Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Fleetwood Mac, BMG 2020.
One of my party tricks back in the early eighties (when I was a much younger and sillier man) was to win beers by playing the original version of this album.
I would allow challengers three guesses as to who the band was but very few participants were ever winners.
Times have changed and many now know that Fleetwood Mac started life in the UK in the mid 1960s as an underground blues band featuring the brilliant Peter Green on guitar.
Their transformation into the band that most people recognize as Fleetwood Mac occurred in the mid 1970s in America with the only remaining members of the original line-up being Mick Fleetwood on drums and John McVie on bass.
Christine Perfect, who became Christine McVie after marrying John in 1970, joined the band in the early seventies.
Then Play On was released in 1969 and was their third album.
It contains some of the best songs ever recorded by the band and was also the last album released with the brilliant, but fragile, Peter Green in the band.
The re-release of the album is a prelude to the world-wide release of Mick Fleetwood And Friends Celebrate The Music Of Peter Green concert film which is slated for screening later this year.
Then Play On was stylistically different to Fleetwood Mac’s first two albums offering a much broader palette of sounds and blues styles, probably due to the influence of new guitarist and additional songwriter Danny Kirwan.
Kirwan’s distinctive vibrato playing changed the dynamic of the band and Peter Green believes that without it Green’s instrumental Albatross would not have been the huge hit it became.
This new reissue contains the remastered original UK album track listing plus four bonus tracks.
It’s available in 2xLP version, pressed on 180 gram audiophile black vinyl, and two CD packs.
Both options come with extensive booklets with foreword by Mick Fleetwood.
The 18 racks includeThe Green Manilishi, Oh Well parts 1&2, Rattlesnake Shake, and Searching For Madge plus many more.
This album is due for release on 18 September and really is a collector’s dream.
