Hey Hey, My My

Hey Hey, My My fra Youngs album Rust Never Sleeps fra 1979 var inspireret af punkrockens tidsånd i slutningen af ​​1970’erne, hvad han så som sin egen voksende irrelevans. Sangen går hånd i hånd med My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue), og de to versioner henholdsvis lukker og åbner ballet på netop Rust Never Sleeps – først My My, Hey Hey i en akustisk udgave, og til sidst My My, Hey Hey i en tung og skramlet garagerock version, som kun Crazy Horse kan skramle. Eneste tekstforskel på de to versioner et anderledes rim hist og her.

Linjen, “It’s better to burn out than to fade away”, blev inkluderet som sidste linje i Nirvana frontmand Kurt Cobains selvmordsbrev i 1994, og blev på den måde pludselig en af de mest berømte sangtekster nogensinde, da  Cobains kone Cortney Love læste passager af brevet højt på MTV for alle fans. Efter Cobains død insisterede Young på aldrig at fremføre sangen igen, men skiftede dog mening efter anmodning fra de overlevende medlemmer af Nirvana.

Young talte i 2005 med Time Magazine om sangteksten, selvmordsbrevet og Cobains død:

“The fact that he left the lyrics to my song right there with him when he killed himself left a profound feeling on me, but I don’t think he was saying I have to kill myself because I don’t want to fade away. I don’t think he was interpreting the song in a negative way. It’s a song about artistic survival, and I think he had a problem with the fact that he thought he was selling out, and he didn’t know how to stop it. He was forced to do tours when he didn’t want to, forced into all kinds of stuff. I was trying to get a hold of him – because I had heard some of the things he was doing to himself – just to tell him it’s OK not to tour, it’s OK not to do these things, just take control of your life and make your music. Or, hey, don’t make music. But as soon as you feel like you’re out there pretending, you’re fucked. I think he knew that instinctively, but he was young and he didn’t have a lot of self-control. And who knows what other personal things in his life were having a negative impression on him at the time?”

Klippet øverst er en optagelse fra Massey Hall i Toronto i 2011.

It's better to burn out than to fade away.

— Neil Young

Hey hey, my my
Rock and roll can never die
There’s more to the picture
Than meets the eye
Hey hey, my my

Out of the blue and into the black
You pay for this, but they give you that
And once you’re gone, you can’t come back
When you’re out of the blue and into the black

The king is gone but he’s not forgotten
Is this the tale of Johnny rotten?
It’s better to burn out than fade away
The king is gone but he’s not forgotten

Hey hey, my my
Rock and roll can never die
There’s more to the picture
Than meets the eye
Hey hey, my my

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