The Killers' "Mr. Brightside"

Hey, one song nation. This week we will be revisiting one of our favorite episodes from the one song archives where we break down the killers, Mr. Brightside. On this episode, you're going to hear Diallo and I jump in our time machine to revisit the year 2004. It's blog house, it's Indie Sleeves, it's American apparel, and of course, it's this massive indie rock anthem from Las Vegas' most famous band. On this episode, we'll connect the dots between Mr. Brightside and songs by David Bowie, Blondie, and Placebo, and of course, we're going to listen to the song's isolated drums, guitars, bass, keyboards, and the isolated vocals of Mr. Brandon Flowers. So in case you missed it the first time, or if you want to listen to this episode again, stay tuned as one song breaks down the killers, Mr. Brightside. Luxury, a different kind of show for our podcast today. An unusual episode. Yes, because we're going to be talking about the killers, the 1946 Film War movie, which was Bert and Mike Kester and his film debut. I'm going to have to stop you right there, Della, because that is actually not what we're going to talk about. We're not about the killers. You thought that our podcast today, the show One Song, where we talk about music, we were going to get into a podcast where I thought it was a weird episode, but I don't get to make decisions around here anymore. I like saying no to you, but no, that's not what's happening. Okay. I see. Yes, and I'm fine. I'm from an improv background. Improv. Do not insult me like that. All right. Fine. We'll do it your way. It's from one of the biggest rock bands of the 21st century. This song is their best-selling song in the U.S. and in the UK, it's a whole nother story. We're talking about the third best-selling and streaming song of all time. Oh, no. Number three, the brides. We're talking about their compete against Adele and the Beatles, like all that stuff. It is the longest charting single on the official UK singles chart, top 100, where he's stood for more than 416 weeks. That's about eight years, nearly eight years, if you're keeping track. You are a math genius. I don't know how you figured that out so quick. I don't know. It's a Guinness World record. With their knack for crafting catchy melodies and anthemic choruses, this song about infidelity and angelicity is a millennial anthem sung in unison by countless crowds at karaoke bars weddings and sporting events around the world, and it has become one of the defining songs of the 2000s. That's right. So get at your guy liner and your Von Dutch hat, because Destiny is calling us to break down this song. Open up your eager ears and eyes, because it's one song, and that song is Mr. Brightside by The Killers. I'm actor writer director and sometimes DJ Diallo Riddle. And I'm producer DJ, songwriter and music collegeist Luxury, aka the guy who whispers in termination. All right Diallo. Okay. This is going to be a very different episode. I'm already kind of feeling my something rise in me, because Mr. Brightside, The Killers, there's something about this band that evokes a lot of emotion for me. We're going to talk about it. Is it positive? Is it negative? We're going to get into all of that. But before we do, I wanted to ask you, how did you discover The Killers and the song in particular? You know, this is at a time when I was the director of Music and Talent at the Standard Hotels. I had a budget to buy pretty much as much music as I wanted, so I was in a media record every single day buying. It sounds like a fine job. It was a great, great job. And I had just come off of a two and a half year stint working in the A&R department at Hollywood Records. I was there probably at the worst possible time for my taste, because I was there when like everybody was trying to find the next new metal, rap metal. Right. That's fair. That was. This is 2001. It's like the beginning of 2002 through 2004. Okay. So like, this is a time when everybody's just like, they're trying to get down with the sickness. You know what I'm talking about? It's not our favorite era for music. Let's face it. There was something very like young about that music and I was already in my 20s. So I just wanted nothing to do with it. We've talked about it on the show. Our favorite groups all that time are the yay, yay, yes. Right. LCD sound system. The rap show. The strokes. There's the strokes. These are groups that like I legitimately love. They don't get lumped in because they weren't a New York band. The white stripes. The low-fi sound was in. That's what I like. But every A&R assistant was trying to hand their boss the demo of the next big new metal band. Good God. And there was like a little bit of the emo sound out there thanks to Avril. There was some of that too. That was even younger than the new metal. So that wasn't anything that I was really checking for. Also, I was really into dance at this point. Dance was not something that our label was trying to sign. I did get an artist by the name of Victor Du Playsine to the label. And that was a lot of fun. But I had to sell them in like a very old school way. Our head of A&R at the time was a guy named Rob Cavallo. He had produced-- Green Day. He had produced Green Day. He had produced their biggest album, Dukey. And the way that I got Victor Du Playsine was I was like, this is like Earth, Wind, and Fire, but like the new version. And that was how we were able to-- OK. And that works. And that works at the time. Yeah. But it really was a time when everybody in terms of bands was looking for a particular sound and into this may, if you will, were bands like the Rapture, were bands like Chick-Chick-Chick. These bands had sort of a danceable rock music. And I think that, just as I was getting ready to lead the label in about 2004, that was when the killer sort of popped up on my radar because it was like the killers. And it was hot, hot heat, you know, but there's single bandages, like great songs. There was the beginning of a shift in the A&R department towards bands that were a little bit like the poppy version of the Rapture, the poppy version of Chick-Chick-Chick-Chick. So they had kind of a dirty, underground kind of credibility, like they had like a New York look or vibe, but the song writing was pop music with choruses and hooks and radio friendly. And by the way, when I first heard it, we both loved that stuff. We loved that stuff. Right, right. I actually thought the killers were a New York band because they sort of looked like a New York band. They had a little bit of this poppy version of the post punk stuff that was coming out. Next with, and I didn't realize this at the time, it's very obvious looking back now. They also had a little bit of the emo styling coming in as well. Yeah, a little bit of that proto, that early MySpace hot topic kind of vibe, the guy liner, like you mentioned, right? I mean, a lot of it is in the visuals that this comes across. The Von Dutch hats were in such effect at that time. In fact, one of them- Everything at hearty and Christian- Oh my God. I feel like a friction was coming up big. One of the things I loved about the TV show, "Ontarize" was that the opening credits never changed. And in the opening credits, they actually passed the Whiskey-A-Go-Go and there's a poster for Hot Fuss there. So by the time the show's been on the air for like seven seasons or whatever it was, it was just like, "Man, this show's been on for a really long time." Yeah. You know, like, it was like eight or nine years after Hot Fuss had already come out and blown up. And another thing. I mean, like, there are so many reasons we choose any song to do on this podcast. One big reason we're doing this song on the podcast is because as someone who's still DJs sometimes, I still go to clubs. I will do karaoke sometimes. There are a few songs that are bigger than this song in the club right now at karaoke night. Like, it always takes people who are younger to be to another level like they just lose it every time. It's single, right? That's a part of it too. Like a participation. It's huge. It's huge. And I remember after one night in particular where I'd gone to this night where ostensibly the music was, you know, the rapture and LCD and a bunch of other music like that. I remember this song went off so big. I texted you and I was like, you know what? I think we have to do an episode about this song. How did you discover the killers? Well, this is where the show takes a turn, it goes into the dark place that I just experienced preparing for this episode. First and foremost confession, this is not a band that I have ever really paid a lot of attention to because it really at the time they were happening, I was starting my music career. So as I am an early band person, I'm writing my first ever songs. I'm putting together, you know, flyers and trying to get gigs and getting going on Craigslist to find bandmates. That's my life. I remember that era. A long time. Like a lot of years. It's like getting a CD-ROM machine or whatever a drive, you know, a CD, whatever they were called back in the day, enhanced CDs. You were as a band person constantly working hard to just promote yourself and write the music and begging for a $25 gig to open for another band. Were you at MySpace? MySpace was actually really helpful at the time. Yes, of course. I booked an entire tour of England on MySpace using a fake profile or my, I won't reveal my fake name because I still sometimes use it to this day because I never had a manager, I never had a booking agent. So it was all DIY and not because I was too cool to have any help. I was just like, no one was helping me. I was in this era part of the majority of artists and musicians who are just trying and there's so much effort and it's exhausting. And at the time you're doing it, like, look, you're imbued with a lot of passion and you're excited and you're optimistic and you have to have this, the word that kept coming to my head as I was preparing for this episode was creative delusion. I had so much creative delusion and as I was reading up and going back in time to this era and reading on Brandon Flowers and how the band started, I really connected with him also being, he's a little younger but we were starting at the same time. He also had vast amounts of creative delusion and you needed it. to survive. It is the fuel that takes the impossible dream of like having us, your first ever song, having your fifth song, so you can have your first gig. This entire process of going from zero to band is kind of equally hard for everyone. But these guys are the luckiest bastards I've ever heard. The story we're about to tell is every band's dream and me watching it from afar, I think what prevented me from being a fan of the band and the song is just plain jealousy, the song is about it. So it's kind of is all coming. The industry was touching Brandon's chest. It was touching not my chest. Oh god, in that line. Listen, we're going to get into the needy gritty of this song. But even things as micro as that line, me as you know