Published on Jan 6, 2001
Any music fan worth their weight in salt knows that Fleetwood
Mac did not start in 1975 with their self-titled album. Long before
Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks walked through the revolving
doors of the group, they were known as one of the proponents of the
British blues movement, thanks to the guitar stylings of Danny
Kirwan, Jeremy Spencer and Peter Green.
1969’s
Then Play On, which I believe was their American debut, will
undoubtedly spook some people expecting to hear chart-toppers from
the band’s early days. Sorry, Sparky, ain’t gonna happen; this disc
is hardcore blues, just as Fleetwood Mac was about to experience
the first in a series of stylistic (and line-up) shifts.
The problem with this album isn’t that it’s lacking hits; Mick
Fleetwood and crew do impress on tracks like “Showbiz Blues” and
“Rattlesnake Shake,” whipping themselves (and the listener) up into
a lathered frenzy. The problem is that this disc lacks cohesiveness
and a fixed musical path. If you’re not paying attention, the songs
tend to interweave in a way that makes them difficult to appreciate
on their own merits.
There also is a little too much musical showboating — and,
surprisingly, this comes on possibly the best-known track from
Then Play On, “Oh Well.” The first two minutes of this
number are absolutely perfect, working up an impassioned blues
statement that would warm anyone’s heart. Then, they go into a more
melodic jam… and they totally undermine the song. After seven
minutes of this, I actually found myself screaming at the record,
“Isn’t it over yet?!?” Just more proof that too much of anything is
bad for you. (There’s a reason this one got whittled down on
Fleetwood Mac Live.)
A good portion of
Then Play On is similarly made up of blues numbers which
just don’t seem like they know what they want to accomplish. Tracks
like “Coming Your Way,” “Fighting For Madge” and “Before The
Beginning” fall into this trap — and it’s a pretty steep one to
try and get out of.
Yet I don’t want to make the statement that
Then Play On is a bad effort; if anything, it’s just
misguided and muddied by musical indecision. The band could have
done a whole lot worse… but Fleetwood Mac was capable of so much
better. This is definitely a “for the diehard fans” disc these
days.