‘All These Things I’ve Done’: Brandon Flowers on The Killers song that achieved the “holy grail”
For the last two decades, The Killers have been stalked by ‘Mr. Brightside’, a song which is now an inescapable part of contemporary culture. For many people, it’s all they know of the band. However, the Hot Fuss single isn’t singer Brandon Flowers’ proudest moment with the group, an accolade he awarded to ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’ instead.
The track appeared on the same album as ‘Mr. Brightside’, and while it’s not taking on a life on a comparable scale of the fellow Hot Fuss song, it remains a firn favourite of Flowers. ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’ was written by the frontman after a meeting with television host Matt Pinfield, who later confirmed on Twitter that it was “inspired by our conversation the night we met. My mentoring of soldiers returning from Iraq inspired the lyric ‘I got Soul, but I’m not a soldier’ and the title of my book”.
While Pinfield wasn’t on the front-line serving in Iraq, he still played a vital role, and his story flicked a switch in the mind of Flowers, who used that source of inspiration to write one of The Killers’ most beloved tracks. Although the conversation with Pinfield gave Flowers the spark to create ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’, the gospel choir, The Sweet Inspirations, brought the song to life.
During an interview with SPIN in 2015, Flowers named ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’ a personal favourite. “I think it’s got such a strong sense of identity. I was heavily into U2 at the time, and the way that they incorporated gospel to their music,” he commented. “That was something that had a huge effect on me, and you really hear it in this song… everything from the chord progression to the actual gospel choir we recorded with. There’s something to guitar music and gospel. You can make something that feels unique and honourable.”
He continued: “That’s kind of the Holy Grail for rock music, and I think we achieved something with that song. Another thing that stands out to me about it is how strong it is for being on our first record, for how young I would’ve been, 21 years old or whatever, and we were pretty… what’s the word? We were fully realised.”
As Flowers mentioned, U2 were the primary sonic reference for ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’, and the track would perfectly fit onto The Joshua Tree. Much to The Killers frontman’s delight, in 2009, he was joined on-stage by Bono to perform the song at London’s Shepherd Bush Empire at a concert in aid of War Child. While the track isn’t known as globally as others in his canon, for Flowers, it will always be his most significant source of professional pride.
