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The Killers admitted that one of their songs is a David Bowie rip-off. It also drew from another rock star from Bowie’s era.
Some classic rock stars have had an influence that spans decades and David Bowie is one of them. The Killers admitted that one of their songs is a Bowie rip-off. It also drew from another rock star from Bowie’s era.
David Bowie and Lou Reed inspired 1 of The Killers’ songs
During a 2013 interview with Entertainment Weekly, The Killers’ Brandon Flowers discussed the origin of “All These Things That I’ve Done.” “I worked at a casino called the Gold Coast as a bellman,” he recalled. “This was back when there weren’t cell phones yet, so I used to call the guys and tell them I was gonna call them back and leave an idea on their answering machines.
“I was very heavily into glam rock at the time, and I felt like [Lou Reed’s] Transformer and [Bowie’s] Ziggy Stardust — the delivery of those records, sometimes it was almost talking to you, especially Lou,” he said. “The lines’ Help me out, yeah yeah, you gotta help me out/Don’t you put me on the back burner, you gotta help me out’? I was just trying to be Lou Reed funneled through the Las Vegas Strip.”
The David Bowie song that inspired ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’
Flowers implied that the track took even more inspiration from Bowie. “And the bass line is a direct rip-off of a Bowie track called ‘Slow Burn,’” he said. “I can say it now because I don’t think he’s gonna come after us.”
It’s interesting that Flowers said he was into The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars when he penned “All These Things That I’ve Done.” “Slow Burn” was not on that album. It was part of the album Heathen. While Heathen did well critically, it doesn’t have the same cultural cache as The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. In fairness, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is one of the most important and beloved albums of all time, up there with The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
The Killers’ ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’ became a cross-cultural hit
“All These Things That I’ve Done” didn’t become a massive hit in the United States, but it did pretty well for an indie rock song. That tune climbed to No. 74 on the Billboard Hot 100, lasting on the chart for 14 weeks. The track appeared on the album Hot Fuss, which reached No. 7 on the Billboard 200 and lasted on the Billboard 200 for 98 weeks. Hot Fuss became the band’s longest-charting album in the U.S. and critics widely considered it one of the best albums of the 2000s.
The Official Charts Company reports that “All These Things That I’ve Done” was arguably more popular in the United Kingdom. There, the tune peaked at No. 18 and charted for four weeks. Hot Fuss was No. 1 for two of its 256 weeks on the U.K. chart, making it the band’s most popular record in the U.K. as well.
“All These Things That I’ve Done” is a great song even if it takes a lot of inspiration from Bowie.
