Canada, 1969, country rock / singer-songwriter
I get a sense of bewilderment and sense of place-less-ness from these songs, and not just because of the album title, though that helps, since it’s also the name of and theme of one of the songs. A sense of searching but being lost, seeking but not finding (the girl) purpose. Spinning in circles, going nowhere, a bit confused, wandering and lonely. I love how Young explains in the liner notes that sometimes a song with an ostensible story is actually just about sex. Notkoff’s squealing violin on “Running Dry” is so damn haunting and beautiful, regret in music form. And “Cowgirl in the Sand” is one of the greatest, most epic album closers of all time. Young isn’t the first or the last to sing of “the woman in you”, as if woman is possessed by some feminine anima that makes them behave in a way that makes men fear. And that male frustration vents itself in those guitar solos.
Museum Musica 