Live It Up (CSN album)
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''Live It Up'' is the tenth 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 fourth studio album in the trio configuration, released on Atlantic Records in 1990. It peaked at No. 57 on the ''Billboard'' 200 with current sales of 300,000. It is the first of their
studio albums An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...
not to gain either a gold or platinum certification by the RIAA. It was issued in all formats at the time (
compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Oc ...
, cassette tape, and
vinyl record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts nea ...
) and was later released for streaming.


Background

After
David Crosby David Van Cortlandt Crosby (born August 14, 1941) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Crosby joined the Byrds in 1964. They got ...
's release from prison, he reunited with Stephen Stills and
Graham Nash Graham William Nash (born 2 February 1942) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, photographer, and activist. He is known for his light tenor voice and for his contributions as a member of the Hollies and the supergroups Crosby, Stills ...
for CSN tours in 1987 and 1988. The recording of the second CSNY studio album 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 Fur ...
took place over the course of those years, but the quartet opted not to tour to promote it. The album was not well received, and Stills viewed it as "contrived". In 1989, Stills and Young commenced tours with their own bands, while Crosby and Nash began work on what was to be a new
Crosby & Nash In addition to solo careers and within the larger aggregate of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the musical team of David Crosby and Graham Nash have performed and recorded regularly as a duo, mostly during the 1970s and the 2000s. History After th ...
record. Crosby also released his second solo album '' Oh Yes I Can'' that same year. Stills regrouped with Crosby and Nash to perform at the
collapse of the Berlin Wall The fall of the Berlin Wall (german: Mauerfall) on 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, was a pivotal event in world history which marked the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain and one of the series of ...
in late 1989, and the sessions for the new Crosby & Nash album evolved into the new Crosby, Stills & Nash one instead.Zimmer (2000), p. 268. Atlantic had encouraged the inclusion of Crosby into the StillsNash project that became ''
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 ...
'' back in 1981.


Recording

The album was recorded at several recording studios around
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, the majority at
The Record Plant The Record Plant is a recording studio established in New York City in 1968 and currently operating in Los Angeles, California. Known for innovations in the recording artists' workspace, it has produced highly influential albums, including Blon ...
, although part of "Live It Up" began at the Home-Brew Studio in Ohio and was finished at the professional location. "If Anybody Had a Heart", "Arrows", and "After the Dolphin" were recorded at Devonshire Studios; "(Got to Keep) Open" was recorded at Capitol Records studios. Nash, the nominal leader of these recordings, expressed misgivings about the sessions. In addition to feeling uncomfortable in a leadership position, he stated that "only once did we sing together on one mike. So in that sense, it was not really a true CSN record." The band toured to promote the album in 1990, but none of these songs found a permanent place in the group's repertoire, with only "House of Broken Dreams" and "Yours and Mine" being performed a handful of times beyond the 1990 outing.


Reception

Greg Sandow commented in ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...
'' that ''Live it Up'' is dominated by tunes which are catchy but generic and mindless. He added that the songs "Yours and Mine", "Arrows", and in particular "After the Dolphin" offer genuine depth and meaning, but that the overall product is "a strangely bland album that only die-hard fans will love." Jeff Giles covered ''Live it Up'' in his retrospective series "Whoops!", assessing it as an embarrassingly failed attempt to marry the hippie sensibilities of Crosby, Stills & Nash's past with the glossy production values of the era in which the album was recorded. He cited its contemporary, Don Henley's '' The End of the Innocence'', as a much more successful attempt at this combination. In a retrospective review for
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
, William Ruhlmann praised both the band's singing and the performances of the session musicians, and argued that it is only a complete lack of good songs which makes ''Live it Up'' the weakest Crosby, Stills & Nash studio album.