a budding songwriter, like in my life, like every day I'd be like, okay, today's lyrics day and I'd be making choices about what lyrics to go. When I heard that lyric, I was like, that's a terrible lyric. What? And I hate it to this day, but clearly I'm in the minority and super wrong because people love the song. They love the lyric. I have to say that this has been a wonderful reckoning to have to like face my discomfort with this song in this band because I'm like, okay, a lot of years under the bridge, a lot of wind or under the bridge. It's still challenging for me, but of course, it is a great song. The band is great. Everything about them, they deserve their success. And it's helpful and healthy for me to have this therapy of this podcast to kind of work through it. But I think that's fair because, you know, I went into comedy around the middle of the 2000s. And it worked out for me, but trust, there was a point in time when I was on MySpace, but I also had a MySpace band account for a group that I wanted to form a DJ collective called the Friends Electric. Oh, based on the genre. Yeah, based on the Newman's song. Dubai Army. Even when I was at the record label, even if it wasn't me, there was a time when I just wanted to be a manager of the kind of band that I was not hearing. So I was like, the strokes are so New York, what is the ultimate California band? And I remember thinking, okay, the name of the band will be the Malabites. And I was like, I'm going to put an ad in Craigslist and say, hey, do you want to do Strokesy type music with a with a with a with a West Coast bent? Then hit me up. I am an an our assistant and Hollywood records. And I want to form a group. The name of the group that I wanted to have formed was going to be called the Malabites. And I was like, and they're just going to be they're going to be as much from Malabu as the group incubus, but they're not going to make incubus music. They're going to be like the strokes of the West Coast. Nobody replied to that ad by the way. So for me, the mixture that I thought was going to be really unique and countering, you mentioned that at the time the trend, there was a lot of like kind of new metal and whatever, all of these sort of bands. For me and San Francisco, there was there was less of that. By the way, San Francisco outsider, again, like Brandon Flowers, not in New York. In Las Vegas. Well, I what the band seen there was for the most part was either Indy Rock in quotes, whatever that means, like what that meant in the era, but it was also kind of like esoteric, like especially in San Francisco, there was a real kind of like underground aesthetic, which was anti-coruses. Like a very dissonant or very like there's this label. You're right. Of course, you sold out, man. Hit 606 was really big, which was this electronic like glitchy beats, like anti what was big in other words, sort of like going against the grain. Wonderful. Like we love punk, we love going against the rain, but that's not what I was doing. I was trying to write. This was my vision to land the plane. My vision and I called it luxury. I was going to be like, look, there's all this gritty rock and roll, but I want to do something that's a little bit fantastic. That's a little bit visually stimulating that takes into account the glam rock and the David Bowie of it all and like, let's not forget the cure into Pesh mode. All of this stuff was really uncool. It was so uncool at that time to be bringing this in except in Las Vegas for this man and this song who did the same thing. His vision was very similar to mine and it worked because the songwriting was better. I suppose. I mean, like, I'm not going to like get on the guy. Listen, listen, listen. That's what's happening for me. I'm going to, I'm not saying this because you're my podcast partner and my friend. There's so much else that goes into it other than just the songwriting and the music making. There's so much luck that is involved. There's so much positional luck and we've talked about that. You know, like, if you'd been in a different city, if you'd been in Vegas, this could have gone very differently, but we wouldn't have you on this podcast. I don't want that. I don't have any regrets. I appreciate what you're doing with that. But I guess what I'd say is that it is funny because, you know, like, everything is so temporary. Absolutely. And since, look, we're already in this headspace of like, this is an unusual show and that I'm sort of facing this moment in that, you know, we're going to talk about the song. Don't worry. Listen, listen, you come for the killers, you get the luxury origin story. And I love it. And it's funny that Mr. Brightside is the moment on this podcast on one song with Diallo Riddle and Luxury. Where for me, I'm like, man, this is, this is a, there's a lot of information and content and feelings I have about this song that's outside of the song itself. And that it's straight like the irony of it being a song about jealousy. But I have this jealousy towards is really hitting me in a wonderful way. But the creative delusion, that's the thing I kept circling back to. It's like, that is the fuel. And if you're out there and you're a musician and you're an artist, stick, the creative delusion is the fuel, you stay with it. Yeah. Be delusional. It's an energy source for creativity and for moving the world in. And luck is not something you can control. And you're absolutely right to point out that like, that's the part of it that you just have to have some faith in. And maybe it does work out for you with the vision you have. And maybe some different vision pans out. I agree. Luxury, would you consider the killer as an alt rock band? I mean, like, I have my own theories. But would you play some in the same category as Kings of Leon, Franz Ferdinand, how would you categorize them? Look, I promise not to return to the same simmering bubbling cauldron of envy. Why them? I promise that this will episode won't be that. But I will say this. One of the things that triggered me in your question is the memory of when they came out, how many people would say, Oh, they're like, Duran Duran, they're like, New Order. And like, no, they're not. I don't see the connection. What I'm doing is more like that. And what they're doing is more like, it's to me, I was hearing you too. And I was hearing like, you know, I hear you too. And swinging for the fetus. Can I tell you why I think I hear you too in this band? Yeah. I'm so glad you bring this up. Because when I hear you too, is it such an interesting band to me? Because when they emerge, they are clearly in the new wave cannon. But then somewhere they were able to figure out how to go out of new wave into like anthem rock. Yeah. And I feel like the killers are that for the scene that we love. We love the meet me in the bathroom scene. Yeah. I love the fact that like nowadays, thanks to TikTok, our kids know maps by the AES. That's not a song that they were probably no otherwise. Right. But with that said, there were very few songs out of that scene that like are like massive, massive hits. You know, like, and to that point, the killers are the band out of that scene. Much like YouTube was this was the band out of the new way. See, the killers are the band out of that scene that have these huge anthem style choruses. Yes. That's the key. We love the strokes. I love the strokes. We talked about it on the maps episode. They didn't have choruses that were big swing pop music top 40 court on the maps episode in particular. I'm alluding to the story of how Max Martin and Dr. Luke were like, we love the strokes, but they don't have choruses and they wrote since you've been gone for Kelly Clarkson. Kelly Clarkson. That's true. The strokes don't have choruses, but what Brandon Flowers did from literally moment one day one is he knew how to write big anthemic choruses. He does. And that's what the radio wants and that's what planet earth wants. And that's what makes songs tend to endure. And to your point about you two, you two did have big choruses on day one. They were like a scrappy post punk band guitar, like guitar based drums, but that's an early ass song, right? New year day. That's right. The boy is the debut album. Oh my God. I'm just realizing I will follow his song one on album one. And that's got such a great chorus. It's probably my favorite you two song. Anyway, right out of the gate, you two are an anthemic right out of the gate that killers are an anthemic. That to me is, I mean, we love Franz Ferdinand. We love the strokes. Franz Ferdinand, we're going to talk about friends because I think that like, there are two groups that I feel like hit my radar about the same time. I was firmly in the Franz Ferdinand camp. I loved all the Franz Ferdinand remixes. There are some amazing Franz Ferdinand remixes. To me, the killers are not alt-rock. I think that they, you know, having listened to more of their music now, I really do think that they were, and I'm creating a new term here, I think they were kind of like pop post punk, if that makes sense. Sure. Triple P. Whatever we want to call that, they were pop post punk because now when I go back and listen to them, I'm like, oh, the killer has achieved the success that I think hot, hot heat was going for. I remember hearing hot, hot heat and being like, this is going to be the New York band that is going to take that New York sound and make it palatable for the K-Rock of the 2000s, because it's important to remember, K-Rock in the 2000s is not really messing with the New York sound. As much as I would have liked, you know what I mean? Like, they were still very much, every other song was still sublime. They were full in on new metal, you know, like, it was hard to get them to listen to and play these new songs. So, hot, hot heat was regulated to KCRW, you know, in the city. But, you know, I think these guys did a Max Martin and Dr. Luke. They're like, we love the strokes. The strokes plus U2. That's sort of the formula, isn't it? The killers are the strokes meets U2. Yeah. I think that's where I'm going to stay. Yeah. I like that. I like that. All right, let's talk about the killer's origin story. They are formed in 2001 in Vegas. Again, 2001. Could have been us. Las Vegas, not a city particularly known for creating chart-topping artists, usually more for hosting them, the resencies, not the place to call home. But fun fact, it must be said, imagine dragons, panic at the disco. Neo, these are all acts that came out of Vegas. Neo's got some great stories about growing up in Vegas. Otherwise, one of my favorite Las Vegas groups is the Crystal Method, electronic group out of the late '90s. And a high roller, I still think, holds up immensely. [MUSIC] All right, you got to go. [MUSIC] It's just a great song. Vegas, a great album. But back to the killers, can you tell us a little bit more about how this group comes together? So our good friend, Mr. Brandon Flowers, is growing up in a Las Vegas suburb called Henderson, the youngest of six kids. And it's his older brother who passes along