Yes, Warner Brothers, I mean you.

With all of the advances in remastering technology over the life of the CD format, you should be ashamed to offer such a classic recording that sounds this bad. And that is why I'm giving a one-star rating to a five-star album.

Imagine my dismay when I slipped this great album into my CD player, cued up "Oh, Well", and was greeting with the tinniest, noisiest (hiss), most distorted and worst sounding presentation of this song I've ever heard. Whatever master this travesty was spawned from sounds many times removed from the original recording.

Granted, the original recording has inherent noise and distortion, but even the LP I had back in the 70's sounded better than this. And the technology certainly exists, and has existed for years, to bring this wonderful recording properly into the digital domain.

To properly judge how bad this CD sounds, all one has to do is A/B "Oh, Well" from "Then" against the remastered single version on the now-defunct "The Chain" box set.

This is a textbook example of why consumers have complained about the CD format for so long. In this case, this is horrible neglect of a classic recording, and a pathetic corporate culture at Warner's in refusing to utilize modern technology to improve the listening experience for the consumer for almost 30 years.

WB, where is your soul? When exactly did you lose it (maybe that black day 25+ years ago when you fired Bonnie Raitt, Van Morrison and a host of talented others in the same day?). Haven't you sold enough copies of "Rumors" alone to afford to properly re-master this classic?

But then again, I am speaking to the company who has steadfastedly refused to bring its catalog into the digital age until the late 90's - over two decades since the introduction of the CD format.

As I said before, Warner Brothers, you should be ashamed. You dishonor your company, the artists whose true genius cannot be fully (audibly) appreciated, and the legacy of the pioneers of your company who found and nurtured those artists, all for the sake of the allmighty buck.

I can't say exactly why I was so fascinated by this record 31 years ago when I bought it (the earliest American release, sans "Oh Well") at a Woolworth's for somewhere around $3.50. I was probably drawn to the cover, which was certainly colorful and mysterious. (In those days, I could afford to buy interesting-looking music just because of the album cover.) After a couple of puzzled listens, I decided this would be my favorite rock album of all time. Again, I can't say exactly why. Perhaps it was the blues at the heart of it or the enthusiasm in the music. Except for Green, the musicians possessed no more than the talent you'd expect from a rock record, but there was something different about it, something genuine, even heartfelt. Later, much later, after delving into these guys' lives and subsequent extremely checkered careers, I came to understand that it was their sheer good fortune at the time to be thrown together during a period of extreme (and often acid-fueled) ferment in music (as well as everything else). They came out of the blues, but they listened to the Dead, the Doors, and any number of other innovative bands, and they put that extensive, authentic, dangerous, diverse experience to good use. This is still my favorite rock album, and for more than sentimental reasons. It holds up.

what a shame one of the most important items of electric blues history does not have the treatment that deserves,this cd sounds like an old casette that played one million times.

It's too bad that Fleetwood Mac has had so many incarnations, varied incarnations, over the years. In the end, they're really the story of a couple of the finest guitar players (Green & Kirwan) to ever play together. Sounds over the top, I know, but I think these guys were each touched by the gods in some cruel way. It's hard to find a sense of touch, fire, vibrato, soulfulness, clarity, tone and speed that Kirwan and Green both had. And look where they both ended up. Mad, alcoholic, homeless, wandering, broken. They probably reached their peak with Then Play On. Great, searching, avant-blues stuff.

My next door friend and Bassist in my High School Band and beyond, Mike, and I first enjoyed this when it came out in 1969-70....we had picked up on "English Rose" and really liked the Blues and Tunes, but "Then Play On" was something new to our ears.....at the time we knew little about the players except that the original 3 were from Mayall's Bluesbreakers...at the time of our discovery and enjoyment listening to the LP many hours and hours, we were unaware of the influence of the very young Danny Kirwan and the prescence of Christine Perfect on Keys...I recently purchased the CD, having given up the original LP back in the 70's and having listened to it on a cassette copy over the years....The guitar interplay between Green and Kirwan is worth the purchase alone...nothing else quite sounds like this recording....the Plaintive, melancholy tunes that Kirwan and both Green wrote and the Rockin "Rattlesnake Shake" as well as Green's " Oh Well" are true classics for all time....the one thing that pervades through many of these tunes is a loose soulful Jamming that was created as they wrote and recorded....I only wish that I could have seen this Band play live...of course, Jeremy Spencer contributed almost nothing to this recording ,though his slide guitar and on stage persona were integral to the sound of Mac......I never tire of listening to this one of a kind recording...I recommend buying all of the early Mac recordings up through the Bob Welch era with Kirwan still playing and writing on "Bare Trees and "Future Games"....then you can get a sense of how unique these players are.....and let's not forget how great and innovative McVie and Fleetwood are as the bottom of this sound...they will always be one of the best anchor teams in Rock.