Neil Young's Second Record aka Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Neil Young and Crazy Horse - "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" (1969) - Reprise

Hello Friends,

We've got a true classic on the turntable tonight, Neil Young's remarkable sophomore LP, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.

Now Tiki T. and I are pretty big fans of Neil's self-titled debut record (review here), but he really ups the ante here.  It would be his first full collaboration with Crazy Horse 

And it sounds so fucking perfect on scratchy vinyl.

Opening with one of Neil's signature songs, as well as one of Classic Rock's greatest riffs, the punkish, "Cinnamon Girl."

Next up is the sublime title track which, according to YouTube, a lot of military guys and gals like listening to while stationed overseas.

Onto side two.

Few can do lonely as well as Mr. Young can and "The Losing End (When You're On)" is no exception.  

"Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets)" is another quiet & acoustic song featuring some great fiddle work courtesy of Bobby Notkoff.  The Rockets, by the way, were a psychedelic blues band out of L.A. who released one album in 1968 before changing their name to... Crazy Horse.

Neil Young wrote in the liner notes on his Decade compilation album that this album's closer, "Cowgirl in the Sand" was written (along with "Cinnamon Girl" and "Down By The River") in Topanga, California while he was suffering from the flu and fighting a fever of 103 degrees!  

On a related note, the last time I had the "flu" I stayed in bed and watched a marathon of that television show where the adult who played Peter Brady on The Brady Bunch married some hot, young model who liked to be naked all the time.

And by flu, of course I mean the Irish variety...

RATING: 5 gotta get away from this day-to-day running around everybody knows that this is nowhere out of 5

Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse - "Crazy Horse" (1971) - Reprise Records

Hello Friends,

Obviously most of us are familiar with Crazy Horse's work as Neil Young's backing band on so many of those epic records, but they had a few non-Neil records in their catalog and their self-titled, debut LP is nothing short of great! 

Released in 1971 and produced by Jack Nitzsche & Russ Titelman, Crazy Horse would become a footnote in annals of rock & roll history, which is a shame really, because its a great-sounding, influential album with a who's who of talent involved.

The record's opener, "Gone Dead Train" (written by Nitzche & Titelman) was originally recorded by Randy Newman for the film Performance and has since been covered by the likes of Nazareth, Izzy Stradlin & George Thorogood.  It pretty much sets the stage for what's to come: a bluesier, sloppier (in a good way) version of The Band if The Band replaced Robbie Robertson with Neil Young.

In fact, Old Neil would write the album's second song, the hoedown-sounding, "Dance, Dance, Dance" featuring drummer Ralph Molina on lead vocals.

The album's next song, "Look at All The Things" sounds like a song Neil Young wish he would have written.  It was written by Crazy Horse founding member & guitarist, the super-talented Danny Whitten.  The five songs he wrote on this record are all incredible and worthy of a lot more recognition than he or the band ever got.  Sadly, this would be the only Crazy Horse album he would appear on, just a year later, his demons would win out and he would die of a heroin overdose.

Mitch Hedberg?

(According to rock & roll legend, Neil Young-- who would fire Danny Whitten just prior to his overdose-- would carry the guilt of his friend's death around with him for decades to follow.  In fact, Neil wrote the heartbreaking, "The Needle & The Damage Done" for Danny.)

"Beggar's Day" was written and sung by the one and only, Nils Lofgren.  Yes, before The E. Street Band came calling, Nils was a full-fledged member of Crazy Horse which puts him in his own wing of the Backing Band Hall of Fame!

Side One ends with the second Whitten tune, the remarkable "I Don't Want To Talk About It" which is one of the greatest breakup songs of all time!  It, too, would be covered by a host of artists including Rita Coolidge, Everything But The Girl and Rod Stewart (who would have a hit with it on 1975's Atlantic Crossing.) 

Not the same "Crazy Horse"

Side Two kicks off with the rocking "Downtown" (co-written by Whitten & Young, who would also resurrect & cover the song on his seminal 1975 record, Tonight's The Night.)

Nitzche & Titelman wrote "Carolay".  Eh.

Also, not the same "Crazy Horse"

Next up is "Dirty, Dirty"-- another fantastic Whitten tune.  A sleazy, Stonesy blues rocker featuring some downright nasty slide guitar playing courtesy of Ry Cooder.  

Nils is back with "Nobody".  Eh.

"I'll Get By" would be the fifth and final Whitten-penned tune on the record.  Again, it sounds right up there with many of those vintage Neil Young tunes.

The album closes with Jack Nitzche writing & singing on "Crow Jane Lady".