cassettes with the bands that he comes to love and become influenced by the cure. The New Order stuff, the Smiths, all this great British music of the '80s. When he's 80 moves to Utah, they are Mormons in this family. And at 16, he's back to Vegas to live with an aunt. And he starts playing in a band called Blush Response, while he is working as a bell hop. So he's playing keyboards in this band until the band moves to LA and basically abandons him. So he's on his own, and he answers an ad, which is placed in the newspaper, or rather one of those sort of weekly trades. Yeah, yeah, the Vegas one. The LA Weekly. Like LA Weekly, right. Creative Loafing in Atlanta, hey. And it's an ad placed by guitarist, David Cuning, who's looking for bandmates. Clearly, he already had some idea that he wanted to be a rock star. I always like to-- I always like to. Yeah, what's that? He always got the fire, the career. Yeah, I always had to hear, what was the thing that sparked a person and think, oh, that's what I have to do? And for everybody, something a little bit different for Brandon. It's been reported that he went to go see Oasis on the tour of Brotherly Love. And that was when he decided he had to be a rock star. I know how they would have started their set back then. [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm so sorry. Like, I have to play this song. I know what you're going to play. One of the greatest speeds of all time has interpolated. We've talked about that before. [MUSIC PLAYING] That's Jimmy Hendrix, Little Miss Leverand. And yeah, that Oasis show he famously talks about how he went to the show and, quote, it was the first time I felt this communal experience, a strange sort of spirituality. And I wanted to write an answer to this song. [MUSIC PLAYING] She knows it's too late. I mean, his method of songwriting is not that dissimilar from Oasis's method of songwriting, where he is. The Thieving Magpie, with the legal ramifications in Brandon's case, he's getting away with it. Because what he's doing is, I will always defend building blocks or building blocks. So he's finding little ideas from other songs, and he's rearranging them and using new words. And the chords are different. But for the record, both Oasis and the killers, I'm on board with this being how music gets made. I'm not like calling them out for anything. Oh, that's cool. And by the way, don't look ridiculous. Don't look back at Anger is one of my favorite songs. It was used in the "In Betweeners" famously. The video features a good fit of mind, Liz Carey. It's just who ended up marrying Alan White from Oasis. But anyway, we get back to Brandon. This Oasis show is very famously important to him, because he goes to it with a girl who then breaks up with him. And perfect timing for him to write an answer to don't look back at Anger. Another quote, "The wound was so raw, it was cathartic for me to make betrayal sound so good, was just a lucky thing I stumbled upon." Because Dave Cuning, when they first meet up, gives him a cassette with five guitar ideas on it. And the very first one is this. Now, that's actually from the final version, the final recording. But Dave Cuning's early demo apparently had that riff idea, which he had come up with among a few others. And it was the first thing on the cassette tape when Brandon was apparently driving around the desert listening to this demo, thinking, oh, should I join this band? And he starts thinking of lyrics and melodies. And he's got this Oasis experience and the girl from breaking up with him and this guitar. And that's how it all comes together into this moment where he finds the song, Mr. Brightside. Well, that's a very first song they write. These lucky bastards. But we often talk on this part about the fact that sometimes it's the thoughts that you don't overthink. It's the ones that you just come to, the flow naturally. And it's almost like they were given by some divine force. It does seem like this was coming from a divine place. And he's a divine man. And he has divine biblical lyrics in this song. And look, I don't doubt that he was tapping into something pretty special because he's found a universal chord with the song with the topic and then the music that came together with his collaboration with guitarist Dave Cuning. It's all amazing that it happens with the first thing they do. And they're playing around town and I used to be at a record label. So I've been at these performances these showcases. There's always something very depressing. There's nothing very depressing about going to that show where the band has like 50 people there and they're handing out a demo or they got a little merch stand, but everybody starts out there. I just saw that Megan the stallion documentary that is so powerful, I think it's called in her words. And as late as 2017 or 2018, Megan's performing in like college court yards where people are like literally snacking on fries, just watching her rap to an instrumental played by the DJ who probably didn't want to stop the party to have her get out there and perform. So the band gets its name as many people know from the 1946 film more. No, sorry. I'm not accurate in accurate information. That's misinformation. Might even be disinformation. I think you're consciously trying to screw with people because the actual reason is from the video for this song by New Order from the 2000s. Yeah, I love this song. [MUSIC] I have New Order 2001 Crystal. Yes, by the way, my favorite New Order songs. And when I saw the video, I remember being confused because I was like, wait, are they that young? Like they must have been mine. No, I'm serious. Yes, because again, as a kid, as a kid who didn't really, and I loved the music, I was never that person to go to those shows. No other kids in my schools were listening to this kind of music. So I didn't necessarily know what New Order looked like. And I remember thinking, wow, they look really young. But it turned out, it was a fictional grade. Call the killers. Call the killers. On the little drumhead, it's as the killers, they look very like the strokes. They're very good. They're very New Order 2001. In fact, he said something. I feel like Bernard Summers said something like, we wanted the band in the video to look like what we felt like MTV wanted the band that sings the song to look like. No, it's great. And it succeeded. All the way down to you thinking it was the way to be. Having a moment of self-doubt. Like, I'm sorry. Oh, they're a lot younger. Well, sometimes we grow from self-doubt. They must have been teenagers when they released boom-and-ish. This is the self-doubt episode of One Song. There's, oh my god. It just means that I'm gullible. Every step of the way as we tell the strimer, remembering all the self-doubt that I had, trying to make it as a musician. So to be fair, there is a moment where they've written this song and they haven't made it yet. It's a pretty brief moment in retrospect. The song was debuted apparently at this place, Cafe Espresso Roma in early 2002. Their first ever show. And a little bit earlier, they had put together their first demo. Now, what I found, I've had a demo of Mr. Brightside. I'm not sure if this is their first ever demo, which apparently had a drum machine or maybe the second one re-recorded. 'Cause I hear live drums, which I believe are by Matt Norcross. But here it is. A demo around the same period of Mr. Brightside. ♪ A thing that's happening ♪ ♪ String, stinging, stinging, stinging ♪ ♪ String, stinging, stinging ♪ ♪ Stinging, stinging, stinging, stinging ♪ ♪ Joking on your head ♪ Now, D'Alas, we were listening, you meant how stroxy it is. That is a stroxy demo. ♪ Just take it or leave it or take it ♪ ♪ Or leave it or just take it ♪ It sounds so stroxy, but it also sounds immediately good because the songwriting is already there. They have this big, big chorus, which is undeniable. And Brandon says, "I still remember the hairs on my arm standing up when I heard our demo for the first time. They know it's a good song and they're not wrong." So they play the song. The band starts to come together. They get Ronnie Venucci, Jr. who's a big Vegas drummer. - Yes. - To join the band. They get Mark Stormer, who's a guitarist and another band, interestingly, by the way. They approached him to be the second guitarist 'cause the vision quote was to be more like the strokes with a keyboard. - I heard that. - And they're telling. - But by the way, the thing I want to say about Ronnie, to me, he is like their wringo because the Beatles famously had a change of personal in the beginning. And wringo had played with other bands. So he sort of came in with a very kind of a wringer in a way. - Yes, and I feel like Ronnie's sort of the same thing. He's like a guy, look, I play with other bands. He comes in and he's got the discipline. - He's got the kind of blue collar working musician, like, this is how you do it, man. - He's either visionary. - And he's an incredible drummer. - He's a great drummer. - He's technically great at what he does. - Yeah. - So you have Brandon and Dave who are like the visionaries of the killers. And then you bring in a guy who's just like, he's a technician, he's like, okay, let's do this. - Yeah, and he adds power and he puts under. - Yes, that sound, the original, what we just heard, the drums are fine, they're not exciting. He adds to the drums of this song, so it's not really special. We'll be hearing when we get to the stems. - You always need a wringo, you always need a Ronnie. That's my point. stroke story. Listen, they're at the Virgin Megastore. The day the stroke debut album is this it comes out quote from Brandon Flowers when we put it in the car that record sounded so perfect I got so depressed after that we threw everything away wow the only song they kept was Mr. Brightside wow so they re-did their entire repertoire after hearing the strokes so what is it about the strokes as you mentioned the vocal distortion there's this 80s eighth noody thing a lot of like the baseline these aren't funky baselines it's don't know don't know don't know don't know don't know don't know and I think the kind of joy division it's joy division it's post punk it's the cars were doing it it's new wave it's a lot of bands do that the pixies and they're sort of bringing it back I think in a new context with with the rock you know strokes version of it also tends to have counterpoint where you have like an arpeggiated guitar part and it is like an ostinato meaning it stays the same but underneath it the baseline changes that's a very strokesy thing that's happening in this song I'll point it out again in the stems when we get there and but then the chorus is not the strokes the chorus that's where they break from the strokes and they go into you to ville yeah big time that's a very profitable town it's a profitable place to live always this town is right next door to you to town I want to live in that neighborhood let's put it that way so Braden Merrick is a gentleman who as I was researching this episode look all of these names are people