9/25/13

transcended space and time

So there's this guy named Neil Young.  You may have heard of him at some point in your life.  Back in the day, he looked like this most of the time:

And he still looks like that now, except just older.  But still awesome.  Anyway, Neil here wrote a song once, along with many others, and it went like this:

My my, hey hey
Rock and roll is here to stay
It's better to burn out
Than to fade away
My my, hey hey.
  
I know, pretty great.   On a related note which I'm getting to in just a moment, there once was another guy named Kurt Cobain.  He spent most of his time looking like this:
And being called "the spokesman of a generation," and singing about feeling stupid and contagious and wearing grungy sweaters and getting featured on M-TV.  Unfortunately, like many of the greats, Kurt didn't do these things for nearly long enough.  He took his own life in 1994, leaving behind a letter which, among other things, contained a quote from a song by Neil Young, which read, 

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

On a still-related note that I'm getting to, I promise, Drew and I went to a Jake Bugg concert last night.  

See?  We even have blurry, low-quality, blocked-by-other-people's-heads photos to prove it.  It was fantastic, and I even danced in spite of this horrendous cold I have right now that is making me wish I could drill a hole in my head to relieve some pressure.  

Anyway, this 19-year-old prodigy (who makes me feel horribly under-accomplished) whose music has been described as, "The sound of rock and roll being newly discovered," no big deal, played a cover during his encore.  It was a Neil Young song, and it went like this:

My my, hey hey
Rock and roll is here to stay
It's better to burn out
Than to fade away
My my, hey hey.

And as I stood there listening, I had what I guess I'll describe as...a moment?  For lack of a better phrase that I can't think of right now and I'm blaming the cold.  

You see, I'm not cool.  I'm not one of those cool people who knows all of Neil Young and Kurt Cobain's songs by heart.  The only reason I knew that Kurt Cobain quoted the Neil Young song that was being played in front of me in his suicide note is because I'm married to Drew.  And Drew is cool and knows these sorts of things and tells them to me.  I didn't even recognize the song at first.  But then I heard it, that line.  It's better to burn out than to fade away.   

And it felt like everyone in the venue had just transcended space and time and Jake Bugg was every person who's ever lived and stood on a stage playing a guitar, just singing something honest.

12 comments:

  1. gosh i love the way you say things. i was at a john mayer concert a month back and i had one of 'those moments'. he sang free fallin' by tom petty and it just made me feel this fresh emotion, something i can only imagine good, live music can do. it all felt very miraculous and pretty much exactly what you just described.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love his version of that song! Seems like a lot of people have covered it, but he puts his own twist into it that I love. I'm jealous you got to see it live.

      Delete
  2. All incredible artists. All with good things to sing to the people who will listen. Why is music so powerful and why does it spark such deep, yet intense feelings of resilience in us? Like we are immortal, unstoppable, like we can do anything. It also unites us with everyone in the room, yeah? I always just assume that everyone is experiencing the trippiness that I am at that moment. Not that I'm really tripping, Meg. But you know, It's just sort of intimate. I just read over that, sounds like mumbo jumbo, but knowing you, and knowing how we communicate... I know you'll understand.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes. Yes I would say that I do understand, definitely. I really like the way you put that, it unites people and makes us fee invincible. I don't know how that's possible, but it is so true.

      Delete
  3. Yes to all of this. I love the unity that art can provide. It can cross generations and lifestyles. Art will never not be the most important thing in the word. This was gorgeous.

    Em
    Tightrope to the Sun

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Out of the Blue and into the black,
    you gave me this but I paid for that,
    and once your gone you can never get it back,
    when you're out of the blue and into the black."

    My favorite Neil Young song of all time, to play and to listen to. Ohio is my second favorite, which is about WACO. Amazing man, as was Kurt Cobain. Awesome post!! I literally posted a Neil young post a month ago.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's pretty incredible, been stuck in my head ever since!

      Delete
  5. I also would like to point out that Kurt Cobains Suicide note is one of the most EPIC suicide notes of all time, and I cry every time I read it...which admittedly has been a few times. What a heartbreaking genius. Cheers to music history!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Totally gonna go check his music out. I used to listen to oldies, rock and roll and all that, but then I haven't in a year and it took my three months to aquire a taste for it, so we'll see how i like it again... I love how you love music haha

    ReplyDelete

I love reading what you have to say about what I had to say. Feel free to leave those thoughts here.