Rust Never Sleeps

by Neil Young

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Neil Young's 1979 "Rust Never Sleeps" marked a major shift in artistic direction for both Young and the entire music industry. "Rust Never Sleeps" signaled Young's recognition that that there was new force in music -- namely punk -- and that the face of Rock-n-Roll would change forever.

The album also represented a concious recognition that Young's music had to evolve or he would become extinct. The lyrics of songs like "Hey Hey, My My" with the chorus "Rock-n-Roll will Never Die" signify Young's desire to remain a vital part of the music scene. Even the album's title phrase "Rust Never Sleeps" embodies the spirit of punk music and the embrace of the new at the expense of the old. Much as The Who sang "Hope I die before I get old", Young is saying that he would rather "burn out than fade away".

The lyrics "It's better to burn out than fade away" were tragically misinterpreted by Kurt Cobain which he quoted in his suicide note.

The opening acoustic track "My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)" and the closing electric track "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" continue a theme of bookending albums with a "plugged" and "unplugged" version. Young pioneered this approach with the bookends of 1973's Tonight's The Night with the title track which opening acoustic and concluding electric. This unplugged and plugged approach was used again on 1989's Freedom's "Rockin In The Free World" acoustic and electric version. The unplugged theme would later become a phenomenon in the 1990's with MTV's Unplugged series where artists showcased their "acoustic" versions of well known electric hits. It was considered quite clever back then. Of course, Neil had moved on by then and when he was asked to perform on MTV's Unplugged a running joke was that Neil would probably plug in his acoustic tunes.

"Rust Never Sleeps" is considered to be a favorite among fans and was voted as the top album in a poll published in Broken Arrow magazine no. 55, from May, 1994. The album is the source of some of Neil's most beloved songs such as "Powderfinger" and "Thrasher" which have yielded countless interpretations of their lyrics.

There are several urban legends revolving around the album title's origins. Rumor has it that the group Devo came up with the slogan as part of an advertising campaign for the product Rustoleum, a rust inhibitor. Neil has confirmed that he got the phrase "Rust Never Sleeps" from Devo but whether it was ever seriously created for an ad campaign is unknown.

Ironically, one of Young's most signature phrases was not actually written by him. The song "Hey Hey, My My" has a co-writer credit to Jeff Blackburn. Blackburn was in a band that opened for the legendary 1977 The Ducks California bar tour and wrote a song containing the key lyric "It's better to burn out than it is to rust."

The meaning of the phrase "Rust Never Sleeps" is quite ambiguous. Some consider the term to be a metaphor for artistic vitality. In other words, by staying the same, one is vulnerable to the corrosive effects of aging and obsolescence. By moving forward and innovating, one can try and stay ahead of the relentless onslaught of time, remain vital and "rust free".

In many ways, grunge music was to the 90's what punk was to 70's. Both grunge and punk were relatively short lived musical genres that had a much greater impact than their sales, radio play, and concert performances would indicate. However, critically, both genres were both hailed and disparaged as either the future of rock or an indication that rock was dead.

In a Funhouse! review by Richard Dubourg, the significance of Rust Never Sleeps' statement on the music scene is spot on:

"Rust Never Sleeps is an album borne of the decade that saw Vietnam, environmental disasters, and other events of global change, and ends up being one of the most direct and coherent statements about the punk movement ever put to vinyl. 'This is the story of Johnny Rotten,' Young sings, and you know he sees Rotten as the ambassador to an irresistible driving force in popular music at the time. This only serves to reinforce the grunge connection, with that later ... phenomenon being a fruitful ... offspring of the union between punk and rock music."

From Greil Marcus' 1993 book "Ranters & Crowd Pleasers: Punk in Pop Music" on selecting "Rust Never Sleeps" as the most imporatant album of 1979:

"Divided equally between graceful acoustic reveries and viciously hard rock, this was a sneak attack on entropy, its explicit subject. Up against the most reliable and unpredictable rock 'n' roller of the decade, entropy never had a chance --- at least while this album was playing."

An interview with Young in Spin Magazine (June 1988), Neil was asked about the lyrics to the song "Pocahontas" that go "If you were a trapper, would you give a 1000 pelts to sleep with Pocahontas and find out how she felt?"

YOUNG: "I think I would have. I would have given all the pelts I had. Then I'd go out and trap more."

Oh well, so much for lyrical insight. There has been a great deal of speculation about the lines "Pocahontas, Marlon Brando and me". The connection between Pocahontas, Marlon Brando and Neil Young is the Native American Indian. Pocahontas was a famous Indian who "saved" the first "white man" to arrive in America Captain John Smith in Virginia. Brando was renowned for his support of the plight of native Americans. Brando once refused to accept an Oscar and instead sent an Indian woman to read a short speech on the native American tragedy. Finally, Neil has a long history of supporting Indian rights.

Also, here's a collection of album reviews and commentary of Neil Young's Rust Never Sleeps. More on the film and followup album Live Rust below.

• Analysis of lyrics of "Powderfinger"

• Lyrics Analysis of Thrasher

• FUNHOUSE! review by Richard Dubourg
  

• Robert Christgau's review

• Rust Never Sleeps - by Bill Meyer on Ink Blot
  

• Rustie Expecting to Fly's Review of Rust Never Sleeps album
  

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  Reviews of "Rust Never Sleeps" Film

  The stage production of "Rust Never Sleeps" is considered to be one of the most infuential concert tours of all time. While a rather grandiose claim, Young's use of film projection , wireless microphones, props, actors and sets all foreshadowed the arena rock spectacles that were to come by The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd & U2 to name but a few. Young's place in the music industry while secure seemed to be in doubt as the 1970's came to a close. The oversized prop microphones and speaker cabinets "dwarfed" Young on stage and symbolized his reluctance to play to large audiences who could barely see him on stage.

• From New York Times film review by John Rockwell, "Rust Never Sleeps" is favorable compared to Richard Lester's Beatles music movie classic "A Hard Day's Night".
  "'Rust Never Sleeps' offers some of his strongest songs, both new and old, in performances as fine or finer than those of his recent, partly live record of the same title. The effect here is rougher than the record, less polished with overdubbing; at one point, Mr. Young even mangles the words of one of his best songs. But the intensity of the singing and the playing of Crazy Horse, Mr. Young's longtime partners for electric-rock projects, is as moving as rock can offer. It's so good, in fact, that it almost lets one overlook Mr. Young's theatrical conceits, and almost makes the film recommendable for the general public, after all."

• Rust Never Sleeps Concert Review - Detroit, MI 12/1978

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