that were in my world he managed a band that I tried out for base to play in a band called petrol great band one of my favorite bands in San Francisco at the time I played one gig with them and then they never called me back we still live you to they're still friendly or it's all good great band that brand in Merrick was also managing but he found this band and him and a team with former green day manager Jeff Salisman and Mark Needham the three of them had a production company they signed this band and they tried to they shop it around all the record labels in America and nobody wants them but one record label in the UK does say yes to them and that label is lizard king lizard king I'm working Hollywood records which is like a traditional American label lizard king was something else can you tell us what lizard king was I have to go back to the cauldron of envy just dip my my pinky in a second as I'm researching this episode I sent demos to lizard king and it's the kind of thing that once you do it and once that you get on the like email follow-up yeah that means that kind of for like decades that poor person martin heath from lizard king is probably still getting my damn promotional emails like listen to the latest ones on check out my new remix I mean all of the names that figure in the killer's story also figure in the luxury story as people that I tried to communicate with who ignored me but they did not ignore Braden Merrick's demo none of the major label signed them but lizard king has the foresight to sign the killers which they do and quote for martin heath everyone in america had turned them down they've been out for a year looking for a deal no one was interested but it was clear to me that this was a major star Brandon had huge charisma he completely believed in what he was doing he just stood out and carried the music he saw the the delusion right that I that's like Brandon had it but he also had it yeah he had the it so they released mr bright side in 2003 the first version was a limited run of 500 CD singles but it was enough to get to zane low shout out to say no zane low plays this song it gets some interest and then suddenly they have a following in the UK they have a following in the UK frankly they're bordering on an overnight success in the UK they record hot fuss in November 2003 their second single comes up it creeps into the top 40 that's somebody told me great song by the way that's the first killer song I heard with somebody told we hear a little bit of it my one beef oh yeah I know somebody told me we're hearing the same thing we're hearing the same it reminds me a blur it's girls and boys it is a blur song but not a blur for the same this is our friendship right here in a nutshell I've read a lot of interviews with with Brandon flowers preparing for this episode and there's one where it's so interesting it's very vulnerable he he lutes to there being something about his songwriting process that he doesn't want to reveal and I think I who knows what that might mean but one thing that's very clear about his songwriting process is he likes to do what I call and I don't know if I've mentioned this on the show before it feels important to me writing sideways this is a tried and true songwriting method that expression for me comes from the bro building writers of the 60s the like lever and stolen what is writing sideways means you start with a hit record and you find an element or two writing sideways can be taking a concept and writing a new song from the concept and then later on you hear it back and you're like oh though these songs are related but there's they're vaguely related it's not that there's a melody lifted or the same no chorus or whatever it is it's just the confusion of being on holiday and not knowing who you're supposed to ask out exactly writing sideways to be clear is what if not most songwriters in some way are doing when they write music there's something that they're starting from an inspiration starting point so I think Brandon flowers inspirations can sometimes be a little more clear than other songwriters I think that's what we're picking up I think that's what we're saying so yeah we finally arrive at the recording of hot fuss one of the big big albums of the 2000s and even the band has no idea the level of success this album and this song will achieve that's true because they are a fucking overnight success they are real this is the story of rags to riches glory in Las Vegas and the Las Vegas desert sorry I should say in the glass denberry you know John Peele Tent or whatever because what happens is somebody told me comes out they're signed to island records in America hot fuss is then released in June 2004 and it goes number one in the UK by January just seven months after its release it's the song by the way mr bright side is re-released with a slightly cleaner radio mix and that one hits the charts as well goes top 10 in both the UK and the US I mentioned as it wasn't a joke like it literally they played at glass denberry in 2004 that John Peele Tent and quote it went off said Brandon flowers it looked like footage of the sex pistols they're get they get three Grammy award nominations they get nominated for best rock album they get MTV VMA best new artists they get the NME award best international band Brandon is the sexiest and best dress man alive isn't yeah most is within one year artists have to wait in most artists have to wait 10 years to win that MTV best new artist award they have to like strive their whole career for the best new artist award look they're the world's best selling new group at the 2005 world music awards not an award ceremony I'd been aware of but like this is what happens to this band overnight success and well deserved I can now say after 20 years of having to like contemplate my feelings about it well deserved it's a fine song by a fine band we're not done talking about that song in fact there's so much more to discuss about the killers oh boy after the break we'll dive into how mr bright side was made and answer the questions is this based on a real-life story what does swimming through sick lullaby's meme and what makes this song so damn catchy we'll be right back welcome back to one song luxury walk us through this massive massive hit tell us how did mr bright side get made all right we got to start with the songwriting splits it's kind of an interesting story when you investigate this story of just the the credits like who wrote this song if you buy the record hot fuss or at least the earliest copies they may have changed this it'll just say on it flowers and tunic no words that Dave and Brandon wrote this song however if you look into the deeper registry of songwriting which is the prs that's by the way a little quick primer on like songwriting credits for those that want to play at home looking stuff up like this you know Spotify and Wikipedia it's a starting point and understandable one and it's accurate a lot of the time but not all the time so that's a good starting point I would go a little further though there's a website called song view which is the BMI and ask cap records that's that's a little more accurate but the most accurate place is going to be PRS which is not accessible publicly so I have a friend who's in the industry who does the lookups for a shout out to my brother shout out to Claire and it's important because not only does it tell you all the names it tells you the percentages so what I learned in investigating this interestingly is that all four the band members are now credited in other words there was a change that happened at a certain point along the way and it's not equal it's Brandon Flowers gets 34% cooning Venucci Jr. and Mark Stormer bass player all get 22% each what I found interesting about that is that it's almost it's almost equitable but not quite right yeah so if this the song begins live it also seemed like 50 50 it almost seemed like Dave gave him the opening guitar stuff so that's what's interesting to me is I would have assumed that maybe this is a 50 50 split because when two people write a song and one's the music and the other's the lyrics and many presumably I think that they interacted you know when they were first writing Mr. Brightside maybe I think that Brandon might have come up with the chorus in the telling that they both do sometimes Brandon says he wrote the chorus and sometimes Dave says they both did whatever it is whatever it came down Brandon gets a little more yeah and I just recently was reading a study a study done an academic study of bands somebody's went and went through bands that stay together versus bands that split up and they made the connection yeah how they split the songwriting share makes a big deal frequently a big part of the duration the longevity of a band doesn't take a math you too famously splits according to legend splits equally among the four band members so something to be said about doing that if you want to keep the band together and that's what I mean I split our like money 80 20 what the That's the fuck, man. I don't think you're like the same math that I'm looking at. Well, let's talk about how the song gets made. We have Jeff Saltsman's The Producer, Mark Needham is the mixer. According to Mark, there were two or three takes that he edited in about 30 minutes, and he made a couple of decisions, one of which I will play for you right now. The beginning of the song starts with distorted drums that are pan-hard, again, just so that there is something contrasting in the intro before the song bursts into technicolour, essentially, like black and white. So, that's Ronnie Vanucci Jr. on drums, starting with these 16th note high hats, and then it bursts into technicolour around this part. And he's just playing a strict 16th note beat. It's pretty fast. That's 104. It was interesting to me, especially that part before it bursts into technicolour. It sounds almost like it could be drum machine. It sounds like technically just perfect. No, the sounds are really interesting when you isolate the drums like that, because it almost sounds like you're putting up a single SM-58 microphone. It's very dirty, garage recording sounding. That's maybe the last vestige of the band that thought they were going to be sort of strokes. I think there's a strokeshness. Strokeshness. There's a very strokeshness. Maybe they should have worked with Nicole Scherzinger on some strokeshness. We can't ever do a show about her, because I can't say her name. Yeah, we'll be hearing this distortion that on the drums later on, because it's also in the vocals to give it that strokeshness that we were just uploading to. So that's Vanucci in the first part of the song. He then goes into another beat. The eighth note section sounds like this. So dirty. Listening back just isolated, it is not a Fleetwood Mac song, where the snare drum is pristine or it's not Steely Dan, it's like we're in the opposite of Steely Dan in many ways. It's not this pristine sonic isolation and perfection of everything. There's a coming out of the low five period. Coming