105. Neil Young - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

It's 1979. It's summer and there's a storm raging outside, one of those fierce August nor'easters with rain, thunder and howling wind. We're in MaryAnne's basement and the small windows are slightly open. We're all quietly stoned and there's no sound or movement for almost an hour except for the rain, the wind, and the blowing curtains. Then MaryAnne gets up and puts on this album. There's the low hiss and that scratchy sound and then Cinnamon Girl. We sit there still, the rain drowned out by the music, but not the wind, and the garbage cans roll down the street, seemingly in time to the music. The side plays out and it's still raining, still dark in mid afternoon and the humidity is seeping through the walls. I close my eyes during Down By The River and imagine the whole song as a movie I'm editing as it happens.

The song ends, the sound of the rain builds up again and a clap of thunder shakes the windows. Billy gets up and flips the record over. We lay there while the record plays and the storm weakens and we're absolutely quiet until the very last note of Cowgirl in the Sand. As the record ends, so does the storm. The rain stops, the wind stops, the last gasp of thunder is heard some distance away and we can hear the neighbors outside, looking for runaway garbage cans. We think about going outside, not really saying anything but each of us looking at each other, and then looking at the tiny window where the sun bursts through. I get up, flip the record back to side 1, wait for the guitar bursts of Cinnamon Girl, lay back again and prolong the day.

Favorite song: Cinnamon Girl
Type O Negative doing Cinnamon Girl