Replay (Crosby, Stills and Nash album)

Background

In 1980, Stephen Stills invited Graham Nash to accompany him on a tour of Europe, both subsequently deciding to record songs together in this unexplored permutation of CSNY. The label, however, wanted more CSN product, and with the pair still in process, released this package for the Christmas sales season. The pair continued to work in the studio together, but again Atlantic Records insisted on the inclusion of David Crosby as the CSN brand increased sales potential greatly, which would result in their next album, Daylight Again. Apparently given his minimal number of writing credits and therefore low royalties, Crosby had no hand in the selection for Replay, dismissing the album as "an obvious money trip, nothing more."

A strange compilation, it contains four album cuts taken from outside the parent CSN discography, and misses charting singles in "Teach Your Children," "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," and "Woodstock." This may have been deliberate, however, to avoid duplication with songs on the still available So Far. All songs were previously released, with four having appeared on non-CSN albums. "Love the One You're With" and "First Things First" include Crosby and Nash on vocals; those as well as "Change Partners" derive from solo albums by Stills, the third of which entitled Stills had been released not on Atlantic but on Columbia. "To the Last Whale...," comprising the songs "Critical Mass" by Crosby and "Wind on the Water" by Nash, comes from their duo album on ABC Records. Two other songs were altered: Stills edited "Carry On" by lopping off the "Questions" tag section and adding a new lead guitar solo along with overdubbed bass and drums; and the string arrangement was removed from "I Give You Give Blind."

Its out-of-print status allows copies on-line to fetch relatively high prices for a single disc as of June 2006.

Personnel