Comments: 69

• Vlad Taltos from San DiegoBuffalo Springfield once played at a nightclub called Cinnamon Club in La Mesa CA , a suburban of San Diego. It is believed that the girl alluded to was inspired by the GIF at the Cinnamon Club which is why it's called Cinnamon Girl
• Jrearden from IlThe song is about heroin. I know this for a fact. I'm not going to name drop. The song was written before Danny Witten was a critical junkie. I also know that after Young realized what heroin was doing to his band they stopped playing it in concert for 3 years, when before, it was played at almost every show. You know what they replaced it with on the set list? Needle and the Damage Done.
• Chloe AHands down, best Neil Young song!
• Travler from West-by-godIt's "Really" difficult to pin down one of Neil's tunes as my fave !!! First time I saw Neil,I was amazed !!! Caught him at the Cellar Door in DC IN 1970 in the winter,Dec I think. Solo,guitar and piano.... "Don't Let it Bring You Down" still to this day resonates with me ! Deep Forbidden Lake,For the Turnstiles,See the Sky About to Rain,Cortes,Hurricane,Old Man,etc..etc..etc ! Like Dylan...the list of remarkable music is never ending ! A friend of mine that's played for Springsteen for the last 37 years played keyboards on Tonight's the Night....and you know what ?....Tonight's the Night to dig out the old Vinyl ! Maybe I'll start with the Stray Gators or On the Beach ! Either way... "Tonites the Night"!!!
• Tom_rp from EvanstonI know artists always claim stories having zero to do with the obvious unmistakable drug reference in a song but they are not in the song by mere coincidence. The inspiration for a song could be a hole in your sock but if the song contains lyrics about the powder made in China, where they discount the prices, makes my pain go away spoon feed it, heat it and it blows me away, helps me forget the next day and the endless relay, where the other that play make winning a dream that never comes my way.
  
  The writer says I was a high school track star and discovered. a foot powder that I used a spoon to dump into my Chinese manufactured tube socks. It cures my athletes foot but my unmotivated teammates never worked hard like I did at the deciding event, the 800 meter relay.
  
  That is of course a parody of the absolutely asinine explanations writers of songs with lots of drug references offer guilable fans when the fake example is about mixing. China White heroin cooking it in the spoon pumping it in your veins , getting your mind blown and still having to run life's rat race but never being able to get ahead and like most smack heads you Resort to blaming others who also are Junkies for dragging you down.
  
