"Cowgirl in the Sand" is a song written by Neil Young and first released on his 1969 album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. Young has also included the live versions of the song on several albums and on the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young album 4 Way Street. It has also been covered by The Byrds on their self-titled album. Like two other songs from Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, "Cinnamon Girl" and "Down by the River", Young wrote "Cowgirl in the Sand" while he was suffering from the flu with a high fever at his home in Topanga, California.

The song's lyrics are about a promiscuous woman, or perhaps three different women if each verse describes a different woman. Author Nigel Williamson describes the lyrics as "obscure and dreamlike, addressed to some idealized woman." Music critic Johnny Rogan describes the lyrics as "oblique", describing the woman as being both "idealistic" and "idealized" by the singer, referring particularly to the line "When so many love you, is it the same?" Author David Downing suggests that this line reflects ambiguity as to whether increased sexual freedom is a blessing or whether it is a curse. Downing, however, feels that the next line, "it's the woman in you that makes you want to play this game", was already outdated when the song was released in the late 1960s. At the time of the song's initial release, Rolling Stone described the lyrics as "quietly accusative". Young himself has claimed that "Cowgirl in the Sand" is about his impression of "beaches in Spain", despite the fact that when he wrote the song he had never been to Spain.

Author Ken Bielen suggests an interpretation of the lyrics, in which Young is singing about himself. The sand in the title could be a reference to young people coming to California, which has many beaches. The woman in the first verse could be a veiled reference to Young, since Young moved from Canada to California. Lines such as "Old enough now to change your name" and "Has your band begun to rust" could be references to Young's departure from the band Buffalo Springfield. The line "When so many love you, is it the same?" could be a reflection of Young's own ambivalence towards fame, and in Bielen's interpretation, the line that bothered Downing, "it's the woman in you that makes you want to play this game", could be a reference to Young believing that his own feminine side is causing him to seek fame despite the harassment that fame attracts.

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