Then Play On

Fleetwood Mac's previous albums had been recorded live in the studio and adhered strictly to the blues formula. For the recording of Then Play On, editing and overdubbing techniques were used extensively for the first time. Fleetwood was adamant about veering away from material that was strictly blues-oriented and told Samuel Graham in a 1978 interview that "we didn't have an exact concept of what we were going to do, but we knew what we weren't going to do, and that was put out another record of Jeremy singing Elmore James. Fleetwood said that the band was "stylistically two bands in one" at the time; this was reflected in their live setlists, which consisted of conventional blues compositions and rock-and-roll covers with Spencer onstage and another portion of the show without Spencer primarily dedicated to extended jams. In a 1989 interview with Musician magazine, John McVie labeled this EP as his favorite material he ever recorded with Fleetwood Mac. Green and Spencer also considered the idea of recording a concept album – "an orchestral-choral LP" – about the life of Jesus Christ, although the album never materialised. Instead, Spencer released a solo album in 1970 with the members of Fleetwood Mac as his backing band. Spencer later said in a 2012 interview that he had only discussed this idea with Green "in passing" and that the project was never seriously pursued. ==Composition==

Green, the de facto band leader at the time, delegated half of the songwriting to bandmate Danny Kirwan. Music journalist Anthony Bozza remarked that Green "was a very generous band leader in every single way. And Peter gave Danny all of that freedom. You just don’t hear about things like that". Green wrote "Closing My Eyes" during a time of spiritual awakening when was extensively reading the Bible. "[It] was written around the time I had such a great faith in Jesus that I felt I was walking and talking with God. I wanted to tell people about it, but they turned it round and tried to shatter my dreams." "Like Crying" began with Green singing the lyric "woman's got the blues", which reminded Kirwan of Bessie Smith. Kirwan then wrote the remainder of the song based on Green's initial musical idea. ==Recording==

Martin Birch, who served as the audio engineer for the album, recalled that Green would frequently come into the recording studio with a demo recorded at home on his Revox. Once Birch familiarised himself with the general feel of the song, the rest of the band would record the basic tracks. He said that the other members would then leave the studio, leaving himself and Green to work on the song until all of the parts were recorded. He repeated the same process with Kirwan and alternated between the two songwriters until the album was complete. Several of Kirwan's tracks, including "One Sunny Day", "Without You", and "Coming Your Way", were originally recorded on 6 October 1968. At the time, "Coming Your Way" carried the working title "Going My Way". These songs were later re-recorded and remixed for Then Play On, with sessions for "Coming Your Way" and "Although The Sun is Shining" beginning in April 1969. Christine McVie, who at the time was known by her maiden name Christine Perfect, played piano on "Coming Your Way". Kirwan played all of the guitar parts on "Coming Your Way", "My Dream" and "Although the Sun is Shining" as Green wanted him to become more independent and proficient in the recording studio. His compositions "One Sunny Day" and "Without You" emerged from the same recording session as "Albatross", which was completed when the band were still signed to Blue Horizon. Green's friend Paul Morrison remembered that Green spent a considerable time working on tracks alone. Morrison also said that Green would occasionally prevent the rest of the band from entering the recording studio so that he could overdub guitars, bass, and drums himself. Some of Green's timpani-playing appeared on "Oh Well", which appeared on later editions of Then Play On. Green was involved with the editing and cutting of these songs and spent time reviewing the tapes; he would then provide feedback to Birch, who mixed the tracks. The Madge jams were named after a fan of the band who hitchhiked to several of their shows. "Fighting for Madge" was pieced together with two pieces of tape and "Searching for Madge" required the splicing of five snippets of tape taken from an extended jam session. "Searching for Madge" also included an audio clip of someone chuckling, portions of a sped-up and reversed segment from "Underway", and an orchestral recording. A 16-minute version of the Madge jam was later included on The Vaudeville Years. Much of the album's mixing was conducted by Green and Birch. When the two were working on the two Madge jams, Birch employed panning on the guitar tracks to create the impression of a "guitar duel" between Green and Kirwan. ==Release==