  Cinnamon Girl is a series of references 2 heroin that can come in three varieties China White, ground cinnamon or black tar if you live as a heroin addict for the rest of your life you will be a loser but initially you think that you will be happy for the rest of your life after you take your first needle. 10 silver saxes a bass with a bow is a metaphor for the gorgeous Rush Oh, the drama relaxing and waiting between shows for drugs CS together chasing the moonlight is a metaphor for a guy chasing the rush for the beauty with his cinnamon girl who is smack and pa send the money now, I'm going make it somehow I need another chance you see your baby loves to dance yeah refers to a lost cause musician hitting his parents up for money claiming it's for investing in his future as a musician when in reality it's going to be spent on smack and nothing is ever going to change. everybody's got some story including the one meal and self has the same way Lenin has Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds about his son Julian giving him some goofy picture. Coincidentally John and George just started taking LSD trips for Sergeant Pepper's and said from that point forward they did have some problems relating to Paul and Ringo who hadn't tried yet and I'm not sure if they ever did. What is also interest are the lyrics how about growing so incredibly High, girl with kaleidoscope eyes, rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies all complete psychedelic imagery. It is always the people who have never ever experienced anything always trying to insist that these songs that are the biggest most obvious drug references of all time are innocent tunes about children puppies and girlfriends and that drug addicts are so smug and think they know everything. Don't have to be a drug addict or even a drug user all you have to be is somebody with common sense who may have experimented little in high school and college and I'm not talking about heroin because that's a whole different thing but you can't tell me the guy that wrote the Needle and the Damage Done, was in Crosby Stills Nash & Young and writes all kinds of songs that are completely off the wall couldn't possibly write a song about heroin because only every other band from that era and every era in music has written about heroin or used heroin. Musicians have been been using heroin since turn of the century including Charlie Parker John Coltrane Miles Davis Jimmy Page several guys in to summarize the song Lynyrd Skynyrd Jerry Garcia Lou Reed Keith Richards Sid Vicious Tom Petty Eric Clapton several famous Blues musicians so please give it a rest when references are so obvious as to insult the intelligence when you hear these goofy stories about how that's not what the song is about. Perhaps the song was inspired play something different but the lyrics are what they are and the song is written in English as far as I can tell at a time when everyone including mr. Young was doing bad s***. To summarize, the song might not have been inspired by a big load of heroin but it sure as hell makes no attempt to make the lyrics subtle when referencing heroin in every single verse and chorus. So I apologize to all you guys who think it's like different and to some of you Liars who claim that the song was about you and your relationship with Neil Smith cough cough
• Robert from My HomeBack in 71 or 72..at the first opening if the Ole Great Southeast Music Hall in ATL.. my friend and I piled up the big pillows there on the floor..propted our feet on the stages' edge..long neck Budweisers in hand... blew through a few red bud Columbia...and spent what I'd call the greatest personal concert of my life (along with the same...once w/ Zappa). Neil Young!! By himself... talked back in forth . Blew a big one with.. bought HIM a brewski.. AND got my mind BLOWN!!! Was a cherished gift card of the Creator.. but not..a gift of NEIL...the two times he played Cinnamon Girl on his steellie.. transcended the bonds of the physical...About only twenty folks lived this sacred moment...I'll add the room was also attended with several Angels.. Guess THEY TOO just couldn't miss such a rare human event...They know good tunes when they hear it...eh!
• Robert from My HomeI've forgotten...which album has the version of Cinnamon Girl on steel guitar?
• Jim from ChicagoCinnamon Girl is an OBVIOUS heroin reference. A slang term in the 60s for heroin was "cinnamon", I don't know how more obvious it can be, it's literally the only thing that makes sense. Neil Young in a radio interview in the 90s basically admitted to it. He thought it came out to upbeat for the subject matter. The song is basically: He searches at night for heroin, gets it and has fun. His jazz drummer relaxes between shows waiting for heroin. He calls his dad begging for money because he likes to "dance" and then the dark disturbing end music.
• Pedro from St. PaulTo Smith from Wa, that is the most delusional story about Neil Young. I think you still have a fever. Take 2 aspirin and stay in bed.
• Jesse from Laredo TxWhy were they both chasing the moonlight by cinnamon girl...heroin...hello ..and yes lucy in the sky with diamonds is about LSD
• Smith from WaSo here's "Cinnamon Girl"'s story as relayed to us over a series of posts and messages. We report. You decide.
  I met Neil when I was in high school at Kipling Collegiate in Etobicoke Toronto in late spring, early summer of 1968.
  
  The kids from my high school called me the Cinnamon Girl. I was one of the first flower child kids at my high school. I was living way out in Etobicoke with my parents and we weren't allowed to go to places like a coffee house named The Riverboat. It was there in front of The Riverboat that I met Neil one afternoon.
  
  I only met Neil that once.
  
  Funny thing is if Neil had not been carrying his guitar we never would have met. My best friend had just been bragging to me that her and her sister & another friend now had super cute boyfriends who played in a band. She said they were the singer and guitar & bass player that were playing at El Patio in Yorkville.
  
  I felt so left out.
  
  I told my friend I was going to try and find a drummer to be my boyfriend. Truth is my father was super strict and I wasn't allowed to date. To go to Yorkville I always let on I was going to the movies, or babysitting. All hell would have broken loose if he thought I was with the hippies......
  
  I saw his guitar case first and blurted out "I'm interviewing musicians to be my boyfriend.......are you interested?"
  
  Without hesitation Neil came right over and stood beside me. Oh god. I looked up at him and he was the cutest boy I had ever seen.
  
  He said "What's involved?"
  
  I said you get to hang around with me for a couple of hours. I will ask you questions about dating and relationships and see if you pass. There will be kissing involved...are you a good kisser?"
  
  Neil said "I guess so".
  
  He seemed to be a little shy but amused by the situation. He didn't seem to be in any hurry to go anywhere and so the game started.
  
