{"id":792019,"date":"2019-01-14T11:24:09","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T18:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=778697"},"modified":"2019-01-14T11:24:09","modified_gmt":"2019-01-14T18:24:09","slug":"the-killers-address-gun-violence-border-wall-in-scathing-new-song-land-of-the-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/the-killers-address-gun-violence-border-wall-in-scathing-new-song-land-of-the-free\/","title":{"rendered":"The Killers Address Gun Violence, Border Wall in Scathing New Song \u2018Land of the Free\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Killers<\/a> contrast a mythic American dream with a darker, more depressing vision of U.S. life in their scathing new song \u201cLand of the Free.\u201d Frontman Brandon Flowers criticizes President Trump\u2019s proposed border wall, institutional racism and the country\u2019s failure to introduce substantial gun control reform.<\/span><\/p>\n

The singer uses \u201cthe land of the free\u201d as an ironic refrain, citing the injustices that seemingly shouldn\u2019t occur in such a society. \u201cWhen I go out in my car, I don\u2019t think twice,\u201d he sings over gospel-styled piano and grandiose backing vocals. \u201cBut if you\u2019re the wrong color skin, you grow up looking over both your shoulders.\u201d Later, he asks, \u201cHow many daughters, tell me how many sons, do we have to put in the ground before we just break down and face it? We\u2019ve got a problem with guns.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Toward the song\u2019s climax, Flowers touches on Trump\u2019s signature campaign promise. \u201cDown at the border, they\u2019re gonna put up a wall,\u201d he sings. \u201cConcrete and rebar steel beams\/High enough to keep all those filthy hands off of our hopes and our dreams\/People who just want the same things we do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In a Facebook statement<\/a> about \u201cLand of the Free\u201d \u2013\u00a0the Killers\u2019 first song since their fifth LP, 2017\u2019s Wonderful, Wonderful<\/em><\/a> \u2013 Flowers said the lyrics originated in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting. \u201cOn December 14th, 2012, I woke up, unlocked my phone and, like so many others, saw the pleas to \u2018Pray for Sandy Hook,’\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe news was devastating. Heart-wrenching. A gut punch. But, sadly, not as shocking as it should have been. As a father I\u2019ll never fully comprehend what that community and those parents went through. But my church upbringing taught me to mourn with those that mourn and I did it the best way that I knew how. I cried for those kids and teachers. I got on my knees and I prayed for those families.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe dishonor our values, our ancestors and our heritage when we tear gas our brothers and sisters seeking asylum,\u201d\u00a0Flowers continued. \u201cI see my family in the faces of these vulnerable people. After all, it wasn\u2019t that long ago that my grandmother and her family immigrated from Lithuania to escape the U.S.S.R.\u2019s oppression. They chose to leave everything they knew behind to come to America and work grueling jobs in dangerous coal mines, rather than endure tyranny at home.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The singer echoed those sentiments in an interview<\/a> with Zane Lowe\u2019s Beats 1 show, adding that he initially felt \u201cinadequate\u201d to write a song with such overt themes of social injustice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0think it\u2019s a very important time right now,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd \u2018enough was enough\u2019 is basically where it comes from. It started in my mind around when Sandy Hook happened, and as a father how that affected me. And then it just started stacking up \u2013 things like Eric Garner and Trayvon Martin, things like what\u2019s happening at the wall. This stuff didn\u2019t seem to be in harmony with the values that I believe my country was founded on. I would start the song and then I would put it away and I\u2019d say, \u2018I\u2019m not the guy to do this,\u2019 or I\u2019d feel inadequate, waiting, somebody\u2019s going to write this song. Then it just piled up \u2026 Las Vegas, Orlando, Parkland, and it just kept coming and I was just like, I have to get this out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Killers contrast a mythic American dream with a darker, more depressing vision of U.S. life in their scathing new song \u201cLand of the Free.\u201d Frontman Brandon Flowers criticizes President Trump\u2019s proposed border wall, institutional racism and the country\u2019s failure to introduce substantial gun control reform. The singer uses \u201cthe land of the free\u201d as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-792019","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-12 11:15:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792019\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}