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-   -   Heroes Are Hard To Find love (http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=25790)

David 03-03-2006 10:38 PM

Heroes Are Hard To Find love
 
Is there a jazzier, snazzier, groovier, more feel-good anthem than "Heroes Are Hard to Find" on any FM album since 1974?

Why aren't more bands out there doing this song?

jbrownsjr 03-04-2006 12:40 AM

Thank you for this thread.... long sigh.....

I love this song.... it continues to go so un-noticed. even in these forums where the keen christine fan forgets to mention this song... i love the groove in the piano... it's grovin yet pristine...

i'm going to go put it on....

jbrownsjr 03-04-2006 12:48 AM

ahhh i forgot about the great bob welch vocal at the tag...

i would love to get this remastered

macfan 57 03-04-2006 06:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David
Is there a jazzier, snazzier, groovier, more feel-good anthem than "Heroes Are Hard to Find" on any FM album since 1974?

No, none that I can think of. My 2 favorite Chris songs on the album are "Come A Little Bit Closer" & "Prove Your Love", but the I like the title track almost as much. It's a very "up" song, like "Don't Stop". While "Don't Stop" is more of a blues song, HAHTF is pretty jazzy. It's a great way to start the album & I think it fits in nicely with Bob's VERY jazzy songs on the album. It's very underrated, as are most of Christine's songs from 1971-74.

Quote:

Originally Posted by David
Why aren't more bands out there doing this song?

Well, maybe if Fleetwood Mac ever tours again, they'll play it.;) :laugh:

Brwn_eyes0511 03-04-2006 06:47 AM

The tag is the best...

"Heroes, Heroes are hard to find..."

BRILLIANT! (I just wish the tag would go out a little longer before fading...)

eclipse 03-04-2006 12:01 PM

The early years...
 
Yet another unappreciated song by FM pre the California kids:laugh:

HomerMcvie 03-04-2006 02:00 PM

I hate horns. All horns should be put under the tires of an 18 wheeler, then put in gear! :)



FWIW, I played trumpet for 9 years, even starting college AS a trumpet major. Guitar's where it's at, baby!
PS- all soundguys I know hate horns, too. We find them unpleasant to the ear.

David 03-04-2006 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie
I hate horns. All horns should be put under the tires of an 18 wheeler, then put in gear! PS- all soundguys I know hate horns, too. We find them unpleasant to the ear.

Silly Homer. What would the Eroica Symphony be without the triumphal French horns?!

http://dept.kent.edu/music/pictures/...er_1818_02.jpg

Brwn_eyes0511 03-04-2006 02:47 PM

Or Judy at Carnegie Hall! :blob1: :thumbsup:

Angel69 03-04-2006 04:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie
I hate horns. All horns should be put under the tires of an 18 wheeler, then put in gear! :)



FWIW, I played trumpet for 9 years, even starting college AS a trumpet major. Guitar's where it's at, baby!
PS- all soundguys I know hate horns, too. We find them unpleasant to the ear.

Yeah horns don't belong in RnR!! Hereos would have sounded better with guitar than horns so would have Whole Lotta Trouble. Although in the FM song it was something where people (ie, critics) could say they were branching out and trying new things yada yada

jbrownsjr 03-04-2006 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David
Silly Homer. What would the Eroica Symphony be without the triumphal French horns?!

http://dept.kent.edu/music/pictures/...er_1818_02.jpg


i love the french horns cos they sort of cut thru everything....

FuzzyPlum 07-07-2014 03:54 PM

Just wanted to say I love this song and all Christine's songs on this album...but they could have been even better. Martin Birch seemed to have done great things with the albums leading up to HAHTF, culminating in the brilliant Mystery to Me. I think if he'd produced this album it really could have been their breakthrough. Instead, the songs aren't quite there. I think I read somewhere Christine had had an affair with him. Is this why they stopped using him as a producer/engineer? Anyway, he eventually went on to big things.

When I think of the horns on Tusk and Don't Stop on the Dance I cant help thinking it would have been so good to also break into Heroes Are Hard To Find as well.

PenguinHead 07-08-2014 02:30 AM

I love the horns in Heroes are Hard to Find! It was an unusual, untypical addition, but it suited the song. Are horns not acceptable in rock and roll? Tell that that to Bruce Springsteen, tell that to Chicago, and numerous other bands that I can't name at this moment.:laugh:

Christine's body of work in Fleetwood Mac circa 1971-1974 is exceptional; her contributions added a level of appeal and dimension to the albums. I just love those albums. But when I became obsessed with the band in 1977, their back catalog was a complete mystery to me.

Much like many other listeners who fell in love with their self titled "white" album and Rumours, they went out and bought those previous albums, not familiar with the band's back story, and unaware they weren't going to get the same band or sound. My older sister had bought Future Games and Mystery to Me. I inherited the albums and was completely fascinated by them, having very little knowledge of the band's history, or the context in which the albums were made. Over time, I enjoyed discovering their other albums -- Kiln House, Bare Trees, Penguin, and Heroes are Hard to Find, and learning the complex evolution of the band. Only later did I get into their blues era material.

By the time Stevie and Lindsey both released their first solo albums, I was in deep. Hard to believe the band has been the primary soundtrack of my life for 37 years!

nicepace 07-08-2014 11:02 PM

I don't usually like horns in rock 'n' roll, but it depends on how they're used. I like them in this song because of the novelty. I would have hated it if the horns had continued throughout the album, but for this one song, I like them just fine.

Did this incarnation of the band ever have a horn player or horn section that performed on this song when they played it live? (I'm not even sure they did play it live, but since it was the title track of the album, I think it's safe to suppose they did.)

aleuzzi 07-09-2014 09:28 AM

Heroes is a catchy song. It hints at the direction the band might have gone had the single been successful. At that point, they were feeling things out, trying different approaches and seeing what could land them on the radio. Bob and Chris went for "big" production touches on this--horns, pedal steel, synthesizer strings, thickly layered backing vocals. But underneath all of the gloss is a standard blues, which she sings VERY well.

I like the horns in some spots, namely towards the end and in the bridge where she sings "When he says hello, don't forget they're all the same..." They are punchy and thick there. But I DON'T like the passages where the horn parts are a little higher and playing what appears to be meant as an instrumental hook--ie: as in the song's opening. The horns sound sort of "lite" there, a commercial gimmick that backfires.

I forgot who it was who mentioned here once that the guitar parts on the Heroes song are very similar to the guitar parts on Over My Head, except one is electric, the other acoustic. The two songs couldn't be more different in production styles. And when the thickly-layered backing vocals return on You Make Loving Fun three years later, they are all the more effective because they aren't layered over with a ton of instrumentation.


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