  When we were together that night, I asked Neil to write a happy song about me and he promised he would. My nickname at school was 'The Cinnamon Girl'. I told him to make it sound Canadian (and even sang him the song from the cartoon ' Pow Wow The Indian Boy' so he's know what I meant). Funny, he's the singer but I was the one doing the singing....He had his guitar with him, he opened the case and showed it to me, but didn't play a note.
  
  Everything in the song is something we did or something we talked about. I had never heard of Neil (or any of his bands) before but the time I spent with him still all these years later feels somehow magical. It was as though I could clearly see his future....and it was as though we had known each other for years, laughing our heads off.I guess the best way to describe it was I found him to be intoxicating.
  
  I think 'Cowgirl in the Sand' is also about me. When we first met I was playing a crazy game with him, and he seemed amused by it. We talked about horseback riding, getting a farm one day, and the fact that I wouldn't tell him my age. I turned the conversation to the ages girls could wed in different provinces yet couldn't drink or vote. We spent the night in a park on the edge of a kid's sandbox talking about our lives, our dreams and the urgency for him to get to California.
  
  I don't know if I'm a muse, psychic or an encouraging Cancerian or a combination of all of these because just as we sat there and talked I knew he would be very successful...just knew it. It was never 'if' it was 'when'.
  
  When I left Neil at the Yorkville subway, I had an overpowering sad feeling that something would happen and i would not see him again for a very long time. It was 6:00AM and we had no paper or pen to exchange contact info.
  
  Who knew I would get so sick?
  
  I got dangerously ill after I met Neil. It lasted 2 weeks, first I was delirious with fever & then Bronchitis. So, I was unable to meet him as planned at The Riverboat.....one of the biggest regrets of my life. My friend saw him there waiting ......she estimated he waited for 2 hours and then was gone...I tried in the early years to contact Neil but letters were returned.
  
  I've always had the feeling that that when the time is right, and the stars are aligned we would somehow meet again.
  
  
  Neil Young Archives Riverboat Disc Sleeve
  
  
  So here's the thing.
  
  Surprisingly -- or not so much so -- we get all sorts of Neil tales, that -- quite frankly -- we can't make heads or tails of like this one.
  
  But here's the other thing about this story that makes it a little cosmic. As we were doing that Facebook thing with our "Cinnamon Girl", we just so happened to stumble across the 45 single pictured above and noticed the date -- March 7, 1970.
  
  That's tomorrow?!
  
  And as we scanned the Decade box album liner notes, we recall how Neil -- absolutely totally astonishingly -- wrote "Down by the River", "Cinnamon Girl", and "Cowgirl in the Sand" all in a single afternoon -- while sick and delirious with a 103 degree temperature.
  
  Down by the river (boat) he shot his baby (broke up with his young girlfriend) -- a red head (cinnamon girl) -- who was a cowgirl (hippie) in the sand (box at the park).
  
  Both heartbroken and sick at the same time.
  
  sometimes you just never know...
  
