Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere is the second studio album by Canadian-American musician Neil Young, released in May 1969 on Reprise Records, catalogue number RS 6349.
His first with longtime backing band Crazy Horse, it emerged as a sleeper hit amid Young's contemporaneous success with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, ultimately peaking at number 34 on the US Billboard 200 in August 1970 during a 98-week chart stay.
[6] Additionally, it was voted number 124 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).
Guitarist, songwriter and singer Danny Whitten, bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina had already been performing and recording together as The Rockets.
They met Young through the Laurel Canyon music scene and started playing together.
In a February 2021 interview, drummer Ralph Molina remembers how the group ended up collaborating with Young: "Neil would come out to (Billy Talbot's) house in Laurel Canyon, after he left the Springfield, and play acoustic with us and talk.
"[9] He continues in an April 1970 interview for Rolling Stone: "Really literally, we'd only been together for six or seven days when "Down By The River" was cut.
Young credits the album's unique sound to the guitar playing of Danny Whitten and the interplay between the two.
"Cinnamon Girl", "Down by the River", and "Cowgirl in the Sand" were written in a single day while Young had a 103 °F (39.5 °C) fever.
[11] Young explains in his memoir, Waging Heavy Peace: "I had been sick with the flu, holed up in bed in the house.
Only I took it to the next level which is how "The Loner" (released on Young's first solo album) and "Cinnamon Girl" happened.
You make a traditional chord shape and any finger that doesn't work, you just lift it up and let the string just ring.
"[9] In the 2005 liner notes to one of her own releases, Ray takes credit as inspiration for both "Cinnamon Girl" and "Cowgirl in the Sand.
Young recorded the song as a solo acoustic demo while a member of Buffalo Springfield.
"Down by the River" has become one of Young's signature songs, and, like Cinnamon Girl, one of his most frequently performed in concert.
"[19] "Cowgirl in the Sand" attempts to convey an emotion, a moment in time without being too specific, so that the listener can relate to the song and free-associate with it.
The first sessions for the album were held in late January 1969 at Wally Heider Studios in Hollywood, where the band cut "Down by the River," "Cowgirl in the Sand" and "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere."
"Down by the River" and "Cowgirl in the Sand" are edited from extended performances, and in some cases combine multiple takes.
Crazy Horse would then join Young for additional dates at coffeehouse folk clubs in late February through March.
[23] The band would return to Wally Heider on March 20 and record "Cinnamon Girl," "Losing End" and "Running Dry".
Young changed the mix for the album, a decision he regrets: "I have made an Early Daze record of the Horse, and you can hear a different vocal of "Cinnamon Girl" featuring more of Danny.
The front cover is a grainy photo depicting Young leaning against a tree with his dog Winnipeg at his feet.
[31] Young would tour with Crazy Horse upon completion of the album, playing various dates in North America in May and June 1969.
From August to December, Young would join Crosby, Stills and Nash for their tour of North America promoting their debut album.
In February and March 1970, Young would once again tour with Crazy Horse, performing the bulk of the album in the setlist.
Bruce Miroff of Rolling Stone wrote a favorable review, describing Young's voice as "perpetually mournful, without being maudlin or pathetic.
"[39] 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".
[41] In a retrospective review in Rolling Stone, Greg Kot 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.
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".
[32] 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".