AstroDispatch.com

It’s many Moons since I was taken by a popular song. This one crept up on me. We first heard it earlier this month on “Saturday Night Live” - “Human”, by The Killers, a band we’d never heard of. After listening for a while, we both commented on the silliness of the lyrics.
(See end of post for lyrics and YouTube recording).

I noticed the song played a couple of times recently during my morning dose of the BBC. It’s a catchy tune, better appreciated via radio than watched on TV. Yesterday, just as I finished my post featuring a tarot reading, I switched to the BBC and that song was playing. This time I really listened to the words. Two hours later I’d scoured the web, learned about Hunter S. Thompson, and encountered a wide variety of opinions on the meaning of those enigmatic lyrics.

It appears that Brandon Flowers, vocalist and keyboard player of the band has stated in an interview that the line “are we human, or are we dancer?” is a reference to a remark once made by the late Hunter S. Thompson, an ascerbic journalist famed for “telling it like it is”, often in offensive terms. He had commented that America is nowadays raising a “generation of dancers”. Thompson committed suicide in 2005.

Aside from The Killers’ new song, Hunter S. Thompson is a fascinating subject, about whose astrology I’d have written, but found that it had already been done by D.K. Brainard at “Pure Plutonium: Hunter S. Thompson Says Goodbye”.

Because that fabled “veil between worlds” is thin at Halloween, I fancifully imagine that perhaps Mr. Thompson’s thoughts are being propelled to us clearly at this time for a reason. We are close an election in the USA, an election pivotal to the future of both this country, and by extension, the world. When considering whether to vote or not, it might behove us to ask ourselves, “Are we human or are we dancer?”

Concentrating on the lyrics of the song, I started to search for clues to their meaning. A long thread of comments at Popwatch Blog following “Does the Killers’ ‘Human’ have the silliest lyrics of the week? by Simon Vozick-Levinson provided food for thought. Comments covered whether the song says “denser” or “dancer” (it’s the latter); whether dancer should be plural (no - because the word is used as an adjective, as though it’s a different species, as in “are we human or are we canine”.)

There are analyses of the lyrics as a whole. One writer saw them as relating to the end of a love affair after a phone call. Another to the birth of a person’s first offspring - a bit of a stretch, I thought! The meaning of “human” versus “dancer” is cloudy. Is it preferable (or wise) to be one or t’other? All depends on individual interpretation.

My own version of the tale the lyrics tell is this: as Brandon Flowers has said the inspiration came from Hunter S. Thompson’s words, possibly the whole song is a dedication to him and the way he ended his own life (he shot himself in the head, suffering from several chronic illnesses). The “platform of surrender”, cutting the cord (of life), “Wave goodbye, say farewell, you’ve gotta let me go”…. reading the lyrics this way, the intention seems obvious to me.

Intertwined in the story told by the lyrics is that question we might benefit from asking ourselves: “are we human or are we dancer?” Personally I take it as asking whether we are taking notice of what’s going on around us, or are we oblivious, wrapped up in our own fantasy world, allowing others to manipulate us, and the real world?

It’s the first time for decades that I’ve thought as much about the lyrics of a pop (or any other) song. I guess Hunter S. Thompson would be pleased if he could see the thought and controversy seeded by a throw-away remark of his.

I did my best to notice, when the call came down the line
Up to the platform of surrender, I was brought but I was kind
But sometimes I get nervous when I see an open door
Close your eyes clear your heart, cut the cord

Are we human, or are we dancer
My sign is vital my hands are cold
And I’m on my knees looking for the answer
Are we human, or are we dancer

Pay my respects to grace and virture, send my condolences to good
Give my regards to soul and romance, they always did the best they could
And so long to devotion you taught me everything I know
Wave good bye wish me well, you’ve gotta let me go

Are we human, or are we dancer
My sign is vital my hands are cold
And I’m on my knees looking for the answer
Are we human, or are we dancer

Will your system be alright?
When you dream of home tonight
There is no message we’re receiving
Let me know, is your heart still beating?

Are we human, or are we dancer
My sign is vital my hands are cold
And I’m on my knees looking for the answer
Are we human, or are we dancer
You’ve gotta let me know

Are we human, or are we dancer
My sign is vital my hands are cold
And I’m on my knees looking for the answer
Are we human, or are we dancer
You’ve gotta let me know

Are we human, or are we dancer
Are we human, or are we dancer