This Is Your Life

This song is beautiful. It's definitely my favourite on D&A, perhaps my favourite Killers song of all time.

Candy talks to strangers Thinks her life's in danger No one gives a damn about her hair It's lonely down on track street She used to go by Jackie The cops, they'll steal your dreams and they'll kill your prayers Take a number where the blood just barely dried

(This is the beginning of Candy/Jackie's 'career' as a prostitute. She beings talking to men she doesn't know with the job, because she has to make money and get by somehow. Her life is in danger, she has to save herself. No one cares what she looks like, she's just there for their pleasure. It might be a bit graphic, but the "Take a number where the blood just barely dried" refers to the bed(s) that she has sex on and the blood is on the sheets, or it is metaphorical for her own pain. The men are lining up to use her, taking numbers to be next. She has dreams to get out of the place she's in, praying that her prostitution will be enough money to be free again. The cops, though, bust her actions and she thinks that they're stealing her chance.)

Wait for something better No one behind you Watching your shadows This feeling won't go

(Jackie knows that something better has to come along eventually, but she has a feeling of constant hopelessness. She wants a day where people don't always see her as this terrible thing. The shadow line probably refers to her shadow at night while on the street corner or wherever she might be.)

Crooked wheels keep tuning Children, are you learning Climatize but don't you lose the plot A history of blisters Your brothers and your sisters Somewhere in the pages we forgot

(This part is Brandon/the narrator/or even a man in Jackie's life speaking, inserting his own thoughts in to Jackie's story. Her sad state keeps snowballing, nothing is getting better. He's telling us to learn from Jackie. You can focus on the place that she's gotten herself to, but you can't forget the plot. You can't ignore the chain of events that got her to this wretchedness. They are ultimately to blame for Jackie's loneliness.)

Take a number Jackie Where the blood just barely dried You know I'm on your side

(The men are the usually ones that are controlling her life, and now, she has to take her own number. She's in line behind all those men, her state has gotten so bad. Brandon/narrator/man in Jackie's life, though, is good. He wants to help her and show her the path.

Wait for something better No one behind you Watching your shadows You gotta be stronger than the story Don't let it blind you Rivers of shadow This feeling wont go

(Same as previous chorus for the most part. Jackie can't make excuses and say, "Oh, well I'm stuck here now. Look at all that I've done. I'm terrible." She has to be stronger than that, and not be overcome by her dark past.

And the sky is full of dreams But you don't know how to fly I don't have a simple answer But I know that I could answer Something better

(This is a bit self-explanatory. She sees he future and what she wants for herself. She just can't obtain it. Brandon/narrator/man in Jackie's life doesn't know how he can exactly help her, but he knows that anything would be better that the answer (prostitution) that she made for herself.

This feeling won't go

Wait for it (x4)