"My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)" is a song by Canadian musician
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Fur ...
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
. Combined with its hard rock counterpart "
Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)
"Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" is a song written by Canadian-American musician Neil Young. Combined with its acoustic counterpart " My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)", it bookends Young's 1979 album '' Rust Never Sleeps''. The song was influenc ...
", it bookends Young's 1979 album ''
Rust Never Sleeps
''Rust Never Sleeps'' is an album with both studio and live tracks by Canadian American singer-songwriter Neil Young and American band Crazy Horse. It was released on June 22, 1979, by Reprise Records. Most of the album was recorded live, then o ...
''. Inspired by
electropunk
Electronic rock is a music genre that involves a combination of rock music and electronic music, featuring instruments typically found within both genres. It originates from the late 1960s, when rock bands began incorporating electronic instrum ...
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
and what Young viewed as his own growing irrelevance, the song significantly revitalized Young's career.
The line, "it's better to burn out than to fade away" was taken from one of the songs of Young's bandmate in the short-lived supergroup
The Ducks
The Ducks (formerly known as the Jeff Blackburn Band) were a short-lived American hard rock supergroup formed in the summer of 1977 by singer-songwriter Jeff Blackburn. The band included Bob Mosley (an original member of Moby Grape), Canadian ...
, Jeff Blackburn. The line was also used in the movie '' Highlander'' (1986), in the church scene where the Kurgan (
Clancy Brown
Clarence John "Clancy" Brown III (born January 5, 1959) is an American actor. Prolific in film and television since the 1980s, Brown is often cast in villainous and authoritative roles.
Brown's film roles include Viking Lofgren in ''Bad Boys'' ...
) and the Highlander ( Christopher Lambert) meet. The Kurgan utters the line as he exits the church. It became infamous after being quoted in
Nirvana
( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...
suicide note
A suicide note or death note is a message left behind by a person who dies or intends to die by suicide.
A study examining Japanese suicide notes estimated that 25–30% of suicides are accompanied by a note. However, incidence rates may depen ...
. Young later said that he was so shaken that he dedicated his 1994 album ''
Sleeps with Angels
''Sleeps with Angels'' is the 20th studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young, released on August 16, 1994, on Reprise as a double LP and as a single CD. Co-produced by David Briggs, the album is Young's seventh with Crazy Horse.
Background ...
'' to Cobain.
Legacy
Young compared the rise of
Johnny Rotten
John Joseph Lydon (; born 31 January 1956), also known by his former stage name Johnny Rotten, is an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer of the late-1970s punk band the Sex Pistols, which lasted from 1975 until 1978, and aga ...
with that of the recently deceased "King"
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
, who himself had once been disparaged as a dangerous influence only to later become an
icon
An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most ...
. In 1977, Rotten responded by playing a song by Young on a radio program.
The song may best be known for the line "It's better to burn out than to fade away" (actually only spoken in full in the acoustic "My My, Hey Hey" and the ''Human Highway'' film recording ). Kurt Cobain's suicide note ended with the same line, shaking Young and inadvertently cementing his place as the so-called "Godfather of Grunge".
Ex-Beatle
John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...
commented on the message of the song in a 1980 interview with
David Sheff
David Sheff (born December 23, 1955) is an American author of the books '' Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction'', ''Clean: Overcoming Addiction and Ending America's Greatest Tragedy'',Sussman, Mick (April 19, 2013)"A Di ...
from ''Playboy'':
Young would reply two years later when asked to respond to Lennon's comments:
The rock'n'roll spirit is not survival. Of course the people who play rock'n'roll should survive. But the essence of the rock'n'roll spirit to me, is that it's better to burn out really bright than to sort of decay off into infinity. Even though if you look at it in a mature way, you'll think, "well, yes… you should decay off into infinity, and keep going along". Rock'n'roll doesn't look that far ahead. Rock'n'roll is right now. What's happening right this second. Is it bright? Or is it dim because it's waiting for tomorrow—that's what people want to know. And that's why I say that.
Oasis covered the song on their 2000 world tour, including it on their live album and DVD ''
Familiar to Millions
''Familiar to Millions'' is a live album by English rock band Oasis. It was released on 13 November 2000 by Big Brother Recordings. The album was recorded at Wembley Stadium on 22 July 2000. It debuted at No. 5 in the UK charts with 57,000 co ...
''. The band acknowledged Cobain's attachment to the song by dedicating it to him when they played it in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
on the sixth anniversary of his death.
It is included on Neil Young's ''
Greatest Hits
A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...
'' album.
The song is the title theme of Dennis Hopper's movie '' Out of the Blue''.
The song was included at number 93 in
Bob Mersereau
Bob Ellis Mersereau is a Canadian arts journalist.Rockingham, Graham "Randy Bachman: lord of the song"''The Spec''
He is a music columnist and longtime arts reporter for CBC Television in New Brunswick.Battleme appeared on season 3, episode 13 of '' Sons of Anarchy''.