Cinnamon Girl (Neil Young song)
| "Cinnamon Girl" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Cover of German issue single |
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| Single by Neil Young & Crazy Horse | ||||
| from the album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere | ||||
| B-side | "Sugar Mountain" | |||
| Released | April 20, 1970 | |||
| Format | 45 rpm Record | |||
| Recorded | March 20, 1969 at Wally Heider Recording, Hollywood, CA | |||
| Genre | Hard rock | |||
| Length | 2:58 | |||
| Label | Reprise | |||
| Writer(s) | Neil Young | |||
| Producer | Neil Young David Briggs |
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| Neil Young & Crazy Horse singles chronology | ||||
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"Cinnamon Girl" is a song by Neil Young. It debuted on the 1969 album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, which was also Young's first album with backing band Crazy Horse. Released as a single the following year, it reached #55 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970.
[edit] Performance notes
This song, more than any other, displays the very prominent role played by Danny Whitten in the sound of Neil Young's early recordings. The vocals are a duet, with Whitten singing the high harmony against Young's low harmony. Young performed the song on his then-recently acquired Gibson Les Paul, "Old Black".
The song was written in double-drop D tuning (DADGBD). This tuning is used in several of his most famous songs, such as "The Loner", "The Old Laughing Lady", "When You Dance I Can Really Love", "Ohio", "Cortez the Killer", "Ride My Llama", "Inca Queen", and his ode to self-esteem "Fuckin' Up".[citation needed]
The song was written for and about Jean Ray, sister of Paul McCartney's guitarist Brian Ray.
It has no relation to the song of the same name by Prince.
[edit] Notable covers
"Cinnamon Girl" has been covered by many artists:
- The Gentrys on their eponymous album for Sun Records (1970). Their version reached #52 on the Billboard chart, slightly outperforming Young's original.
- The Who during their concert in Tanglewood (1970), and an unverified second performance at Leeds the same year
- John Entwistle, an outtake from his debut album, Smash Your Head Against the Wall (1971)
- Dan McCafferty, lead singer of Scottish hard rockers Nazareth, on his eponymous solo album (1975)
- Killdozer on their album Snake Boy (1985)
- Bob Mould during the Workbook tour (1989)
- The Smashing Pumpkins early on in their career, recorded during their Reel Time Sessions (1989)
- Hole used the main "Cinnamon Girl" riff for the track "Starbelly" on Pretty on the Inside (1991)
- Mudhoney used the guitar riff at the end of "Cinnamon Girl" as the intro to "Broken Hands" on Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge (1991)
- Type O Negative, on their album October Rust (1996)
- Replicants on their eponymous album (1996)
- Phish played it on March 18, 1997, at the launch event for Phish Food ice cream
- Dream Syndicate as a bonus track on the reissue of their 1986 album Out of the Grey (1997)
- Motörhead released a cover of this song on the reissue of their compilation All The Aces (1999)
- Radiohead during the Amnesiac tour (2001)
- Boyd Tinsley on True Reflections (2003)
- Hawksley Workman on the DVD Live in Lille (2004)
- Warren Haynes Rick Pecora Superbowl Party (2004)
- Kashmir on their live album The Aftermath (2005)
- Philip Sayce on his album Peace Machine (2005)
- The Mother Hips on their live Neil Young cover album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (2005)
- Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs on Under the Covers, Vol. 1 (2006)
- Bernard Fowler on his album Friends With Privileges (2006)
- Los Lobos at the Edmonton Blues Festival (2007)
- Paul Kelly played this live on the RocKwiz special Salutes the Bowl (2009)
- Tim Christensen during the Superior tour (2009)
- ApologetiX parodied the song as "Sin of The World" on Soundproof (2010)
- Kevin Hewick often includes this song in the covers section of his longer live sets.
[edit] External links
- Planer, Lindsay (2008). "'Cinnamon Girl' review", AllMusic.
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