Killers ( The ) - Dustland

First performance: 01/10/2022


Coverinfo

Bruce performed the song 2 times:  
 
During a videocall, Bruce and Brandon Flowers of The Killers discussing their collaboration on "Dustland" on NBC's Today. After the videocall the new video was played.
 
 
 
2022-10-01 Madison Square Garden, New York City
Bruce and Jake Clemons take the stage to perform a three-song set with The Killers during their Imploding The Mirage tour. Brandon Flowers introduced Springsteen: "Everybody gets a little nervous when their boss shows up for work, right? I don't know if you've noticed, but me and my friends have been sweating bullets up here all night, because The Boss is here. Ladies and gentlemen, Bruce Springsteen." And before "A Dustland Fairytale", Flowers said something like "In this portion of the show, he usually tells people to hold up their phones and think about where their light comes from. It is a very unusual circumstance for me tonight, because I get a lot of my light from you", while looking at Bruce.
 
 
 
 
 
BADLANDS (with Jake Clemons) / A DUSTLAND FAIRYTALE / BORN TO RUN (with Jake Clemons)
  

Songinfo

Dustland  is a song written by Brandon Flowers but credited to The Killers. It was released by The Killers as a single on 16 Jun 2021. ( taken from the album Day & Age ). Dustland is remake of A Dustland Fairytale , a song originally released by The Killers in 2008. The remake of Dustland features a guest appearance by Bruce on vocals. 
On 10 Jun 2021, during a phone call with host Jim Rotolo on Sirius XM's E Street Radio channel, Springsteen revealed in a surprise announcement that he recorded a song with The Killers. "I did a nice thing with Brandon Flowers, from The Killers." he told Rotolo. "And we did something together that I think is gonna come out soon. Like, in a week or so." The following day, The Killers posted on their official Twitter account: "Looks like the cat's out of the bag. When The Boss decides it's time to make an announcement, it's time to make an announcement." The post was accompanied with the cover art for the upcoming single. Shortly after, they also posted a 10-second clip from an upcoming music video for DUSTLAND, to be released on 16 Jun 2021.
 
 
Brandon Flowers:
" The idea to record Dustland was initially about giving people something during quarantine" , " When we finished it back in 2008, I sent him a copy and a note expressing my gratitude for his contribution to my life." "I attribute my discovery and absorption of his music with helping me become a more authentic writer," he continues. "He helped me to see the extraordinary in everyday people and their lives. And in this case, it was my parents who were under the microscope. Their faith and doubts, their search for salvation in the desert. It sounds Biblical. It also sounds Springsteenian."
 
Brandon Flowers wrote "A Dustland Fairytale" as his mother battled brain cancer; she died a few years later. The story is about his parents falling in love in a trailer park in 1961.
 
 
  

Other cover versions

Bruce on the artist

2009-05-30 Megaland, Landgraaf, The Netherlands 
Bruce had one performance together with Brandon Flowers at the Pinkpop Festival. Brandon Flowers guests on "Thunder Road"
 
  

Lyrics

A Dustland fairytale beginning
With just another white trash county kiss
In '61, long brown hair and foolish eyes
He looked just like you'd want him to
Some kind of slick chrome American prince
A blue jean serenade
Moon River what'd you do to me
I don't believe you
Saw Cinderella in a party dress but
She was looking for a night gown
I saw the devil wrapping up his hands
He's getting ready for the showdown
I saw the minute that I turned away
I got my money on a pawn tonight
The change came in disguise of revelation, set his soul on fire
She said she'd always knew he'd come around
And the decades disappear like sinking ships, but we persevere
God gives us hope, but we still fear what we don't know
The mind is poison
Castles in the sky sit stranded vandalized
We're drawbridges closing
Saw Cinderella in a party dress
But she was looking for a nightgown
I saw the devil wrapping up his hands
He's getting ready for the showdown
I saw the ending when they turned the page
I took my money and I ran away
Straight to the valley of the great divide
Out where the dreams all hide
Out where the wind don't blow
Out here the good girls die
And the sky won't snow
Out here the bird don't sing
Out here the field don't grow
Out here the bell don't ring
Out here the bell don't ring
Out here the good girls die
Now Cinderella don't you go to sleep
It's such a bitter form of refuge
Why don't you know the kingdom's under siege
And everybody needs you
Is there still magic in the midnight sun
Or did you leave it back in sixty-one
In the cadence of a young man's eyes
Out where the dreams all hide