A fantastic fucking record from start to finish!  Underrated and underappreciated with an undercurrent of sadness throughout.  The music world would lose a great talent in the untimely death of Danny Whitten.  Who knows what this cat was capable of?  Maybe in an alternate universe Ronnie Van Zant is buried in an Danny Whitten t-shirt!

RATING: 4.5 mississippi mud never touched her fingers out of 5

Movie Night: Sound City (2013)

Hello Friends,

Grab your popcorn and pull up a stool, its Movie Night again on Vinyl in the Valley!

Tonight we're watching Sound City, a 2013 documentary about the legendary recording studio in Van Nuys, California.

Directed by Dave Grohl, the documentary tells the story of the rise and fall (and rise again, sort of) of the seminal rock & roll studio that in its heyday produced some of rock's greatest acts including Fleetwood Mac, Cheap Trick, Tom Petty, Nirvana, Neil Young, Elton John, The Dead, Nine Inch Nails, Dio, Slayer, Tool and Rick Springfield to name a few!  

Grohl spends the first two-thirds of his film on the history of the studio, the artists who performed there, and the legendary music created there.  The last third of the film shows Grohl restoring the Studio's one-of-a-kind NEVE 8028 analog mixing console in his private studio (Studio 606) and inviting various musicians who have recorded at the original Studio City over to jam.  

These are some of the best scenes in the movie.  Its a lot of fun to see Grohl and friends write & record with the likes of Stevie Nicks, Rick Springfield, Lee Ving, Josh Homme, Trent Reznor and (especially) Paul McCartney.

In recent years, digital music has really put the screws on more tradtional, analog recording methods.  A song recorded and mixed on a lap top using Pro-Tools regularly becomes a top-selling hit.  Thunderous drums have been largely replaced by heavily-programmed machines; crisp and delicate vocal tracks have been supplanted by Autotune.

Of course, here on "Vinyl in the Valley", we're always suckers for nostalgia and (generally speaking) we prefer the sound and feel of analog over anything digital. We like our music like we like our women: a little rough around the edges, with charming flaws and full of tiny little mistakes.  Give us the crackle and pop of listening to vinyl over the electric hum of a spinning Compact disc (or, worse, the souless silent processing of an mp3). 

As Grohl ponders in his film, "How do we get music to sound like people?"  Agreed!

We give Sound City two cocktail glasses up! 

We'll see you next time, friends, until then the Tiki Bar is closed*.  

(* not really)

Neil Young's First Album

Neil Young - "Neil Young" (1968) - Reprise Records

Hello Friends,

We've been on quite the rock & roll tear these days on Vinyl in the Valley.  

Released when Young was just 23 years old, this was his debut solo LP and first release since the breakup of Buffalo Springfield.  A bit more produced (overdubs!) than most of the classic records he would release in the Seventies, this album is a good bridge between the polished L.A.-inspired work in the Buffalo Springfield and the more visceral, raw-edged Americana material he would record with Crazy Horse.  

Still, every song on the LP is good with Neil Young's twangy rasp delivering lyrics about loneliness, longing, loners and long, dark nights with the occasional woman, Indian, drunk and cadaver thrown in for good measure. 

The album's single, "The Loner" has been a staple in his live shows for over 40 years.



Along with Bob Dylan, Neil Young helped paved the way for singers who couldn't really sing-- which we consider a good thing!  I mean could you picture Neil Young showing up on American Idol or The Voice or whatever else is out there and performing his Dylan-inspired, stream-of-consciousness, acoustic ballad, "The Last Trip to Tulsa"?  I'm thinking everyone would get a good laugh as Security has to drag him out the building and as he yelps, "No! Wait! I hafta go back! I dropped my harmonica holder!"  Hilarity ensues.

But we needn't worry about that, friends, good ol' Neil would have a long and epic career.   

RATING: 4.5 Old Laughing Ladies out of 5

The night they drove old Levon down

RIP Levon Helm.

The boy from Turkey Scratch, Arkansas done good.  With a voice that sounded like he was singing from the bottom of a moonshine still, Levon Helm helped create some of America's greatest roots-based rock'n'roll while serving as full-time drummer and part-time vocalist in The Band.           


Directed by Martin Scorsese, The Last Waltz is still one of the best concert movies ever.  If you have never seen it, stop what your doing, buy a bottle of whiskey, dim the lights and watch it now!

In addition to being a fantastic final concert by The Band, The Last Waltz also features Neil Young with coke boogers and Van Morrison in a leotard!

Thank you Levon for so many great songs and sorry about having to put up with that dick, Robbie Robertson!

"Sssssh... stop talking and look into my eyes."