![]() In this case it might mean (arguably) taking birth, exhausting yourself like a flame in this life, consequently endowing the world with one’s form of a great deed or act (through some kind of toiling/sacrificing in arriving at his truths/music) and returning to another life (or lives), possibly having the rare chance to carry out a similar (but excruciably taxing) great act, or lie in the shadows of convenience forever. Taken from Hindu philosophy which says that it is better to give everything and burn bright for an instant than to lie in the shadows for eternity. ![]() Similar was the case for Nirvana front man,when he committed suicide, the same lyric was found written in his note. I know its kind of a difficult one (hurts like hell) but it is the only way and the best way you can do for their good. In life we really don't know what's next.Personally, i guess this means it would be good to be far,very far at once from someone you are close rather than being slowly. Neil Young wrote it in response to many contemporaries dying young. Its better to have burned brightly and disappear quickly than to simply be forgotten. You should be able to name them they're always coming to town and making fools of themselves. But we will never think about them as faded relics of days gone by. They lived their lives recklessly and it killed them but not before they made their mark in the world. Some people like Jimi, Janis, and Jim Morrison to name a few will always be remembered for their youth. Well things like that are open to interpretation, but I would assume it means to go out with a bang rather than weakly fading into nothing (a whimper). Than losing the power or the attention or your sanity. My first impression was that it's better to ‘burn out' - to die, or to vanish than being forgotten. At that point, I had no idea about it being in some song too. I first saw it as a line written in the suicide note of Kurt Cobain. A similar sentiment from Alfred Lord Tennyson says, “'This better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.” If you think of love as passion for whatever you do, then the statements hold the same meaning. The meat of it suggests it is better to try with all your might and fail, rather than giving up. The symbolism suggests, contrary to traditional Christian (catholic) dogmas, that Hell is preferable to Purgatory, that one should burn and suffer rather than fade into insignificance and be forgotten. Those words Neil Young penned - and so many others have echoed : the Sex Pistols, Nirvana, Def Lepard, others - simply means you should hang onto your dreams and beliefs for as long as you can, until they destroy your life and sanity and make a husk of your former self, rather than simply give up and capitulate to larger social forces which seek to normalize you and destroy your creative spirit. (and though through years some not so positive connotations for this phrase have also popped up in my mind, this is the interpretation I like to remember). Perhaps its more like describing the implementation stage of 'stay hungry, stay foolish' suggesting that burning yourself out doing something is more rewarding. Of course it is as applicable to non-work related stuff/passions, as it is to work. The first time I'd read this (and loved it enough to have it on my wallpaper for a couple years!), my interpretation was in the context of 'working hard'. This quote has a similar sentiment to the Dylan Thomas' poem, which says, “Do not go gentle into that good night/but rage, Rage!, at the dying of the light.” Basically living a long but boring life that doesn't impact anyone else. Fading away would be to simply live safely, not take any risks, etc. Burning out is a metaphor for living an exciting, ambitious life one where you expend all of your energy early on, possibly even dying young like many rock stars. "It is better to burn out than to fade away".
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