When You Were Young

The new Killers song "When You Were Young", being played constantly on my itunes, the XM radio station on at the gym, and 99x here in Atlanta, is a continuation of a theme that has been present in rock songs for decades: A woman, young and sometimes of questionable character lamenting the romantic decisions she has made in her life. "When You Were Young" begins:

You sit there in your heartache
Waiting on some beautiful boy to
To save you from your old ways
You play forgiveness
Watch it now - here he comes

He doesn't look a thing like Jesus
But he talks like a gentlemen
Like you imagined when you were young

Okay, the Jesus thing makes the point of the song a little obvious and almost too heavy-handed, but it places the main character (not the Messiah) in a place of self-reflection and loss.

This theme is revisited constantly. "American Girl" by Tom Petty, for example. Tom Petty has made a career on nostalgic songs about the past, and this is one of his best known examples:

She couldnt help thinkin that there
Was a little more to life
Somewhere else
After all it was a great big world
With lots of places to run to...

And for one desperate moment there
He crept back in her memory
God its so painful
Something thats so close
And still so far out of reach

What makes these songs so good and believable is that the singers seem to understand completely what the characters are going through. It could easily be them reflecting on their lives. In fact, it is rumored that "Maria", the reoccuring character in Counting Crows songs, is the lead singer writing about himself. Maybe that's what makes these songs so successful. The themes of love, loss, and living with your decisions affect everyone, and the lyrics are vague enough to be inclusive to anyone.


The Killers and Tom Petty songs are just a couple examples of this kind of song, and they happen to be on the more nostalgic and least bitter part of the spectrum. A sub-genre of this sub-genre is the young actress that loses herself in Hollywood that the male singer can't seem to stop from wrecking herself. Another sub-genre is a more depressing one occupied by songs like "Better Man" by Pearl Jam, where the protagonist is stuck in a dead end life and can't get out.

These definitely aren't the more uplifting songs, but the nostalgia and conflict give them a depth and longevity (we'll have to see about The Killers' song, it was just released) that is lacking in a lot of what's played on the radio.