Greg Reviews Neil

Two summers ago, I was going through my parents’ collection of records on vinyl and laughing hysterically. Despite having four copies of Thriller, my parents have other goodies such as Kenny G, Hall and Oates, Olivia Newton-John and Wham. However, one album intrigued me, and that album was Neil Young’s Everybody Knows this is Nowhere. I saw Neil on the cover, and noticed he was dressed much like I usually dress. Furthermore, the album cover has a dog on it. Dogs rule. I like them. The fact that Neil was dressed like me, and he had a dog, meant that I was then forced by some law of nature to listen to this album.

The first song, Cinnamon Girl, began to play, and I thought to myself “I recognize this song, because Type O Negative did a shitty cover of it!” However, the Neil version was so raw and rocking, but yet has quite a pop-feel to it. That’s the secret to good music. It has to be able to rock out, but it still needs a great melody. Anyway, as the song played on, I realized it rules. The vocals consist of a double-tracked Neil singing in perfect harmony with himself. It was at this moment that I realized I wanted nothing more than to hear double-tracked Neil for the rest of my life. The song proceeded on……

The bridge came around, and my excitement mounted, for I did not know what would come next. I had heard the Type O Negative version, but the Neil version was so different that I was very eager to see how it would turn out. Then- the solo fell into the song as if God himself had come down to Neil and said “here, take this Divine Solo and place it into your beautifully crafted piece of art.” And Neil did so, gracing “Cinnamon Girl” with a solo consisting of one note. The note is D, if you were wondering.

As if that wasn’t good enough, the next song, “Everybody Knows this is Nowhere,” has another classic Neil riff, but this time it consists of multiple notes. This song, bordering on country, completely rocks out. The double-tracked Neil vocals make another appearance, as well.

“Round and Round,” the following song, is a very mellow, acoustic song. I didn’t used to like this song very much, because it was just a little too laid back. However, I have come to enjoy it, because after the rocking that the first two songs give you, you need a break. Not to mention, you need to cool down in order to handle the rocking that the final song of side A brings you.

The first time I heard “Down by the River,” I almost passed out. It’s rocking overwhelmed me. Never before had I experienced such a thing. The song is centered around two chords, one of which is a minor seventh, giving a creepy kind of vibe. Neil Young and Danny Whitten play guitars on this song, and trade off their rocking. The opening features Neil playing rhythm guitar while Whitten plays a creepy, sliding guitar line. Immediately the songs mysticism kicks in, when Neil sings the line “be on my side, I’ll be on your side/ there is no reason for you to hide.” After the verse, a beautiful pre-chorus kicks in- “she could drag me over the rainbow/send me away,” right before launching into the rocking chorus of “down by the river/ I shot my baby.” After completing the intro, verse, pre-chorus, and then chorus, Neil Young celebrates with the best guitar solo I have ever heard.

The beginning of this solo starts with one note. Then, Neil elaborates and plays a few more notes in the appropriate blues scale. Unfortunately, the solo cannot be described with words. Listen for yourself.

After the solo takes up a good three minutes of the song, the band goes back into the verse, pre-chorus, and chorus, where they then promptly decide to celebrate once again with a three minute solo.

The solos in this song signify that Neil Young does what he wants. He plays whatever comes to mind. The solo is not particularly complicated, but it doesn’t matter, because Neil puts more passion and feeling into this solo than I have ever seen any artist do with any other piece of art in the history of time. The solo changed my life, and caused me to be able to Feel the Neil.

Look into those eyes and tell me you're not awe-struck.

At this point, I turned the album over to experience the B-side. It starts off with “the Losing End,” a very country tune that could easily be anthem material. It is easy to picture a few hundred people in a small bar in Nashville singing along to this song while Neil Young and Crazy Horse rock out. Now, if I could only experience that for myself.

The next song, which I forget the name of, is a very creepy and slow song featuring excellent Velvet Underground-esque use of an out-of-tune violin. Neil once again places an immense amount of passion into the crafting of this song, and we can feel it. We can Feel the Neil.

The album ender, “Cowgirl in the Sand,” is very similar to “Down by the River.” It has another great elongated Neil solo, which also features the one note riff. I’m running out of words to explain this Neil album, because it rocks my face off. I only wish I could explain.

In closing, I would like to point out that this album, although only having 7 songs, is legendary. Very few people have ever put so much feeling into an album in the history of music. The diversity, ranging from country, to rock, to almost pop music, is amazing. This album never gets old. I can listen to it constantly for the duration of days. I know this simply because I’ve tried it, and I survived. I cannot even begin to explain how amazing this album is, because words cannot capture the beauty of it. I beg you to go out and listen to this album.