This is an alternate version of Young's song "My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)." The lyrics are slightly different, and this is electric, while "My My, Hey Hey," is acoustic.
Young recorded this with the band Crazy Horse. It was the first time Young recorded with them since Zuma in 1975.
In the biography of Neil Young, Shakey by Jimmy McDonough, Neil points out that this song came about when he was jamming with the band Devo. The line "Rust never sleeps" was uttered by Mark Mothersbaugh, and Neil, loving the impromptu line, acquired it and would play the song live with Crazy Horse. (thanks, Chris - Philadelphia, PA)
The lyrics refer to "The King" and Johnny Rotten as rockers whose legacies live on. The king is Elvis Presley and Johnny Rotten was the lead singer of The Sex Pistols.
This is the last song on the electric side of Rust Never Sleeps. The first side (first 5 songs on the CD) are acoustic.
This was included on Live Rust, a concert album and video featuring Young playing against a backdrop of comically enormous amps and microphones.
The song has become a standby of Young's live performances, being played at nearly every live show throughout his career, often as a closing song.
John Lennon expressed his disagreement with the "burn out or fade away" sentiment in a 1980 interview with Playboy: "I hate it. It's better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out. If he was talking about burning out like Sid Vicious, forget it. I don't appreciate the worship of dead Sid Vicious or of dead James Dean or dead John Wayne. It's the same thing. Making Sid Vicious a hero, Jim Morrison - it's garbage to me. I worship the people who survive." Young responded to the quote, saying that he was describing the paradoxical nature of the rock-and-roll lifestyle, not advocating it.
