The Reason for the Name

Most of you know why my blog is named what it is: "Like sinking ships," but I thought I would give a brief overview of exactly what that came from and why I love it so much.

The exact quote comes from my very favorite song by The Killers, called A Dustland Fairytale. And if you know anything about me, you know that The Killers is my all-time favorite band.  The lyrics for A Dustland Fairytale are as follows:

A dustland fairytale beginning,
Just another white trash county kiss
In sixty-one, long brown hair, and foolish eyes.
He looked just like you'd want him to,
Some kind of slick, chrome, American prince.
Blue jean serenade, and moon river, what'd you do to me?
I don't believe you.


Saw Cinderella in a party dress,
But she was lookin' for a nightgown.
I saw the devil wrappin' up his hands.
He's gettin' ready for the showdown.
I saw the minute that I turned away,
I got my money on a palm tonight.

Change came in disguise of revelation,
Set his soul on fire.
She said she always knew
He'd come around.
And the decades disappear like sinking ships,
But we persevere.
God gives us hope, but we still fear
What we don't know.
The mind is poison.
Castles in the sky sit stranded, vandalized.
The drawbridge is closin'.


Saw Cinderella in a party dress,
But she was lookin' for a nightgown.
I saw the devil wrappin' up his hands.
He's gettin' ready for the showdown.
I saw the ending when they turned the page.
I took my money and I ran away
Straight to the valley of the great divine.


Out where the dreams are high,
Out where the wind don't blow,
Out here the good girls die,
And the sky won't snow.
Out here the bird don't sing,
Out here the field don't grow,
Out here the bell don't ring.
Out here the bell don't ring.
Out here the good girls die.


Now, Cinderella, don't you go to sleep.
It's such a bitter form of refuge.
Why don't you know the kingdom's under siege,
And everybody needs you?
Is there still magic in the midnight sun?
Or did you leave it back in sixty-one
In the cadence of a young man's eyes?
Out where the dreams are high.


I don't expect you to read all of that. But at least listen to the song, if you are interested. It's a live version, so it's flawed, but there's more reality to it that way.

The Killers - A Dustland Fairytale on David Letterman