily break up. That personal mess then turned into a legal nightmare when their manager, Clifford Davis, put together an entirely new band and sent it out on tour under the Fleetwood Mac name to cover the remaining dates. Davis never told the concert promoters that his group contained zero members from any earlier version of the band. Several promoters canceled the shows once they found out. The ones that did go on were met with angry crowds demanding their money back. After a performance in Boise, Idaho, fans filed complaints with the state attorney general's office because none of the musicians shown on the promotional posters actually played that night. John Wilkinson, the keyboardist Davis hired for those shows, later admitted the band wasn't bad and that they played the old Fleetwood Mac songs well, but acknowledged that none of the real Fleetwood Mac was there.

The real band got a court order to stop the fake Fleetwood Mac from performing, but Davis also got an injunction that temporarily stopped the real lineup—Fleetwood, the McVies, and Bob Welch—from touring or releasing any new music. Christine McVie called it the most depressing time in the band's career. Every day, the group drove to a lawyer's office in London to figure out their legal options. Welch pushed for the band to move to America to be closer to their record label. Christine was hesitant at first, calling it a scary proposition, but she agreed to go to Los Angeles. John McVie said that L.A. was obviously the place to be, since the record company was there and communication was easier in America, adding that they had to get out of England because they were going crazy. The band sued Davis to get back their publishing rights and the right to use the name Fleetwood Mac, and they also asked for money to cover the time and revenue lost during the legal fight. With help from concert promoter Bill Graham, the lineup of Fleetwood, the McVies, and Welch convinced Warner Brothers that they were the real Fleetwood Mac. They negotiated a new contract that let them release music and tour under the name. The legal dispute with Davis was eventually settled out of court.

Release

In September 1974, WEA put out Heroes Are Hard to Find in the United States, and within a few weeks it had moved 150,000 copies. Plans were made to release it in the United Kingdom that autumn, with WEA teaming up with CBS Records to handle pressing and distribution. But Clifford Davis, the band’s former manager, went to court to block the UK release. He claimed he still owned the copyright to songs written by Christine McVie and Bob Welch, since they had signed a five-year contract with him. Davis asked for an injunction to stop the album’s sale in the UK and demanded repayment for copyright infringement. Two weeks after he filed the writ, an interim injunction was granted, and Justice Forbes in the High Court of Justice upheld it three days later in October 1974. WEA and CBS Records fought back, appealing on the grounds that the band had been at a disadvantage when they signed the publishing deals—Davis had been both their manager and publisher at the time. The Court of Appeal then lifted the injunction, clearing the way for the album’s UK release. Lord Denning, the Master of the Rolls, remarked that “as a matter of common fairness, it was not right that the strong should be allowed to push the weak to the wall.” In October 1974, the album hit number one on the US Billboard FM Action chart, which ranked albums by how often progressive radio stations added them to their playlists. The next month, Heroes Are Hard to Find climbed to number 34 on the Billboard 200, which at that point was the highest chart position any Fleetwood Mac album had reached. Christine McVie later said the band felt let down by the album’s sales, having expected it to do better. They were also unhappy with the tour that followed; some shows drew crowds of less than a quarter of the venue’s capacity. During a Las Vegas gig, Christine McVie recalled that Welch “screamed” at John McVie over what he thought was a mistake onstage. After the tour wrapped up, Welch left Fleetwood Mac, and at the time of his departure the split was fairly amicable. Years later, Bob Welch re-recorded “Angel,” “Bermuda Triangle,” and “Silver Heels” for his 2003 collection His Fleetwood Mac Years & Beyond. A reworked version of “Silver Heels” with explicit lyrics, called “Hustler,” showed up on his 1999 album Bob Welch Looks at Bop.

Reception

When it first came out, Heroes Are Hard to Find got a mostly warm reception. Cashbox praised its "lush and beautiful" arrangements and called the lyrics "enigmatic and haunting." Billboard liked how the strings were woven in and pointed out that the band was moving toward a more commercial pop sound, but without losing the identity they had built. Record World described it as the group's "most commercial album," noting a "special soft style" that got a lift from "some heavier flavor." Rolling Stone found it to be "a pleasant album," highlighting "Prove Your Love" as "exquisitely pretty" and "Come a Little Bit Closer" as "a gorgeous tune reminiscent of the Beach Boys." Not everyone was impressed. Robert Christgau accused the band of falling into early-1970s pop cliches, singling out the string synthesizer, pedal steel, and "half-assed horns." He thought Welch sounded bored and McVie "less than perfect," and called the record their worst yet. Later opinions have been split. Hal Horowitz of AllMusic praised Welch and McVie's songwriting, calling the album "cohesive" and "diverse," and labeled it "a minor gem that retains its effortless pop charms." Mojo, however, ranked it second to last among all Fleetwood Mac albums, saying the band sounded "tired" and overdue for the shake-up that Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham would soon deliver.