Monday, February 5, 2024: The Killers - Mr Brightside (Glastonbury 2004)

 

What is Cool Song Of The Day? What is the purpose of this blog? 

Why put myself through this? Again? 

To be fair, I have not "officially" relaunched this blog.  Basically, I'm just trying it out, trying it on, see if it still fits.  I quit back in 2012 because things were happening and I needed to free up space in my life.  Space I thought I would use for great things.  Alas, they did not end up being "great".  But they did end up being necessary.

Walt Whitman said, "These are the days that must happen to you."  Hot damn if that ain't one of the truest things said.

The highest tier idea behind CSOTD was a selfish one: I wanted to reach out, research and discover new music.  Well, new music, and music I had not heard before.  That's it. 

I guess the 2nd tier after that was a desire to share music.  Music is nothing if not shared.  

Below those, was a desire to explore just exactly what the idea of "cool" is.  It is a concept, an idea, that has eluded me most of my life.  I have not, nor will I ever be, thought of as "cool".  But those people who are, who I write about and who's music I share, are almost always "cool".  

Is Mr. Brightside by The Killers undiscovered music?  Obviously not.  I mean, not unless you've been living under a rock for the past 20 years. Quoting Wikipedia, 

"Mr. Brightside" was named "Song of the Decade" by UK radio stations Absolute Radio and XFM, and in April 2010 Last.fm revealed that it was the most-listened-to track since the launch of the online music service, with the track being played over 7.66 million times. It is the third most streamed song on Spotify from the 2000s.In October 2010, it was voted ninth in the Greatest Guitar Riffs of the 21st Century so far by Total Guitar magazine. Additionally, in 2010 Rolling Stone listed "Mr. Brightside" as the 48th-best song of the 21st century, and in 2021, it was ranked number 378 in the same magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list.

That's a hell of a list, right there. 

It's a 20 year old song that sounds just as fresh today as it did when it was released, and sounded like it could have fit in around 1987 as much as it landed comfortably in 2004.  It's a sad song with a upbeat rhythm, a song about obsession and despair over losing a lover to another, that also packs dancefloors all over the world. It was written by a Mormon kid from Las Vegas, NV with a passion and self-awareness that has no business coming from a Mormon kid from Las Vegas, NV.  

All of those things combine to make this a very cool track.  And a killer way to start the week.

Crank it up.