  Thanks for sharing the memories cinnamon girl!
  ~~~~
  So what exactly would it be like to live with a cinnamon girl? Well, this is what we think it would be like...
• Circe801 from Rock Hill, ScO, to add - 'to dance' is an old-school term for injection heroin, thus, 'Mom, send me MONEY now, I'VE GOT O MAKE IT somehow, I NEED ANOTHER CHANCE - you see, your baby LOVES TO DANCE'... Again, 'Everybody Knows THIS IS NOWHERE'
• Circe801 from Rock Hill, ScAlways thought this was about his 'real' girl at the time - heroin. After all, this IS 'Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere'... Just me, I guess.
• Cyberpope from Richmond, CanadaThe obvious meaning would be a cinnamon-skinned girl (ie one with a cinnamon coloured hue to her skin. . . )
  The beauty of it is you could serenade & declare it to be about a girl with cinnamon hair, skin, eyes, &/or shoes, & say it's just for her. . .
  
  
• Martinman from New York, NyI just read his autobiography Waging Heavy Peace this November of 2012. His car was broken down on the freeway one day in California. The tow truck driver who came to help asked if he was Neil Young and he said yes.
  
  "Who was Cinnamon Girl" the tow truck driver asked. "I'll show you when we get to where we're going" (or something along those lines). The driver towed the vehicle, with Neil in the tow truck, back to the studio where his wife Pegi was recording her album Bracing For Impact.
  
  When they rolled up, Pegi was on the curb waiting for Neil. "And there was Cinnamon Girl, waiting on the curb." I know the song was written before he met her, but that's who he says Cinnamon Girl is. I guess Cinnamon Girl can be whoever he chooses.
• Kevin from Atlanta, GaYou have this all wrong. This song is about my college girlfriend, MJ. She was tall and had short blonde hair, in the summer it would get some reddish highlights.
• Dane from Green Cove Springs Fla., FlLove this one.My only fault with it is that it's way too short.
• Jack from Cohasset, MaThe song was written for and about Jean Ray, sister of Paul McCartney's session guitarist Brian Ray. (She was the "city girl on peeling pavement coming at me" probably in LA.)
  
  
• Jeri from Niantic, CtI believe the song was written when he saw Robin Lane (of Robin Lane and the Chartbusters). :-)
• Rocco from New York City, NyA little digression: In Guitar Player Magazine in 1983, David Byrne of Talking Heads acknowledged that the one note guitar riff at the end of "Cinnamon Girl" inspired his one note machine-gun riff at the end of "Psycho Killer".
• Jp from Roanoke, VaA girl named Cinnamon
  
  "The drummer relaxes and waits between shows for his Cinnamon girl"
  
  "Send me money now..."
  
  "Your baby loves to dance..."
  
  Perhaps a song about a stripper?
• Selenie from Los Angeles, CaLOVE this song...my second favorite Neil Young song after Heart of Gold. After watching this video and all the shots of the ladies in the crowd, I personally think it's a pastiche of just all the cool, cute, down-to-earth women who love good music and love to dance!
• Barry from Sauquoit, NyThe Memphis band The Gentrys, of 'Keep On Dancing' fame, also released this song in 1970 and it peaked at No. 52, three positions higher that Neil's...
• Kevin from Jacksonville, FlI like the live version from "Live Rush" better then the studio version. The live version is a bit faster, more raw and grungier.
• Marla from East Alton, Il, IlCinnamon Girl was actually, a waitress at a Cafe where the band stopped. Neil wanted some Cinnamon on his French Toast, and there was none. So, this beautiful waitress, ran across the street to the Grocery store and bought some and brought it back and he told her he would write a song about her.
• Thomas from Nyc, NyI totally agree with Steve from Fenton, MO. BY FAR, Neil's best guitar playing is performed on "Like a Hurricane". Just listen to the intricate layers of guitar riffs and extremely passionate fervor in which Neil plays his guitar in this song. Absolutely his best guitar solo ever, and one of the best anyone has ever done!!
• Jim from Long Beach, CaOne of Neil's finest moments...
• Jamie from Nyack, NyNeil was in LA at the time, so there would have been a lot of cinnamon-skinned lasses to skate through his field of vision. And supposedly his first sexual experience was with a young Indian woman in Canada. Like many of his best songs, this one has depth in time despite the simple lyrics ...
  
  Was he aware of the great Latin classic "Piel Canela" ("Cinnamon skin") which was also about a lady? It wouldn't be a surprise if he was.
  
  And the guitar solo rocks, one note or not ... "one note is enough."
• Elizabeth from Meadville, PaI personally think it's a girl who has red hair and freckles. What ever a cinnamon girl is it's a great song!
