What does Mr Brightside mean?

The Killers: Mr Brightside Meaning

Album cover for Mr Brightside album cover

Song Released: 2003


Get "Mr Brightside" on MP3: Get MP3 from iTunes

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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    Jun 10th 2011 !⃝

    This song was allegedly written about actor, famous as Spencer Reid on the show Criminal Minds, Matthew Gray Gubler. Gubler dated the lead singer's ex girlfriend and it is said that it made the singer jealous enough to write the song.

  2. Lux
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    Jun 8th 2011 !⃝

    Has anybody considered that Brandon's character and the bad guy in the video are the same person? I say this because there is a clip in the video where Brandon is eating an apple and this is pretty much the evil dude's trademark. If they were the same person that means that Brandon was deeply in love with this girl and she betrayed him by cheating on him. He decided to live with it and even immersed himself in her lifestyle. Now he is no better than the guys she was having affairs with. But one night he and the girl remember him as Mr. Brightside, the optimistic boy that she fell in love with. That night the guy finally comes to terms with the fact that he has wasted years trying to keep this girl near when she wasn't truly in love with him. He tries to taunt his younger self, though, as if to say "You were too weak to keep her, but I'm not." But by the end he has rejected her and might be able to pick up where he left off.

  3. anonymous
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    May 31st 2011 !⃝

    I think the song is about this man, Who never really gets emotionaly close to any girl, because he's something like a womanizer (he wants it all). But one day he kisses this girl and he sudnely realizes that she's more that only a kiss...and he doesn't know how to deal with this because now he's too involved and he's obsessionated by the tought of her with someone else. His obsession is "the price to pay" for caring too much. The Brightside is ironic to me, because now the "destiny is calling" him, but he can't see the bright side anymore, he can't live careless like he used to.

  4. anonymous
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    May 25th 2011 !⃝

    Someone is finally letting go of a loved one after that person has been cheated. I love this song!

  5. anonymous
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    May 11th 2011 !⃝

    The guy just loves a girl but it turn out the girl is still with her boyfriend damn.

  6. Alaa Shawkat
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    May 11th 2011 !⃝

    I'm coming out of my cage
    And I've been doing just fine

    well i think the meaning of the first line is in a time after the whole story so , because of all that he went through he was looked in an cage emotionally or maybe just setting around inside the house not going out

    and before he "loved" her lets say . he wasn't happy or sad !

    Gotta gotta be down
    Because I want it all

    before he met her he wanted the perfect girl and the perfect love which he though that she is that , so he was upset because he couldn't tell her how he feels

    It started out with a kiss
    How did it end up like this

    then he saw her kissing another guy , and he couldn't see why she is into the guy or how could that happen

    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, letting me go

    then he go back home and sleeps and start imagining how she is gonna be treated with a bad guy , and even though its all in his head it makes him sock . and its like she forgot about him !

    And I just can't look its killing me
    And taking control
    Jealousy, turning saints into the sea
    Swimming through sick lullabies
    Choking on your alibis
    But it's just the price I pay
    Destiny is calling me
    Open up my eager eyes
    'Cause I'm Mr Brightside

    because of what he saw , he let his emotion get the best of him , and even though he is not the type of person that cares about anything , but this has made him jealous !

    she always tell him stories that he cant believe and hate , because he thinks he knows the truth .

    and he is willing to take this pain with him because he wants to fulfill his dreams and what he looks at it as his destiny , so he will bite hard and look for his chance , because that's who he is , mr brightside !!

    btw maybe this is not what the song means but that what happened to me lol , and thats what it means to me ;)

  7. anonymous
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    May 1st 2011 !⃝

    Well i personal thinks it about a boy who startd opening up to the world. ( comeing out of my cage) Everthing going well intill he started to like a gril.( What it all) The only a kiss part takes the trun in different direation. He didn't kiss her but a freind did. He saids its twice, one for trying to wrap his head around it the other to disbelivie it as a kiss is not that big of a thing. Fell a sleep he thinks about his two freind and what they're doing. He can't help it ands starts to get juseulsy about his male freind, hateing him in a way.(Driving saints in to see, That take sainthood away). He can't stand seeing them together.(Choking on your alibia). He can only hold together with the noation of deanstiy and that ever thing will trun ok.(Desting is calling me opening up my egager eyes I Mr.brightside) Sorry for the spelling this out on the and what its mean is heavyly based of something I going through. Here to a better tomorrow because I am Mr.brightside.

