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Silky Sound? Everybody Knows That’s Impossible

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Neil Young Available Now

This early pressing of EKTIN IS an amazing find, the kind of record the thrillseekers who work here at Better Records live for.

As I was reading the notes, I saw a word there that I had never associated with the sound of the album: “silky.” Since when does Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere have silky vocals?

But there it was, describing the first track on side one (Cinnamon Girl) as well as both the third track on side two (Cowgirl in the Sand) and track one (Losing End (When You’re On)).

We don’t have a tag for silky sound. About the closest we could come would be “glossy sound,” the kind of sound you might find on a Toto album, or Gauch0, or Mirage, or Gorilla, or Abbey Road. Starting in the mid-70s, anything produced by Ted Templeman and engineered by Donn Landee would be sure to have glossy sound.

But this album is from 1969. Silky vocals are not easy to find on recordings from that year, Abbey Road being the obvious exception.

And they’re not easy to find on the vast majority of copies we have played over the years. I doubt that the other copies in the shootout have notes mentioning silky vocals.

But if your equipment is good enough, and you know how to clean your records right, and you dial in your setup to a T, with a big enough stack of copies you may be able to find an Everybody Knows… with silky vocals. Twenty years ago I wrote a commentary about diminishing returns in audio being a myth. Now, finding this amazing pressing of Everybody Knows, is just one more piece of evidence to support just how precient that idea was.

Hey, want to find your own top quality copy?

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Neil Young – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

More Neil Young

One of Our Favorite Titles from 1969


  • Stunning sound throughout this vintage pressing of Neil’s second studio album, with both sides earning Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) grades – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • When we say “just shy of our Shootout Winner,” we want to make clear than practically no one playing this Hot Stamper pressing would ever think it could possibly get any better than this very record — it’s simply a phenomenally well-recorded album
  • The best tracks have that live-in-the-studio quality Neil is famous for (of which Zuma is the best example), with minimal processing and maximum energy
  • Includes some of Neil Young’s most beloved classics: “Cinnamon Girl,” “Cowgirl in the Sand,” and “Down by the River” just to name three
  • 5 stars: “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere was breathtakingly different when it appeared in May 1969, both for Young and for rock in general, and it reversed his commercial fortunes….”

Although not quite in the league with the best of the best — the likes of Gold Rush, Harvest, or Zuma, all titles we have a devil of a time keeping in stock — the best sounding tracks here are a rough guide for to what was to come as Neil and his producer, David Briggs, got better and better until they were As Good As It Gets by the time they got around to After the Gold Rush in 1970 (for which they seem to get no credit, outside of Better Records’ raves for the album of course).

We absolutely love the Live-in-the-Studio quality that only the best pressings of this album can give, with minimal processing and maximum energy. Man, with a good copy played back on a big pair of speakers this album can ROCK like nobody’s business. Nine minutes of “Down by the River”? A ten minute long version of “Cowgirl in the Sand”? “Cinnamon Girl”? We are so there!

This kind of musical, natural sound is not easy to come by. If you own any copy of the album you know what we mean. (more…)

Letter of the Week – “I assumed that there must be some better sounding pressings out there. Now here they are.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Neil Young Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about some Hot Stampers he purchased recently:

Hey Tom, 

The West Side Story I picked up from you a few months ago was just something else. I was sitting on my couch watching the stage as Tony and Maria sang through the WSS songbook. I mean, there they were. Sure Mono has a particular feel and you can only quiet down an old 6-eye so much, but it was just beautiful.

I was very happy with what I received. All four records sound wonderful and are well worth the outlay. I have had several copies of “El Rayo-X” and “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere”.

They sounded quite good but I assumed that there must be some better sounding pressings out there. Now here they are.

Paul S.

Paul,

Thanks for your letter. We love all those albums too, and we love finding killer pressings of them for our customers.

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