Lyrics for Human as interpreted by poorlilrockstar

Human Lyrics
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

And 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 virtue
Send my condolences to good
Hear my regards to soul and romance
They always did the best they could

And so long to devotion
It taught me everything I know
Wave goodbye, 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?

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TheMaster22
11-06-2008

Rated 0 
He's saying "dancer", guys. And it does make sense.

He's questioning whether we are all individual humans with emotions and thoughts, or whether we are simply dancers who follow each other.

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ChrisCross22
11-07-2008

Rated 0 
I think this song has to do with euthanasia. Especially in the beginning with "I see an open door." I think this refers to having a near-death experience and "seeing the light" of God. Seeing the light may have made him want to pull the plug, or "cut the cord" and die. When he says "close your eyes, clear your heart", he is probably telling a relative or somebody near him to do that so when the cord is cut, it is easier for them to cope with. He is also "on his knees looking for the answer", which probably means that he is praying to God looking for the answer to what he should do. "Wave goodbye, wish me well" probably means he decided to die and asks to be wished well so he can make it to heaven.

I am not quite sure on the dancer part, but when I think of dancers, I think of unison and grace, so I dont know if that has anything to do with euthanasia.

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zoya
11-08-2008

Rated 0 
I think the song is about being free, enjoying live, going with your feelings instead of the thought process. Or maybe brain vs. heart?
Seeing an open door to me means the opportunity to get over to emotional way of living. But he gets scarred-nervous because it's unknown. Close your eyes, clear your heart, cut your cord equals close your eyes, take a deep breathe and jump.
Are we human or are we dancer, which way do we want to live our lives?
My sign is vital, my hands are cold. My instincts tell me to start dancing, let in to the moment, but coldness is without emotions, and I think hands are nice put in, since they are also the part of our body with which we actually do things. Freezed in the habit. He wants to start living as he feels is right but he is too tied in the comfort and automatism of everyday life. Looking for an answer how to accomplish that.
Grace, virtue, romance, how much of that is for ourselves and how much for appearences? To live as he wants to, he has to put himself before what other people think.
Next I find interesting words, system and heart beating. I'm having some problems putting all together but I'd say: Do you even feel alive always playing by the rules?


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ShotgunXXWedding
11-10-2008

Rated 0 
In case this hasn't been said, it is DANCER. Brandon even said it was. He commented on the "denser" speculation, and he said that sounded just plain odd.

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Lyric Bug
11-10-2008

Rated 0 
Not that it really matters anymore, haha, but...

I think he says both "dancer" and "dancers" at different times in this song.
In the chorus, third time around, the words "human" and "dancer" sound pretty plural to me. A distinct "ssss" sound there, if you ask me. I don't think it changes the meaning of the song significantly or anything. But yeah. Just wanted to participate in the speculation! :D

Annnyway, I really like this song. It's just oh-so-deliciously Killers. <3 Doesn't bore me to listen to over and over; in fact, it just got better and better after the first couple of listens!

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Cinnamonbrandy
11-13-2008

Rated 0 
I come from a fairly different place to most of these comments... In Spider Robinson's Stardance, the ability to dance gets you into the next level of sapience. So rather than being a puppet, or less than human - once we are Dancer, we're more than human, and can do cool stuff like swim through vacuum - which would give you cold hands, and vital signs...

Helen

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Alkito
11-14-2008

Rated 0 
This is a very good song.

"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"

Something happened here. It's not clear if it's a bad break-up or something else. But basically a life changing experience on the
negative side.

This experience brings him into the platform of surrender (breaking point), and then the process of loosing his humanity - sense of self-control/control of own destiny - begins. He feels he needs to do it but he hesitates because it's an area/feeling that is unfamiliar to him "And sometimes I get nervous, when I see an open door."

On paragraph 4 & 5 is when he is saying goodbye to everything that identifies to him as being "human." He says good bye to grace and virtue, goodness,
soul and romance, etc...

In this song, he ponders the question of who we really are in relation to our lives and destiny. Do we stand up for good, love, loyalty, fairness? And when those fail,
should we loose ourselves, be indifferent, and just go through our lives and decisions as though they're pre-determined by...perhaps that which made us fail the first time?
Contrary to Icarus Fixius comment, I think he does slip into becoming a dancer. I say slip because he doesn't want to be a dancer as it is against who he really is,
but life is not giving him a choice "There is no message we're receiving, let me know is your heart still beating?"


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dotdotdot1212
11-17-2008

Rated 0 
in response to icarius fixus
i disagree to the last part of your comment
the song is called "human". not "dancer", not "are we human or are we dancer". So, i think he is implying that he has chosen to be human and not just a puppet on strings. it also says "are WE human or are WE dancer?". not just himself. i think that he isnt questioning himself, he already knows that he is human and he knows what he wants to be. i think he is questioning society and humanity as to what they are, and reminding everyone that they ARE human.

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student.mckinney
11-18-2008

Rated 0 
I thought it was a spiritual song, questioning faith/religion. Human representing free will, dancer representing under the control of a higher being.
Pay my respects to grace and virtue
Send my condolences to good
Hear my regards to soul and romance
They always did the best they could
And so long to devotion
It taught me everything I know
Wave goodbye, wish me well
You've gotta let me go

Grace and virtue of God maybe...... and devotion to religion.
Just a guess

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thewayitis2345
11-18-2008

Rated 0 
What the hell happened to them? What the hell happened to when you were young, mr brightside, sam's town,somebody told me??????????

