Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

The album contains four songs that became standards in Young's performance repertoire: "Cinnamon Girl", "Down by the River", the title track, and "Cowgirl in the Sand", all of which were written in a single day while Young had a 103° F (39.5° C) fever.[7] Young's lead vocal track on the song "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" (on the original album) was actually a temporary scratch vocal he sang through the low-quality talk-back microphone on the mixing board, with no effects such as reverb. Young liked the stark contrast to the rest of the recording.

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere was remastered and released on HDCD-encoded compact disc and digital download on July 14, 2009, as part of the Neil Young Archives Original Release Series. It was released on audiophile vinyl in December 2009, both individually and as part of a 1000-copy box-set of Young's first four LPs available through his website. A CD version of 3000 copies also exists. A high resolution digital Blu-ray is planned, although no release date has been set.

The front cover is a grainy photo depicting Young leaning against a tree with his dog Winnipeg at his feet.[8]

Retrospective reviews

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[9]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[10]
Music Story	[10]
MusicHound Rock	5/5[10]
Pitchfork	10/10[11]
Rolling Stone	[12]
The Rolling Stone Record Guide	[13]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	6/10[10]

Upon its release, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere received generally favorable reviews from critics. Bruce Miroff of Rolling Stone wrote a favorable review, describing Young's voice as "perpetually mournful, without being maudlin or pathetic. It hints at a world in which sorrow underlies everything [...] because that world is recognizable to most of us, Young's singing is often strangely moving." Despite stating that "in several respects [the album] falls short of his previous effort" and that "the lyricism of the first album can only be found in faint traces," he concluded that the album "offers ample rewards. Young's music partially makes up for its lack of grace by its energy and its assurance."[14] 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".[15] The original review was printed with a grade of "B+", but Christgau later said he would have changed it to an "A–".[16]

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."[12] William Ruhlmann of music database website AllMusic said of the album, "released only four months after his first [album], [it] was nearly a total rejection of that polished effort." 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". He concluded that the album "set a musical pattern Young and his many musical descendants have followed ever since [...] and a lot of contemporary bands were playing music clearly influenced by it".[9] 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". He also said that "Young sounds comfortable and confident, singing with the versatile voice that has changed remarkably little in the 40 years since" and concluded that it "was a sort of big bang for Young, a dense moment of creative explosion that saw possibilities expanding in every direction".[11]

In 2003, the album was ranked number 208 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and 210 in a 2012 revised list, and number 407 in the 2020 edition.[17] In 2018, the album won the Polaris Heritage Prize Audience Award in the 1960-1975 category.[18]

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere was originally released on vinyl by Reprise on May 14, 1969.[19] It was first released on CD in December 1987.[20]

A remastered version was released on HDCD-encoded CD and digital download on July 14, 2009 as part of the Neil Young Archives Original Release Series. The remastered CD exists both as a standalone album and as Disc 2 of a 4-CD box set Official Release Series Discs 1-4, released in the US in 2009 and Europe in 2012.[21]

Digital high-resolution files of the album are also available via the Neil Young Archives website.

All tracks are written by Neil Young. Track timings are from the original 1969 vinyl release, catalogue number RS 6349.[22]

Side one

1. "Cinnamon Girl" – 2:58
2. "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" – 2:26
3. "Round & Round (It Won't Be Long)" – 5:49
4. "Down by the River" – 9:13

Side two

1. "The Losing End (When You're On)" – 4:03
2. "Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets)" – 5:30
3. "Cowgirl in the Sand" – 10:03

• Neil Young – guitar, lead vocals

Crazy Horse

• Danny Whitten – guitar, harmony vocals, co-lead vocal on "Cinnamon Girl"
• Billy Talbot – bass guitar
• Ralph Molina – drums, harmony vocals

Additional musicians

• Bobby Notkoff – violin on "Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets)"
• Robin Lane – harmony vocal on "Round and Round"

Technical

• Henry Saskowski – engineer
• David Briggs – engineer
• Kendal Pacios – engineer