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Then Play On

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Then Play On
Studio album by
Fleetwood Mac
Released19 September 1969
Recorded1968–1969
StudioCBS and De Lane Lea, London[1]
Genre
Length53:39
LabelReprise
ProducerFleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac chronology
The Pious Bird of Good Omen
(1969) 		Then Play On
(1969) 		Fleetwood Mac in Chicago
(1969)
Singles from Then Play On
  1. "Rattlesnake Shake"
    Released: September 1969 (US)[2]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[3]
Blender[4]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[5]
Entertainment WeeklyA−[6]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[7]

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).[8] 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

[edit]

Fleetwood Mac's previous albums had been recorded live in the studio[9] and adhered strictly to the blues formula.[10] For the recording of Then Play On, editing and overdubbing techniques were used extensively for the first time.[11] 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.[9]

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.[12] 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.[13] Instead, Spencer released a solo album in 1970 with the members of Fleetwood Mac as his backing band.[14] 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, although the song did not chart despite Davis' expectations that the song would be commercially successful.[15] 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.[16] 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

[edit]

The painting used for the album cover artwork is a mural by the English artist Maxwell Armfield.[17] 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.[18][19]

Reception

[edit]

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".[20] 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".[21]

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"[7] and considered it the second best Fleetwood Mac album. The Daily Telegraph described Then Play On as a "musically expansive, soft edged, psychedelic blues odyssey".[22] 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

[edit]
No.TitleWriter(s)VocalsLength
1."Coming Your Way"Danny KirwanKirwan3:47
2."Closing My Eyes"Peter GreenGreen4:50
3."Fighting for Madge"Mick FleetwoodInstrumental2:45
4."When You Say"KirwanKirwan4:22
5."Show-Biz Blues"GreenGreen3:50
6."Underway"GreenInstrumental3:06
7."One Sunny Day"KirwanKirwan3:12
8."Although the Sun Is Shining"KirwanKirwan2:31
9."Rattlesnake Shake"GreenGreen3:32
10."Without You"KirwanKirwan4:34
11."Searching for Madge"John McVieInstrumental6:56
12."My Dream"KirwanInstrumental3:30
13."Like Crying"KirwanKirwan, Green2:21
14."Before the Beginning"GreenGreen3:28
2013 remaster bonus tracks
No.TitleWriter(s)VocalsLength
15."Oh Well – Pt. 1"GreenGreen3:22
16."Oh Well – Pt. 2"GreenInstrumental5:39
17."The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown)"GreenGreen4:37
18."World in Harmony"Kirwan, GreenInstrumental3:26

Alternate track listings

[edit]

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.[23]

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

[edit]

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.

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Jeremy's Contribution to Doo Wop"Jeremy Spencer3:34
2."Everyday I Have the Blues"Peter Chatman4:23
3."Death Bells"Spencer5:05
4."(Watch Out for Yourself) Mr. Jones"Spencer3:35
5."Man of Action"Spencer5:21

Personnel

[edit]

Fleetwood Mac

Additional personnel

Production

  • Fleetwood Mac – producers
  • Martin Birch – engineer
  • Dinky Dawson – sound consultant

Charts

[edit]
1969-1970 weekly chart performance for Then Play On
Chart (1969–1970) Peak
position
Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)[26] 13
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[27] 90
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[28] 8
UK Albums (OCC)[29] 4
US Billboard 200[30] 109

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Unterberger, Richie (1 September 2016). Fleetwood Mac: The Complete Illustrated History. MBI Publishing Company. ISBN 9780760351765 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ Fleetwood, Mick (1993). My 25 years in Fleetwood Mac. Hyperion. p. 159. ISBN 0-297-81336-6.
  3. ^ "Then Play On – Fleetwood Mac". AllMusic. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
  4. ^ "Blender :: guide". 19 October 2006. Archived from the original on 19 October 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. ^ Larkin, Colin (30 September 2013). The Virgin Encyclopedia of The Blues. Random House. ISBN 9781448132744 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ "Then Play On; Bare Trees; Fleetwood Mac; Rumours; Tusk; Time". Entertainment Weekly. 18 April 2003.
  7. ^ a b Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian David (24 August 2017). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780743201698 – via Google Books.
  8. ^ "Debauchery! How Fleetwood Mac Survived it – Q Magazine". Fleetwood Mac UK. Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 6 November 2023.
  9. ^ a b Mick Fleetwood with Stephen Davis (1990). My Life and Adventures with Fleetwood Mac. Sidgewick & Jackson, London.
  10. ^ Swanson, Dave (9 September 2015). "How Fleetwood Mac Moved Away From the Blues on 'Then Play On'". Ultimate Classic Rock. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
  11. ^ Mick Fleetwood (30 October 2014). Play On: Now, Then and Fleetwood Mac. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-1-4447-5326-4.
  12. ^ Ruggiero, Bob (21 August 2020). "Peter Green's Swan Song in Fleetwood Mac Plays On". Houston Press. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  13. ^ Fricke, David (26 July 2020). "Before the Landslide: Inside the Early Years of Fleetwood Mac". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  14. ^ Unterberger, Richie. "Jeremy Spencer". AllMusic. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  15. ^ Morthland, John (13 December 1969). "Fleetwood Mac Then Play on Album Review". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  16. ^ "Fleetwood Mac Hot 100 Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  17. ^ "Friday Gem from the Stoddard – Templeton Design Archive: Maxwell Armfield". University of Glasgow Library. 4 March 2011. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  18. ^ Armfield, Maxwell (February 1917). "Domesticated Mural Painting". The Countryside Magazine and Suburban Life. 24 (2): 71–73.
  19. ^ "The Countryside". artmagick.com. Archived from the original on 9 December 2013. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  20. ^ Morthland, John (13 December 1969). "Records". Rolling Stone. No. 48. p. 50. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
  21. ^ "Robert Christgau: CG: Fleetwood Mac". Robertchristgau.com. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  22. ^ "Fleetwood Mac's albums: from worst to best". The Daily Telegraph. London. 26 November 2015. Retrieved 18 May 2021.
  23. ^ a b "Startside 2005". Skaanevik-blues.com. Archived from the original on 11 March 2005.
  24. ^ Rooksby, Rikky (2004). Fleetwood Mac: The Complete Guide to Their Music – Rikky Rooksby – Google Books. Omnibus Press. ISBN 9781844494279.
  25. ^ Rooksby, Rikky (2004). Fleetwood Mac: The Complete Guide to Their Music – Rikky Rooksby – Google Books. Omnibus Press. ISBN 9781844494279.
  26. ^ Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. p. 166. ISBN 978-951-1-21053-5.
  27. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Fleetwood Mac – Then Play On" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  28. ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – Fleetwood Mac – Then Play On". Hung Medien. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  29. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  30. ^ "Fleetwood Mac Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
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