Is it better to burn out than to fade away? Neil Young philosophically muses
“It’s better to burn out than to fade away.” Kurt Cobain wrote that line in his suicide note in 1994, plucked from ‘Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)’, a 1979 track from Neil Young. It was penned at a time when the romanticism of the reckless rock and roll lifestyle was still high as the myth of the tortured artist was claiming more and more victims. However, as the years went by and Young grew older, his perception of the value of a long life changed.
It must have been uniquely horrifying for Young. Not only was the entire music world mourning the loss of an incredible talent who had gone all too young when Cobain ended his life, but for Young to find his own words amongst the grunge star’s reasons for ending it all, it must have been harrowing. He meant no harm with the song. When ‘Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)’, it was meant to simply be another rock and roll, celebrating the electric energy of music with catchphrases like “Rock and roll can never die.”
The line “It’s better to burn out than to fade away” was meant to merely be a token sentiment similar to the attitude of The Who’s ‘My Generation’ as they sang, “I hope I die before I get old.” But back in the 1960s and ‘70s, and even long into recent days, music hadn’t got the balance right between romanticism and care. People were too caught up in glamorising the idea of the tortured artist, of someone suffering to make something beautiful or brilliant, to realise the danger of it. The sex, drugs and rock and roll lifestyle that was heroised was so often a dangerous or reckless way of living, where a person’s cries for help weren’t heard over the excitement of it all. To put it simply, music has yet to understand that mental health and wellbeing need to come first. As a result, so many incredible talents were lost in their prime, as this belief that it was better to “burn out than to fade away” saw so many lives explode too young.
“Well, for rock and roll, Jimi Hendrix burnt out, okay? Bang, he was gone. Kurt Cobain, bang, gone. Buddy Holly, bang, gone. Richie Valens, bang, gone,” Young said, thinking back to some of the artists taken from the world too young. “They went at their peak, and that’s the way everybody remembers them,” he continued. But that’s also what is so worrying, as Young explained, “That’s what rock and roll is all about; that edge, the peak. So, you look at that and go you, ‘well, maybe it is better to just burn out than it is to fade away for rock and roll.” That was the thinking that inspired ‘Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)’. But as he’s got older and wiser, he’s realised that there has to be a differentiation, adding, “This song is about rock and roll. It’s not about life.”
To Young, it’s vital for people, especially young artists, to realise that there has to be a separation between art and life. There has to be a line between the world of rock and roll and the world itself because if the rock star life becomes too all-consuming, it becomes too easy for artists to forget the value, worth and beauty of living.
“Life has children. It has family. It has relationships. It has nature. It has beauty. It has all of these other things that rock and roll is part of,” he said, poetically. “But rock and roll is its own thing. It’s an animal all to itself.”
When he wrote the song, he was thinking about that animal or even the beast of rock and roll, where recklessness is the way. He said, “But for rock and roll, if that’s all you are and that’s all you want to do, exploding is not bad.” However, the thing he’s come to realise and needs others to hear is this; “There’s a lot more to life than just rock and roll.”
Like so many other artists of his age, Young has seen so much tragedy. His era of music claimed so many casualties from drugs, drinking, terrible accidents or suicide. He has seen so much talent be lost over the years to the kind of mentality that music all too often idolises. But now, at 78 years old, he’s more balanced and grateful as he said, “I love to rock, and I’m glad to be here.”
