Heroes VS. Mystery To Me

[EricBliss12345]

It's hard when reading anything about Mystery To Me to NOT find some kind of comment referring to it as the "shoulda, coulda, woulda" album of the Welch/McVie dominated period of the band. When I first got Mystery To Me a couple months ago, I could see where they were coming from. Here was an album full of excellent, catchy rock and pop songs, with just enough of an experimental edge to set it apart from everything else. This is all without mentioning the stellar production, and nobody noticed.

However, the more I listen to Heroes... the more obvious it becomes that this is the REAL lost Fleetwood Mac album. Stylisticly it's more diverse and the songs are better. McVie's anthemic title cut really should have been there first huge hit. Not only are the lyrics hilarious, they are unfortunately true in most cases (it takes a guy to know one, I guess ) and are probably her most creative and funny example of lyric writing. It's tracks like these that make Believe Me, Just Crazy Love, Why, and The Way I Feel look like toss-offs. Her other songs on here are absolutely steller for Christine as well, especially the insanely catchy Prove Your Love and her most "make my heart a-flutter" song, Come A Little Bit Closer. I'm afraid that if I were alive and she sang that song to me in the early 70's I would have asked her to marry me. Bad Loser isn't bad either.

Welch also REALLY shines on this album. Angel just rocks and She's Changing Me just glistens with high chart placement. The line "She will bring you joy, but don't you know she can destroy?" line just really sounds good to me. Coming Home shows the Mac way out of their territory in the psyche-rock department, and it surprisingly works well despite it's depressing shortness.

Overall, I just find the hooks on this album to be much bigger, and, well, hookier. There's more lyrics on this album that will get stuck in your head than any on Mystery To Me, and the music is just more memorable. This morning is the first time I've played it top-to-bottom in it's entirety, and I think I'm just realizing that this is my favorite Fleetwood Mac album.

What do you guys think?

[macfan 57]

I like Heroes Are Hard To Find ALOT, but not as much as Mystery To Me. For Me, Mystery To Me is near perfection. There is no way that Christine's songs on MTM are toss offs. "Why", "Hypnotized", "The Way I Feel" & "Emerald Eyes" are about as good as it gets. MTM was the first non Buckingham/Nicks Fleetwood Mac album that I ever heard, so I'm a little biased.

But, Heroes is a terrific album, too. You're right about Christine's songs here. I LOVE "Come A Little Bit Closer" & "Prove Your Love". And, the title track is almost as good as the first 2 songs. I like Welch's songs on MTM a bit better than his Heroes songs. But, I love "She's Changing Me" & "Silver Heels".

For what it's worth, I have a Goldmine Magazine interview with Christine from about 10 years ago. She mentioned that she liked "Come A Little Bit Closer". She thought it should have been a hit. I think she likes alot of her songs from the early years of Fleetwood Mac.

[wetcamelfood]

Yeah, I admittedly do overlook HAHTF from time to time but I do like it very much. I can see what you mean though Eric about "Coming home" just starting to go somewhere when it ends. I guess this is a good example of how he was "held back" based on what Welch had said about wanting to get more rockin' etc. at that time and MF, JM & CM not wanting to do that. "Angel" is an example of that as it does rock but it does seem somewhat restrained. I wonder if maybe there were squabbles about "how rocking it could be"? The fade in makes me think that maybe there was some stuff before the words kicked in that the rest of FM maybe felt rocked too hard or something (hence the fade in rather than starting whenever it actually did)? Just a guess.

I tend to think of "Heroes..." stuff as separate songs though more than as an album though they are all very good in their own way, the 2 I just discussed are faves of mine at the moment along with Chris' CALBC & BL. "Prove your love" I do like but of the 4 CM tracks, it's my least favorite one. I'm sure I once read a Christine interview where she said she'd like to re-record PYL someday so I tend to agree with her in that I may get the full power of that song if she ever does re-do it. I actually prefer "Bermuda triangle" live (for me, that would be the videotape I have of the "Don Kirschner's Rock Concert" FM performance and Welch's recent re-recording of it on his own solo "His FM years & beyond" CD though that's my least fave of the Welch's on HAHTF. "She's changing me" I used to hate but now I like it very much, "Silver heels" really grew on me too over time though I think "Born enchanter" has lost some fire over the years. I guess because I lost faith in FM ever getting more jazzy than the beginning of that track!

I probably do lean towards MTM as well since there is that little more input from other areas like Weston etc. (though he wasn't allowed to contribute very much, it was just enough to round out "Mystery..." as an album I think) and "Bare trees", though DK dominated, doesn't seem it with the great CM & Welch additions. I could go on and on about positive elements of the other pre BN albums/lineups/members but I won't.

