Then Play On

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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.

In Their Own Story

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. 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: "If Peter didn't get his guitar out, there wouldn't be a sound made. If Peter was late, they'd just spend the time sitting about drinking coffee. Instead of Danny saying 'Oh I've got a number, let's work it out and when Pete comes we'll see what he thinks', they'd do nothing." 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. 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.

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?

• 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".
• Jeremy Spencer did not feature on the album apart from "a couple of piano things", according to Mick Fleetwood in Q magazine in 1990.
• 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.
• Green wrote "Closing My Eyes" during a time of spiritual awakening when he was extensively reading the Bible.