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 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".
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 Bros. 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 " 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. 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.Jeremy Spencer attended some of the studio sessions and attempted to record a few things for Then Play On, but none of his contributions appeared on any of the album's original tracks. 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. Green was opposed to the idea of including disparate styles on Then Play On, so the original plan was to release an EP of Spencer compositions to coincide with the album, but the EP was not commercially issued until 1998, when the tracks were included on the band's 1998 compilation album, The Vaudeville Years. 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". Kirwan wrote "Although the Sun is Shining" prior to his tenure in Fleetwood Mac when he was still in his band Boilerhouse. The recording attempted on 18 April 1969 went unused until it resurfaced on The Vaudeville Years compilation album in 1998. Kirwan revisited "Although the Sun Is Shining" the following month; the fourth and final take was included on Then Play On.Whereas Kirwan wrote several of his songs over the span of two years, Green wanted his songs to be more contemporary and progressive. "Before the Beginning", a Green composition, was first developed in January 1969 during the recording sessions that later produced the band's "Man of the World" single. At the time, "Before the Beginning" was titled "Blues in B flat minor" and was recorded as an instrumental. "Showbiz Blues" also emerged from the same recording sessions under the working title "Do You Give a Damn For Me", which Green dedicated to Bukka White, a slide guitar player who was also the cousin of BB King. Green wrote the song centered around the fingertapping technique that White utilised and re-recorded the song for the Then Play On sessions later in the summer. The final recording that appeared on Then Play On featured less fingertapping than the version from the January recording session. Fleetwood overdubbed some tambourine on the new take; the handclaps were recorded by "whoever was in the studio at the time". "Show-Biz Blues" was one of the songs that the band recorded during sessions at De Lane Lea Studios from 2 July through 4 July. Two takes were completed on the 2 July session, with work resuming the following day, which yielded the master. Kirwan's song "My Dream", which at the time was referred to as "Danny's Instrumental", was also completed during those series of sessions.
Green wrote "Closing My Eyes" during a time of spiritual awakening when was extensively reading the Bible. " 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
, 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. Dennis Keen, who served as the band's road manager at the time, said that the band were reliant on Green during the recording sessions.Image:DeLaneLea.JPG|thumb|250px|Several songs on Then Play On were recorded at De Lane Lea Studios
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. He also played the Spanish and electric guitars found on "When You Say". 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. "One Sunny Day" and "Without You" had previously appeared on Fleetwood Mac's English Rose album; the band performed "Without You" for the radio show Top Gear on 27 August 1968. At the time of this performance, "Without You" carried the working title "Crazy for My Baby" and included harmonica playing from Green and a piano part from Spencer; these instruments were not used for the final version that appeared on Then Play On and were replaced with a second guitar played by Green.
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. He played percussion on a few tracks, including some timpani parts. Some of Green's timpani-playing appeared on "Oh Well", which appeared on later editions of Then Play On. Rattlesnake Shake" was recorded on 15 May 1969 and is underpinned by a riff played by Green on a Fender Bass VI. The sound of a rattlesnake was also overdubbed onto the track.
The band began to embrace jamming in their live performances around the time Then Play On was developed. Three of the tracks on the album, specifically "Underway", "Searching for Madge", and "Fighting for Madge", were compiled by Green from several hours of studio jam sessions. Green told Gianluca Tramontana of Rolling Stone in a 2001 interview that "Underway" was a free-form composition created collectively by the band through jamming, adding that "it was what I used to play before I had my problems." 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.