out of the low five, this is giving them indie cred. And then in the pre-chorus, he adds the thumbs that sound like this. Let me add some bass in. Here's Mark Stormer on bass guitar, so you can hear where we are in the song. It's really building up to the chorus that everybody has to sing along. And the melody is so basic. I'm just chilling on me. I'm showing my hand a little bit, but that chorus, the basic is why it's big. I'm not mad. I'm not mad. Who's mad? I'm not a little mad. He's not mad. He's not mad. It's only a kiss. I'm just living in the culture. It's just a kiss. I'm doing this episode from my bubbling culture. But I'm appreciating it. I'm appreciating it. It was only a kiss. It was only a kiss. These terms remind us that we already have the New York scene. We already have rock bands that are getting people to dance, not to mosh. Everybody's moshing to LCD in the rapture. These are rock bands that are getting people to dance. And out of that come the killers, but what's interesting to me is that around 2004, when this song really starts to blow up, me as a former guy who's loving that rock scene, I'm getting more into dance. And the killers almost seem to be along with friends for a man and eventually the bravery and acts like that. They're taking more in a rock. So out of one scene, one underground scene, you have this divergence where one group is going to go more often to the death punk. So by 2006, we're full on dancing, you know, I mean, we're full on dance music. Part of it is fun. 2006, the killers are coming out with day and age, which is even more of what they're doing here. And it's almost like the scene has split into that. That's really interesting. And just to build on what you're saying, part of it is functional because on the dance floor, there are BPMs that are tend to be you have a range that if you're a DJ, genre is kind of constricting you in some way. You can play a 140 BPM song, but you're going to have to do something kind of like special to like transition from the 120 to 124 that you didn't play all night into that. It's a choice that a band has to make. We talked about this on the Depesh Modepso too a little bit. The remixes can kind of take the place of you still fitting into the DJ in the electronic world, but if you're aiming for radio, that kind of is going to win every time. And at that point, you're making decisions about how the BPMs and the sounds and the choruses that are more about radio ears than dance floor, dance floor needs, radio ears and dance floor needs. I think you're right because I think that if I think about like Pogo by digitalism, if I think about even Franz Ferdinand had a remix of "Take Me Out" that was more, it was more for the indie rock hits to Pogo dance too, than to like sort of 120 sort of like disco style dance. And let's not forget the tempo change in "Take Me Out". It's like there are some things that are harder to accomplish. Man, as a DJ, as a DJ, as a DJ, I'm like, I'm just not playing the song in my deep bass head. As a DJ, the tempo change is always like a tough thing to deal with in your case. It's a real big ask. Yes, it's a big ask. Can we go to the bass? Let's talk about the bass for a second. I, you know, you played the bass in that Tom section so that we would know where we were, but it reminds me that, gosh dang it, like the freaking post punk bass, it's just, it's always good. You're absolutely right. We talked about post punk, part of what makes it post punk, part of what makes it a bass. The connection between all of these bands is this eighth note, consistent bass line, and let's listen to it. This is in the intro. And with the drums, it sounds like this. Now, listen to how much distortion is on that bass. Oh, yeah, sure, sure. If you could, bear with me, play the bass by itself again. You got it. She's lost control. Yeah. It's so joint-evision, right? It's a joint-evision. I can hear hooky, your body hooky, but now this part is where I argue, low strung, then he moves. You're right. When he makes that move, when he makes that move, that's when the killers go from joint-evision to the O.C. in my opinion. To the O.C. What does that mean? There's something, the show, the O.C., which was popular at that time. This feels like television? Yes. It feels like we've made the lead from 1980 and Ian Curtis to 2004 and Adam Brody. That's interesting. Okay. I'm serious. Because it's almost like they open it up. And it goes from the "Sturman Drum" of one thing to the sunny coastline of California. And I don't know what it is in that change, and you probably know better than me. But there's something in that chord change, it just lightens the mood for what comes next. That's interesting. Yeah. I'm not sure that I have any answer, but like, let's bask in the ambiguity. Let's bask in this California Sun. So we go into that quarter note section, and then when we get to the pre-chorus, we go back to eighth notes, and it's a big build-up. And everyone knows. Tension, tension, tension, tension, tension, tension, tension, tension, tension, tension, release. I mean, it makes sense why it works, but man, it actually doesn't. It's driving. It's pummeling. It is. But you know, like, Brandon singing actually is making it sound like the bass is changing more than it is. Like, just hearing the bass isolated like that, I'm hearing now that the bass doesn't change as much as it was in my head listening to it. You know, we're going to get to the vocals in a minute, and I'll point this out more directly as we're, you know, listening to each chunk. But most of the change in this song is taking place in the chords from one section to the next. And then in the chorus, we have a kind of classic, I think we've talked about the axis of awesome before and if we haven't. But the axis of awesome for those of you who don't know are the four chords that you find in a huge number of pop songs, especially in the last 20, 25. Going back to the 80s, you know, journey, don't stop believing. It's 1645 and sometimes the order is reversed or changed. The chords in Mr. Brightside are in the order that they're in are 1465. Brandon Flowers talks about some of his influences very openly and one of them for this song, he wanted, he basically says, we were trying to be you too as we alluded to. And the song with or without you in particular has the same chords just the rearranged and with or without you, which I'll play a little snippet from now, it's 1564. And what that means, these numbers, is that these songs are in different keys, but the relationship of the one chord to the next are in this particular order, which means you could play them in any key. And it would feel the same. It's like when you pick happy birthday out of thin air, you know, it doesn't matter what key you're singing it in. It's, you're all going to sing it together because you know where to go. So here is with or without you. And you'll notice the chord changes are similar but different. Oh, I hear it. Yeah. That's one. Coming out of my cage and I've been doing just fine, gotta gotta be there because it's there. Actually, they're different chords, but the one thing you can hear is a little bit. Yeah. One of the first viral YouTube videos is by a band, an Australian band called the Axis of Awesome, and they do a medley where they go through 30 or 40 songs that use these chord changes from Avril Levine and Bob Marley and Journey pointing out that you can put the different melodies and lyrics on top of the four chords. And what they share is, is the chord changes which no one can own as we've talked about in this many episodes, writing sideways, we were talking about earlier. It's another writing side. ways method you can use. Take the chord chain just to make that brick that you like. Yeah, make a new song. Take four bricks that you like. Rearrange them in this case. Take seven bricks. The with or without you bricks are those four chords and they rearrange them to make this chorus of this song. At some point, the brick please show up. There's one more bass moment I want to play for you because in the bridge, he does a little thing, a little harmonic thing, which is kind of pleasing to listen to. After the pummeling eighth note riff, he does this. A little chord, third, and a fifth. So he's playing the root with a third and then the root with a fifth. So he's just adding a little chordal, a little harmonic interest during the bridge. I'll play the drums for you there so you can hear that together. This is the bridge, the little break before the final chorus. And then he starts coming back in. These guys know how to build. They know how to build. Build, build, build tension release, tension release. That's the key to all this stuff. Lots of tension and then a huge satisfying release into that last chorus. What can we say about the guitar in the song? Let's listen to the iconic guitar riff. I believe guitar player or guitar world, one of those guitar magazines ranked at the number nine riff of all time recently. And here it is by Dave Cuning. And then he, so that's the sort of the opening riff of the song. And it's fun listening to that after telling the story of Brandon getting the demo tape from him after answering the end of the paper, just picturing, driving around the desert, like listening to that. I mean, I don't know if he had like a drum machine or something underneath it or how it was arranged, but what we just heard was very similar to what Brandon Flowers once heard and that melody and those lyrics and the storytelling came into his head. So it's so, it's so evocative instantly. I can see how he was inspired by it. Yeah, I mean, I think that guitar is so central to the song because it comes in like a classic U2 song. Yeah, you know, there's, there are very few songs that would come in with just the guitar, just a jangly guitar at the beginning. That's like a very edge thing to do. Yeah, the edge would add delay to it and kind of sort of sort of, it wouldn't be necessarily as dirty, but the edge does a lot of like arpeggiated, Austin out kind of melodic, repeated melodic things basically under which you have Larry Mullen, Jr. and Adam Clayton doing a very similar thing to these guys with the drums and the eighth note bass line to keep it locked in and the U2ness really shines in when you isolate these parts like that. And I'll go step further and say that I feel like it's very un-low-fi in New York to come in on just a guitar like that. You know what I mean? Like that actually, like as I feel like whether you're talking about blurs girls and boys or LCD sound systems, someone great. Those songs tend to come in with sort of like a grimy keyboard, but this song tends to come in with the guitar, which like you said, could easily be the edge stepping on on stage. It feels made for an arena performance. All I can say is yes and no because don't forget that the Strokes album is this it starts with. No, here's why it's different. Here's why it's different. All right. The Strokes coming in on a drum is different. I'm talking specifically about echoey jangly guitar. Okay. I