  8. anonymous
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    Apr 7th 2011 !⃝

    If you watch the music video it looks like this girl is a hooker. She loves the singer. And the singer loves her. But this guy doesn't like the singer and would rather have her stay a hooker. And not go off with the guy. The part about jeasouly makes me think that the singer gets mad and wants the girl to him self. The part where they play checkers and the singer hits the board makes me think he was trying to win the girl. In a game. At the end when the main charter walks away I think he gave up. Pleas tell me what you think of this.

  9. anonymous
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    Apr 7th 2011 !⃝

    If you watch the music video it looks like this girl is a hooker. She loves the singer. And the singer loves her. But this guy doesn't like the singer and would rather have her stay a hooker. And not go off with the guy. The part about jeasouly makes me think that the singer gets mad and wants the girl to him self. The part where they play checkers and the singer hits the board makes me think he was trying to win the girl. In a game. At the end when the main charter walks away I think he gave up. Pleas tell me what you think of this

  10. 737Pilot122
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    Mar 30th 2011 !⃝

    Well originally I thought it was that he was getting over other girls and becoming social again and the girl wouldn't love him back, BUT...

    Watch the music video, the old guy is like a pimp and the apple is like the sign to do the guy

    So now I think he fell in love with a prostitute/whore and he knows that he can't get anywhere with her

    If you think of it that way it's easy to figure out

  11. anonymous
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    Mar 26th 2011 !⃝

    "I'm coming out of my cage and I've being doing just fine."
    this "cage" is metaphoric for being trapped and separated from freedom. you can be trapped either physically or, as this quote really means, metaphorically. which is emotionally/mentally trapped.

  12. anonymous
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    Mar 20th 2011 !⃝

    My intereperation of the song has changed as i have gotten older.
    I really think it's about he's girlfriend being a prostitue. Judging by the film clip as well. They may of met at her work and she still does it. It all started with a kiss now he is in love with her. How the guy in the film clip throw an apple at her (an exchange of money)
    She is in love with him still but she continues to work. At the end he breaks up with her cause he can't handle the jeakousy that is bound to happen if he stays with her.

  13. anonymous
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    Mar 18th 2011 !⃝

    For the music video, it shows a (presumably) musician, and his some-what requited love for a prostitute. He fights with her boss, comes to the sad realization he doesn't want to be with someone who he always imagines with someone else, and so the music video ends with him walking off.
    The interpretation I drew straight from teh lyrics only tell about a person, presumably male, who kisses a girl and finds himself more in love than he had anticipated. She, however, is either cheating on him or has another man somehow, and so the singer is imagining her with another man, which makes him nauseous.

  14. anonymous
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    Mar 8th 2011 !⃝

    I think the title "Mr. Brightside" is a bit sarcastic. He is insecure and for some reason he suspects that "she is touching his chest" and "he is takin off her dress". But it is "all in his head".

  15. anonymous
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    Mar 5th 2011 !⃝

    I had always thought that the title Mr. Brightside was being ironic. He's calling himself Mr. Brightside which seems optimistic but he's actually a very pessimistic person. It says "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"

    Everyone seems to be ignoring that he states that "It's all in my head."

    What I always thought happened is that "Mr. Brightside" actually did get overly involved in a girl like everyone seems to think, but she didn't actually cheat on him. Rather, he is just so in love with the girl that he is terrified that she is going to cheat on him.




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