The Killers And Bruce Springsteen Just Dropped A St. Elmo's Fire Flames Duet, "A Dustland Fairytale"
Rollingstone - The Killers and Bruce Springsteen have teamed up to record a new version of “A Dustland Fairytale,” which originally appeared on the band’s 2008 LP Day & Age.
In an e-mail interview with Rolling Stone, Killers frontman Brandon Flowers said the original plan was to play the song together live. “But the idea to record it remotely was initially about giving people something during quarantine,” he says. “‘Dustland’’s lineage leads straight to Bruce. When we finished it back in 2008, I sent him a copy and a note expressing my gratitude for his contribution to my life.”
“I attribute my discovery and absorption of his music with helping me become a more authentic writer,” he continues. “He helped me to see the extraordinary in everyday people and their lives. And in this case, it was my parents who were under the microscope. Their faith and doubts, their search for salvation in the desert. It sounds Biblical. It also sounds Springsteenian.”
Brandon Flowers has long cited Bruce Springsteen as one of his most important influences, although the Killers took some heat in 2006 when some critics said their LP Sam’s Town drew a little too much from his work. That reaction weighed heavily on Flowers when he first met Springsteen.
Springsteen the man is a very polarizing individual. Which is sad because the people that love him, love him so much they'd probably take a bullet for him. And the people that don't, are usually so spiteful over his stance on issues or his political beliefs that they're robbing themselves of some of the best music ever produced.
He's arguably the second greatest songwriter of all time (sidebar- I just became aware of and am reading up on all of the Bob Dylan controversy surrounding his plagiarism or not just songs but also a lot of his autobiography. Crazy shit) And his catalogue spans decades and decades of classics. He's one of the best live performers you'll ever see, even in his 60s. And he shows no signs of slowing down.
Between this collaboration and the one he did with The Bleachers last year I am all-in on Bruce Springsteen the featured artist.
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Keep them coming Boss.
p.s. - obligatory excuse to post my guilty pleasure "One Headlight" video.
I posted this one of the first blogs I ever did last year on great covers or collaborations or something (can't find it now). I remember watching this MTV awards show live and seeing this performance and being awestruck. Springsteen's guitar and booming voice on that second hook still make the hair on the back of my neck stand up hearing this 20 years and 500 plays later. Unreal performance.