'Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere'

Neil Young recorded and released Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere in 1969, his second solo record after Buffalo Springfield went the way of the buffalo (springfield).

It's the first of a long line of solo records through the mid-1970s that Young absolutely knocked out of the park, although I think this is one of his weakest efforts of this cadre of records. Still, it's better than most.

It seems a bit sophomoric and lacks focus or glue to hold the songs together. Seems like he was influenced by quite a number of genres (rock, country, folk) and that's fine, but I don't have to like it put together as an album.

Allegedly, the album's three biggest songs -- "Cowgirl in the Sand," "Cinnamon Girl," "Down By the River" -- were written on the same day when Young had a 103-degree temperature. And I would go out on a pretty weak limb and say that Cameron Crowe's used the entire album, song by song, in his films.

In Young's ever-changing world, later that year, he joined Crosby, Stills & Nash catapulting the group into the upper stratosphere of super groups and writing the song "Ohio." In 1970, he recorded another solo record, the amazing After the Gold Rush. Not bad work for a Canadian.

My question for Young: Who's dog is that on the cover and what's his/her story?