#62 "Everbody Knows This is Nowhere" by Neil Young

I first heard Neil Young when my brother brought home his 1979 concert video "Live Rust." Though his voice was a little different, songs like "Cinnamon Girl" and "Sugar Mountain" really caught my attention. Young's fragile delivery is hard to deny and though I might not rank him as high as someone like Bob Dylan, his massive body of work and the quality of some of his songs are amazing.

"Everybody Knows This is Nowhere" is from Young's second solo album of the same title. I actually didn't become that familiar with it until I heard it in Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous" movie. A friend of mine mentioned how much he liked the song and the album it was from, so I ended up getting a copy of it from him. It's definitely one of Neil's best.

The lyrics to the song seem to be about the notion that the place you're from... the place that everyone seems to be dying to get out of... is kind of like "nowhere." You know the sentiment. When people are younger and think they're too big for their hometown, or that there's nothing to do there, etc. They're the "grass is always greener on the other side" kind of folks. I didn't exactly come from a small town, but I wasn't from the big city either. I did, however, always appreciate the charm of where I grew up and was in no rush to get out of there. I thought it was pathetic and sad that others were. Young's song is more from the perspective of the successful person looking down on their roots... the guy who's gotten too big to go backwards to the place where he came from. But when Neil sings of the desire to "get away from the day-to-day running around" that is a big part of the fame machine, he sings that he just wants to go back home where the "air is cool and breezy." For a song with a kind of negative title, it actually conveys a pretty postive sentiment.

"Everybody Knows This is Nowhere" is from the album of the same name. To hear the song, click on the icon in the widget jukebox along the side of the blog.