Track Listing

1. Cinnamon Girl
2. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
3. Round And Round (It Won't Be Long)
4. Down By The River
5. The Losing (When You're On)
6. Running Dry (Requiem For The Rockets)
7. Cowgirl In The Sand

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3109 in Music
• Released on: 1990-10-25
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Opening with the methodical, hard-rocking "Cinnamon Girl"--still one of the singer-songwriter's most-hollered requests in concert--Young's second solo album introduces the cockeyed harmonies and sloppy, chiming guitars of Crazy Horse. His wide swings from soft-spoken country-folk ("Round & Round [It Won't Be Long]") to menacing metal (the punch line to "Down by the River" is "I shot my baby") indicate the multiple personalities in Young's future. His second album of 1969 broadcasts a sincere passion for the peace-and-love '60s (dig the long guitar solos) but also predicts the dark introspection of "Tonight's the Night." --Steve Knopper

Customer Reviews

JAPAN REMASTERED VERSION AVAILABLE

A while back, Warner Brothers Japan re-released 12 Neil Young titles. The surprise was that remastered content appeared for the first time on most of them.

The titles & WB-Japan catalog numbers are:

Neil Young WPCR-75086
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere WPCR-75087
After The Gold Rush WPCR-75088
Harvest WPCR-75089
On The Beach WPCR-75090
Tonight's The Night WPCR-75091
Zuma WPCR-75092
Long May You Run WPCR-75093
American Stars n' Bars WPCR-75094
Comes A Time WPCR-75095
Rust Never Sleeps WPCR-75096
Live Rust WPCR-75097

I picked up most of these, A/B'd them, and found them to be superior to the domestics. However, having purchased the domestic 2002 remasters of "Beach" and "Stars n Bars", I declined the Japan versions of those two titles.

Unfortunately, while the Japan version is remastered, Live Rust is not restored to the original LP's running form, and remains still the bastardized version.

If you own the U.S. versions, and you're a NY fan, I would seriously consider replacing them with these.

Neil Young In His Prime-Yes
I have mentioned elsewhere in this space that, on any given night in the 1960's, Jim Morrison and the Doors were pound for pound the best rock and roll band in the world. I would stand by that remark as a general proposition but only add that for quality over the long haul the Rolling Stones would edge the Doors out. However, somewhere, somehow into this mix one must place Neil Young's work with Crazy Horse in the early 1970's. Young himself has gone through many transformations including grunge bandleader and lately sort of a soulful folk-rock elder statesman. But back in the day he could rock with the best of them-first with Buffalo Springfield and then the various combinations with Crosby, Stills and Nash.

So what makes Everybody Knows This is Nowhere special? Easy. Young on lead vocals and guitar and the band play the kind of acid-inspired rock that has withstood the test of time. That is not true for most of the work of that era. Some Jefferson Airplane, some The Who yes but most of it is rather grating on the ear these days. And the aging of this reviewer is only one small factor for that believe. Neil and the guys knew how to work the riffs as they related to any particular song. Take, for example, Down By The River, it is simply powerful without being overdone. Or the title song mentioned above, for that matter.

I think that Young, as experienced musician by that point in his career, had something in the back of his mind about doing music for the long haul. Look, electricity will take virtually anything that an instrument has to offer. The history of rock and roll proves that. If you want to get a slice of what the best use of that electricity was like when men and women played rock and roll for keeps listen here.

A Masterpiece
At the time this came out it was so unique and in a class by itself. With Whitten on rythmn, the jams are devastating. No, not to rival Clapton for virtousity or Jeff Beck for sound effects, but there is something in the purity of this music that can't be duplicated. Just simply music for the working man at a very high level. You can feel the earth in this music, a closeness to what is real about communication through music is in every song on this one. I can't say enough about the texture of this work of art. I learned to play every song on this album when it came out. My buddies and I jammed to Down by the River for hours. I am so prejudiced about this CD, that it isn't even fair for me to say more. If you don't have it, buy it. If you don't get it when you buy it then you just don't understand.