He’s got a new album coming out on Monday, but it seems The Killers lead singer Brandon Flowers just can’t catch a break — his fans can’t get his lyrics right, well-known industry tastemaker Ryan Adams thinks he’s full of it and gosh things are just so hard.
“Human”, the first single from The Killers’ album Day & Age, which hits stores Monday, has been the subject of all sorts of lyrical confusion recently. Specifically, the line “Are we human, or are we dancer,” has been reinterpreted by fans as “Are we human, or are we denser“. Flowers was less than totally thrilled about this, and he explained the origin of the lyric in an interview with MTV. “It’s taken from a quote by [author Hunter S.] Thompson. … ‘We’re raising a generation of dancers,’ and I took it and ran,” Flowers said.
But after calmly setting the record straight with MTV, Flowers was a little more heated about the issue in comments made to UK tabloid The Daily Star. “That sucks a bit,” he said. “I don’t like ‘Are we denser?’ as an alternative. I really care what people think but people don’t seem to understand ‘Human.’ They think it’s nonsense. But I was aching over those lyrics for a very long time to get them right.”
And if all that aching wasn’t enough, in the midst of this lyrical fit came the comments of singer Ryan Adams, who, during an interview with UK newspaper The Guardian, took aim at everyone from R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe to poor Gary Numan, who just wants to be left alone to count his residual checks from “Cars.” And of course, The Killers were not left out of the verbal onslaught.
“When will I be famous?” was the question posed by The Guardian reporter, in a series of nonsense questions taken from idioms and song lyrics that had been progressing since the start of the interview. Adams responded:
My God: if you’re lucky, never! Fame is an unnatural construct and those who go in search of it are the least likely to find it. I mean, really, does anyone want to sit through a show by the Killers? What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, unfortunately with the exception of the Killers.
Since he does have an album coming out Monday, we think Flowers and the rest of The Killers will probably survive this one fairly unscathed. But as David Bowie once so wisely told us, “Fame: bully for you, chilly for me. Got to get a rain check on pain.” Yes, David, you got to. You got to.
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August 5th, 2009 at 12:24 am
First of all, this Ryan Adams guy sounds like a complete tool. If you are going to rip on Brandon for running his mouth, why don’t you rip on this guy. And people that go looking for fame are usually the ones who find it. And when Ryan says, “I mean, really, does anyone want to sit through a show by the Killers?” I say, well apparently millions and millions of people world-wide do.
August 5th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
The Killers are one of the hottest, if not, the hottest band in the world right now. This Ryan Adams guy can say all he wants, but in the end, he has nothing to say. Brandon Flowers shows lyrical and musical signs as wowing as those from great artists in the past such as Bowie. In 20 years, The Killers won’t be forgotten. Their legacy will continue to grow and they will be remembered, and this guy just can’t stand the thought of that.