The Killers: When You Were Young Meaning
Song Released: 2006
When You Were Young Lyrics
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 gentleman
Like you imagined when...
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There are three characters in this song...the guy telling the story, the (presumed)girl and the guy who "doesn't look a thing like Jesus".
When thinking about a song, I think about the title... The Killers don't just pick titles because they are the lyrics most sung, they do it very deliberately. When we are young, we are innocent. The Killers also talk quite a bit about God (like in "all these things I've done")
This song totally reminds me of pretty woman... Some handsome guy sweeping in to take the girl away from her awful past. After all, what she's done isn't who she is. She's looking for salvation and forgiveness and someone to take her away. "He doesn't look a thing like Jesus, But he talks like a gentleman." To me this suggests she is settling for this guy, when she should be looking toward God for this kind of forgiveness.
The devils water usually suggests alcohol, but here, I think is referring to temptation. (ie. Adam and Eve, the serpent "devil" was tempting them) This new guy is tempting. She knows he probably isn't what she really needs, but she can "dip her feet for a little while".
I think this is something she does over and over again, and she wishes she could go back to when she was young. -
My interpretation of this song is that it's about a girl hitting her 30's who had a colourful time growing up, one night stands, drinking, dancing, drugs. I think she always thought she would meet someone and settle down, probably brought up in a strict family and revolted and rebelled but still pictured herself settling down with a perfect man. This song is about her reaching her 30's, still being used and abused my men because she is craving love and being cared for, she gives herself and her body up and forgives and forgives men again as she moves on in her search. The hurricane which started turning when she was young is spiralling out of control, the men are all gentlemen when she meets them.............. The feelings after they leave after a one night stand is the start of the song, she sits there in her heart ache......... She needs someone to save her from her own ways..... "Watch it now here he comes" is her excitement of the next prospect....
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I look more to the music than the lyrics for interpretation.
Lyrics are ambiguous and can mean just about anything, but the way music is put together, it captures one feeling, one specific energy to teach the audience a theme.
In this song, I can feel a persons struggle with reality (I don't say woman because a man wrote this song, and he couldn't know a womans exact feelings)and the constant grooving motion of trying to live, while there's a screeching voice always coming to get you and turn you into something different. Even when your life becomes slow, and you kind of battle with the 'devil', there's a constant groove keeping you alive. -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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its about a girl who thinks she's going to find salvation in men but men will let you down. He doesn't look like jesus simply means that she should look to jesus to save her instead of men cause men have a sin nature and will lead her into sins and temptations. The devils water.
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This song is about a man who abuses and mistreats his (younger) girlfriend. He hits her and cheats on her, but then he apologizes and she always comes back to him because he knows all the right things to say ("he doesn't look a thing like Jesus but he talks like a gentleman"). Basically, he treats her like dirt but she always forgives him ("you play forgiveness")
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I think this song is about a girl who meets a man that is way more experienced and older than her. He is not innocent like her. Hence, "he doesn't look a thing like jesus". But he talks like a gentlemen. I'm making my judgment based on looking at the video. The man appears to break the girl's heart when he marries another women. The man looks like he has an established life with another women. He is the epitome of "the devils water". She is still young and vulnerable. Thats what I get from the lyrics.
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I thin this song is about a troubled girl sitting there in
"her heartache, waiting on some beautiful boy to
to save you from your old ways" (I think she has a drug problem which is ruining her life and relationships). Later it says:
"they say the devils water it ain’t so sweet
you don’t have to drink right now
but you can dip your feet
every once in a little while" (I think this is the temptation she feels to use whatever drug or alcohol she is abusing. Devil's water or fire water is another name for booze). And another parts he sings,
"we’re burning down the highway skyline
on the back of a hurricane that started turning
when you were young" (in my opinion the burning down the highway represents the fast life and the destruction that comes with the fire. Fire being a metaphor for danger, destruction, and pain. And the hurricane is the brewing problems that are building due to her problems all mounting. It is the overwhelming 'storm' that causes her to revert to a childlike state. She wishes to be young...Or at least to find a "gentleman, like you imagined when you were young". The references to jesus I belive are hallucinations that she has when she is high, seeing this guy as a spiritual figure who will "save" her, like the saying jesus saves, and the singer is trying to say to her that "he doesn’t look a thing like jesus", but the guy talks like a gentleman. Another reference to being high,
"can we climb this mountain I don’t know
higher now than ever before i
know we can make it if we take it slow" changing her life is an enormous task like climbing a mountain, but the singer thinks she can do it if she takes it on step at a time.
I know this is poorly written and organized, but you have to admit when you hear the words "devil", "old ways", "save you", "forgiveness", "hurricane", "burning", "heartache", you know this isn't just about a girl waiting for prince charming. Instead it seems that a ruined woman is wishing and hallucinating for someone to save her from her inevitable destruction, while the singer tells a more down to earth approach to escaping the forshadowed doom:
"we can make it if we take it slow
let’s take it easy, easy now, watch it go", he is offering his support and saying it is a long slow process to recovery.
***remember this is just my interpretation, it might mean something different to someone else.
Eli (vancouver, bc, canada) -
I believe that this song is about a girl who is so desperate to find happiness and when she finally finds it--she has trouble in her "perfect" relationship and she is devastated that life is not perfect. "devil's water" lyrics is about temptations and how everyone strays from their path and we as humans have to forgive & forget and continue life accepting each others inperfections. This song I feel is religious based.
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The story's about a girl who has dreamt all her life of meeting someone special and good ("like jesus"). She is sad and desperate because she hasn't found anyone (or she is disappointed because of another guy who disappointed her) but then this man comes and she likes him very much ("he talks like a gentleman like you imagined when you were young"), so she's happy with him and very in love with him.
("the devil's water it ain't so sweet, you don't have to drink right now, but you can dip your feet every once in a little while") I guess it's like she is very religious because she wants a man like jesus, and she thinks that doing some sort of things is a sin, but the man takes her there so she goes with him.
("but more than you'll ever know") he's the best man she could find. -
The song is about a girl who has fallen in love with a boy, and who expects the boy to take care of her psychological faults. The boy is polite and offers her protection, which causes her to associate him with a sort of "knight in shining armor" character that she used to invision when she was young (the main chorus of the song being "he doesn't look a thing like jesus, but he talks like a gentlemen, like you imagined, when you were young").
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