Courtney Love’s Great Musical Achievement – With An “H”!
Celebrating some great music with an “H” – artist or song title – including classic rock from Neil Young and Heart, vintage Todd Rundgren, the legendary Tom Petty, and Courtney Love’s best song!
Let’s begin with the master at his best – when Neil Young decided to plunge into punk rock with lyrics that live on today:
“It’s Better To Burn Out Than To Fade Away…”
Yes, they are some of the most iconic words in rock music history…
“Hey hey, my my
Rock and roll can never die
There’s more to the picture
Than meets the eye.
Hey hey, my my…”
The song also includes another of his signature lines:
“It’s better to burn out ’cause rust never sleeps”
That phrase became the title of his grunge-fueled live tour and album from 1979, a decade before grunge became the hottest musical trend in the 90’s…
“Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)” by Neil Young
“Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)”, combined with its acoustic counterpart “My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)”, bookends Neil Young’s successful 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps.
“My my, hey hey
Rock and roll is here to stay
It’s better to burn out
Than to fade away
My my, hey hey..”
According to wikipedia, it was:
“Inspired by electropunk group Devo, the rise of punk and what Young viewed as his own growing irrelevance, the song significantly revitalized Young’s career at the time, and today crosses generations, inspiring admirers from punk to grunge.”
Listen to this blistering live version from 1991:
Neil Young has such an eclectic catalog of music, from folk to country, and of course, classic rock.
Another Artist whose music lives forever is the iconic Jim Hendrix:
Jimi Hendrix – “Foxey Lady”
It was such a loss for music when Jimi Hendrix died…he was simply one of the most incredibly talented musical Artists of all time – and one of his signature hits was “Foxey Lady”, with an amazing guitar endings of all time.
Here is an incendiary live version from 1968:
Key Art for the SHOWTIME documentary Jimi Hendrix: Electric Church. PHOTO: Courtesy of SHOWTIME
There is a great documentary called “Electric Church” that tells the story of the Atlanta Pop festival, and it includes an entire Hendrix performance that must be seen to be believed…click here for more on this great movie:
40 years ago, two sisters from Seattle decided to rock out – and the result was a career full of great music:
Heart – “Barracuda”
Wait, 1977?!?!?!?! Yes, here are the Wilson Sisters rocking out 40 years ago!
Ann and Nancy Wilson are still performing, and their timeless music includes “Dog & Butterfly”, “Crazy On You” and more – and they released an autobiography as well – check it out here:
Next up is a woman who is loved and hated in equal measure it seems, but she deserves a lot more musical credit than she has gotten:
Hole – “Doll Parts”
Courtney Love was married to Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, and she has starred in several films as well, but her albums with the band HOLE are really terrific:
“Live Through This” was their greatest achievement, and was included in Rolling Stone’s list of “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.
The lyrics to “Doll Parts” are haunting:
Here is the music video for the song:
Next up is a song by one of my favorite new(er” groups, with an electrified country/rock song that plays as an homage to classic rock:
“Holdin’ On To Black Metal” by My Morning Jacket
This great song is from their “Circuital” album – here is the music video:
The band released a new album last year, and it’s another terrific record. And speaking of someone who just keeps releasing great new music:
“Hello, It’s Me” by Todd Rundgren
As you all know, Todd’s one of my favorite Artists, and his new album “White Knight” is great. But for the letter “H”, let’s look at his biggest hit of all time, the classic “Hello, It’s Me.”
Here is a flawless live performance from Beverly Hills in 2016:
The song is from his double album masterpiece “Something / Anything?” – and here is my review of his 2016 live performance in Beverly Hills:
Finally, here is my favorite “H” song, by one of my favorite bands:
“Here Comes My Girl” by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
The music world was stunned when Petty died unexpectedly – he wrote for the “everyday guy”, with song like this:
“Every now and then, I get down to the end of a day,
I’ll have to stop, ask myself, “What’ve I done?”
It just seems so useless to have to work so hard,
And nothin’ ever really seem to come from it.
And then she looks me in the eye, says, “We gonna last forever,”
And man, you know I can’t begin to doubt it.
No, because this feels so good and so free and so right,
I know we ain’t never goin’ change our minds about it.
Hey, here comes my girl, here comes my girl,
Yeah, she looks so right, she’s all I need tonight.”
Here is the music video:
Here is a look at Petty’s career, and some of my favorite music:
Such a variety you have there! I know you can’t always include the Beatles, so I will add a couple of the obvious ones: Help! – I just saw the 8 Days a Week documentary and found out this song represented how they were feeling in the midst of Beatlemania. Also, I still like Hey Jude after all these years!
johnrieber 
We both seem to have Neil Young on the mind. I’ll be posting later about him…
So weird to think that Tom is gone!
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Yes, so sad about Tom, and I look forward to your Neil Young post!
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Such a variety you have there! I know you can’t always include the Beatles, so I will add a couple of the obvious ones: Help! – I just saw the 8 Days a Week documentary and found out this song represented how they were feeling in the midst of Beatlemania. Also, I still like Hey Jude after all these years!
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Yes, I try not to always include my favorites but both of those are great!
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I’m going with a double-‘H’, John. Heart again, but with ‘Hold On’.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Thanks Pete – so many great Artists and songs with an “H”!
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Too many to list, John! 🙂
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