I guess to me HAHTF, having 7 Welch tunes and 4 CM ones, loses a dimension compared to earlier FM albums, sort of like SYW (DOH!) (j/k) nah, whereas SYW is like an LB & SN solo album pressed together, HAHTF is like a Welch solo 12" EP and a CM 7" EP mixed together though of course Welch would've rocked it more had it been a true "solo" project at that time by the sounds of it.

John

[chiliD]

Using the analogies to later FMac albums

Mystery To Me = Rumours

Heroes Are Hard To Find = Tusk


In a similar way to equate Bob's later solo career:

French Kiss = Rumours

Three Hearts = white album

The Other One = Tusk

Man Overboard = Mirage

[The Tower]

"Heroes" is a little hard to find only because I can't {ever} get over the best song ever written by Christine (tied with "Over and Over")

"Why"

I especially like the fact that it was such a great song that FM continued to play it during the B/N era- and Stevie's vocals REALLLY complement Christine's longing.....


Sorry..... gushing.....

[Cristian]

Wow... to compare these two little gems. I'd stay with Mystery To Me, though. I think that one album with "Hypnotized" and "Emerald Eyes" in it must be close to perfection. And when you add those four Christine tunes, especially "Why", my favorite song of hers, ever... well it's just almost perfect, too. The only thing I dislike a little bit from that one is the "For Your Love" cover, but it's quite tollerable too. Heroes is a very strong album too, but the number of 'masterpieces' is, to me, a little reduced. "She's Changing Me" and "Silver Heels" I love, just like "Come A Little Bit Closer" but still... I'm missing something. Mystery To Me all the way.


Song of the moment - Steal Your Heart Away

[EricBliss12345]

Wow... to compare these two little gems. I'd stay with Mystery To Me, though. I think that one album with "Hypnotized" and "Emerald Eyes" in it must be close to perfection. And when you add those four Christine tunes, especially "Why", my favorite song of hers, ever... well it's just almost perfect, too.

It seems like several people consider "Why" their favorite Christine song. It's good, but she has a lot of better ones, and I like "Just Crazy Love" and "Believe Me" loads better. If you're gonna compare this one to Rumours, "The Way I Feel" is the "Oh Daddy" of the album.

However, every song of hers on Heroes is top-drawer. And although I don't judge how good a song is by it's commerciality, she just didn't have anything single-worthy on Mystery (besides Just Crazy Love). Don't get me wrong, her Mystery tracks are excellent, but there's several of hers on Heroes that I think could have been big hits. "Believe Me" and "Why" don't get jammed stuck in your head in quite the same way that "Heroes..." and "Prove Your Love" do. Am I the only one that walks around at work singing "Ahhhhh ah! Ah ah ah ah! Ahh ah ah ah ah ah ahhhhhhh?"

As far as Bob, there's no denying the perfection of "Emerald Eyes" and "Hypnotised" but you can't ask for much better pop/rock songs than "She's Changing Me" or "Silver Heels" both of which have more memorable melodies and lyrical hooks. The rest of his songs are just as good or better than the Mystery ones.

[macmar71]

HAHTF is my favorite because it happens to be the one I own. I don't have a copy of MTM but have heard songs from it and like it and will definitely purchase it at some point.
HAHTF was purchased in a used vinyl shop for $3.00 and I love many of the songs like Come A Little Bit Closer and Prove Your Love. I am very fond of Christine's pre-Buck Nicks songs.
The cover of this album is rather scary though with Mick looking rather questionable.

[Johnny Stew]

Originally posted by EricBliss12345
It seems like several people consider "Why" their favorite Christine song. It's good, but she has a lot of better ones, and I like "Just Crazy Love" and "Believe Me" loads better.

The first time I heard "Just Crazy Love," I thought, "this should have been a single!!!"

It's a great song... really catchy hook... and definitely sits well among the songs that actually were hits.

I was really pleased... and pretty surprised... when they used a few moments of it in Stevie's 'Behind The Music.'

[EricBliss12345]

The cover of this album is rather scary though with Mick looking rather questionable.

Yeah that picture is actually a little disgusting. Something about the naked kid clinging to Mick in boots and a tight pair of sparkly underwear just doesn't sit well with me. The other really early Peter Green album with him shirtless on the cover is pretty gross too. He had to have been like 25 pounds underweight. Just how early did he start doing coke? Jeeze. In those early pics it looks like he hadn't eaten for years.

And yeah, "Just Crazy Love" is just as good as any of her singles with the B/N lineup. It's the "Think About Me" of the Welch years.

[greenfire]

MTM, HAHTF along with Penguin are three equally great FM albums, just my opinion of course. Maybe my favorite writers for Fleetwood Mac are Chris and Bob.

One thing I always admired about FM was the diversity...some bands only have the one singer which can be tedious but sometimes with FM you always had a diversity and they have always maintained that format. I thought Christine and Bob's songs were great together, they flowed together so nicely...the perfect listening experience for me...AWESOME!


"The Earth is good, why do we abuse it?"....Ray Thomas