The Sharpest Lives

This is definitely one of the darker songs on the album. There is a very good possibility that this song is about being strung out on drugs, but that isn't neccessarily true. It could be about a time in one of the band member's lives (most likely Gerard's) when they were going totally crazy, due to stress and possibly drugs and alcohol.

ok im really confused now i just went to a mcr concert and hes all this song is about fucking then the sharpest lives started playing and im like O.o i thought it was about drugs and drinking...

Well I heard the sound Gerard makes after the first chorus is sex so...it could be!

haha matbe lol i love how were all thinking this and it be completly diffrent thats mcr for ya!

I always thought it was about a murderer telling his lover that he can't protect her and has to go away forever but thats only my opinion

according to gerard at the march 30th show...
"this song is about fucking"

haha

Well at first i thought it was being about getting hooked and screwed up with drugs and crap. Then later in the months I thought that when the chorus says
"Give me a shot to remember
And you can take all the pain away from me
A kiss and I will surrender"

I think he's saying Shoot me to remember that i was here with you, or kiss me to prove your-self

This song is obviously about vampires and killing them.
"Give me a shot to remember and you can take all the pain away from me." This obviously is about how to kill vampires, you can kill them by shooting them with a silver bullet.
That's all I got.

disarm.:

First off this is probably my favorite song on the whole CD. But moving on. What I think this song talks about is basically what was said above, drugs and alcohol but to go a little more in depth I'm going to say it's discussing the affects they have on the person intaking them's mind and that it also affects the people around them who might happen to love or care deeply for the drunk/high person and tries to get across how it'll slowly ruin the relationship and/or the person's oppinion of them. Does that make any sense?

i agree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!yes it makes COMPLETE sense! this is like my favorite song!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! haha. i like this smiley!

i definitely think this has something to do with drugs and/or alcohol, as many of the posts have said before me...
"well it rains and it pours when youre out on your own"- i think thats kinda starting the whole "im depressed and i need something to fuck me up even mroe"
"youre in time for the show youre the one that i need im the one that you loathe"- maybe like you made it in time (a drug dealer talking)
"you can watch me corrode like a beast in repose cuz i love all the poison away with the boys in the band"-i think the first part refers to gee saying you can just watch me waste way cuz im addicted.
"theres a place in the dark where the animals go you can take off your skin in the cannibal glow"- i think thats like an underground show (or rehab maybe?) where they can go and be themselves (taking off their skin=taking off what the world sees)
idk, these are just my thoughts! there are some pretty smart people on here!

This was the first MCR song I head that made me go ... wow. These boys got talent! <3
I agree; I think this song is about substance abuse and the tragic consequences it can have on the lives of the abuser and everyone that abuser knows and loves.

Well it rains and it pours when you're out on your own
If I crash on the couch, can I sleep in my clothes
‘Cause I spent the night dancing, I'm drunk I suppose
If it looks like I'm laughing
I'm really just asking to leave this alone
You're in time for the show
You're the one that I need
I'm the one that you loathe
You can watch me corrode
Like a beast in repose
Cause I love all the poison away with the boys in the band

I think this verse is about the abuser (maybe a man, maybe even Gerard speaking from personal experience, as he often does) spending a night drinking ("Well it rains and it pours when you're out on your own ... 'Cause I've spent the night dancing / I'm drunk I suppose" ) and then going to the home of a friend or relative, someone the abuser knows and trusts, and goes to their home to wait out the effects of the alcohol ("If I crash on the couch, can I sleep in my clothes?" ). He knows this friend or relative does not approve of his drinking, and doesn't want to hear another one of their anti-alcohol lectures ("If it looks like I'm laughing / I'm really just asking to leave this alone ..." )

I've really been on a bender and it shows
So why don't you blow me
A kiss before she goes

Kind of a desperate plea, knowing he's not alright and asking this person he trusts to forgive him if they can.

Give me a shot to remember
And you can take all the pain away from me
Your kiss and I will surrender
The sharpest lives are deadliest to lead
A light to burn all the empires
So bright the sun is ashamed to rise and be
In love with all of these vampires
So you can leave like the sane abandoned me

A description of this troubled life the abuser leads ("The sharpest lives are the deadliest to lead" ), how he seeks comfort from his suffering through his drugs ("Gimme a shot to remember / And you can take all the pain away from me ..."; in this context I think "shot" refers to a shot glass, alcohol, rather than like, shooting heroin). In the last lyrics of the chorus, I think the abuser is talking about all the ones he's loved that have left him because of his addictions, and how he expects this friend or relative, this last person willing to help him, to eventually leave him too ("So you can leave like the sane abandoned me" ).

There's a place in the dark where the animals go
You can take off your skin in the cannibal glow
Juliet loves the beat and the lust it commands
Drop the dagger and lather the blood on your hands, Romeo

Romanticizing his addictions. Maybe trying to persuade his friend or relative that the drinking isn't so bad?

...

I love this song. A lot <3

thesharpestminds:

Well I heard the sound Gerard makes after the first chorus is sex so...it could be!

