Then Play On

Lore & 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.

Reader's Guide

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 (With the Two Prong Crown)" and its B-side "World in Harmony", as bonus tracks. 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. 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."

Did You Know?

• Christine McVie, then known by her maiden name Christine Perfect, played piano on "Coming Your Way".
• The original plan was to release an EP of Jeremy Spencer compositions to coincide with the album, but it was not commercially issued until 1998 on The Vaudeville Years compilation.