With Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Danny Kirwan and Peter Green all playing on the record, it would be easy to label Jeremy Spencer s 1970 solo release The Great Lost Early Fleetwood Mac Album. And you d be right up to a point. For while Spencer s bandmates are all unmistakably there perhaps making up for Spencer s absence on Then Play On this record is very much a product of Spencer s own unique take on blues and pop music. Spencer was always a bit of a wildcard in Fleetwood Mac; on record, he was the most tradition-minded bluesman in the band, but on stage he was a real live wire, notable not just for his scorching (and sometimes suggestive) renditions of old blues tunes but also for his gifted mimicry of such performers as Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and John Mayall. That penchant for parody definitely carries over to Jeremy Spencer; Presley ( If I Could Swim the Mountain ), Holly ( Linda ), and Mayall ( Mean Blues ) all get their comeuppance, with nods to surf pop ( Surfin Girl ) and rockabilly ( You Made a Hit, previously recorded by Charlie Rich and Ray Smith) along the way. But perhaps the best tunes on the album are two flat-out rockers: Here Comes Charlie (with His Dancing Shoes On) is a Yardbirds-style rave-up, while Take a Look Around Mrs. Brown could easily have been a Small Faces track from circa 1967 (though it s preceded by the sound of somebody throwing up nobody would ever, and we mean ever, accuse Spencer of catering to commercial interests). Our Expanded Edition of this charmingly eccentric cult classic includes liner notes by Richie Unterberger featuring extensive quotes from the artist and a non-LP bonus track, Teenage Darling, that Spencer used to perform on stage dressed as Elvis Presley!
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