What does Mr Brightside mean?

The Killers: Mr Brightside Meaning

Album cover for Mr Brightside album cover

Song Released: 2003


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Mr Brightside Lyrics

I'm coming out of my cage
And I’ve been doing just fine
Gotta gotta be down
Because I want it all
It started out with a kiss
How did it end up like this
It was only a kiss, it was only a kiss

Now I’m falling asleep
And she’s calling a...

  1. anonymous
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    Mar 1st 2011 !⃝

    In my opinion, this song is about the Great Gatsby. First of, the singer clearly wants a woman who is already with another man, just as Gatsby wanted his past lover Daisy who was also already with someone. But Gatsby still looks on the brightside just like Mr. Brightside in the song.

    Not only this, but there are clear similarities between the lyrics and the novel and it is as they elude to the novel.

    Coming out of my cage
    And I've been doing just fine
    Gotta gotta be down
    Because I want it all
    (Gatsby literally wanted it all as his life goal was to acheive a perfect version of himself, and he was succeeding this goal untill he met the girl, Daisy)

    It started out with a kiss
    How did it end up like this
    It was only a kiss
    (In chapter 6, this is clearly portrayed when Gatsby first kisses Daisy, and with this he admits that this girl will forever hold him down from his dream of Deity like perfection)

    But it's just the price I pay
    Destiny is calling me
    Open up my eager eyes
    'Cause I'm Mr Brightside
    (Finally, the singer admits his fault in loving this girl just as Gatsby had. But Gatsby still looks torwards the green light- a symbol of hope that occurs throghout the novel- as he is Mr. Brightside who lools torwards the positive and still believes he can win Daisy back.)

    When this song was first written, it probably wasn't based off the Great Gatsby, but the song explains the major theme of the novel so well. Whatever the meaning of the song is, it must be a situation almost identical to Gatsby's.



  2. anonymous
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    Feb 22nd 2011 !⃝

    I think that maybe its not that its his girlfriend, but maybe he's sleeping with a girl that is already in a relationship.

    Like she confessed his love for her, but decided that she couldn't get rid of her present boyfriend for some reason. So, then although he doesn't really want to be in this horrible relationship, he really loves her. He thinks that at a point she did really really love him, but now he's realizing that she might not.

    Now he's completely involved in this awful relationship in where all he wants (wanting it all) is for her to love him, like she originally did.

    He's jealous, and it makes him sick to think that he's with another girl. He believes its his destiny to be with her, even though there isn't a prospect of her being with him, and her just using him.

    But he's going to look on the Brightside because he doesn't want to let her go.

  3. anonymous
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    Feb 22nd 2011 !⃝

    I read somewhere it was about Matthew Gray Gubler, a friend who directed one of their videos, running off with his woman. He was asked and never denied it instead said, "I don't think so, I don't know. I have to ask Brandon".

  4. anonymous
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    Jan 21st 2011 !⃝

    To me, this song seems like the narrator is hopelessly in love with a prostitute.

    "I'm coming out of my cage
    And I’ve been doing just fine
    Gotta gotta be down
    Because I want it all
    It started out with a kiss
    How did it end up like this
    It was only a kiss, it was only a kiss"

    In the beginning, the narrator is "coming out of his cage", maybe meaning he's embracing the life of an adult, and he met a woman who he knows is a prostitute. It seems that he decided to get with her, hoping maybe to score, but in the lines "It started out with a kiss/ how did it end up like this/ it was only a kiss, it was only a kiss", the narrator is saying that as soon as he kissed her, he fell in love, even when knowing full well that it could never be, because she'll always be with other men.

    "Now I’m falling asleep
    And she’s calling a cab
    While he’s having a smoke
    And she’s taking a drag
    Now they’re going to bed
    And my stomach is sick
    And it’s all in my head
    But she’s touching his—chest
    Now, he takes off her dress
    Now, let me go

    "And I just can’t look its killing me
    And taking control"

    The narrator is falling asleep, and his drowsy mind is continually assaulted by visions of her calling a cab to meet up with her clients. It sickens him that he sees her with someone else, but really he never did, the images are all figments of his imagination, and he's begging his mind to stop torturing him.

    The next verse is talking about his jealousy, and how even the best of people can become overrun with envy and anger. The line "Choking on your alibis" maybe suggests that she is unaware that he knows of her occupation, and she is ashamed and tries to keep it from him, because maybe she's in love with him, too. In the lines "but it's just the price I pay/ Destiny is calling me/ open up my eager eyes/ 'Cause I'm Mr. Brightside" is saying that he knows he can never be with her as long as she continues as she is, but he doesn't care, because he's in love, and if the visions only come at night while he's drifting off to sleep, he will simply stay awake, because he's going to remain optimistic about it all.

