How Bruce Springsteen Influenced The Killers

The Killers’ music has received a polarizing response for several reasons. The band’s oft-mentioned comparisons to past greats are one reason. Early material reminded of ‘80s synth-rock, with names like Duran Duran and The Cure popping up to coincide with the success of their 2004 debut, Hot Fuss. They were still remote comparisons though, with frontman Brandon Flowers’ quivering and anthem-friendly roar resulting in a fusion of the past and present that was original enough to result in an extremely prominent radio presence. With their second album, Sam’s Town, a specific comparison became especially relevant. The band had assumed a more rock-heavy approach, with Flowers’ voice echoing the grandiose quiver of Bruce Springsteen, along with the lyrical down-on-your-luck heroes that the Jersey legend so often conveyed. Named after a casino in The Killers’ native Las Vegas, the reference to a hometown relic is comparable to Springsteen on its own, but the songs themselves make Springsteen’s influence that much more resounding.

When asked his reaction to people claiming The Killers ripped off Springsteen on Sam’s Town, Flowers looked at it beneficially. “The reaction to Sam’s Town took me to a bad place. But a good thing came from it — all the anger I had toward what people were saying about the album made me want to prove how good the music was,” he said. “We would play those songs live with so much fire. In a way, the critics helped make the Killers a great live band.” The Killers’ tunes have received this response similarly to knee-jerk reactions, with many listeners seeing close sound-alikes to lack inspiration. But a track like “When You Were Young” can’t be looked past simply because it sounds like Springsteen. It’s a superb effort that captures the roaring nostalgia and longing for a hard-earned youth that Springsteen best delivers, with the working-class dreams and thunderous hooks reminding of his best work in the ’70s. Springsteen’s songwriting is more complex and jam-oriented, and Flowers has a knack for more explosive and less subtle hooks, but there’s no doubting that Springsteen’s techniques have provided Flowers a working point to expand The Killers’ sound. And even as The Killers have departed somewhat from the sound of Sam’s Town into a more modern blend as of late, Springsteen’s ghost remains like Tom Joad’s.

Bruce’s influence isn’t purely superficial. At the Pinkpop Festival in the Netherlands, Flowers joined Springsteen on stage to perform Bruce’s 1975 single “Thunder Road”. The Killers and Springsteen played the first night of the three-day festival, and it resulted in glowing reviews as expected. Like Springsteen, Flowers’ rise in the musical world has coincided with large off-stage occurrences. After Hot Fuss was released, he got married and toured the world, resulting in the album that Flowers called his “rebirth”. Success was daunting for the group, but fortunately it coincided with Flowers truly discovering Springsteen for Sam’s Town. “I had another one of those 12-year-old experiences when I was 23, but this time with Bruce Springsteen. And it was just — it was elation,” he told MTV in 2006. “I couldn’t believe how happy his music made me and how good it was. He’s a gift, and I didn’t know. I mean, I knew ‘Born in the USA’ and ‘Glory Days,’ but I didn’t know that he covered so much ground, and there was something in his music that touched what I was going through, the process of falling back in love with my America.” Flowers became fascinating with writing about “the American dream”, and the result was the massively successful Sam’s Town. Although spearheaded by “When You Were Young”, the entirety of Sam’s Town is a success in capturing The Killers’ career up to that point, torn between cutting-edge creativity and a reverence for the past. What they showed listeners was that they were here to stay, even if it meant bringing along lovable influences that no sane music fan could dislike.