Song · Live covers
Cinnamon Girl
Neil Young wrote the riff in a fever, and Radiohead played it four times in 2001.
1969
topanga, with a temperature
Young wrote it at home in Topanga, California, while ill with flu and a high fever, in the same stretch that produced “Down by the River” and “Cowgirl in the Sand”. It opened Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, his first record with Crazy Horse.
It is in double drop D, the tuning he uses for half his best-known songs, played on the Gibson Les Paul he called Old Black. The vocal is a duet: Danny Whitten's high harmony against Young's low one. NME has filed the riff under proto-grunge, which is one way of saying everybody took something from it.
2001
four nights
Radiohead played it four times, all in 2001, from Paris on 28 April to Yokohama on 4 October. It closed the night once.
the video
Neil Young cover.· Bas Kollenwatch on youtube →
Live history
| Times played | 4 shows |
|---|---|
| Live debut | Saturday 28 April 2001 · Paris |
| Last played | Thursday 4 October 2001 · Yokohama |
Nights played include broadcasts; opened and closed count gigs only. A cancelled night has no setlist. All setlist stats →
sources3
- Nigel Williamson, Journey Through the Past: The Stories Behind the Classic Songs of Neil Young.
- “50 greatest guitar riffs of all time”, NME, 25 October 2012.
- Performance dates from this site's own setlist archive, via setlist.fm.