Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere |
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Released: May 14, 1969 Peak: 34 US, -- UK, 32 CN, -- AU Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 2.40 US, 0.60 UK, 3.50 world (includes US and UK), 5.88 EAS Genre: classic rock |
Tracks:Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts.
Total Running Time: 40:29 The Players:
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Rating: 4.326 out of 5.00 (average of 20 ratings)
Awards:(Click on award to learn more).
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A Change in Sound“Neil Young’s second solo album, released only four months after his first, was nearly a total rejection of that polished effort.” AM “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere was breathtakingly different…both for Young and for rock in general, and it reversed his commercial fortunes, becoming a moderate hit.” AMCrazy Horse“The difference was that, while Neil Young was a solo effort, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere marked the beginning of Young’s recording association with Crazy Horse, the trio of Danny Whitten (guitar), Ralph Molina (drums), and Billy Talbot (bass) that Young had drawn from the struggling local Los Angeles group the Rockets.” AM They “hadn’t been together for more than eight weeks when they cut this album.” 500They “quickly cut a set of loose, guitar-heavy rock songs…that redefined him as a rock & roll artist.” AM “Young lowered his voice from the near-falsetto employed on his debut to a more expressive range, and he sang with greater confidence.” AM “It’s down-home hippie-grunge with the feel of a jam session conducted by master jammers.” 500 “The songs were deliberately underwritten and sketchy as compositions, their lyrics more suggestive than complete, but that made them useful as frames on which to hang the extended improvisations.” AM David BriggsYoung did retain David Briggs as producer; he’d previously “assisted Jack Nitzsche on the overdub-heavy Neil Young. By contrast, Everybody Knows… embraced Briggs’ great love of live recording, a method that perfectly suited Young and Crazy Horse’s spontaneous, raw, epic, country rock.” RDThe SongsHere’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs. |
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Cinnamon GirlNeil Young |
Writer(s): Neil Young Recorded: January and March 1969 at Wally Heider and Sunset in Hollywood, California Released: 4/20/1970 (single), Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969), Decade (compilation: 1977), Greatest Hits (compilation: 2004) Peak: 55 BB, 56 CB, 36 GR, 52 HR, 1 CL, 25 CN, 34 AU, 1 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 10.50 video, 35.03 streaming |
Awards:(Click on award to learn more).
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About the Song:The album’s “crunch was never better displayed than on Cinnamon Girl.” RD This “starts off the guitar attack” KN on the album as the opening song. It features “overloaded guitars [and] bruising modal harmonies from the speakers.” RD It “was Young’s first big solo single, three minutes of crunching distortion featuring a one-note guitar solo for the ages.” 500 Young said the latter was “the closest thing Crazy Horse had to a hit.” 500
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Everybody Knows This Is NowhereNeil Young |
Writer(s): Neil Young Recorded: January and March 1969 at Wally Heider and Sunset in Hollywood, California Released: 4/7/1969 (single), Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969) Peak: 25 CL, 21 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 18.71 streaming About the Song:The title cut “is a country-sounding tune and the best of the mellow songs on the album; it's also the shortest cut on the LP.” KN “Its lyrics express dissatisfaction with the pace of show business life.” WK |
Round & Round (It Won’t Be Long)Neil Young |
Writer(s): Neil Young Recorded: January and March 1969 at Wally Heider and Sunset in Hollywood, California Released: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 2.52 streaming About the Song:“ Young essays a frayed Americana on the loping The Losing End and Round and Round.” RD Those two songs shared the “country-folk style [of Neil Young’s debut album but] they were altogether livelier and more assured.” AM The latter is the oldest song on the album as Young first recorded a solo acoustic demo of it while he was in Buffalo Springfield. WK |
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Down by the RiverNeil Young |
Writer(s): Neil Young Recorded: January and March 1969 at Wally Heider and Sunset in Hollywood, California Released: 5/14/1969 (single), Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969), Decade (compilation: 1977), Greatest Hits (compilation: 2004) Peak: 7 CL, 9 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 65.36 streaming |
Awards:(Click on award to learn more).
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About the Song:The “standouts are the two loose, elongated jams” RD Down by the River, and Cowgirl in the Sand. They featured “extended guitar interplaying between Young and Danny Whitten.” KN The former has become of Young’s most frequently played songs in concert. WKThe former is “about a guy who killed his lover and now is on the make for a new one.” KN It was an unexpected take for “a hippie dude” to be taking “killing so lightly” “when love and peace was what was mainly being sung back then.” KN Young has actually claimed the song is not a murder ballad, saying, “There’s no real murder in it. It’s about blowing your thing with a chick.” WK |
The Losing End (When You’re On)Neil Young |
Writer(s): Neil Young Recorded: January and March 1969 at Wally Heider and Sunset in Hollywood, California Released: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 2.77 streaming About the Song:“Elsewhere, Young essays a frayed Americana on the loping The Losing End and Round and Round.” RD Those two songs shared the “country-folk style [of Neil Young’s debut album but] they were altogether livelier and more assured.” AM The former is about “finding out that your romantic partner has moved on.” WK |
Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets)Neil Young |
Writer(s): Neil Young Recorded: January and March 1969 at Wally Heider and Sunset in Hollywood, California Released: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 1.92 streaming About the Song:Running Dry is dedicated to the Rockets, the six-piece band that evolved into Young’s backing band Crazy Horse. Bobby Notkoff, a violinist with Rockets, plays on the track. WK His “gothic fiddle…is bewitching.” RD |
Cowgirl in the SandNeil Young |
Writer(s): Neil Young Recorded: January and March 1969 at Wally Heider and Sunset in Hollywood, California Released: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969), Decade (compilation: 1977), Greatest Hits (compilation: 2004) Peak: 6 CL, 18 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 17.84 streaming |
Awards:(Click on award to learn more).
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About the Song:The “standouts are the two loose, elongated jams” RD Down by the River, and Cowgirl in the Sand. They featured “extended guitar interplaying between Young and Danny Whitten.” KNThe latter “is one of the greatest guitar driven rock songs ever record, if you love guitar rock and weaving guitars.” KN The song is an attempt “to convey an emotion rather than a specific narrative.” WK As Young said, “The words…are very important because you can free associate with them…This way it could be anything.” WK |
Resources/References:
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First posted 3/28/2010; last updated 9/12/2026. |
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