I’ve enjoyed Neil Young’s music since his Buffalo Springfield days (Mr. Soul, for example), but I was shocked to see that this record was platinum and on various lists of best LPs. I wonder if folks confused it with After the Gold Rush, which is really good. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere is insipid. A Chicago DJ mocked Cinnamon Girl with ‘I want to live with a Kennedy girl.’ It’s a bad sign when I remember a parody I heard once nearly 50 years ago as clearly as a song I played a hundred times.
Down by the River (nine minutes of forgettable guitar work) includes some regrettable shooting-one’s-baby imagery from Hey Joe and Four in the Morning. Wikipedia quotes Young saying we shouldn’t be so literal. ‘It’s a desperation cry.’ I guess. The song Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere offered me some relief as a college student with too much to do racing the other rats with its description of life where it is cool and breezy. Turns out it was about how show business—being a rock star!—is mostly day-to-day running around. Cowgirl in the Sand uses ‘change your name’ to mean get married, a phrase that seemed dated to me then.
converselyspeaking 