The Meaning Behind Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)”

In the annals of rock music, the partnership between Neil Young and Devo ranks among one of the least expected. Yet that combination was responsible for one of Young’s most culturally relevant and best-known songs.

“Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black),” and its acoustic sibling, “My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)”, were the closing and opening tracks, respectively, on Neil Young and Crazy Horse‘s 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps. The song had its origins in a movie called Human Highway, which Young co-directed (under the pseudonym Bernard Shakey). Young and Devo also co-starred in the film.

Devo performed an early version of “Hey Hey, My My” with Young for the movie. Their joint rendition is longer and punkier than the one on Rust Never Sleeps. But the lyrics are close to identical. When Young put the song on his album, he received the only songwriting credit. But Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh made an important contribution. More on that later. First, let’s delve into the meaning behind Neil Young’s “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)” and explore its significance.

Long Live Rock—but Not Rockers

There has been no shortage of rock songs celebrating rock as a genre, and “Hey Hey, My My” fits squarely in that category. Young’s take on the greatness of rock music is more nuanced than a mere proclamation of love for rock ‘n’ roll. In fact, he even sings in the first verse, Hey hey, my my / Rock and roll can never die / There’s more to the picture than meets the eye.

Young fills out the rest of that “picture” in the second verse: And once you’re gone, you can’t go back / When you’re out of the blue and into the black. In other words, once a rock musician has lost relevance, it’s game over—at least as far as being a true rocker is concerned. Rock is about immediacy and going all out in the moment, not about staying power. Young expounded on this point in a 2023 interview for the AXS TV program The Big Interview with Dan Rather. He told Rather, “For rock and roll, if that’s all you are and that’s all you want to do, exploding is not bad. But there’s a lot more to life than just rock and roll.”

Peak Powers

In his interview with Rather, Young cited Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Buddy Holly, and Richie Valens as great rockers who died at the peak of their creative powers. In “Hey Hey, My My,” Young name-checks Elvis Presley, who lived longer but lost relevance; and Johnny Rotten, who is still very much alive.

The king is gone but he’s not forgotten (Johnny Rotten, Johnny Rotten)
Is this the story of Johnny Rotten? (Johnny Rotten, Rotten Johnny)
It’s better to burn out, ‘cause rust never sleeps
The king is gone but he’s not forgotten.

In retrospect, pairing Presley with the Sex Pistols’ frontman seems strange. Johnny Rotten reverted to his birth name of John Lydon and went on to release music with Public Image Ltd and as a solo artist right through to the present. At the time Young wrote “Hey Hey, My My,” Rotten’s legacy was to be determined, which is why he phrased the lyric as a question.

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A Pair of Classic Lyrics

“Rust never sleeps” is a critical line to the meaning of “Hey Hey, My My.” It provides a striking visual that helps us to understand what happens to rockers who stick around too long. Rust—or decay—will win against even the hardiest rockers, because it never sleeps. The origins of the line are not very rock ‘n’ roll, though. Mothersbaugh added the line to the song, as he remembered it from a Rust-Oleum paint ad.

In “My My, Hey Hey,” the “rust never sleeps” line is replaced by It’s better to burn out than it is to rust. Just like “rust never sleeps,” the line was borrowed. It came from a song by the Ducks—a band that Young was in briefly prior to writing “My My, Hey Hey.” Young gave his Ducks bandmate Jeff Blackburn a writing credit for “My My, Hey Hey” because of the line’s inclusion. A variation of that line also found in “My My, Hey Hey”—It’s better to burn out than to fade away—was referenced in Def Leppard’s “Rock of Ages” as well as in the film Highlander. Tragically, Cobain included the line in his suicide note.

The Impact of “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)”

“Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)” was the only single released from Rust Never Sleeps. With “My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)” on the B-side, it went to No. 79 on the Billboard Hot 100. Rust Never Sleeps peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200. It was Young’s first album to be certified Platinum since his 1972 release Harvest.

Oasis covered the song in live performances, one of which was captured for their 2000 double-live album Familiar to Millions. Dave Matthews Band included their live version of “Hey Hey, My My” on Live Trax, Vol. 13, released in 2008. The Scottish band Big Country put versions of it on a 1995 live album and a 2001 covers album. Battleme’s cover was used for the Season 3 finale of the FX series Sons of Anarchy.

Many more artists have recorded their own versions of “Hey Hey, My My.” It speaks to the song’s popularity and longevity. Young’s message is intriguing. With the number of brilliant rock musicians who have died young, it offers fans some food for thought. His sustained success gives us a reason to think critically about the claims he makes in “Hey Hey, My My.” But it doesn’t diminish the greatness of one of his best rockers.

Photo by Henry Diltz/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images