Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Studio album by Neil Young with Crazy Horse
Released May 14, 1969
Recorded January and March 1969
Studio Wally Heider Recording, Hollywood, California
Genre
Length 40:29
Label Reprise
Producer Neil Young, David Briggs
Neil Young chronology
Neil Young
(1968)		 Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
(1969)		 After the Gold Rush
(1970)
Singles from Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
  1. "Down by the River"
    Released: May 14, 1969
  2. "Cinnamon Girl"
    Released: April 20, 1970

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere is the second studio album by the Canadian musician Neil Young, released on Reprise Records catalogue RS 6349. His first with his longtime backing band Crazy Horse, it peaked at number 34 on the US Billboard 200 during a ninety-eight week chart stay in August 1970[3] and has been certified platinum by the RIAA. The album is on the list of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[4] In 2003, the album was ranked number 208 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Content

The album contains four songs that became standards in Young's performance repertoire: "Cinnamon Girl", "Down by the River", the title track, and "Cowgirl in the Sand", all of which were written in a single day while Young had a 103 °F (39.5 °C) fever.[5] Young's lead vocal track on the song "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" (on the original album) was actually a temporary scratch vocal he sang through the low quality talk-back microphone on the mixing board, with no effects such as reverb. Young liked the stark contrast to the rest of the recording, which became one of his many innovations.

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere was remastered and released on HDCD-encoded compact disc and digital download on July 14, 2009, as part of the Neil Young Archives Original Release Series. It was released on audiophile vinyl in December 2009, both individually and as part of a box-set of Young's first four LPs available via his official website. (This box set was limited to 1000 copies. A CD version of 3000 copies exists, too.) A high resolution digital Blu-ray disc is planned, although there has been no release date set.

Reception

Retrospective reviews
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[6]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[7]
Music Story[7]
MusicHound Rock5/5[7]
Pitchfork10/10[8]
Rolling Stone[9]
The Rolling Stone Record Guide[10]
Spin Alternative Record Guide6/10[7]

Upon its release, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere received generally favorable reviews from critics. Bruce Miroff of Rolling Stone wrote a favorable review, describing Young's voice as "perpetually mournful, without being maudlin or pathetic. It hints at a world in which sorrow underlies everything [...] because that world is recognizable to most of us, Young's singing is often strangely moving." Despite stating that "in several respects [the album] falls short of his previous effort" and that "the lyricism of the first album can only be found in faint traces," he went on to state that the album "offers ample rewards. Young's music partially makes up for its lack of grace by its energy and its assurance."[11] Robert Christgau wrote in The Village Voice that "Young is a strange artist and I am not all the way into him yet, but this record is haunting."[12] The original review was printed with a grade of "B+", but Christgau later said he would have changed it to an "A–".[13]

In a retrospective review, Greg Kot wrote in Rolling Stone called the record "raw, rushed, energised" and the band's interplay "at once primitive and abstract", a "gloriously spontaneous sound" that "would endure, not only as a blueprint for Young...but as an influence on countless bands."[9] William Ruhlmann of music database website AllMusic said of the album, "released only four months after his first [album], [it] was nearly a total rejection of that polished effort." He noted that "Cinnamon Girl," "Down by the River," and "Cowgirl in the Sand" were, "useful as frames on which to hang the extended improvisations Young played with Crazy Horse and to reflect the ominous tone of his singing." He concluded that the album "set a musical pattern Young and his many musical descendants have followed ever since [...] and a lot of contemporary bands were playing music clearly influenced by it."[6] Mark Richardson of Pitchfork wrote, "the opening riff to 'Cinnamon Girl' erases the memory of Neil Young completely in about five seconds" and that "Crazy Horse were loose and sloppy, privileging groove and feeling above all." He also said that "Young sounds comfortable and confident, singing with the versatile voice that has changed remarkably little in the 40 years since" and concluded that it "was a sort of big bang for Young, a dense moment of creative explosion that saw possibilities expanding in every direction."[8]

In 2003, the album was ranked number 208 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Track listing

All tracks written by Neil Young.

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Cinnamon Girl"2:58
2."Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere"2:26
3."Round & Round (It Won't Be Long)"5:49
4."Down by the River"9:13
Side two
No.TitleLength
5."The Losing End (When You're On)"4:03
6."Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets)"5:30
7."Cowgirl in the Sand"10:06

Personnel

Crazy Horse

Additional musicians

Technical

  • Henry Saskowski – engineer
  • David Briggs – engineer
  • Kendal Pacios – engineer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year Chart Position
1970 Billboard Pop Albums 34

Singles

Year Single Chart Position
1970 "Cinnamon Girl" Billboard Pop Singles 55

References

  1. ↑ "20 Best Second Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. March 24, 2014. Retrieved November 10, 2016.
  2. ↑ Daniel Durchholz; Gary Graff (2012-11-05). Neil Young: Long May You Run: The Illustrated History, Updated Edition. Voyageur Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-7603-4411-8.
  3. ↑ "Neil Young Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere Chart History". Billboard.com. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
  4. ↑ "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". discogs.com. Retrieved 2015-04-03.
  5. ↑ Neil Young. Decade. 1976: Reprise 3RS 2257, liner notes.
  6. 1 2 Ruhlmann, William. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere - Neil Young & Crazy Horse at AllMusic. Retrieved March 3, 2012.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere". Acclaimed Music. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
  8. 1 2 Richardson, Mark (December 11, 2009). "Neil Young: Neil Young / Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere / After the Gold Rush / Harvest". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved March 2, 2012.
  9. 1 2 Kot, Greg (August 19, 1999). "Review". Rolling Stone. p. 118.
  10. ↑ Marsh, Dave; Swenson, John (Editors). The Rolling Stone Record Guide, 1st edition, Random House/Rolling Stone Press, 1979, p. 425.
  11. ↑ Miroff, Bruce (9 August 1969). "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere". Rolling Stone. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Publishers, Inc. (39): 36. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  12. ↑ Christgau, Robert (July 31, 1969). "Consumer Guide (2)". The Village Voice. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
  13. ↑ Anon. (April 25, 2002). "Nitpicking Issues With the Lists". Robertchristgau.com. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
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