Ode to Brandon Flowers

By Catherine Shaw

(Inspired by John Keats, of course)

 

THOU still “Most-Stylish Man” of Music-dom,

Thou golden child of the City of Lights,

Musical ambassador, who canst thus hum

A savory tune more sweetly than thou, knight?

What smart-fitting jackets cling about thy shape!

Of deities or mortals, or of both?

In concert or campaigns of Mormondom,

What can compel as like this singer’s troth?

What mad pursuit, what struggle to escape

The hungry fans, who snatch for but a crumb!

 

My name is Catie Shaw. I’m a writer, a Mormon…

And I’m a fan of Brandon Flowers.

 

In high school, I was constantly out of the music loop. I never had a musical idol. The closest thing was probably George Harrison circa “HELP!.” I never once listened to Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync or Brittany Spears of my own accord, and I completely missed the Weezer, Chris Brown, Jack Johnson etc. movements. I didn’t even have an iPod.

Now, I happen to be from Las Vegas. And even so, Vegas’s golden boys, the Killers, weren’t able to work their way into my heart. In fact, whenever the radio played a Killers song, I turned it off. I couldn’t have cared less about them or their music.

And then along came my good friend, college, where I met new people whose music tastes varied as much as their personalities. It was refreshing, to say the least. And thanks to them, a whole new world of music opened up to me, and I realized that I do, in fact, enjoy listening to music. Surprise! It started with Coldplay, spread to Muse, and then…

Enter Brandon Flowers.

I remember my first encounter with Brandon (separate from the Killers). A friend sent me a link to one of his music videos through Facebook. I had no idea who he was, or that he was the lead singer from the Killers. But I watched the video nonetheless. Need I mention which one? It was “Crossfire,” of course! Possibly the best song ever written, paired with the best music video ever made. A fire ignited inside me—an ever-burning need for more Brandon Flowers.

It is not surprising that my affinity for Brandon now envelops his earlier albums with the Killers and has bled into my other musical tastes, thanks to Pandora’s Brandon Flowers radio station. I simply cannot get enough of him.

Now, now, I know what you’re thinking… “She probably just likes him because he’s Mormon.” Truth be told, if I knew he was Mormon at the time, it was probably under the assumption that he used to be a Mormon.

Religion had nothing to do with it. To me, he was just an incredible, somewhat obscure musician who wore smart jackets and sang like nobody’s business. I took delight in the fact that he was not well-known, and I made it a sort of crusade to spread the joy to friends that I knew would truly appreciate his talent.

You can imagine the thrill I felt upon discovering that my first-ever musical idol had made an “I’m a Mormon” ad. I nearly fainted. In that one moment, I made up for all those years of indifference toward rock stars. (Did you know I even once deleted Brendon Urie from my Facebook friends? I know, crazy me… But I had never actually spoken to him, and I was trying to downsize. What can you do?)

My love for Brandon’s music and fashion sense expanded into admiration for him as a person for the choices he made in his personal life. But alas, this was a bittersweet event. It’s always sweet to be able to respect your musical idol in his personal endeavors. However, the bitterness set in when I realized that suddenly the entire BYU population had set sail on the Brandon Flowers ship. It’s kind of how I feel about people who eat cake and can’t tell whether it’s homemade or not. They just like cake.

In my self-righteous indignation, I was irritated that so many of my peers fell for him only after the campaign. As if the fact that I loved him before the Mormon campaign meant that I understood the true value of his musicianship, while others only loved him for his story. I was the unconditional fan. Everyone else…fair weather fans.

But I guess this phenomenon is one of the results of our heritage as a church, isn’t it? There’s something inside us that jumps for joy upon realizing that celebrities or even perfect strangers are fellow members of the Church. I’m certain that this sentiment stems from the history of the Church. As most people know, history has not always been kind to our faith, and I think years and years of being small in numbers and persecuted by so many has made us a much tighter-knit community. And even though times have changed and the Church has grown so much, we still carry around this cultural identity, which makes us rejoice upon meeting a fellow member of the Church because we know that we share common beliefs, and that we will not be ridiculed for those cherished beliefs. We embrace that security.

And so, fellow Brandon fans, I promise not to hold it against you, even if you only discovered this gem of an artist as a result of his delightful “I’m a Mormon” video. Welcome aboard.

But so help me, you better darn well know the difference between homemade and store-bought cake.