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| The Big Pink |
With “Stay Gold” The Big Pink made another great sing-along-while-driving-into-the-unknown song – or you can just sing or dance to it – and all that with a wonderful meaning.
The “Stay Gold” expression is one that I take to heart. I understand it to mean “stay young-at-heart, fresh, pure, open-minded and follow your dreams” – basically don’t let the rotten world bring you down and change you.
It comes from “The Outsiders” written by S.E. Hinton in which the character Ponyboy recites to Johnny the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost.
Ponyboy recites the poem in the 1983 movie directed by Francis Ford Copolla,
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Later on Ponyboy finds a note from Johnny explaining why he, Johnny, will die proudly after saving the kids from the home, and requesting for Ponyboy to “stay gold”.
In the movie Johnny tells Ponyboy directly.
For various reasons I’d like to dedicate this song to Elke, my dad (Happy Birthday) and Marilyn!