I always thought of that sound as like, choking, suffocating ... but that's just me, maybe.

i think it definetley a mix of stuff.....like i think vampires represent vanity or soceity like they did in Vampires will Never Hurt You...i also think it is about drug abuse but the persons lust for power over loved ones or something like that....at the same time he wants power he wants to be better

idk if that made sense or not lol!

noxx:

it does have something about Romeo and Juilet or love because the second verse had something to it "Juliet loves the beating and the lust it commands, drop the dagger and lather the blood on your hands, Romeo."

maybe because in the play they drink poison and die?
I agree. Probably about Gee's personal struggles with Alcholism and Drugs

Just tossing ideas around, but what if the lyric the sharpest lives are the deadliest to lead means that he thinks the reason for his cancer is because of the bad life he has had. Maybe he thinks its a punishment.

I love this band and know their story like so many others on this site, and I'm hoping that you all know how the band had a "fall out" with The Used.

I've always thought that the song was indeed about drug abuse and the effects it has on, but I've always thought it was about how he had gotten involved with drugs while being friends with Bert McCracken.

"Cause I've spent the night dancing,
I'm drunk I suppose,
If it looks like I'm laughing,
I'm really just asking to leave."

It could mean that he is reliving the time he spent with Bert and is regretting it admitting that he was trying to escape the entire time.

Since the album is about "the Patient" and him review all the things that happened to him during his life, I Think "the sharpest lives" is about all the bad choices "the patient" did during his life. Most likely & Alcohol

I think it's about a heroin addict who decides he wants to get clean, but goes on one last binge before he starts.

"Give me a shot to remember,
And you can take all the pain away from me."-He's hoping his last high will be the best

"A kiss and I will surrender,
The sharpest lives are the deadliest to lead."-He promises himself that he will never touch heroin again, I think "the sharpest lives" means drug needles and how they can be more risky than other methods of using drugs.

I think, like almost every other song they sing, it's layered with multiple meanings. Some more meant for the audience to hear, and some that Gerard wrote for himself. My Chemical Romance is never up front, and almost every song you hear does not have one meaning. Here are my opinions on it.

Gerard's addictions: I always, and still do, believe this is a major role in the song. I really do. Some of the lines are very suggestive for it, the most proving for me being:

"'Cause I've spent the night dancing, I'm drunk I suppose",
Most suggestive, really. He's spent the night dancing, and he's drunk now - and wants to just sleep on a couch and be left alone.

"Cause I love all the poison, away with the boys in the band",
Simple enough. The alcohol and drugs being the poison. Gerard has stated himself that as a reaction to his addiction, the rest of the band started to take on all sorts of things, drinking included.

"I've really been on a bender and it shows".
Gerard was a mess with his addictions. It made him suicidal and the person we don't all love now. It made him stronger, and that shows through his songs.

"So you can leave like the sane abandoned me"
You don't have sanity when you're high, drunk, whatever. It makes you stutter, become giddy, and just plain insane.

Depression: Yes, I do in truth think this has a part of it. Gerard was severely depressed, as we all know, and it shows in almost every song - this one especially.

"Well it rains and it pours when you're out on your own."
Maybe the raining and pouring represents the depression, and how it gets worse when you're alone. When you're alone you have no support group, nobody to look for support - nobody to stop you from being stupid.

"If it looks like I'm laughing I'm really just asking to leave this alone."
Though this could also describe sex, and I think it does, when you're in a depression you're in a slump. I myself know that I'll laugh just to get people to leave me the fuck alone.

"Give me a shot to remember,
And you can take all the pain away from me."
Proves he has pain in the first place, really. The word shot may not refer to a gun, it could very well refer to the "shot" you get at bars and such. I take this as using the addictions to get away from the depression and reality, that's how I feel with mine.

High School/Popularity/Cliques/Degrading/etc: Of course, if the above is true in this song, he would naturally add this in. The kids that sucked away a part of him during his teen years, the vampires, are most certainly a part of this.

"Yeah, obviously we use vampires as a metaphor for something else, something deeper than just the supernatural. But there's just something about the bloodsucking walking dead, that can say so much to people. There are really so many people trying to get control over you on a daily basis and steal your soul in some way, take a part of you..."
An important quote I'll mention before breaking down the lyrics. This shows that the vampires in his songs do not just refer to the fictional characters, but something much deeper.

"A light to burn all the empires,
So bright the sun is ashamed to rise and be
In love with all of these vampires,
So you can leave like the sane abandoned me"
Maybe this refers to being ashamed of crushing on, loving, or having sex with the controlling jerks Gerard seems to refer to as "vampires". Reusing the last part, that could say a lot about the insanity involved it convincing yourself that these "vampires" are good people you love.

Sex/Fucking: We've established this, and there are quotes to go with it. I think it's a message against it, of course, and actually could describe any recklessness he had in high school and during his addiction phase.

"I've really been on a bender and it shows,
So why don't you blow me a kiss before she goes?"
"She" could refer to the highs and drunken stages. And to blow a kiss before he becomes fully sane and aware again, while he's still crazy and not sensible.

"A kiss and I will surrender,
The sharpest lives are the deadliest to lead."
The "sharpest lives" could mean reckless, addictive, etc. He could be saying that the kissing, or the sex, is a result of that "deadliest" way to live.

"There's a place in the dark where the animals go,
You can take off your skin in the cannibal glow.
Juliet loves the beat and the lust it commands,
Drop the dagger and lather the blood on your hands Romeo."
The verse describes the sex, and what you feel during. "Skin" could represent cloths, and maybe your virginity and honor in a way. The animals could represent those crazy people that do this for a living, or for a hobby. The "place" could be a sex club.

good theorys