17 Years Ago, The Killers' Most Controversial Lyric Was Based On An Intentional Mistake

Their discography is full of hits and each album has a certain acclaim in its own right. Among the band's long list of accomplishments, one controversial lyric stands as a top-tier The Killers lore. Quite apart from questions of its origin, the oft-maligned, grammatically imaginative lyric was the center-point of one of the band's biggest hits, which became the most streamed song on Spotify in 2008, and the first single released on the way to a triple-platinum album success, according to Far Out Magazine.

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The lyric in question, "are we human, or are we dancer," from the chorus of the stadium-shaking, slow-burning indie ballad perplexed fans across the world for its use of "dancer" vs the grammatically correct plural, dancers. The official word from The Killers camp has always maintained the higher ground, arguing for the importance of the hit-single's logically dissonant lyric.

The 2000s were marked as an era where "being right" trumped everything, not so unlike today, and with hard-hitting sites like the burgeoning Pitchfork and the onset of the Internet as both a tool for leisure and claiming pop-culture stake, The Killers' controversial chorus from "Human" was ripe for proto-viral interest.

For the lead singer of The Killers, Brandon Flowers, he is still dealing with push back on that controversial line, "are we human, or are we dancer." However, according to Flowers, the line is not a mistake. Moreover, the more controversy and attention the line gets, the more successful the lyric.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Brandon says, "I really care what people think but people don’t seem to understand "Human..." They think it’s nonsense. But I was aching over those lyrics for a very long time to get them right." According to Brandon, he does not care if the lyric follows expected grammar rules, "I guess it bothers people that it’s not grammatically correct, but I think I’m allowed to do whatever I want."

Following in the tradition of writers going back to Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" and further, Flowers's imaginative wordplay is meant to engage listeners with its uniqueness. Specifically, The Killers' frontman is looking up to fellow West Coast luminary Hunter S. Thompson.

"I really care what people think but people don’t seem to understand Human...They think it’s nonsense. But I was aching over those lyrics for a very long time to get them right."

"Human," which topped a 2014 Blinkbox poll for weirdest song lyrics, beating out The Beatles, "I am the Walrus," is an example of what Flowers considers his tribute to the late gonzo-journalist. Flowers' choice to keep the lyric, which would confound any native-English speaker, is his creative exploration of the Hunter S. Thompson line, "America is raising a generation of dancers, afraid to take one step out of line," which questions the autonomy and independence of the modern human.

Known for their intensely personal tracks, like "Mr. Brightside," "When We Were Young," and "Somebody Told Me," "Human" is a much more universal piece that looks far outside Flowers and Co's lives. So what do The Killers mean by "are we human, or are we dancer"?

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With "Human," Flowers is rebelling against the idea that we need to just sit and take the new calloused future in which we find ourselves. Like social daredevil and mischievous savant Hunter S Thompson, whose Flowers-quoted line demanded the courage of his fellow humans to be unique and take risks for independence, Flowers's choice to write his unexpected lyric was meant to shock his audience and send them deeper into the idealism of one of The Killers' top songs.

The entirety of "Human" tackles many of the social idiosyncrasies of 2008 life, a range of which have been exacerbated with time, and thanks to that cryptic chorus, The Killers were able to grab listeners and bring them directly into the world of the song. Are we going to go with the flow or are we going to be ourselves?

Flowers leads by example with his choice to use "dancer" vs. "dancers." In our attempts to rectify the grammatical dissonance of the line, we are raising the metaphorical stakes of the song. By accepting Flowers's lyric, we are actively dismantling any preconceived notions of order, acceptability, and respectability -by accepting "dancer" we are proving that we are, in fact, "human."

Source: Rolling Stone, RadioX, Far Out Magazine