• Oldpink from New Castle, InGreat song, and the hesitations Neil inserts are really cool.
  It vaguely reminds me of "Wild Thing" by the Troggs.
• Mark from Augusta, Me"Cinnamon girl" is not about a girl at all.It's a song about the love for music and knowing that playing music for a living is what he is destined to do.
• Venusinscorpio from Covington, KyDan McCafferty of NAZARETH also covered CINNAMON GIRL on his solo album from 1975
• Joys from New York, NyDarryl from eugene is on the money.
  In my mind Cinnamon girl looks like Buffy Sainte Marie
  I often wondered if Neil had an affair with her.
  Great songs can take you anywhere
  Joys, new york
• Andy from Columbus, OhHey Victoria, did you really know Neil? He is a straight up genius. Lord knows I wana live with a Cinnamon Girl...
• David from Huntington Beach, CaThis song is so ahead of it's time. This is 1969 and was "grunge" way before that term was even coined. Neil Young and Crazy Horse are most definitely the first Garage Band.
• Tracy from Farmington, CtI thought "Cinnamon Girl" was written about
  Pamela Courson, (Jim Morrison's girlfriend)i read that several times when reading about Morrison, The Doors and Pamela's life. Pamela was a California redhead with freckles, she was cute ,very flirtatious (supposively) and had a heroin addiction...which eventually killed her.
  Hey, only Neil knows for sure.
• Barbara from Decatur, GaThis is actually my all-time favorite song. I love the way the riff rises and falls, with that little pause... and oh yeah, that one-note solo gets me every time. The liner notes in "Decade" say he wrote this song about a girl he saw walking down the street playing finger cymbals.
• Victoria from Tacoma, WaJune 27,28 1966 the Buffalo Springfield played the Cinnamon Cinder. Neil Young asked me to go with him, we had to drive between LA and San Diego, my friend drove all of us, Steven, Neil, me, Rcihie, Bruce and Dickie(The Manager) she was dating the drummer in the Door's, John Densmore.(The drummer relaxs and waits between shows for his Cinnamon Girl.)
  
  The Door's played the Whiskey thoes two nights and the following nights the Buffalo played.
  
  
  
• Steve from Saint Louis, MoThere was a music club in the 60's called Cinnamon Cinder. It was featured in an Time magazine article about teenage nightclubs in the early 60's. It has always seemed obvious to me that it was about the girls that would hang out at that club.
• Darrell from EugeneI think that the real "Cinnamon Girl" was a young, attractive Native American, Latina or Pacific Islander woman with dark tan (read: more or less cinnamon-colored) skin and long black hair.
• Walter from Antwerp, BelgiumThe best one-note-solo ever !!
• Roberto from Houston, TxYou guys are NUTS.
  Cinnamon Girl is about the crazy horse srummer's girlfriend and neil's wanting of one like that.
• Morgan from Long Beach, Cathis song cinnamon girl, was known to be a song for pamela courson..also known as pam morrison.
  i know this, because i read it in a book about the doors. <3
• Adam from Winnipeg, CanadaGreat rocking tune. I think this songs about meeting that one special girl who does it for ya.
• Nathan from Defiance, OhI think you're right volkswiezen. He defiantly hated the stardom. Young always changed his styles to evade his fame. Which always brought him more attention in the end.
• Tom Mccafferty from Burnaby, CanadaWhere is, Time Fades Away?
• Volkswiezen from South Philly, PaI agree, I hate analyzing songs. The first thing that has always come to mind in this song is a mix rock stardom and thoughts of how much Neil would also rather be living on the "prarie" with this "Cinnamon Girl", or a simple life married to a native american woman (or that life style).
• Fyodor from Denver, CoI'll take Neil's word for it that some gal inspired the song. But what I wanna know is: if she was such a great gal, why does the song sound so dark? (Sorry Emily, but if you don't like people analyzing songs, what are you doing here? I agree that analyzing songs may not be necessary for enjoying them, but I do it for one reason: IT'S FUN!)
• Steve from Fenton, MoNeil was rated as one of the ten best lead guitarists in a recent magazine and it listed this song as THE essential Neil solo. That had to be a joke, because this solo is the same note played over and over. Only the chords change during the course of the solo. I like Neil Young a lot and I think he has a style, which is an important part of being a good lead guitarist, but I would use Powderfinger or Like a Hurricane as his signature solos.
• Stefanie from Rock Hill, ScI don't care what everyone else says. I agree with Wes about the drug thing. I get why people think "Lucy in the Sky With Doamonds" is about LSD, but even though its very weird and has crazy images I don't agree with that assumption. "Cinnamon Girl" isn't about drugs either. I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone, but it does get frustrating.
