Fleetwood Mac: Then Play On (1969)

Fleetwood Mac is one of those bands that received so much hype and they had so many songs overplayed on the radio it’s not even funny. But of course, this was the post-1975 Fleetwood Mac with Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. To be frank, I’m not really much a fan of that era of Fleetwood Mac, it’s just really not my thing to be honest. But their earlier material (particularly the Peter Green, and even Bob Welch-era material) is quite a bit different from their very commercial, Buckingham/Nicks-era material.

Fleetwood Mac was another band that stemmed from John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (like Colosseum, Mark-Almond, Keef Hartley Band, even Cream – because Clapton played with Mayall). The original lineup consisted of Mick Fleetwood on drums, John McVie on bass, Jeremy Spencer on guitar and vocals, and Peter Green on guitar and vocals. Then Play On is Fleetwood Mac’s final album with Peter Green, by which point, the band added yet another guitarist/vocalist Danny Kirwan, who was still in his teens.

The band by this point, had moved to Reprise Records, and they were already moving away from its all-blues format. So that means you get some rocking numbers, some acoustic numbers, and of course, a few bluesy number. The opening song, “Coming Your Way” might have a slightly bluesy feel to it, but there’s this almost Santana-like use of percussion. “Closing My Eyes” is an acoustic ballad which you can tell right away this isn’t the blues at all. “Fighting For Madge” is a killer instrumental piece consisting of some wonderful guitar james. “Show-Biz Blues” is, as the title suggest, a blues number, which is only to be expected since Peter Green was still with the band. “Under Way” is another instrumental number which sounds very much like “Albatross” (which was a big hit for this band in England, but totally ignored in America). Kirwan’s “Although the Sun is Shining” is very much in the style of early 1970s Fleetwood Mac, in fact it could have easily fit on Future Games (1971). “Searching For Madge” is basically an extended version of “Fighting For Madge”, and that means, a great song is made even better! “Like Crying” is another great bluesy number.

There happens to be two different versions of this album. I own the original LP, which features yet another Kirwan ballad, “When You Say”. Chances you, you’re more likely to get the version that includes “Oh Well”. FM radio is more likely to play the live version of that song with Lindsay Buckingham than the original with Peter Green, but if you heard the original, you’ll notice the second half is acoustic, and I remembered actually being creeped out with the acoustic second half of the song (while the first half is a bluesy number as you expect Green to do). To be fair, I heard English Rose (which featured the original “Black Magic Woman” in which Santana made a hit with, and “Albatross”) and it was just too much in the traditional blues format for my liking (although if you’re a blues fan, than I can recommend those very early Fleetwood Mac albums). But with Then Play On the band really diversified and succeeded at that (perhaps a lot of reason for that was the British blues boom of the 1960s was starting to die down by 1969). In my opinion, forget Rumours, if you want some real Fleetwood Mac, go for this album.
– Mick Fleetwood: drums
– John McVie: bass
– Peter Green: guitars, vocals
– Jeremy Spencer: guitars, vocals
– Danny Kirwan: guitars, vocals