When You Were Young by The Killers

When You Were Young
by The Killers

You sit there in your heartache
Waiting on some beautiful boy to
To save your 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

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
Let's take it easy
Easy now, watch it go

We're burning down the highway skyline
On the back of a hurricane that started turning
When you were young
When you were young

And sometimes you close your eyes
And see the place where you used to live
When you were young

They say 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

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
(Talks like a gentlemen, like you imagined)
When you were young

I said he doesn't look a thing like Jesus
He doesn't look a thing like Jesus
But more than you'll ever know

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Brandon Flowers, Dave Brent Keuning, Mark August Stoermer, Ronnie Jr. Vannucci

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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"When You Were Young" is a song written and performed by Las Vegas-based rock band, The Killers, and is the third track on their second album Sam's Town, released in October 2006. The song was released as the lead single from that album in September 2006. It has proven to be one of their most successful singles, peaking at #14 on the U.S. Hot 100 (only "Mr. Brightside" peaked higher on this chart at #10), as well as their only number 1 to date on the U. Read Full Bio"When You Were Young" is a song written and performed by Las Vegas-based rock band, The Killers, and is the third track on their second album Sam's Town, released in October 2006. The song was released as the lead single from that album in September 2006. It has proven to be one of their most successful singles, peaking at #14 on the U.S. Hot 100 (only "Mr. Brightside" peaked higher on this chart at #10), as well as their only number 1 to date on the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks. It is also their highest charting single to date in the United Kingdom and Australia, peaking at numbers 2 and 10 respectively.

The song, that is in the key of B major and written in common time, displays the band's move towards a more "American" musical style, as it is part of an album that was supposedly heavily influenced by the music of Bruce Springsteen. The song itself was reportedly influenced by Springsteen's "Born to Run". The song was nominated for the 2007 Grammy Award for "Best Rock Song", and the single's video, directed by Anthony Mandler, received a nomination in the category of "Best Short Form Music Video". The single was ranked #69 on iTunes Top 100 Best Sellers: Songs of 2006. The song also made #4 on the Triple J Hottest 100, 2006.

The song has been covered by Coldplay live at an unplanned appearance for MENCAP, as well as by Finnish singer Astrid Swan, and Taking Back Sunday. It was also covered by Simon Webbe, a former member of British boy band Blue on Jo Whiley's Show on Radio 1 in the Live Lounge. On the 25th of March 2009, the song was once again covered, this time by The Noisettes.

The song appears in the video games Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, SingStar Amped, and Rock Band.

The song was featured in the third section of the 2006 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show and is played regularly before Baltimore Orioles games at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

In 2009 it was voted at Number 37 in UK radio station XFM's "100 Greatest Songs of All Time". http://www.xfm.co.uk/onair/shows/xfms-top-100-songs-of-all-time.

The music video for this song was filmed in Tlayacapan, Mexico.

In a frame story, it tells the story of a Mexican woman around the age of 20. The video opens with her arriving at a large, white, wooden cross in the desert. She mourns in front of it until her supposed husband shows up and comforts her. In the next scene, she is praying at a church; after leaving, she meets up with her husband. One day she arrives home to find her husband in bed with another woman; seeing them together, she runs out crying, with her husband running out after her. The video flashes back to their wedding as she runs away. After showing the woman washing herself, the video cuts to a bar, which the woman enters. She sits at the same table as her future husband and the woman with whom he later cheats on her with. As they introduce themselves, the other woman leaves. The band is playing in the bar, and the girl looks at Flowers as he sings the last verse, but turns away as the video ends. The final shot is of the cross that the woman visited in the first scene, with the woman still on the ground and the man there with her.

There is also an alternate version of the video in which the woman jumps off a cliff instead of reconciling with the husband.