Are We Human or Are We Dancer

Alright, so I used to like the Killers until they came out with this ridiculous song that’s been getting popular. It drives me nuts that the word “dancer” is singular. Supposedly, the line was “inspired by a disparaging comment by Hunter S. Thompson about how America was raising a generation of dancers” (see lyrics here). The irony is killing me. Seriously, you’re going to make a faux-intellectual, obscure reference, while also making an egregious grammar error? I guess if you’re telling us we’re a bunch of idiots, thereby proving Thompson’s point, then yes, you’re right, we are dancer.

Honestly, I don’t usually preach grammar because I make plenty of grammar mistakes all the time. It just drives me crazy when a blatant grammar error is blasting every five minutes on the radio and thousands of teenagers are singing it.

Before I dwell too much and start losing faith in our pop culture, let’s counteract this idiocy with well-written lyrics from The Airborne Toxic Event. There were some debate over one of the lines in their lyrics too, but this band actually offered a legitimate explanation:

“Sometime Around Midnight”

And it starts, sometime around midnight.
Or at least that’s when you lose yourself
for a minute or two.
As you stand, under the bar lights.
And the band plays some song
about forgetting yourself for a while.
And the piano’s this melancholy soundtrack to her smile.
And that white dress she’s wearing
you haven’t seen her for a while.

But you know, that she’s watching.
She’s laughing, she’s turning.
She’s holding her tonic like a cross*.
The room’s suddenly spinning.
She walks up and asks how you are.
So you can smell her perfume.
You can see her lying naked in your arms.

And so there’s a change in your emotions.
And all these memories come rushing
like feral waves to your mind
Of the curl of your bodies,
like two perfect circles entwined.
And you feel hopeless and homeless
and lost in the haze of the wine.

Then she leaves, with someone you don’t know.
But she makes sure you saw her.
She looks right at you and bolts.
As she walks out the door,
your blood boiling
your stomach in ropes.
Oh and when your friends say,
“What is it? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Then you walk, under the streetlights.
And you’re too drunk to notice,
that everyone is staring at you.
You just don’t care what you look like,
the world is falling around you.

You just have to see her.
You know that she’ll break you in two.

*Mikel (lead singer/guitarist): “The line is ‘cross’ and I meant it to mean sort of like she’s holding her drink ominously, as if it’s offering her comfort and guidance.”

Thank you, Mikel for the proper use of a simile.