can't think of one song from Meet Me in the Bathroom that starts with lone guitar. I feel like they started with everything else. Okay, you might be right. Look, what about I'll take it. I'll take the loss. It's not never though. It's not never, but it's not all the time. I'm not sure that I'm trying to be disagreeable. By the way, it's only for how many measures was that? I mean like this it doesn't stay in there long. For last night. Yes, I think the last I prefer Tom Petty's. Exactly. American girl. I'm second by my guns on this. The idea of like the lonely guitar like that to me it screams arena and in a way that like the other songs they usually come in with like bass or like drums or something for the rhythm section. They don't you typically do like the lonely sad man playing guitar in the middle of the stage for eight million people. You know, I'm gonna hold my guns on this. Okay, I think you might be. But if people want to want to point me out as being wrong, I'm so into it. No, no, no, no, no. In my mind, I was hearing a bunch of stroke songs that sound like that, but you know, not that many it turns out. Tony, I think I think the privacy of dancing and having a dance from that underground scene was so important that they didn't typically start off with just a guitar. The lonely guitar, the rapture does have a song that starts off echoes. I think start may start off with a lonely guitar, but other than that, when I can't think of any, let's keep going. Okay, well then the guitar goes into a sort of pre-chorus, sort of pre-pre-chorus, I don't know what you call this section, maybe the B of the verse. It doesn't really matter, but it sounds like this. Just a variation of that riff in different chords. So he's taking the same idea of riffing of like the rhythmic aspect of that original riff and moving it to the 6, 5, 4 to set us up for the chorus. Let me just say shout out to the pre-chorus. We've talked a lot about pre-chorus lately. It's a weird word. It's not a word I used a lot of my life before we started doing this podcast, but this is one of the greatest pre-chorus of all time. When he makes you think he's going to say she's touching his somewhere else, he goes into chest, no, he takes over a dress, no, like this pre-chorus is honestly, I think the start of the show, maybe even a little bit more than the chorus. I think if this pre-chorus is not there, this song does not have the success that it has because anytime I think about this song, I always think of the pre-chorus as the beginning of a chorus explosion, if you will. You know, you're making such a strong point. This pre-chorus builds so much tension because if you were to go directly here, I'll just do it for fun. If we go directly from the verse to the chorus, it's not going to work. Yeah, how does this sound like this? He would sound like this before. You've never heard this before. We're doing this live. Go. It's jarring. How jarring was that? Our producer just did it like a like it's jarring to skip. He was speechless. He didn't know what to do. He was catatonic. Imagine the Beatles with Paul Ringo and George. Just not the same group. That pre-chorus gives us a break from the emotion that we were having and builds this insane tension. When the chorus finally comes in, it's such a relief. I'm tiny. I think we've called it the pre-chorus is the star of the show. The pre-chorus is the star of the show. Well, I think you might be right with that, but nonetheless, I think we do need to hear the guitars in the chorus. Yes. Here they are. I'm getting more flashbacks. Okay, I'm back to the cauldron just for a second. Just for a second, I'm in the cauldron of Envy. It's the cauldron of Envy for people that have been listening to this whole podcast. By the way, the black cauldron was sampled by crystal method for the first song on the album Vegas. It all comes full circle. Guys, we have a problem. We can't stop for neck connections. My earliest musical makings were more like this. I actually was making more of a post-punk thing. I hadn't really discovered mixing the dance-iness and the drum machine stuff yet that I was sort of going on to do. That's kind of been my thing ever since. More of a disco thing. I was making music because I'm hearing that. I'm like, oh my god, this sounds like so many of my 2003 demos, where I'm doing cram, don, don, don, don, don, don, don, don, don, don, like with four chords and like a guitar doing a kind of YouTube cold play. Maybe I don't know what I thought in my mind. Yeah, this is the out. I'll be bringing out a thing on top. I think it's time to get into the sense. Look, the sensor. That's a perfect segue because part of what makes it stand out and makes it not in that realm is the fact that there were synths involved. What kind of a risky thing in the moment? Yes. And the synths are very kind of charmingly simple, by the way. These are not programmed or sequenced. They're clearly performed, I believe, by Brandon Flowers. When I look at early pictures of the band, I mean, he's literally using what my setup was. He's got the micro-corg and he's got, it's just reminding me of this era of, because it was not just me and Brandon that we're doing it. There were a lot of bands that were bringing in dance-iness to their music and, you know, trying to tour the world and make it and be on the John Peele stage at last. But the synths are really interesting on their own. Let's listen to, there's two of them. Here is what I labeled as the dirty, octave bass. Yeah. They get pretty buried and actually let me take those bass and guitar out. It's really subtle. It's pretty subtle, yeah. And then a second melody comes in on synth. And you can kind of hear that pan to the left left. Everybody makes mistakes. It reminds me of the- You know what that sounds like to me? That sounds like an LCD tribulation. I hear it too. It sounds like it could be peaches, you know, like this is like, it feels very much of the moment in electronic. It's very neat. It's very Brooklyn Club Lux 2000 Larry T. Yeah, so you know what? So it bears so. Avenue D. Could you do me this favor? Yeah. Could you give me everything in the song except for the guitars? Sure. I just want to hear what that version sounds like. And you heard it here first because this version does not exist in the real world. It keeps things off the dress. I was so making this music. Here's the synths. You could put like, you know, that was the sound of the moment. I can 808, like a drum machine underneath that. It would be perfect at club, you know, Lux, it would be perfect at 808. Any electro-clash night. That's what we're saying. We're saying this could be a Fisher Spooner B side. It sounds like Fisher Spooner. It sounds like, uh, what was it? Electric six. Danger. Danger. Yeah. Oh. Expensive. Electric six was in this world too. Yeah. Including the British fame, you know, right? They were bigger in England than I think they were ever in America. They like, I think to this day they still have an audience, a big audience there, yeah. Could we take a step back just as artists and just say that like, if they had done the version that artist would have driven it to, yeah, it would be a very different song. And it would have been successful. Very different success. Do you always have to throw in the K-Rock guitars? Whatever that is in your field of art. Right. Do all of us have to at some point just imagine K-Rock and then you just throw in the K-Rock guitars and then you, and then you can buy a boat and a fancy house in palace verties. Like clearly now I'm spiraling because I'm like, there have definitely been times where I'm like, just add a, just add a crazy white neighbor to your show. Just throw that white crazy neighbor into south side and you get seven seasons and you won't get three seasons. You'll get seven seasons because that, that, we all need to be in the call for maybe just for a few moments. And then you can give it back to me because there's more to come. Should have added a white neighbor, listen. Should have added a white neighbor. Those synths make one more appearance in this song in the post chorus. So after the vocals end, there is a little post chorus melody and it sounds a little bit like this. Here's the synth and then I'll add back everything else you hear of the mix. Which is just that really thin pad. I'm sorry. I think everything's broke. What is that? Is that the Olympics theme? You'll hear it. You'll be like, oh, yes, the Olympics. To me, it's funny. It sounds like one. It's by John Williams. He wrote the Olympics fanfare and theme. Finally, John Williams has finally delivered on the promise of his early career. It's called "Bugler's Dream." It's killing me. That song was originally composed in 1958 by French American composer Leo Arnoud for his piece, "Bugler's Dream." And now we think of it as the Olympics. And now we think of it as part and parcel of Brandon Flowers' Master of Master composition, Mr. Brighton. There's something about screaming the lyric, it's killing me, which is so good and so hilarious to me. I think we have to break down some of these vocals and by the way, such a good vocal performance on the behalf of all of us. You say we need to break them down, but I'm not sure we need to because I don't know if I can handle that. There's too much happening in the vocals here that I'm going to react to, but this is good for me. This is a therapy to get the episode I've dealt with the cauldron of envy. I'm going to deal with the vocals and the lyrics and everything about them that has bothering me all these years out of envy and that is the first step is admitting it. So I'm past step one. But you're being vulnerable. I think that's one of the reasons why this song hits so hard because just like our recent War and G episode where he was the one getting jacked, he was not jacking, he was getting jacked. This is a song about a guy who is suffering, is about a guy who is clearly not okay, which is funny because the very first line of the song is coming out of my case and I've been doing just fine. You know, like, you really have to say guys, I'm fine. I always say there's no greater expression that things are not all good than, hey, all good. Like you've never said all good and actually minted like all good always means there's something wrong. It's calling attention to how not good you are. It's definitely things are not all good and he's coming out of his cage and he's doing just fine. And then he says this, let's hear some, let's hear some Brandon. The double up on it was only a kiss is hilarious. It's like he's literally telling himself, it was only a kiss, it was only a kiss. You know? Listen, there's a lot to break down here, but I don't know why she said it was only a kiss. I don't know why she's there, but it's only a kiss. Yeah, yeah, it's suspicious, like you're just calling more attention to it. I'm not sure I'm buying one. It's like with someone says like, hey, I'm going to break something up and it's not weird. Like it's immediately weird. That wasn't going to, I didn't think it was going to be weird. Now