''Allies'' is the eighth album by

Crosby, Stills & Nash Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) were a folk rock supergroup made up of American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills and English singer-songwriter Graham Nash. When joined by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young as a fourth member, ...

, their second concert document, and released on

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

in 1983. A live concert clip for "Wasted on the Way" received some rotation on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

and

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism of Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network based in New York City and owned by Paramount Global. It was created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Commun ...

at the time, as did the single "War Games". It peaked at No. 43 on the ''Billboard'' 200.

Content

The album starts off with two studio recordings. The lead track "War Games" was written for the 1983 film '' WarGames'' and was released as a single by the group, which peaked at No. 45 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. This song was used in initial early promotional theatrical trailers and in a promotional video for MTV, but their participation in the project was cancelled at the last moment. The

video for the song was composed solely of scenes from the movie. The second studio track, "Raise a Voice" by

Stephen Stills Stephen Arthur Stills (born January 3, 1945) is an American musician, singer and songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. As both a solo act and member of two successful bands, Stills has com ...

and Graham Nash, was appended to the 2006 re-issue of ''

Daylight Again ''Daylight Again'' is the seventh album by Crosby, Stills & Nash, and their third studio album in the trio configuration. It peaked at No. 8 on the ''Billboard 200'' albums chart, the final time the band has made the top ten to date. Three single ...

'' as a bonus track. The rest of the album consists of live recordings from two different tours. The tracks "Shadow Captain" and "He Played Real Good For Free" were recorded in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, on the 1977 tour for the ''CSN'' album. Presumably they were chosen as they were strong David Crosby performances, something becoming more difficult for Crosby to muster evidenced by his minimal participation on the band's previous studio album as he dealt with personal difficulties that would eventually lead to his time in prison. The rest of the album derives from a show at the new

Universal Amphitheatre Universal Amphitheatre (later known as Gibson Amphitheatre) was an indoor amphitheatre located in Los Angeles, California within Universal City, California, Universal City. It was built as an outdoor venue, opening in the summer of 1972 with a p ...

Universal City, California Universal City is an unincorporated area within the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Approximately 415 acres (1.7 km) within and around the surrounding area is the property of Universal Picture ...

, on the 1982 tour to promote ''

''. David Crosby would spend time in prison in Texas during 1986, putting the group on temporary hiatus.Chicago Tribune article retrieved 6 January 2014
/ref> As a result, there would not be another Crosby, Stills & Nash album until 1988 and their reunion with

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...

, that five-year gap the longest between releases by the group to that point in time.

Track listing

Side one

Side two

Personnel

* David Crosby –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

guitars The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

– vocals, guitars,

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

* Graham Nash – vocals, guitars, keyboards

Additional musicians

* Danny Kortchmar –

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

on "War Games" and "Raise a Voice" * Michael Stergis – electric guitar on "Raise a Voice" *

James Newton Howard James Newton Howard (born June 9, 1951) is an American film composer, music producer and keyboardist. He has scored over 100 films and is the recipient of a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, and nine nominations for Academy Awards. His film scores ...

– keyboards on "War Games", "Turn Your Back on Love", "Barrel of Pain", "Dark Star" and "For What It's Worth" * Mike Finnigan – additional vocals on "Barrel of Pain," keyboards on "Turn Your Back on Love", "Barrel of Pain", "Dark Star" and "For What It's Worth" * Craig Doerge – keyboards on "War Games", "Raise a Voice" and "Shadow Captain" *

George "Chocolate" Perry George Wesly Perry (born 1953), known professionally as "Chocolate Perry" is an American bassist, songwriter and producer. Perry has worked with the Bee Gees, John Cougar, Jon Secada, Stephen Stills, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Al Kooper, Dion ...

–

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

* Joe Vitale –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

all tracks except "War Games" and "Raise a Voice" *

Jeff Porcaro Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro (; April 1, 1954 – August 5, 1992) was an American drummer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work with the rock band Toto but is one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working on ...

– drums on "War Games" and "Raise a Voice" * Efrain Toro –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

on "Turn Your Back on Love", "Barrel of Pain", "Dark Star" and "For What It's Worth" * Joe Lala – percussion on "Shadow Captain"

Production

, Graham Nash, Stanley Johnston – producers * Ron Albert, Howard Albert – co-producers on "Shadow Captain" and "For Free" * Steve Gursky, David Hewitt, Stanley Johnston, Jay Parti—

engineers Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

* Jeff Kallestad, Gerry Lentz, and Doug Williams — assistant engineers

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allies (Crosby, Stills and Nash album) Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young live albums 1983 live albums Atlantic Records live albums Albums produced by Graham Nash Albums produced by Stephen Stills Albums with cover art by Jimmy Wachtel