Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere Songs Ranked
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 peaked at number 34 on the US Billboard 200 in August 1970 during a 98-week chart stay and has been certified platinum by the RIAA. The album is on the list of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. In 2003, the album was ranked number 208 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and at number 407 in the 2020 edition. It was voted number 124 in the third edition of Colin Larkin’s All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000). Here are all of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere songs ranked.
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7. The Losing End (When You’re On)
“The Losing End” is the least-interesting song here; Ralph Molina can get really boring sometimes (like Mick Fleetwood, both were sturdy drummers that were sometimes too sturdy), and he’s rarely as boring as he is on this song; it’s worth hearing at least once all the way through to hear how they (Neil?) introduces the guitar solo”
6. Round & Round (It Won’t Be Long)
“A lot of people don’t like “Round & Round” and I get it: it’s a 6-minute song that leans hard on one trick, but what a trick it is!: Neil Young’s shakey voice, the shakiness amplified by the close harmonies of Robin Lane. (Get it? It’s subtitled “It Won’t Be Long” but it actually is quite long!) Broadly speaking, Neil Young had two major talents distinguishing him: his electric guitar playing and his voice, and if you don’t like this song, then you don’t like half of his talents!”
See more: Neil Young Albums Ranked
5. Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets)
“Running Dry” is slightly better thanks to Bobby Notkoff’s ghostly violin buzzing around and even sounding very much like a theremin in the middle: this is the nowhere imagined in the title track.”
4. Cinnamon Girl
“Cinnamon Girl” is one of those uniquely excellent power pop songs precisely because it wasn’t made by a power pop band (see also: Led Zeppelin’s “Houses of the Holy,” the song, not the album, from Physical Graffiti).”
See more: Neil Young Songs Ranked
3. Down by the River
“Down By the River” is an update on the murder ballad that yielded so many covers of “Hey Joe” just a few years prior, except taken even further than Hendrix did by using the guitar to explore the psyche of a man who shot his woman instead of words. The slow burn intro – starting with one guitar, then the second, then the bass and finally the drums – puts you right there, down by the river. “
2. Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
“Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” gets my vote for Canada’s unofficial national anthem. It doesn’t rock as hard as “Cinnamon Girl” (few things do), but the guitar is sharp and the bass is loud, and both are dirty, which makes the sunny, indelible “la-la-la” hook all the more sunny and indelible, yet sardonic too. It reminds me of the Byrds’ “We’ll Meet Again” in that regard: one of the very few songs to – not just capture – better what the Byrds were trying to do there.”
1. Cowgirl in the Sand
“The instrumental sections are shorter and more evenly dispersed throughout “Cowgirl in the Sand,” making it feel shorter than “Down By the River” even though it is actually longer in length. Well, that, and just how hard Billy Talbot is working here: he’s charged with holding the band together while also being the secret melodic lead during these solos.”