I think it's probably going to be weird. Not doing so to you or anything, but okay, that's about to be an insult. Exactly. Just a couple things that, I mean, I'm noticing you jump out to you. But jump out to me, obviously, is the two things about the Delivery One, Mr. Brandon Flowers, singing with the distortion, all of the strokes, also a monotone, a la icky pop. There's a song in particular that Mr. Flowers talks about being inspired by for this song, which was, unless for life, the song is called 16, and it sounds like this. That song is called 16, and I mean, both Julian from the Strokes and Brandon Flowers were clearly influenced. The vocals are also distorted on the icky pop, and the distortion is why it sounds like it's coming out of a tin can or somebody singing in the closet. But the monotone in this case is that delivered, it's basically one note. And in this verse, what we just heard, he's singing two notes, but it's really hovering over that one note. So it's- But by the way, you talk about the universal popularity of this song, this is not a hard song to sing. It's an easy song to sing. Because he is dead within those six notes in the entire song. Six notes. Yeah. And it's probably just two. It's mostly just two. When you're a couple of pints in, it's really easy to sing six notes. It's easy and easier to sing the two notes that are 80 percent of the songs. The other four notes are just for variety now and now. We're going to talk about this next line. We've got a couple of things to say about it. Now I'm falling asleep and she's calling a cab while he's having a smoke and she's taking a drag. Now they're going to bed and my stomach is sick and it's all in my head, but she's touching his- You heard the whole thing, it just bothers me after all these years, but I'll play it for you. I'll play it for you because it was unsatisfying. What I did was cruel. ♪ But she's touching his tears now, he takes off her dress now letting me go ♪ Still two notes. We're halfway through the song basically. A couple of things here. First off, I like any song that tells the story. This song at the time sort of reminds me of Do You Think I'm Sexy because that's a story about another date. One could even argue that. He's Brandon singing this song, meanwhile the other guy is singing a song much more aligned with what Rod Stewart is singing about in Do You Think I'm Sexy. Because there he's met a girl, but imagine that a dude who liked that girl was like washing from afar. He could easily be singing Mr. Brightside while Rod Stewart is singing Do You Think I'm Sexy. Play him back to back. You'll see what I mean. Well, yeah. Let me let's talk about the origin of the song. Because I think you're right. The story of the song as he puts it is, quote, I was asleep and I knew something was wrong. I have these instincts. I went to the crown and anchor, which is a pub in Las Vegas. And sure enough, my girlfriend was there with another guy. It's a perfect timing for getting this demo from the guy just met on Craigslist as it were. And this song came pouring up because he was in the middle of that emotional moment of this. Yeah, just having happened. I mean, I think it's important to point out that like the original drinking songs, a lot of the original pub songs had a sad subject in, you know, as a topic. And this is almost like a 2004 version of that. Like, it doesn't always have to be like celebration and happy times. Like, no. In fact, if you can come up with a song that has all the pub song elements, but this is actually in some ways bittersweet or sad or in this case extremely vulnerable because he said that like he caught his girlfriend cheating, like, it kind of makes sense that this song would be popular, not just at sporting events, but also in the pub. And then the land of the pubs, aka the UK, listen, before we get to the chorus, and it's really important that we do because then that pre-chorus, we've set up a lot of tension. So we're needing. We're needing some really tension. We're needing some release. But before that, we do have to talk about Brandon Flowers has been very open about talking about his inspiration. So he talks about quote, when I look back now, I see little things that helped, for example, he mentioned already the Iggy Pop song, the delivery in particular, the Strokes album that made him discard the rest of the catalog that was in this song. He also mentions "I Feel You" by Depeche Mode, the pet shop boy's song, Jealousy. Which maybe all he took was the was the word as inspiration and last but certainly not least as he quotes says I almost stole Bowie's queen bitch, but I didn't quite so what he's referring to. I love I love I love that it's such a great Great Bowie song. It's from Hunky Dory 1971 and sounds a little like this As Brandon says I was obsessed with Hunky Dory when I was 19 Quote there's an urgency to that and it felt like he meant business So I was like all right I want to do that and the word urgency struck out to me because that's what I'm hearing in this - the urgency of the delivery of those lines The specific line that he sings about phoning a cab because my stomach feels small versus now I'm falling asleep And she's calling a cab. There's a taste of my mouth. There's no taste at all could have been me the way he sings that could have been me Da da da da. I'm gonna just keep going with writing sideways because there's inspiration that when you listen back to back It's like oh he was and he and he admits it when he directly points out that he was inspired by this song and those elements of it You can hear it, but I mean my mission in life is to point out like that's normal for creativity Yeah, this isn't stealing anything that anyone owns because it's not the melody. It's not the lyrics. It's a vibe It's the use of rhythmic language. It's the idea of a cab being weighted on yeah He's piece that together with other things that aren't the Bowie song and putting it in a context and Sonically in the chords. It's different. It has some similar aspects It's got some borrowed little thieving magpie bits and pieces, but he's completely Constructed it and added his own voice and his own storytelling - very importantly his own storytelling his own voices is what makes it his I love it. And then we explode into this chorus. Oh my god. We've been building to the chorus haven't we we've earned it So let's hear that chorus with the vocals isolated my man I have to give this man Brandon flowers incredible props for that is just that might be a perfect chorus, isn't it really? I mean, I'm just listening to it isolated now. First of all, do you notice how the first part of it? It's almost underwhelming the way it starts out like isolated we just heard now when you add the music back It's epic, but that's the music doing heavy lifting. Okay, it might might might take on the chorus is that As we've been said this group is all about builds we haven't lifted anywhere in the first half But in the second half we get the lift That's the part that I'm like really noticing for the first time and it's so gratifying when we hit the word destiny is calling me That's like peak peak peak But it's just the price. I pay Destiny is calling me open up my Because I'm mr. Bride's side. Do you think I think the peak is opened up my Egor eyes? I think that's right. You're right. You're right. There's there's two really delicious moments that follow One from the other when you're at destiny. It's one of those song things where you're like this is the best part Oh, shit. No, this is the higher. Yeah, I'll play him for you and I'll play it isolated again and then add back the mix Starting with the first half where like I said to me the vocals by themselves are a little bit like I say underwhelming Not because they're bad, but just because like that's not where the works coming from it's coming from the music I'll just play it and we can discuss And then here it is. You can just contrast it and then I'll add a back Destiny is calling me And it's also pretty satisfying to end with a miss mr. Bride Mr. Bride said yeah, because you know He's basically saying that the delusions going to continue you said that he needed delusion to make it in the music business Yeah, but this song is literally about delusion and the fact is he feels like He has to go along with this facade. I always but it feels healthy the way he's saying it Don't you think like I'm mr. Brightside? Oh, I don't know. I have an optimistic thing. I feel like if he was my friend I'd be like bro If I was his friend I probably use the word bro like that here's what I can say about the course that I really appreciate Jealousy anytime you can sing it or wrap it in a chorus. It always makes me happy I can go back to the ghost face killer has a song called jealousy and it starts off You got better sneakest in mind like you know, that's just a level of vulnerability most song writers are not willing to go to But that being said the one part of this course that I never quite got until just now until just today I always got choking on your alibi because he's clearly she she's saying she was somewhere else and he's like Yeah, sure, I believe that's the case you know, but like when it comes to swimming through six sick lullabies I never got it now I understand because he says it's all in his head Yeah, so the sick lullaby is basically when you put yourself to sleep full of negative thoughts Yeah, we're basically going to bed full of just like oh how am I gonna pay the bills? Why are we not getting along? Oh, but like anything that's really troubling you and you fall asleep to that? Yeah I'm pretty sure that's what swimming through sick lullabies means and and this is why I like doing the show because We do get to hear songs that we've heard 18 million times. Sometimes we have the lyrics wrong Sometimes we have the lyrics right, but we didn't quite know what they were trying to express. I am thoroughly convinced that I understand this song in ways now that I had never Understandable. Yeah, I think I do too. Here's something Brandon said about that chorus. He says quote the Anthemic quality is me trying to beat oasis's don't look back at anger Very specifically the song we talked about earlier and you two's where the streets have no name Wow, so again the brand and flowers formula being strokes plus u2 plus oasis equals success was he was right He was right to like piece all those things together with a little bit of bowie and a little bit of Iggy pop and a little bit of these other things in there. Our goal here is to not strip all the Cool magic veneer off of this song or any song that we break down, but it is interesting to hear somebody speak so I'll say honestly about like what they were aiming well, especially because the quote ends with quote It's insane to think that that's what I was thinking about at the time meaning their first song ever and when he was 20 They didn't even have a drummer or bass player yet, but that's what I was thinking about so the creative delusion It's right there in the chorus. It was a magic moment that he was able