"When You Were Young" by The Killers, Thursday, May 6, 2021

Yesterday was Children's Day in South Korea, so I had a nice day off of work. Today, it was back to work, but a song I listened to this morning took me back to a few earlier points in my life--not quite back to childhood. I wrote about "All These Things I've Done," back in February, talking about the conflict in Brandon Flowers' lyrics--the desire to keep the straight and narrow path of his faith and the temptations of the real world. And unlike the bands on Tooth & Nail who seem to have everything sorted out (granted, there is a spectrum of Christianity rather than one rather rigid denomination--Mormonism), The Killers' music is never resolved. "When You Were Young" examines the contrast between what you fantasize love would be when you were young with the reality of it. The person you fall in love with may not be the man who looks "like Jesus." He may not share the faith and ritual you grew up with. "But he talks like a gentleman."

WAITING ON SOME BEAUTIFUL BOY TO SAVE YOU FROM YOUR OLD WAYS. I mostly skipped over The Killers' sophomore release, Sam's Town. Critics and fans, too were mixed on the album. The band who had named themselves after a fictional band from a 2001 New Order music video and whose lead singer channeled The Cure's Robert Smith, The Killers' first album, Hot Fuss was steeped in New Wave, '80s Brit-pop influences. However, their follow up was more influenced by Southwest Americana, Bruce Springsteen and U2 than New Wave acts. In college I revisited Hot Fuss and their B-Sides, Sawdust and I listened to their newly released third record, Day & Age, but Sam's Town was too "Mr. Brightside" and not enough "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine." The exceptions are "For Reasons Unknown" and this song. However, I kind of forgot about this song until I heard a Joy Electric cover of it the other day. Joy Electric is Ronnie Martian, brother of Starflyer 59's Jason Martian, and one of the Tooth & Nail old school bands. Hearing Joy Electric's cover was kind of fun and a little bit strange, and ultimately I longed for the original.

2YOU SIT THERE IN YOUR HEARTACHE. 2014 was a pivotal year. When I came to Korea, I threw myself into being a Christian teacher. I came to Korea to shine the light of the gospel. However, the longer I worked for an institution owned by the church, I started to realize little by little that my piety was being used mostly to promote the institution. And more and more sacrifice was required "to keep the lights on." The church connected to the private institute I worked for was dying. There was talk of the glory days in the early 2000s when students would enter the academy and get baptized and join the church. Now (2014) students only came to learn English. My team had had some success with the religious programs, attracting students, but when we got tired and didn't promote the snot out of the programs and students didn't come, the church members would call into question our faithfulness. The extra programs were on top of a 30-40 hours week of insane 7am-10pm hours, by the way. What was the final straw for me was when I had a disagreement with the director who kept admitting students throughout the term and expecting us to pass the students who had only attended for 2 days when it was clearly against corporate policy. I realized that it didn't matter how much I sacrificed for the messed up church-company, it would never be enough. I became disillusioned with the religion I had devoted to myself when I was young. I had thrown myself into my job and my religion, and I never felt more used. I resolved to invest in myself from that point on. 

The Killers:

Joy Electric Cover:

Read “When You Were Young” by The Killers on Genius