Song of the Week - Hey Hey My My (Into the Black)

Neil Young first recorded this song on his Rust Never Sleeps album around 1980. This was followed up by the Live Rust tour album. Over the years, a typical Neil Young show has an acoustic portion and an electric portion. He wrote two versions of this song. "My My Hey Hey (Into the Blue)" is acoustic and "Hey Hey My My (Into the Black)" is electric. The songs have slightly different lyrics but both are about the fleeting fame of the rock and roll star. As Neil says acoustically "It's better to burn out then to fade away". Electrically he says "It's better to burn out, 'cause rust never sleeps".



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 story of johnny rotten?
It's better to burn out 'cause rust never sleeps
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.