• Johnny from Los Angeles, CaCinnamon girl is not about heroin. Look at what ryan from Canada and deadzeppelin have to say, cuz they're right. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is about LSD. I would talk about it on the "Lucy" board but that is crowded. Remember, John always denied his songs were about drugs. And the rest of the song covers the aspect of LSD pretty well. Also, watch Yellow Submarine!
• Ekristheh from Halath, United StatesOn the liner notes to Decade, Young says "Wrote this for a city girl on peeling pavement coming at me thru Phil Ochs eyes playing finger cymbals. It was hard to explain to my wife.". I would generally tend to take Young's word for it until proven otherwise.
• Emily from Winnipeg, United StatesStop caring about where he got the inspiration from. Another thing, who cares if Stairway to Heaven has satanic messages!!!! Just as society has made us respect other cultures, we should respect the fact that some people do believe in different things, no matter how s**t on the belief is by society. So just put aside your curiosity and enjoy the creativity!!!!
• Ashley from Niles, OhI'd just like to make the correction that lucy in the sky with diamonds was not about LSD. The song was based on a drawing johns son julian brought home from school from a girl named lucy richardson.
• Eric from Fargo, Ndcinnamon girl wasnt about pamela courson
  nor a girl he met on tour
  neil young had a very high fever when he wrote this song and just picked up his guitar and wrote a song
  he talks about it on an episode of conan o brien
  its not a very big secret
  and to wes from springfield,
  lucy in the sky with diamonds is about LSD
  Paul Mcartney has openly said it is
• Henry from Victoria, CanadaWho cares what it's about, it's the guitars that make this song, especially the solo at the end.
• Wes from Springfield, VaWhy is it that every song written in the Sixties has to do with drugs? This is the same kind of mentality behind people assuring us that "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" was about LSD. Frankly, I think Neil Young got a look at a young lady who had reddish hair, freckles and a tan, and dubbed her the Cinnamon Girl. At least, that's the mental image I get from the phrase.
• Stefanie Magura from Rock Hill, ScMore specifically, I think the song's about finding the ideal mate.
• Jude from Thomasville, GaThis song totally rocks! Leave the silly "hidden meanings" at the door and enjoy the song -- please! It's one of Neil's best.
• Bizgotti from Toronto, Canadai think "the cinnamon girl" is a drug dealer or someone who sullply "the goods" what ever that may be.
• Deadzeppelin from San Francisco, CaIf you have ever heard the song The needle and the damage done, then you would know that this is absolutely not about heroin. I think it's just a about an ideal girl. Either way he rocks.
  
• Charlie from Thomaston, Ctif you guys wanna hear a really good version of cowgirl in the sand, check out the live crosby stills nash and young album: 4 way street. it has a great version of cowgirl in the sand played live and accousicly.
• Joshua from Butler, PaI really dig this one, personally i,m not sure about the meaning my supervisor told it about a girl who was offspring of an interracial conception. If he is right i,ll never know....
  Niel whats up?
• Sandra from Tx, United StatesCinnamon Girl was written about Pamela Courson, who was (or wasn't?) married to Jim Morrison.
• Paula from Houston, TxI don't know who he really wrote it about, but this song stands as a tribute to every groupie who ever lived. I love this song.
• Ryan from Winnipeg, Canadaneil young did not write this song about heroin. in fact "i never touch the stuff," is a neil young quote. he lost bruce berry and danny whitten to heroin so i doubt he would make a song glorifying it.
• Soda from Nantes, FranceThe fact is 'Cinnamon Girl' is a metaphor for Heroin. Like a few of Neil's songs some of which are obvious and some of which are not.
• Robert from Chicago, IlCinnamon Girl is about a girl he came across in California while walking down the street. He explained that the girl was on roller skates wearing a bikini. Young mentions a little about it on the liner notes on the LP version of Decade.
• Paulus from Tasmania, AustraliaCrazy Horse (then - Whitten,Talbot,Molina), were 3 members of the band, The Rockets, whom Neil had invited to record with him.
  
  Cinnamon Girl recorded 20 March 1969, first session with Crazy Horse.
  
  Neil wrote Cinnamon Girl while suffering from the flu, (at the same time, mid-march '69, he wrote 'Cowgirl in the Sand' & 'Down by the River').

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