As we shall see repeatedly over the course of this series, the 1980s were not kind to many of the rock ‘n’ roll superstars of the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s — and the decade was arguably cruelest to the now-grown flower children of the late ’60s. Sure, it must have blown to be Aretha Franklin in the mid ’80s, twiddling your thumbs through album after album of MOR bullshit instead of thrilling audiences with actual music, but at least you could reinvent yourself plausibly; once you’ve posed for a publicity photo in a field of sunflowers while flashing a peace sign, on the other hand, you’re pretty much fucked forever.

Thus did Crosby, Stills & Nash spend the bulk of the ’80s just sort of drifting around, taping the odd session and periodically releasing awkward studio albums between David Crosby’s embarrassing drug and/or legal problems. Things weren’t much better for their on-again, off-again compatriot, Neil Young, but he at least had the guts to be weird when his brand of artfully mangled rock fell out of fashion. Say what you will about Young’s ’80s output — and don’t think we won’t be visiting at least one of those albums during a future column — but even at his least approachable, he had something to say. The same couldn’t be said for CSN, who flirted with relevance exactly twice during the decade: Once when they recorded a theme song to the movie WarGames (which was pulled from the movie at the last minute), and once when they reunited with Young for 1988’s highly anticipated American Dream.

Of course, if you were around at the time, you probably remember that American Dream was awful — an overlong, undercooked mess of weak material and indifferent performances. For the first time, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young sounded too bored to hate each other, and the result was one of the year’s biggest disappointments.

On the other hand, its cover didn’t consist of a picture of giant hot dogs being roasted on the moon. (more…)