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gdh82
11-18-2008

Rated 0 
Some really interesting posts here. I also found this helpful:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081116191803AAcL2QR

Q. What did Hunter S. Thompson mean by "American raising a generation of dancers?"?

A. Hunter S. Thompson meant that the US was making people afraid of stepping out of place and following their own beat. He was saying that people were only following the steps they were taught, and were also taught not to change them. In the song "Human" one of the lines is "Some times I get nervous when I see an open door". By this he meant that he is afraid to take different opportunities when they are presented to him, because living in the US has made us all afraid to go against what we've thought for all our lives.

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mile_highboy07
11-20-2008

Rated 0 
Here's what I think and says me gdh82 is deffinately right.
I'm long winded...

-When I you pay attention to the lyrics he's talkin about there's a path already made for him and that's the road everyone's goin on but he's distracted by the open door that NOBODY goes in. It makes him nervous cause it's something new and untouched, and he wants to go through but people are always afraid of what they don't know.
-2nd verse he's snubbing the normal values and rules set by society and doin his own thing weather it's "good" or "bad".
-Then he returns to where he started and everyone everything he learned. Most importantly they wanna know are we human or dancers. Humans are the most evolved top of the line predators or whatever. The point is that we're supposed to be superior. Dancers are puppets which are used to make up something bigger (a play?) or whatever and they're inferior to their controller. So are we the most superior life force or is there something bigger?

He never said what we are if you notice. That's cause YOU are supposed to come up with YOUR OWN OPINION. I think it's a clever song to think on.

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1 Reply
serpententacle
11-22-2008

Rated 0 
This should put all speculation to rest:


http://www.stuff.co.nz/4767472a1860.html


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rhuester
11-23-2008

Rated 0 
"Pay my respects to grace and virtue
Send my condolences to good
Hear my regards to soul and romance
They always did the best they could

And so long to devotion
It taught me everything I know
Wave goodbye, wish me well
You've gotta let me go"


THIS, OH MY GOD.

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Matt Holck
11-23-2008

Rated 0 
I think it is about socisl relations
whether we gather in small famaliar groups(human)
or move across the many people switching partness dancing in the moment

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BMAN12688
11-23-2008

Rated 0 
It's dancer, check wikipedia and the song info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_(The_Killers_song)

anywho, maybe its because i just broke up a 2 year relationship, but it really hits home that way (a relationship point of view).

i'm really shocked how gorgeous this song is, and i like his upper register more and more every time i hear Brandon Flowers sing this song. Really amazing track. Oh and the cd overall is great :-P

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ajolly2
11-24-2008

Rated 0 
Understanding what Hunter Thompson meant about America "raising a generation of dancers" tells us pretty much the main idea of Flowers' lyrics. But I think Thompson--and thus Flowers--is a little misguided in his application of the word "dancer": a dancer CAN be one who just performs a predetermined pattern of steps to music someone else puts on (like a dog doing tricks at its owner's commands), but I think most of us would associate dancing with letting loose, being free, and moving to our own rhythms. So, for me, that slightly sullies what is otherwise a good song.

As for the question of whether we are the human race or the dancer race, I think Flowers gives the answer, at least for himself:

"And sometimes I get nervous
When I see an open door
Close your eyes, clear your heart
Cut the cord"

This erstwhile "sheep" is standing at the door to something new and, scared shitless, he closes his eyes, clears his heart (I'm imagining a deep breath and closed eyes), and makes the decision to cut the cord (i.e. cut the apron strings to big brother, cut the umbilical cord to our omnipresent protector who knows best, cuts whatever metaphor to oppressive control you want, etc.) and says “so long to devotion.” Being an optimist, my take is that on his way “up the platform of surrender” there is an “open door” through which he can and does escape (metaphorically speaking, of course).

I think verse 4 is sarcastic. Anyone else?


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ajolly2
11-25-2008

Rated 0 
Sorry. *Verse 3 sarcastic.

(because "grace," "virtue," "good," etc. are defined by the system of power that plays the music for this human to dance to)

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youngdirector
11-25-2008

Rated 0 
I do not think that "are we human or are we dancer" is a dumb line. Think about it.

Human: Has emotions, struggles, very individual
Dancer: Conforms to the music they hear around them, relaxed, only having fun.


This can translate in a few ways
Do we really care about the world?
Should I be myself?
Should I continue to live with unrequited love or move on to someone who cares about me?

"And 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?"

Obviously about making desisions


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wey
11-25-2008

Rated 0 
Are we human or a generation of dancers?
if that's about making a choice to end it, then I rather have them say
"are we human or denser"
Denser being defined as "STUPID" by http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/denser
are we human or stupid - make more sense to me.

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maxman
11-26-2008

Rated 0 
This song has a resounding effect amongst many of my military friends, some just back from the war zone. Just think of that when you interpret the lyrics. I've enjoyed reading all your interpretations. Good job!

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scottb123
11-27-2008

Rated 0 
i think it sounds more like 'denser' and it makes more sense that way.
because its 'are 'we' human' its plural so it would hav to be dancer(s) and i think you can hear theres no 's'
on the end. as for meaning i think its questioning whether theres more to life than what we see. good catchy song

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1 Reply
klorentzj
11-27-2008

Rated 0 

As to the debate about whether it is "dancer" or "denser." I am sorry, but you are both wrong. The correct word is "robots", as in,

"are we human, or are we robots?"

If you don't believe me, try singing it a few times. It really is better this way.


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rikelias
11-27-2008

Rated 0 
"are we human or are we dancer?"

when you dance you usually dance to a beat and with someone.... both of these factors usually affect our moves while we dance...

i kinda relate to this... when i think about life, i always ask myself if the decisions I make and everything that happens to me my choice or if I'm just playing a role...

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MagicNine
11-28-2008

Rated -1 
I think this song is about Vampires.

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