to piece together all these things and make it so successful and to resonate One more thing I do want to point out. I mean listen the first time I heard this song the thing that really jumped out to me was how similar it was to this other song that I'm about to play for you It's a very simple similarity, but I've never been able to unhere this It's just that minor 7 Yeah, I can hear what's happening is that on the downbeat The chord the one chord you're getting the major 7 it's like a half step down So it's dissonant for a millisecond and then you resolve right away to the one Done is we're Satisfying dissonant and we're done resolve Just three there's also another song that was in the air at the same time Which was this song by placebo called special K which did the same thing What's what's crazy is I know this song yeah, and I have never connected that you I've never Let's see yeah gravity. It's just two notes. No, I don't know. Yes These are not accusations that anyone's gonna go to court over But it's a it is a very specific melodic idea to do On the downbeat of the one to be on that weird dissonant major 7th And then you resolve you brought up you brought up the wrong band man placebo I used to love the cool intention soundtrack ever you every me. Yes There was a pure morning And I think I had a great voice Brian Malko. Yeah, okay cool Love placebo did not know we're gonna be gravity yeah Yeah, let's see Why give this why give no Liam a lot of leeway because I'm sorry. There are a lot of people doing this So the killers had quite a few popular songs on their first album, you know hot fuzz I would argue it's ironic in the sense of Thriller's first single being the girl is mine, you know like I love somebody told me but You know mr. Brightside is on there and you've got other songs on there all these things I've that I've done is like such a Classic classic song and they Applied a rule that we've talked about a lot on this show, which is winning doubt Put a girl's name in the title. Yes, because Jenny was there's Jenny was a friend of mine. There's believe me Natalie You know one of my favorite songs from this era the rule also applies is Stella Stella was a diver and she was always down by intrapole and obviously previously on the show We've talked about everything from marine by sharday to Renee by the lost boys But mr. Brightside is far and away their most popular song and it stood the test of time as of the recording of this Podcast it was one of the first songs of the two thousands to hit one billion streams and it just keeps going You know, you said something earlier speaking of the impact like the whole the whole fact of there being anglofilia in Brandon flowers as a child Right, like listening to the cure tapes and yeah, he brings that anglofilia and this like 80s music into his music And then is popular in England before he's popular in america and although he's the band is still huge in in America, they're iconic status in England. They're up there with the Oasis's. - And you too. - And you too. No, something you said earlier about the single "Singability of the Song" really struck with me because I'm thinking about the sort of British phenomenon of pub sing-alongs. Like, and stadium chance and the white stripes, seven nation army is another big stadium chance. And this one fits into that category. And I think Oasis has a bunch of stadium chance as well. So it's interesting that they found their stadium chance. - Yeah, they've joined the pantheon of British iconic bands, but they're from Las Vegas. - And I'm looking at your hand gesticulations. - I mean, you have to do this. - Which you can see on YouTube. That chorus just loads and such. ♪ Gel, let's see, it's theatrical. - It's sort of operatic theatrical. - Operatic, absolutely. - The European tradition, sort of maybe more than the pre-church tradition. It's not like, it is a little bit churchy, but it's like, it's also C-shanty-ish. Like, there's also this British tradition of C-shanty sing-along. It's actually got that a little more than I'd say, the American church tradition, but they do that in the song you just alluded to, right? Which is all the things I've done. I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier. Another line that bothered the hell out of me. When I heard it. ♪ Soul, but I'm not a soldier. ♪ I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier. - I've got soul. - But then, so what's truly infuriating is that when they play that at Live 8 in July 2005, Robby Williams, another British icon, pop star. They didn't quite make it huge over here, but he interpolated that song when it was for a song. - I love it. Go ahead. - Coldplay and U2 interpolated that line from that song when they played in Vegas, and they played on the White House lawn in 2010 for President Barack Obama in the second annual Slute to the Military. These guys, the legacy, like they impacted culture so quickly and so massively, it's just really mind-blowing with their first song they ever wrote. - Yeah, I agree with that. And here's what else is interesting about the killers. Are they a part of the last big wave of bands? I mean, like I-- - I rock and roll music. - It's the death of rock. - We've talked about on the show. This is one of the first years where there was no band in the current top 100. - I think you're nailing it. - Like that's insane to me. I think-- - Rock exists. We're not saying there's no rock anymore. - Yeah, of course. - But it doesn't dominate the conversation. - Like all things, everything is temporary, right? - Yeah. - This might be a completely temporary condition, but you do wonder, like, does it take five guys playing instruments split in the money five? - Four. - Five or four or three? Why Stripes is two? But do we really want our music generated that way? Obviously, there are always gonna be some singer-songwriters like a person with acoustic guitar. I don't think that goes anywhere. But the idea of the band, it does seem to have fallen out of favor in a big, big way in the last ten years. - It's, again, there are still bands. It's still exciting to put together a bunch of musicians in a room, and to jam, and to perform live, but it doesn't dominate the cultural conversation in the same way as it did in this moment. - No. - Sort of arguably-- - There were still tons of bands in the arts. And then you look up now, and it's literally pop singer, rapper, and solo artist. - Look, I just counterpoint to that. Again, there are still good bands. I was just like-- - I'm not saying that's better. I'm just observing. - No, no, no, no, it's flipped. Whatever was, they were the dominant sort of thing happening in pop culture and the cover of the enemy, et cetera. You know, to this day, I think it's in the last 20 years, it's certainly declined precipitously, but there are still great bands making music. I was just listening to the new Voids record, which is Julian from the Strokes is, I don't know if he calls it the side project, but it's other project. It's so good. - Yeah. - It inspired me, and I was sort of like, "Oh, I kind of want to do something like this." - Everybody in my brilstein told me about that. - So, they're so good, so there are bands. - Last thing I'll also say is that to your point, it does pay to do right by people. The fact that they are decently, evenly split, you know, - Yeah, just already credits, yeah. - You can still go see the killers if I was in Vegas just last summer and ran into a friend of mine who was there to see the killers. Like the fact that they did it that way means that this band still probably has a lot of good will towards one another, and they're still out there performing. - Listen, I think I'm over my jealousy. I think that this episode has been therapeutic. I think I'm gonna put the cauldron away. I'm gonna pour some ice cubes into it, and cool it off. And I genuinely have come out of this experience, a fan of this band and this song. So, I wanna thank you for helping guide me there on this precipitous vulnerable journey. - Well, my bill is in the mail. (laughing) Okay, Lexi, it's time for one more song. This is the segment where we share a deep cut or a hidden gem with you, the one song nation, and with each other. Do you wanna go first? - Sure, I mean, listen, this story that we've gone through today had me remembering those earliest days of writing my first songs, which reminded me that the moment, my had my sex pistols moment, when I saw a band called The Faint open up for no doubt, my little sister dragged me to see no doubt on her behalf. And the opening band was from Omaha, and they sounded like this. This song is worked up so sexual from the Faint's first record, Blank Wave arcade. ♪ I swore to watch ♪ ♪ They all face your way ♪ ♪ While they fall from in their pockets ♪ ♪ Could burn marks into their legs ♪ - So good, man. I remember I was so inspired by this band because of the sound, because of the energy, this like fast 80s inspired dance music, and then the lyrics were about like, well, this song's about a sex worker, and I was just like, wow, you can do that? So my, the earliest incarnation of luxury was me kind of trying to do that. - That's great. - Yeah. - How about you, D'ya? What did you bring for your one more song? - So for my one more song today, I wanna play a song that I think I only would have discovered because I was listening to the BBC at the time. It's by a band called Manson, M-A-N-S-U-N, and this was a song that I really, really liked. It's called, "I Can Only Disappoint You." ♪ Five, their hips would swing a line ♪ ♪ So we jump ♪ - Very British, and just a very cool song. - Listen. - From my time, it listened to the BBC. - That's a cool song, and I got it this. This episode is an outlier, perhaps, in the canon. I think it's one of our best, by the way, but I keep on thinking about myself, and I keep going back to my own musical 'cause I wrote a song, which was called, "I Will Only Disappoint You." - What? - I didn't know that. - In this era. Yeah, I never finished it. It's one of the ratio of things you start to finish, but that lyric, that line was going through my head for a long time. That line is interesting to hear it sung back at me, like, oh my God, they finished my song. This might be an opportunity for us to take a break, and maybe build something new. As always, if you have an idea for one more song, please, please, please, you can find us on Instagram and TikTok, you can send us DMs, keep them appropriate. You can find me on Instagram at DIA, L-L-L-O, and on TikTok at D Allor Rittle. - And you can find me on Instagram at LUXXURY, and on TikTok at LuxuryXX. And if you've made it this far, I think that means you like this podcast. So please don't forget to give us five stars, leave a review, and share it with people that you think might like it, because it helps keep this show going. - Luxury, help us with this thing. - I'm producer DJ, songwriter, and musicologist Luxury. - And I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ D Allor Rittle. - And this is One Song, we'll see you next time. (upbeat music)