Upon hearing Neil Young's second solo album, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, for the first time in my life, I couldn't help but gape in amazement at the unusually high amount of intensity & energy each song had to offer. And what better way to provide immediate proof of this than the opening track, "Cinnamon Girl." Trying to draw a comparison between his self-titled debut album (released in early 1969) & Everybody Knows... is pointless: The debut was a quiet, peaceful affair; on the other hand, the latter effort would be a one-way ticket to louder, noisier adventures which would immediately wash over the listener like a thunderstorm of sound. By the way, what made me such a big fan of this album in the first place?
Let's begin with the album opener, "Cinnamon Girl." This song, as well as the remainder of this release, lives up to the motto that you can say a lot with just a few notes. The constant five-note riff which kicks things off & the man's very own one-note solo told me you don't have to rely on a ton of musical technique to make your voice heard. By adhering to the motto of "less is more," Young and his Crazy Horse bandmates rewrote certain aspects of the musical rulebook by saying that one note (or two) can say more than a thousand musical notes strung together.
Secondly, this album eschews with the aforementioned technique, clarity & cuteness, three ruts which a majority of bands during that era were still stuck in. It sounded harsh, primitive, metallic, elemental: sounds coming straight from the gut. (The eponymous debut by The Stooges, which came out the same year as Everybody Knows... is another classic example to take note of.) Nothing sounds adorned; in fact, adornments of any kind were dispensed, thrown out the window altogether: Young's own high-strung, shaky voice as well as the ragged guitar playing of the man himself & the late Danny Whitten (in the right & left speakers, respectively) proved to us that you could make an impact without having to soften up, without having to sound cute & sentimental (listen to Neil's ominous lyrics throughout this album if you don't believe me). With Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Neil Young found his own musical voice through massive amounts of atonality, feedback & distortion, in complete disregard of the musical formulas which ruled that time period.
Third, improvisation plays a central role behind the spontaneous vibe which permeates Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. In fact, the album's three highlights - the aforementioned "Cinnamon Girl," the album side closers "Down By The River" & "Cowgirl In The Sand" - were completed in one afternoon, a sign that you didn't have to be perfect, going through take after take to come up with an impressive musical statement. Improvisation carried its way over to the makeup of the whole album itself: the songs were purposely underwritten, giving Young and his bandmates greater freedom to improvise without rambling around at random. You could say the songs served as frames on which the extended improvisations could keep intact, as well as to reflect Neil's own ominous singing.
Having said that, you've got to listen to the musical interplay between Young, Whitten, bassist Billy Talbot & drummer Ralph Molina all the way through. Each of the band members feed off of each other, in a spirit which is in closer proximity to the Ornette Coleman Quartet's Atlantic output than to any of that decade's psychedelic jam bands. As jazz musicians, Coleman & Miles Davis may have put "high art" on the map but Young & company brought it into the realms of rock music, solidifying the term once & for all in a time span of just over 40 minutes. Talk about capturing magic on tape in just one recording!!
Fifth, it's all about consistency. Quieter, more country-oriented material such as "Round and Round" & "The Losing End (When You're On)" still maintain an energetic vibe which keeps the album flow smoothly between the epic guitar onslaughts which are "Down By The River" & "Cowgirl In The Sand." To pack a lot of punch into just 7 songs, you've got to have not only stellar musicianship; you've also got to have some calms before the next storm. And there is some calm - albeit an intense, energetic calm - to be found here & there on Everybody Knows...
The one thing which has always struck me about Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere is that simplicity is a beautiful thing, no matter how crude the end results might be. To quote a title from an Ornette Coleman composition, "Beauty is a rare thing." And the beauty illustrated here - the second effort of Young's to come out in as many months - is indeed rare: kept raw, rushed, full of bristling energy. Which is all the more reason why I love EKTIN after all these years!!
Let's begin with the album opener, "Cinnamon Girl." This song, as well as the remainder of this release, lives up to the motto that you can say a lot with just a few notes. The constant five-note riff which kicks things off & the man's very own one-note solo told me you don't have to rely on a ton of musical technique to make your voice heard. By adhering to the motto of "less is more," Young and his Crazy Horse bandmates rewrote certain aspects of the musical rulebook by saying that one note (or two) can say more than a thousand musical notes strung together.
Secondly, this album eschews with the aforementioned technique, clarity & cuteness, three ruts which a majority of bands during that era were still stuck in. It sounded harsh, primitive, metallic, elemental: sounds coming straight from the gut. (The eponymous debut by The Stooges, which came out the same year as Everybody Knows... is another classic example to take note of.) Nothing sounds adorned; in fact, adornments of any kind were dispensed, thrown out the window altogether: Young's own high-strung, shaky voice as well as the ragged guitar playing of the man himself & the late Danny Whitten (in the right & left speakers, respectively) proved to us that you could make an impact without having to soften up, without having to sound cute & sentimental (listen to Neil's ominous lyrics throughout this album if you don't believe me). With Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Neil Young found his own musical voice through massive amounts of atonality, feedback & distortion, in complete disregard of the musical formulas which ruled that time period.
Third, improvisation plays a central role behind the spontaneous vibe which permeates Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. In fact, the album's three highlights - the aforementioned "Cinnamon Girl," the album side closers "Down By The River" & "Cowgirl In The Sand" - were completed in one afternoon, a sign that you didn't have to be perfect, going through take after take to come up with an impressive musical statement. Improvisation carried its way over to the makeup of the whole album itself: the songs were purposely underwritten, giving Young and his bandmates greater freedom to improvise without rambling around at random. You could say the songs served as frames on which the extended improvisations could keep intact, as well as to reflect Neil's own ominous singing.
Having said that, you've got to listen to the musical interplay between Young, Whitten, bassist Billy Talbot & drummer Ralph Molina all the way through. Each of the band members feed off of each other, in a spirit which is in closer proximity to the Ornette Coleman Quartet's Atlantic output than to any of that decade's psychedelic jam bands. As jazz musicians, Coleman & Miles Davis may have put "high art" on the map but Young & company brought it into the realms of rock music, solidifying the term once & for all in a time span of just over 40 minutes. Talk about capturing magic on tape in just one recording!!
Fifth, it's all about consistency. Quieter, more country-oriented material such as "Round and Round" & "The Losing End (When You're On)" still maintain an energetic vibe which keeps the album flow smoothly between the epic guitar onslaughts which are "Down By The River" & "Cowgirl In The Sand." To pack a lot of punch into just 7 songs, you've got to have not only stellar musicianship; you've also got to have some calms before the next storm. And there is some calm - albeit an intense, energetic calm - to be found here & there on Everybody Knows...
The one thing which has always struck me about Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere is that simplicity is a beautiful thing, no matter how crude the end results might be. To quote a title from an Ornette Coleman composition, "Beauty is a rare thing." And the beauty illustrated here - the second effort of Young's to come out in as many months - is indeed rare: kept raw, rushed, full of bristling energy. Which is all the more reason why I love EKTIN after all these years!!
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