Rock music and real life are two completely separate things. Take Oasis (CDs), for example. Their chugging, lifeless music always comes second to them being rude about people. In Rockworld, that’s pretty cool. In real life, they’d be the most obnoxious, Ben Sherman-ed shouting idiots in all of Wetherspoons.

Sometimes, people from Rockworld stray into real life, and the results are always stunningly lumpen-headed. If it’s not Chris Martin (CDs) writing slogans on his hand, it’s the Beastie Boys (CDs) complaining about Kentucky Fried Chicken. All worthwhile, of course, but they should perhaps leave the politics to the people who know about it.

The worst rockworld/real life crime by a million light years is the worthy song. And this is why The Killers (CDs) should not release their song about Jodi Jones. Ever.

The singer, Brandon Flowers, told the NME that they’d written a song called Where Is She?, all about the murdered Scottish schoolgirl Jodi Jones.

Now, murder is almost unfathomable in it’s awfulness, and the effect
that it has on anybody close to either the murderer or the victim is
extremely complex and horrifying. To condense the subject into three
minutes of jiggy-ass pop music is asking for trouble. Especially if the
name of your band is The Killers.

Luke Mitchell was jailed for life after being found guilty of
stabbing his 14 year-old girlfriend Jodi to death in the Scottish woods
two years ago. The song is said to reflect the feelings of her mother
during the search.

According to a fansite of the band, they lyrics contain the passages "On one hand I’ve got myself to blame" and "I don’t want you to death/I want you to die". It’s unclear whether the Jones family were consulted about the song.

The history of songs like these is a patchy affair. I Don’t Like Mondays by The Boomtown Rats (CDs) was about Brenda Spencer, a girl who embarked on a shooting spree at her school, killing her principal and injuring others. A few years later Bobby Davro did a funny version of it while dressed up as Bob Geldof.

And worst of all was the single to raise funds for the Dunblane shootings. They adapted Knocking On Heaven’s Door to feature a verse about the massacre. Lucky for them, "Dunblane" rhymes with "pain". Yes, the money raised went to a good cause, but it seems that not one person questioned the taste of the song.

A spokesmen for The Killers said that "We don’t want the family to think the band are cashing in on it or commenting about what happened", even though they’ll earn money from it, and by telling everyone what the song is about they’re effectively passing comment.

Back to Rockworld, The Killers. With no tea.

[story by Stuart Heritage]