Album: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Recorded: January and March 1969
Released: May 1969
Early-to-mid 1970 was the last time that Young would tour with a Crazy Horse line-up including Danny Whitten, and their March 1970 show at Fillmore East is now preserved forever on record as Archives Vol.1 Disc 5. Sadly, Whitten would later succumb to his heroin addiction. After recording this album, Young moved on to pastures new, joining Crosby, Stills & Nash to create a similar backwoods ethos on his next studio LP – see my review of the excellent Déjà Vu here.
It goes without saying that Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere is a bona fide classic. One of my proudest record buying moments was finding a pristine copy of this album in Denver's Twist & Shout for $8. Before then, on my campervan travels round New Zealand with my wife in 2006, we had three CDs that we played endlessly, and this was one of them. As a result, listening to this album always conjures up many things, not least the stunning scenery of NZ's south island.
Highlights: Cinnamon Girl, Down By The River, Cowgirl In The Sand
Album rating: A+
Recorded: January and March 1969
Released: May 1969
Songs / length: 7 / 40:29
Topanga Canyon, 1969. After Buffalo Springfield had split, Neil gravitated away from LA and the Sunset Strip, and bought a lovely home among the redwood trees of Topanga Canyon, using the advance from his first solo LP. This was the setting for the "nowhere" of the album's front cover. Topanga was quite a bit further out of the city than the more famous Laurel Canyon, where many of the bohemian royalty of music (Jim Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Gram Parsons, Mama Cass, Arthur Lee, etc) had made their home. Movie stars like Jack Nicholson, who appeared in iconic counterculture films like Easy Rider and Head (which he also co-wrote), also congregated there in the 60s. Looking on Google Maps at the location of the Laurel Canyon home that Joni Mitchell and Graham Nash shared in Lookout Mountain Avenue, for example, and seeing how close it was to the Sunset Strip, it makes sense that Neil would have sought somewhere further away.
There's a lovely passage in Young's autobiography Waging Heavy Peace about the formation of Crazy Horse in his Topanga home, in which he talks of how much he enjoyed playing music with Danny Whitten and the rest of the guys, and how he felt less pressure around them compared to being in Buffalo Springfield. He calls the music he created with Crazy Horse “down to earth rock & roll”, and describes recording the album as a “pure” and freeing experience. All the songs, which were first developed in jamming sessions at Young's Topanga home, were recorded quickly at Wally Heider Recording Studios in Hollywood, across three days in January and two days in March 1969.
A burst of creativity while suffering a high fever resulted in Young writing three of the album's most iconic songs – Down By The River, Cowgirl In The Sand and Cinnamon Girl – in just one day. Young says that hearing Bobby Hebb's classic song Sunny while out shopping provided the inspiration for Down By The River, and only a feverish mind could link the two. Cinnamon Girl was composed in the then trendy D modal key, while Cowgirl In The Sand was in Young's favourite A minor key. Another of the album's classic songs, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, was first recorded in August 1968, and appears on Archives Vol.1 Disc 2.
The LP version of the title track is even better, opening with some lovely guitar picking, blended with a harder rocking edge, and lyrics that reveal a yearning for the simplicities and comforts of country life. On this song, and others like Cinnamon Girl, Whitten's harmonies really combine well with Young's singing. Rock songs don't really get much better than Cinnamon Girl for me, especially that moment when Young & Crazy Horse take it to the bridge ("Pa, send me money, now / I'm gonna make it somehow / I need another chance"). Its ragged guitar sound was also hugely influential on metal and grunge music. On the two more extended guitar workouts, Down By The River and Cowgirl In The Sand, there's a hypnotic, minimalist sound that builds and breaks to brilliant effect.
Round & Round is a mesmerising ballad that features some of Young's best singing on the album, sweet and mournful, and it was recorded as a joint live vocal with Robin Lane. Young is in expansive mood on this album, pushing his musical boundaries, and Running Dry was his first live vocal on an electric track. It's one of the record's more experimental songs, a western murder ballad of sorts, which sounds like Pink Floyd meets country music, mixed with Bobby Notkoff's violin. The song mourns the death of Crazy Horse's previous incarnation, The Rockets.
Topanga Canyon, 1969. After Buffalo Springfield had split, Neil gravitated away from LA and the Sunset Strip, and bought a lovely home among the redwood trees of Topanga Canyon, using the advance from his first solo LP. This was the setting for the "nowhere" of the album's front cover. Topanga was quite a bit further out of the city than the more famous Laurel Canyon, where many of the bohemian royalty of music (Jim Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Gram Parsons, Mama Cass, Arthur Lee, etc) had made their home. Movie stars like Jack Nicholson, who appeared in iconic counterculture films like Easy Rider and Head (which he also co-wrote), also congregated there in the 60s. Looking on Google Maps at the location of the Laurel Canyon home that Joni Mitchell and Graham Nash shared in Lookout Mountain Avenue, for example, and seeing how close it was to the Sunset Strip, it makes sense that Neil would have sought somewhere further away.
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| Topanga Canyon (dropped pin), Laurel Canyon and Sunset Strip |
There's a lovely passage in Young's autobiography Waging Heavy Peace about the formation of Crazy Horse in his Topanga home, in which he talks of how much he enjoyed playing music with Danny Whitten and the rest of the guys, and how he felt less pressure around them compared to being in Buffalo Springfield. He calls the music he created with Crazy Horse “down to earth rock & roll”, and describes recording the album as a “pure” and freeing experience. All the songs, which were first developed in jamming sessions at Young's Topanga home, were recorded quickly at Wally Heider Recording Studios in Hollywood, across three days in January and two days in March 1969.
A burst of creativity while suffering a high fever resulted in Young writing three of the album's most iconic songs – Down By The River, Cowgirl In The Sand and Cinnamon Girl – in just one day. Young says that hearing Bobby Hebb's classic song Sunny while out shopping provided the inspiration for Down By The River, and only a feverish mind could link the two. Cinnamon Girl was composed in the then trendy D modal key, while Cowgirl In The Sand was in Young's favourite A minor key. Another of the album's classic songs, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, was first recorded in August 1968, and appears on Archives Vol.1 Disc 2.
The LP version of the title track is even better, opening with some lovely guitar picking, blended with a harder rocking edge, and lyrics that reveal a yearning for the simplicities and comforts of country life. On this song, and others like Cinnamon Girl, Whitten's harmonies really combine well with Young's singing. Rock songs don't really get much better than Cinnamon Girl for me, especially that moment when Young & Crazy Horse take it to the bridge ("Pa, send me money, now / I'm gonna make it somehow / I need another chance"). Its ragged guitar sound was also hugely influential on metal and grunge music. On the two more extended guitar workouts, Down By The River and Cowgirl In The Sand, there's a hypnotic, minimalist sound that builds and breaks to brilliant effect.
Round & Round is a mesmerising ballad that features some of Young's best singing on the album, sweet and mournful, and it was recorded as a joint live vocal with Robin Lane. Young is in expansive mood on this album, pushing his musical boundaries, and Running Dry was his first live vocal on an electric track. It's one of the record's more experimental songs, a western murder ballad of sorts, which sounds like Pink Floyd meets country music, mixed with Bobby Notkoff's violin. The song mourns the death of Crazy Horse's previous incarnation, The Rockets.
Early-to-mid 1970 was the last time that Young would tour with a Crazy Horse line-up including Danny Whitten, and their March 1970 show at Fillmore East is now preserved forever on record as Archives Vol.1 Disc 5. Sadly, Whitten would later succumb to his heroin addiction. After recording this album, Young moved on to pastures new, joining Crosby, Stills & Nash to create a similar backwoods ethos on his next studio LP – see my review of the excellent Déjà Vu here.
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| Young with Crazy Horse in Topanga. Danny Whitten is stood to his left |
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| CSNY with Dallas Taylor and Greg Reeves |
It goes without saying that Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere is a bona fide classic. One of my proudest record buying moments was finding a pristine copy of this album in Denver's Twist & Shout for $8. Before then, on my campervan travels round New Zealand with my wife in 2006, we had three CDs that we played endlessly, and this was one of them. As a result, listening to this album always conjures up many things, not least the stunning scenery of NZ's south island.
Highlights: Cinnamon Girl, Down By The River, Cowgirl In The Sand
Album rating: A+
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