Track listing


Personnel

Crosby, Stills & Nash *
David Crosby David Van Cortlandt Crosby (born August 14, 1941) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Crosby joined the Byrds in 1964. They got ...
– backing vocals, electric guitar (3), lead vocals (5, 9, 10) * Stephen Stills – backing vocals, lead guitar (1), guitar solo (2), lead vocals (3, 4, 6, 10), keyboards (3), electric guitar (3, 7), acoustic guitar (4, 6), bass (6) *
Graham Nash Graham William Nash (born 2 February 1942) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, photographer, and activist. He is known for his light tenor voice and for his contributions as a member of the Hollies and the supergroups Crosby, Stills ...
– backing vocals, lead vocals (1, 2, 7, 8, 10), acoustic guitar (3, 8) Additional personnel * Joe Vitale – keyboards (1, 2, 5),
guitar synthesizer A guitar synthesizer is any one of a number of musical instrument systems that allow a guitarist to access synthesizer capabilities. Overview Today's guitar synths are direct descendants of 1970s devices from manufacturers (often in partnersh ...
(1, 2, 5), synth bass (1, 3, 10), drums, synthesizers (6, 8), percussion (7), synth strings (9), organ (10) *
Craig Doerge Craig Doerge (; born December 4, 1944) is an American keyboard player, session musician, songwriter, record producer, best known for his keyboard work with Crosby Stills and Nash, James Taylor, and Jackson Browne. Biography He was born in Clev ...
– keyboards (2, 5, 7-10) *
Bruce Hornsby Bruce Randall Hornsby (born November 23, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. His music draws from folk rock, jazz, bluegrass, folk, Southern rock, country rock, jam band, rock, heartland rock, and blues rock musical traditions ...
– acoustic piano (6), accordion (6) * Michael Landau – guitars (2, 10) *
Roger McGuinn James Roger McGuinn (born James Joseph McGuinn III; July 13, 1942) is an American musician. He is best known for being the frontman and leader of the Byrds. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work with the Byrds. As a ...
– guitars (2) * Peter Frampton – guitar solo (7) *
Leland Sklar Leland Bruce Sklar (born May 28, 1947) is an American bassist and session musician. Sklar rose to prominence as a member of James Taylor's backing band, which coaleced into a group in its own right, The Section. This group of musicians so frequ ...
– bass (2, 9, 10) *
Bob Glaub Bob Glaub (born May 10, 1952)Hageman, William (April 29, 2005)."The aces of bass: Five giants of an overshadowed instrument", Knight Ridder Tribune News Service. is an American bass player and session musician. He has played with such artists an ...
– bass (3, 5, 7, 8) * Michael Fisher – percussion (2, 10) * Michito Sanchez – percussion (3, 6) * Tony Beard – percussion programming (5), electric guitar (7) * Vince Charles – percussion (9) * Branford Marsalissoprano saxophone (2, 9) * The Williams Family – additional vocals (1) *
John David Souther John David "J. D." Souther (born November 2, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He has written and co-written songs recorded by Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles. Souther is probably best known for his songwriting abilities, especi ...
– additional vocals (2) * Rand Wetherwax – sound design including radio broadcast voices of Simon Jones and
Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
(10)


Production

* Crosby, Stills & Nash – producers * Stanley Johnston – producer, engineer (1, 3-9), mixing * Joe Vitale – producer, additional engineer *
Niko Bolas Niko Bolas is an American music producer, sound engineer, and consultant and business developer in the fields of virtual reality and Internet radio. In 1989, Bolas founded Fakespace Music with Mark Bolas, Ian McDowall and Christian Greuel, which, ...
– engineer (2, 10) * Allen Abrahamson – additional engineer * Ray Blair – additional engineer * Scott Gordon – additional engineer *
Charlie Paakkari Christina Paakkari, also known as Charlie Paakkari, is an American audio engineer for Capitol Records and the recipient of a 2005 Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the ...
– additional engineer * Jim Mitchell – additional engineer * Eric Schilling – additional engineer * Mike Bosley – assistant engineer * Darryl Dobson – assistant engineer * Larry Goodwin – assistant engineer * Bill Dooley – editing * Bob Ludwig – mastering at Masterdisk (New York City, New York) *
Jimmy Wachtel Jimmy Wachtel is an American photographer, art director and designer based in Los Angeles. He has designed album covers for big artists such as Joe Walsh, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Michael Stanley, Jo Jo Gunne, John Cougar, and Buckingham Ni ...
– art direction * David Peters – cover art * Sarajo Frieden – logotype


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Live It Up (Crosby, Stills and Nash album) Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young albums 1990 albums Atlantic Records albums Albums produced by Joe Vitale (musician) Albums with cover art by Jimmy Wachtel