Then Play On

Then Play On is the third studio album by the British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on 19 September 1969. It was the first of their original albums to feature Danny Kirwan (although two tracks recorded with him were included on the compilation album The Pious Bird of Good Omen released earlier in 1969) and the last with Peter Green. Although still an official band member at the time, Jeremy Spencer did not feature on the album apart from "a couple of piano things" (according to Mick Fleetwood in Q magazine in 1990). The album offered a broader stylistic range than the straightforward electric blues of the group's first two albums, displaying elements of folk rock, hard rock, art rock and psychedelia. The album reached No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart, becoming the band's fourth Top 20 LP in a row, as well as their third album to reach the Top 10. The album's title, Then Play On, is taken from the opening line of William Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night—"If music be the food of love, play on".

Then Play On is Fleetwood Mac's first release with Reprise Records after being lured away from Blue Horizon and a one-off single with Immediate Records. The label would be the band's home until their self-titled 1975 album, after which they signed to Reprise's parent company Warner Records. The initial US release of the album omitted two tracks that were previously issued on the American compilation album English Rose, while the second US pressing further abridged the tracklist with the addition of the hit single "Oh Well". The original CD compiled all the songs from the two US LP versions, both of which omitted the English Rose tracks that are on the original UK version. In August 2013, a remastered edition of the album was reissued on vinyl and CD. This version includes all the tracks from all previous versions of the album, with the original 1969 UK track listing as the main album and both parts of "Oh Well", as well as the 1970 non-album single "The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown)" and its B-side "World in Harmony", as bonus tracks.

Background
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. Green had recently introduced improvisation and jamming to the band's live performances and three of the tracks on the album including "Underway", "Searching for Madge", and "Fighting for Madge", which were compiled by Green from several hours of studio jam sessions.

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.” Jeremy Spencer, the band's other guitarist, did not play on any of the album's original tracks. Green and Spencer had planned to record a concept album — “an orchestral-choral LP” — about the life of Jesus Christ, although the album never came to fruition. Instead, Spencer released a solo album in 1970 with the members of Fleetwood Mac as his backing band. In the US, "One Sunny Day" and "Without You" were not included on the album, as they had already been included on the US compilation album English Rose in December 1968.

Then Play On was quickly followed by the non-album single "Oh Well", which reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart. "Oh Well" was not initially released as a single in the US, as the band's then-manager Clifford Davis felt album track "Rattlesnake Shake" would be a better choice for US single release. Davis expected that "Rattlesnake Shake" would be commercially successful, but it failed to chart. After the failure of "Rattlesnake Shake", "Oh Well" was chosen as the next single for the US market. "Oh Well" fared much better, becoming the band's first song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. 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 first CD issue of the album in the 1980s included every track from both the 1969 and 1970 US versions of the album. 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-Pronged Crown)" and its B-side "World in Harmony" as tracks 15 to 18.

Artwork
The painting used for the album cover artwork is a mural by the English artist Maxwell Armfield. 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.

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 later dismissed the album as mostly "nondescript ramblings". On the other hand, Robert Christgau was more positive. He described the album's mixing of "easy ballads and Latin rhythms with the hard stuff" as "odd" but "very good". However, more recent reviews of the album are highly positive; The New Rolling Stone Album Guide labeling the album as a "cool, blues-based stew" and considered it the second best Fleetwood Mac album. The Telegraph described Then Play On as a "musically expansive, soft edged, psychedelic blues odyssey". Clark Collins of Blender magazine gave the album five stars out of five, and described "Oh Well" as an "epic blues-pop workout".

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)"
 * Danny Kirwan – vocals, guitar
 * John McVie – bass guitar
 * Mick Fleetwood – drums, percussion
 * Jeremy Spencer – piano on "Oh Well (Part 2)"

Additional personnel
 * Christine Perfect – piano - uncredited
 * Sandra Elsdon – recorders on "Oh Well (Part 2)"

Production
 * Fleetwood Mac – producers
 * Martin Birch – engineer
 * Dinky Dawson – sound consultant