The band originally told the music press that the title for the album would be Bread & Kunny. In the July 1969 edition of John Mayall newsletter, Green revealed a tentative track listing with "Before the Beginning" as the first track of side one and "Searching for Madge" as the final track on side two. The tentative track listing was accompanied with a different title for the album: Then Play On. Then Play On was released in the UK on 19 September 1969. After the failure of "Rattlesnake Shake", "Oh Well" was chosen as the next single for the US market. "Oh Well" fared much better than "Rattlesnake Shake" and became band's first song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Davis had also recorded a cover of Green's "Before the Beginning" with members of Fleetwood Mac serving as his backing band. In January 1970, Then Play On was reissued in the US, this time with "Oh Well" in place of "When You Say" and "My Dream". The 2013 remastered CD has the original UK album as tracks 1 to 14 with parts 1 and 2 of "Oh Well", the 1970 non-album single "The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)" and its B-side "World in Harmony" as tracks 15 to 18. "One Sunny Day" and "Without You" were not included on the North American edition of the album as they had already been included on the compilation album English Rose. Spencer expressed disappointment with the album, saying that it "wasn't complete" and "lacked humour." However, Fleetwood called Then Play On his favourite Fleetwood Mac album. Green was also pleased with the album, saying that he "loved every minute of it. There is nothing I feel I could have done better." However, he believed that the band made a mistake in producing the album themselves and said that they "should have kept Mike Vernon", who had produced the band's first two albums. Vernon agreed with Green's assessment and said that he felt "disappointed" with the album due to his belief that it sounded too "synthetic". ==Artwork==

The painting used for the album cover artwork is a mural by the English artist Maxwell Armfield. The artwork, which carried the title Domesticated Mural Painting, features a naked man on a galloping horse with a yellow sky in the background. The painting was featured in the February 1917 edition of The Countryside magazine, which noted that the mural was originally designed for the dining room of a London mansion. According to Christine McVie, the original painting belonged to Mick Fleetwood's sister; Classic Rock magazine reported that the painting was in the possession of Mick Fleetwood in a 2013 interview. ==Reception==

Contemporary reception of the album was mixed. Writing for Rolling Stone magazine, John Morthland said Fleetwood Mac had fallen "flat on their faces", and dismissed the album as mostly "nondescript ramblings". Robert Christgau described the album's mixing of "easy ballads and Latin rhythms with the hard stuff" as "odd" but "very good". Melody Maker praised the album, saying that it would "enhance" the Fleetwood Mac's reputation and "surprise anyone who thinks of them as a straight, bashing blues band." Record Mirror characterised Then Play On as "an interesting, progressive LP" that "may not please their blues fans" and called it the band's "most interesting album to date". Record World thought that the album possessed creative playing and arrangements and that the bottleneck guitar work evoked music from the 1920s and 1930s. Cashbox called the album "an exciting package that will go far" that was "sure to make [Fleetwood Mac] as popular statewide as in their home." More recent reviews of the album are highly positive; The New Rolling Stone Album Guide labeling the album as a "cool, blues-based stew" Clark Collins of Blender magazine gave the album five stars out of five, and described "Oh Well" as an "epic blues-pop workout". ==Track listing==

Alternate track listings Original US LP, September 1969 The two songs ("One Sunny Day" & "Without You") deleted from the US version of the LP had already appeared on the US compilation English Rose, and "Underway" was shortened by about 15 seconds. Revised US LP, January 1970 When the double-sided single "Oh Well (Parts 1 & 2)" (released November 1969) became a hit, the US LP was re-released in January 1970 with a revised running order to include "Oh Well", dropping Danny Kirwan's "When You Say" and "My Dream" to make room for it. The two parts of "Oh Well" differ widely, the first being hard rock, the latter a meditative instrumental, on which Green played cello. Other changes include putting the two edits from the "Madge" jams back-to-back, fading down between them. The giggle that previously linked "My Dream" to "Like Crying" ended up, in the previous edit, following the end of "Fighting for Madge" instead. Madge, the press were told at the time, was a female fan of the group. Unreleased bonus EP: The Milton Schlitz Show The original intention was to include a bonus EP in the Then Play On album. The EP was to be compensation for the fact that Jeremy Spencer barely appeared on the album. The EP consisted of Spencer's parodies of doo wop ("Ricky Dee and the Angels"), Alexis Korner, country blues ("Texas Slim"), acid rock ("The Orange Electric Squares"), and John Mayall ("Man of Action"). It was finally released on Fleetwood Mac's The Vaudeville Years compilation in 1998. ==Personnel==

Fleetwood Mac • Peter Green – vocals, guitar, harmonica, six string bass, percussion, cello on "Oh Well (Part 2)" • Sandra Elsdon – uncredited recorders on "Oh Well (Part 2)" Production • Fleetwood Mac – producers • Martin Birch – engineer • Dinky Dawson – sound consultant ==Charts==