A belated single from Neil’s second album featuring a different vocal mix than the elpee version.
Kronomyth 2.5: Incense, cinnamon, the color of time.
Neil Young and Crazy Horse made a beautiful noise. Their music suggested a stoned, transcendent calm in the middle of a psychedelic sandstorm of motion and emotion. At least, that’s the way I feel when a song like Cinnamon Girl is playing. The opening track from Neil’s second album, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, “Cinnamon Girl” is a love song recorded in the middle of the rock & roll machinery of drugs, freedom and surreality. When Neil Young sings “You know how baby loves to dance,” what follows is a psychedelic trip where one guitar note becomes a symphony of sound.
The single version of “Cinnamon Girl” features a noticeably different vocal mix from Neil Young and Danny Whitten. It also cuts out the guitar outro at the end. I prefer the original vocal mix, and history seems to have landed on the same side.
The B side in most of the world was a live acoustic performance of Sugar Mountain recorded in 1968 in Ann Arbor, Michigan at The Canterbury House. Written about a teen-only club that Young would soon be barred from visiting (he wrote the song in 1964 when he was 19), it became a brilliant allegory for lost childhood. Although the song was included in his early demo tapes, it has only appeared in live versions here and on Live Rust.
Original 7-inch single version
A1. Cinnamon Girl (Neil Young) (2:45)
B1. Sugar Mountain (recorded “live” at The Canterbury House) (Neil Young) (5:36)
Original 7-inch single version (UK)
A1. Cinnamon Girl (Neil Young) (2:45)
B1. Down By The River (Neil Young) (3:37)
The Players
A1 produced by David Briggs and Neil Young; B1 produced by Neil Young.
The Plastic
Released on 7-inch single in April 1970* in the US and Canada (Reprise, 0911), France (Reprise, RV. 20242), Germany (Reprise, RA 0911), the Netherlands (Reprise, R 0911) and New Zealand (Reprise, RO. 911) and on September 4, 1970 in the UK (Reprise, RS.23462) with regional picture sleeve. (*First appeared in 4/25/70 issue of Billboard.) Reached #55 on the US charts.
