"When You Were Young" by The Killers, Saturday, January 15, 2022 [reformatted post]

Netflix's Song Exploder tells the story about the first single from The Killer's second album, Sam's Town. Toward the end of touring for their debut record, Hot Fuss, The Killers started work on their second record. The band changed their musical direction slightly for Sam's Town, incorporating influences of Americana into their New-Wave sound. Taking musical and lyrical influence from Bruce Springsteen, The Killers set out to tell the stories about the West and Las Vegas, a town they call home. From the opening guitar riff, inspired by the feeling of driving in the desert, to the spiritual conations in the lyrics, "When You Were Young" is an early track that shows the themes of the band in more recent years.

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. Lead singer Brandon Flowers explains the lyrics of this song, saying, "A savior can come in different forms" and that the song is really him as a 24-year-old writing about "the man that I wanted to become." A man who "doesn't look a thing like Jesus, but talks like a gentleman."

YOU SIT THERE IN YOUR HEARTACHE.  The expectations about your life when you are young and the reality of who you are when you grow up are usually vastly different. I know if high school me could see who I am now, I'd probably be shocked and a little horrified. I'm happy with who I am now, and I'm thankful for the baby-steps I took to improve my life. But we don't magically grow up. It's a series of steps, negotiations, decisions, compromises, and people who get us where we are going. On certain occasions, we look back at those steps. For me, 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:

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