    This song is one of my all-time favourites, and I love how many interpretations there are of it. This is how I interpreted it, hope you like :)

  5. anonymous
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    Dec 17th 2010 !⃝

    I think this song is about a boy saying he's jealous of his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend and how upset he is

  6. anonymous
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    Dec 7th 2010 !⃝

    I didn't see the video, but even though it is about falling for a prostitute, I think that the video interpretation doesn't necessarily have to be the only interpretation. I picture this song as being about a guy whose imagination is torturing him, thinking about his girlfriend cheating on him. Perhaps she confessed to kissing another guy, insisting that it was only a kiss, ONLY a kiss and nothing more. The boyfriend can't help imagining that it went much further. First the song starts out with the guy saying "I" but then it switches to "he". That's why I think the boyfriend is referring to another guy that he's imagining about, the guy his girlfriend "only" kissed. When he calls himself "Mr. Brightside" is being bitterly ironic - he is imagining the worse, not the best, about his girlfriend's transgression. Some of the other interpretations work pretty well, but this is the one that makes the most sense to me.

  7. anonymous
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    Dec 6th 2010 !⃝

    This song definitely seems to be about unrequited love. And not only does the person the speaker is in love with not return his feelings, she's in love with someone else. The speaker seems to have had a short thing going with the girl in question("It was only a kiss"), and just from that small thing, he fell for her hard. However, it meant nothing to her and she moved on to find someone else. Now the speaker is simply sitting back and watching her love someone else, getting an absolute sick feeling from it. I think the speaker is being sarcastic when he says he's Mr. Brightside. He's honestly upset, but he's sarcastically saying that he's optimistic about the situation.

  8. anonymous
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    Dec 1st 2010 !⃝

    The guy deeply felt in love with her somehow, but the girl kept playing her games of love all the times, the status always status quo between them, always go out with another guy in private, in the end the girl completely trash the guy and he felt fed off, so is all of her friends in the future.

  9. Orngmarblue
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    Nov 1st 2010 !⃝

    When I listen to this song, I pretty much come to the same conclusion that everyone else has mentioned which is how a guy is dealing with the suspicion that his girlfriend is cheating on him with another guy. It's pretty self-explanatory. But in the end, the singer says, "I never..." over and over again. I think that this is him repeating what the girlfriend always tells him when he brings up his suspicions; "I never slept with him" or "I never did that with him" and such.

  10. anonymous
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    Oct 19th 2010 !⃝

    I know the guy this song is about and it's about him being with brandons girlfriend at the time in a bar in Vegas called the anchor and something.

  11. PIden
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    Oct 13th 2010 !⃝

    I believe that this song is about remorse from a failed relationship and that "Mr. Brightside" is actually sarcasm because the person who has remorse is not thinking optimistically.

    I think the person broke up with the girl he loved and saw her someplace (party, etc..), he had convinced himself that he was doing fine and was going to move on with his life until he saw her again. Now, she is with someone else. He saw one kiss and that's all it took. He says, "I just can't look, it's killing me".. this means that he left the situation. As he went home alone and started to sleep, he felt nautious as he started "envisioning" all the things his ex-girlfriend and her new "love" could be doing. He lets his mind wander into thinking of the two of them intimately and so on.

    The "price he pays" is having to let his mind wander what is really going on between the girl and her new "love", the guy she kissed. This price he pays is a destiny of remorse for him because he no longer has a right to truly know what she's up to. (For all the audience knows, it truly was just a kiss that she did purposely to hurt him and she went home alone as well but gave him something to think about).

    Him saying he's Mr. Brightside is him being sarcastic about himself because he knows he's thinking the worst. Him saying "I never".. means that he never thought that his actions of leaving her would result in him partially losing his mind and composure that he figured he had for so long.

  12. anonymous
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    Oct 9th 2010 !⃝

    Okay, so first off, I think it is open to multiple interpretations, but here's my thoughts on it....It's about a guy who was in a relationship with a girl and he caught her cheating on him. The problem is she still says that she loves him and wants to be with him and wants him back but she won't stop her cheating ways and continues to see other men. He tries to see the brightside of things because he is still in love with her, but eventually realizes that she will never stop her cheating ways so he eventually leaves her in hopes that he'll find someone else. If this is the true meaning then I relate 100% to it. I think it's hard to understand unless you've had it happen to you.

  13. anonymous
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    Sep 14th 2010 !⃝

    I believe that Mr Brightside is about a guy who falls in love and when he finally works up the courage to ask her out he finds that she is already with someone and all he can do is watch the woman he loves with another man. Also when he closes his eyes he sees them together in his minds eyes and all he wants to do is escape from the his feelings of Love and Jealousy so he can move on.

  14. anonymous
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    Sep 8th 2010 !⃝

    In my opinion, the whole song is a past experience. He became in love with a woman, and in the end, she ended up leaving him as he's still in love with her. He's trying to get over it, but still sees her in his dreams, or his imagination- kissing another man or being with other men. What he means by eager eyes, I believe he's saying he's trying to be done with the dreams and imaginations as fast as possible. I don't know, who really fucking knows.

  15. anonymous
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    Sep 1st 2010 !⃝

    This song is about a man having an affair with a married woman whom he has fallen in love with but who will not leave her husband for him. However depressed it makes him however, he refuses to give her up.




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