Welcome To The Black Parade

Album

Black Parade

Label

Reprise Records

Genre

Emo

Composer(s)

Frank Iero;Gerard Way;Michael Way;Raymond Toro;Robert Bryar

Entered Chart

Sep 30, 2006

Peak Date

Jan 20, 2007

Released

September 12, 2006

Recorded

April 2006

Catalog #

Reprise Digital

B-Side

"Heaven Help Us"

This is the first single from the album The Black Parade. In an interview with MTV, lead singer Gerard Way explained that the concept of the album is "The Patient," who dies of cancer at an early age. According to Way, death comes in the form of your most powerful memory, and for "The Patient" that memory is a parade he went to with his father, which explains the album title. >> In this song, The Patient is dying in his hospital bed. His journey to death is "The Black Parade." >> During the shooting of the video the band suffered two very unfortunate accidents. First, drummer Bob Bryar suffered a bad burn on the back of his leg, which became infected. Even worse was when lead singer Gerard Way tore several ligaments in his leg after being playfully tackled by another member of the band. >> Throughout the album, you can kind of see into the mind of someone in a lot of pain. The previous My Chemical Romance album, Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, dealt with demons, and this seems to be a continuing trend, but in a more mature way. >> There could be some biblical imagery in this song, as a father tells his son at a parade to be the savior of "The broken, the beaten and the damned." The son does not think himself worthy enough to redeem these people. This could be seen as a reference to God (father) telling Moses (his son) he needs to be the savior of the Jewish people (the broken, beaten, and damned) and lead them out of Egypt. At first Moses does not think himself worthy of this task. >> The video doesn't cut corners, showing the black parade marching to meet The Patient, who is played by Lukas Haas from the movie Mars Attacks!. It was directed by Samuel Bayer, who did Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video. In the video, you first see Gerard Way with short blonde hair. He dyed it so he could better channel "The Patient." >> At a 2006 concert in Pennsylvania, Gerard Way said, "The song is dedicated to all dads out there." >> My Chemical Romance played this live for the first time in a rooftop performance at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards. >> The line, "Sometimes I get the feeling she's watching over me" are the only lyrics on the album that are about the Way brothers' late grandmother. MCR's song "Helena" was inspired by her. >> The band went through a lot of personal struggles while making the album, made worse by the pressure to outdo their previous release, Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. Gerard suffered from terrifying nightmares and his brother, Mikey, dealt with severe depression and daily panic attacks, forcing him to take a leave of absence. On top of that, they were staying in a notoriously haunted mansion, The Paramour Estate in Los Angeles, which Mikey described as "a storm cloud in the shape of a house." Gerard admitted it wasn't easy, but he told biographer Tom Bryant (Not the Life It Seems: The True Lives of My Chemical Romance) the pain made the album relatable. "It wasn't the happiest times of our lives. We were questioning our mortality. I think it's a very human record underneath the bombast and the theatrics. The sound is very large and grand but it's a very mortal record. It's an interesting duality because there are a lot of lyrics that examine ourselves – not just as a band but as human beings. We were examining each other and hopefully it will encourage listeners to examine themselves. We were putting our lives under a microscope. We wanted listeners to put their own lives under the microscope too.'" Speaking on Steve Baltin's podcast My Turning Point, Gerald Way discussed the overall meaning behind the track. "The triumph of the human spirit over darkness was something that was kind of built into the DNA of the band from the beginning," he explained. "The self-actualization, the triumph of the spirit and things like that, getting through really hard things." "There's darkness in the world. And I think overcoming that darkness, that darkness externally and internally, is a beautiful thing," Way added. "It's a challenging thing, but it is beautiful if you can do that, if you can kind of triumph over that. So that's a theme that's definitely in 'Black Parade', the song, and it's in my work." My Chemical Romance came up with this song at the Paramour Mansion. Its spooky vibes fed into the collaborative writing of "Welcome To The Black Parade." Way recalled: "We were just in this haunted house together, kind of becoming slowly depressed, and withdrawn, and isolated from the world outside; I don't remember us even leaving this house. It became a dark place, and just being in there and kind of jamming this idea together, and playing it together, and getting the original bones of the song, that was really collaborative." My Chemical Romance originally called the song "The Five of Us Are Dying." Although the rest of the band liked it, Way struggled to connect to the tune and nearly cut it from the album. "All the other songs had really strong themes and titles and things like that," Way told Apple Music 1 host Travis Mills. The emo rock outfit didn't give up on the song, and Way suggested renaming it "Black Parade" so there'd be a parade on the record. They then started breaking up the track and reconstructing it. It was then that Way wrote the iconic opening piano melody. "Once we re-approached it from the perspective of starting with a completely new introduction and a new way to start the song, it helped us fix the rest of it," he said.

When I was a young boy
My father took me into the city
To see a marching band
He said, "Son, when you grow up
Would you be the savior of the broken
The beaten, and the damned?"
He said, "Will you defeat them
Your demons and all the non-believers?
The plans that they have made?
Because one day, I'll leave you
A phantom to lead you in the summer
To join the black parade"

When I was a young boy
My father took me into the city
To see a marching band
He said, "Son, when you grow up
Will you be the savior of the broken
The beaten, and the damned?"

Sometimes I get the feelin'
She's watchin' over me
And other times I feel like I should go
And through it all, the rise and fall
The bodies in the streets
And when you're gone, we want you all to know

We'll carry on, we'll carry on
And though you're dead and gone, believe me
Your memory will carry on
We'll carry on
And in my heart, I can't contain it
The anthem won't explain it

A world that sends you reeling
From decimated dreams
Your misery and hate will kill us all
So paint it black and take it back
Let's shout it loud and clear
Defiant to the end, we hear the call

To carry on
We'll carry on
And though you're dead and gone, believe me
Your memory will carry on
We'll carry on
And though you're broken and defeated
Your weary widow marches

On and on, we carry through the fears
(Oh, oh, oh)
Disappointed faces of your peers
(Oh, oh, oh)
Take a look at me
'Cause I could not care at all

Do or die, you'll never make me
Because the world will never take my heart
Go and try, you'll never break me
We want it all, we wanna play this part
I won't explain or say I'm sorry
I'm unashamed, I'm gonna show my scars
Give a cheer for all the broken
Listen here, because it's who we are
I'm just a man, I'm not a hero
Just a boy, who had to sing this song
I'm just a man, I'm not a hero
I don't care

We'll carry on
We'll carry on
And though you're dead and gone, believe me
Your memory will carry on
You'll carry on
And though you're broken and defeated
Your weary widow marches on

Do or die, you'll never make me
Because the world will never take my heart
Go and try, you'll never break me
We want it all, we wanna play this part
We'll carry on
Do or die, you'll never make me (we'll carry on)
Because the world will never take my heart (we'll carry on)
Go and try, you'll never break me (we'll carry)
We want it all, we wanna play this part
(We'll carry on!)