It’s better to burn out than it is to fade away – of toch niet?

It’s better to burn out than it is to fade away: people have asked me about that line since I first sang it in 1978.

I wrote it referring to the rock and roll star, meaning that if you go while you are burning hottest, then that is how you will be remembered, at the peak of our powers for ever. That is rock and roll.

At sixty-five, I may not be at the peak of my rock and roll powers. But that is not for sure. The idea that I should have died earlier is not the point. There really is more to life than its charged peak, because other things continue to grow and develop long afterward, enriching and growing the spirit and soul.

Neil Young in Waging Heavy Peace (p 331 van mijn editie)