My, My, Hey, Hey

"It's better to burn out than to fade away," or at least that's what Neil Young asked us to believe back in 1979. Almost thirty years later, one might wonder if Neil feels the same. The fact that Def Leppard quotes him at the beginning of "Rock of Ages" is hardly on the level of tribute that Kurt Cobain, but the notion of a "good way to go" echoes throughout pop culture, especially in rock and roll.
I wonder if Roger Daltrey ever flinches when he hears himself singing, "Hope I die before I get old"? The Eagles sang about the ultimate rock and roll bad boy, James Dean, telling us he was "too fast to live, too young to die." But it's Neil Young that wrote the words that bring us back to Kurt and Jimi and Janis and Sid and Nancy. Those are the words that play under the tributes to John Belushi and Chris Farley. Only the Rolling Stones seemed to anticipate "what a drag it is growing old."
That's what I was thinking as I watched the video of Scott Kalitta, who died Saturday when his Funny Car burst into flames and crashed at the end of the track. Scott was forty-six, the same age I had just turned when I switched on the television to watch the news. The phrase "blaze of glory" went through my head as well, but mostly I just couldn't imagine how three hundred miles an hour into a wall could be considered anything but a horrible mistake. "Scott shared the same passion for drag racing as his legendary father, Connie. He also shared the same desire to win, becoming a two-time series world champion. He left the sport for a period of time, to devote more time to his family, only to be driven to return to the drag strip to regain his championship form. ... He will be truly missed by the entire NHRA community," went the statement from the National Hot Rod Association.
He left the sport to spend time with his family, wife Kathy and sons Corey, fourteen, and Colin, eight. Will they be thinking "better to burn out than to fade away?" I would guess not.