A Dustland Fairytale

Not to continue a trend or anything, but I’m going to talk about another song I heard recently. (Sorry! I listen to A LOT of music!) This week’s song is “A Dustland Fairytale” by The Killers. I heard it while doing some work and when I looked it up later, I learned that the singer, Brandon Flowers, wrote the song about his parents. I still can’t figure out what exactly the song is about, but it is sort of depressing. The chorus begins:

Saw Cinderella in a party dress
But she was looking for a nightgown

Cinderella (his mom) has left the ball – she just wants to go to bed now. A later line says:

Now Cinderella, don’t you go to sleep
It’s such a bitter form of refuge
Oh don’t you know, the kingdom’s under siege
And everybody needs you

This could be Flowers acknowledging that his parents are growing older and beginning to come to grips with the fact that they won’t be around forever. They are growing older and Flowers can see that. His parents may have lived the fairytale romance in the past, but not anymore. I found it very interesting that Flowers used Cinderella as a (somewhat depressing) metaphor for aging and fading beauty. We have talked in class about how the stepmother (or a similar character) in many of the stories we have read can represent this, but in the song, Flowers uses Cinderella. Why do you think he does this? My only thought could be that even as she is aging, Flowers views his mother as a Cinderella-like person. He loves her and wants to remember her youth and the love she and his dad share.
Here's the video in case you'd like to hear the song: