Everybody's Rockin'

by

Neil Young

Edit

Everybody's Rockin is a 1983 album by Neil Young and the Shocking Pinks. The album was recorded with the Shocking Pinks (a band made up just for the occasion), and features a selection of rockabilly songs (both covers and original material). Running less than a half of an hour, the music is unlike anything else in Young's career. However, Everybody's Rockin is typical of his 1980s period in that it bears little, or no resemblance to the album released before it (Trans (1982), a synth-heavy, electro-rock album), nor the one released after it (Old Ways (1985), which is pure country.)

Everybody's Rockin is Neil Young's shortest album, clocking in at under 25 minutes. In a 1995 interview with MOJO, Young said that the album was supposed to have included the songs "Get Gone" and "Don't Take Your Love Away From Me" (which later appeared on Lucky Thirteen), but that Geffen, his record company, cancelled the recording sessions.

The following year, Geffen sued Young for making "uncharacteristic, uncommercial records", because of this record and its predecessor. In the Mojo interview Young says "R.E.M. were going to go with Geffen, then they heard I was being sued and everything, they just dropped all contact with Geffen and signed with Warner Bros. instead. Geffen actually lost R.E.M. simply for suing me over Everybody's Rockin!" Ironically, Geffen was at the time distributed by WBR.

Young wrote the song "Wonderin'" long before the sessions for Everybody's Rockin'. It dates from at least the After the Gold Rush era, and was part of his setlist at solo acoustic shows in 1970. An electric performance, featuring Crazy Horse appears on Live at the Fillmore East.

Everybody's Rockin was panned by critics and fans at the time of its release.