Fleetwood Mac
Heroes Are Hard to Find

California Sun scorching the skin of three Brits from a tumultuous and bewildering history. In 1974 Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, and her husband John followed Bob Welch back to the USA, cutting themselves off definitively from the English scene that had seen them born and grown under continuous lineup changes. The Mac that arrive in Los Angeles are tired, demotivated by numerous replacements and lacking a secure path to follow. The album that is put together shows evident novelties, the sound begins to veer towards a very distinct USA FM radio form. Christine McVie takes the reins of the operation and with her two ballads, the title track and "Come a Little Bit Closer", marks the beginning of the new American-made course. Of the old blues, there are now very few traces ("Bermuda Triangle" and the intricate "Coming Home"), and thus this record is the prototype, with many flaws, of what will be the new course. Bob Welch contributes substantially to giving body to the rest of the work with a musical taste that draws from the West Coast sounds promoted in those years by Asylum Records without ever denying his origins. It is clear, however, that there is a substantial gap between McVie's and Welch's writing; the former is more directed towards perfecting the radio song form and closer to the tastes of the mass market. Welch seeks other directions without denying a flirtation with easy tracks, but his closure with "Safe Harbour" is a slow and atmospheric farewell, with beautiful guitar embroideries immediately evoking images of a Pacific Ocean at sunset while docking one's sailboat in Santa Monica under a gentle land breeze.

The album achieves moderate success both at home and in the USA despite a terrible cover featuring the lanky giant Fleetwood wearing a friend’s underwear while holding his daughter’s hands, the photo is by Desmond Strobel, who would later collaborate again with the Mac on two famous covers. Bob Welch leaves, Mick Fleetwood is desperate. The contract with Reprise requires new albums; he's in California with a band reduced to an unlikely trio. He needs advice, or a stroke of luck. While visiting a recording studio, he hears the record of a strange duo, unknown, struck by his voice and guitar. He asks for the number, manages to contact him. He wants him in the band, the guitarist says okay, but his partner, with whom he practically lives in symbiosis, must also join. Fleetwood and the others agree. The stroke of luck has arrived.