David Crosby belongs to a generation of musicians for whom rock & roll was of the youth, by the youth and for the youth. Today, as rock enters its fifth decade and many of its most celebrated voices do the same, the notion that an artist should blaze briefly and then quit before the gray sets in has been dismissed as the specious myth it always was. Sadly, though, fantasies don't die as easily....

Milking a profitable thing is a fine and honorable tradition in pop music, but like most crass things it tends to lose its charm fast. The past couple of years have seen the ubiquitous nebulas of musicians surrounding Cocker-Russell-Delaney & Bonnie milked almost to death. And if some of this year's best sellers are any indication, the immediate future will probably see both the overtaxed nostalgi...