Cinnamon Girl (Neil Young song)

"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.

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".

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.

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)
• 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)

External links

• Planer, Lindsay (2008). "'Cinnamon Girl' review", AllMusic.