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Welcome To The Black Parade

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MCRx4EVER
Killjoy
MCRx4EVER
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Posts: 8
July 31st, 2007 at 04:39am
this is about how the patient, in the story the band created in the album the black parde, imagines death in the form of a black parade. It was because he remembers his father taking him to a parade and it's one of his strongest memories. He thinks that this is how death will come to him.
goffman
Killjoy
goffman
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Posts: 16
August 1st, 2007 at 05:40pm
i think that the album is about a cancer patient called the patient (duh) and that hes dying. in this song, deaths coming to him in his fav memory, his dad taking him to a parade.
ps. i love the macabre video
mcr_is my life8528
Killjoy
mcr_is my life8528
Age: 28
Gender: Female
Posts: 3
August 3rd, 2007 at 06:36pm
i think that the songs meaning is when you die u kinda decide how *they* r going to take you and in this case the patient when he was younger he remembers the day his father takes him to a parade and after he dies of *cancer*lol a parade comes to take him to the *dead* lol
my.gerard.romance...
Killjoy
my.gerard.romance...
Age: 29
Gender: -
Posts: 24
August 5th, 2007 at 12:58am
I think it's about a patient that dies in the hospital, then the band is taking him to the after life (though your dead and gone believe me your memory will carry on).
poison X_X pills
Killjoy
poison X_X pills
Age: -
Gender: Female
Posts: 63
August 8th, 2007 at 10:23pm
Its kinda about Elena in a way. In the begining it goes "sometimes I get the feeling shes watching over me, and other times I feel like I should go" He's saying how he sometimes feels like shes watching over him and sometimes he feels like he should die. I think that brings in Gerard's issues he's had in the past, but then he found a way to carry on (the chours, "we'll carry on"Wink. Also, it goes "and though your dead and gone believe me, your memory will carry on" which I think refers back to Elena saying that she might be gone, but she will always be remembered. It also is about the band's pourpose, "will you be the savior of the broken, the beaten, and the damned", they are a band to save your life, and they are the saviors of the broken, the beaten, and the damned. Also,the song goes "and will you defeat them, your demonds, and all the non-believers," which I think refers to Gerard defeating his demonds in becomeing clean and sober and the band rising above when everyone said that they couldn't make it,but they did. Also , when it goes "do or die" I think it's talking about how the band got together and they were going to do it then, or not at all.
numbpenguin
Killjoy
numbpenguin
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Posts: 1
August 14th, 2007 at 10:00pm
Gerard said himself that the meaning of the song is based on his belief of when you die and go to heaven you relive your greatest memory, and the patient is reliving the time when his father took him to see a marching parade
Cloud Strife.
Banned
Cloud Strife.
Age: 29
Gender: Female
Posts: 1713
August 15th, 2007 at 07:10am
Well, it's about the Patient remembering and revisiting his memory of joining the Black Parade. Also, poisonX_Xpills might have a point, and so does numbpenguin.

It's really free interpretation, basically. But, it's really focused on the Patient's life. The whole record is like that. Welcome to the Black parade is like the climax of the story.
my_chem_xoxo
Killjoy
my_chem_xoxo
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Posts: 15
August 23rd, 2007 at 08:26pm
this song is basically the song that sums up the entire album. it is about how gerard belives that death comes for you however you want it to through your strongest memory from childhood or adultood. and there is this character called the patient who is dyeing and his strongest memory was his father taking him to see the parade when he was a little boy so death comes for him in the form of the black parade.
Emoishboy
Killjoy
Emoishboy
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Posts: 17
August 28th, 2007 at 12:39am
This song always kinda makes me feel like no one I love ever leaves... At least to me, it's a song about the good times you get to have with everyone around you before they're gone and before the beautiful faces of loved ones slip into black. It is true that it's a story, but it's also about the promises you make and all the guidance you get from your friends and family just from things they say during life. They tell you to be strong every time you cry, and then they're suddenly gone and you do your best just because you know that's what they would have wanted.

That's what this song is about, at least to me.
XRandomxMCRxLufferX
Killjoy
XRandomxMCRxLufferX
Age: -
Gender: -
Posts: 1
September 17th, 2007 at 01:27am
Tickle Me Sara:
Quoting Gerard;;
"Death comes to each different person in different way, and is thought of in different ways. For this person The patient, death comes to him in his faundest memory of his childhood which is of his father taking his to a parade in the city."
It's a black parade, symbleizing death. And basically death, or the parade, or his fathers spirit, which ever, is asking him to take on the fact he's dead, and concure his demonds/fear, to show up or knock sense into the noe-believers, or selfish greedy people of the world. To give hope to those who are hopeless broken, the beaten, and the damned, or cursed to death, per say others like him who are sick and prematurelly dying.

Someform of something like that. That's the first part of the song, I'm not sure about the rest of it yet.


I completely agree with you for that. I even heard that myself on 'Making of Welcome to the Black Parade' on youtube.
Solitary Style.
Thinking Happy Thoughts
Solitary Style.
Age: 39
Gender: Female
Posts: 574
October 1st, 2007 at 09:25am
I'd like to present an interesting thought. The line "So paint it black..."

I wonder if it has anything to do with the Rolling Stones song, "Paint it Black," which I believe is about a man whose lover died, and now his whole world is black. Does anyone know if MCR likes or listens to the Rolling Stones? My brother says I'm full of bollocks, but I think I might be onto something here. If you want to read the lyrics to "Paint it Black," go here
With nothing to say
Thinking Happy Thoughts
With nothing to say
Age: 31
Gender: Female
Posts: 454
October 6th, 2007 at 09:07pm
the.chic.with.ocd:
I think the black parade is death. Sort of a darkness that should be celebrated. 'We'll carry on' and other lyrics in the song spell that out for me. Remember those who are gone and live for them. I think it might have something to do with the Ways' grandma.
i love this song...the message it is giving out is telling you TO STOP BEING EMO! stop being depressed your lifa aint that bad, and you gaotta carry on!
CAcT '-.-' tux
Salute You in Your Grave
CAcT '-.-' tux
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Posts: 2188
November 22nd, 2007 at 02:11am
It's unexpected that having fixed my interpretation on WTTBP for a year, I've come across something else that has sparked my thoughts on this song in a very different way.

I've been reading "Ring" by Koju Suzuki, the novel on which the horror movie, The Ring was based on. I'm going to list the parallels I found between the two that shows how much alike the ideas are- if WTTBP was indeed inspired by the Ring, only the ideas/concepts would've been used but not necessarily in the logic of the novel.

* Gerard himself has said that the black parade is the memories that comes flooding back to you the day you die / In Ring, Sadako (dead girl with paranormal powers) transfers her mind's thoughts & visions onto a video, which shows her strongest memories of her life. At one point the main character (Asakawa) says, "The scenes from your life that have made the deepest impression on you are replayed, sort of like a flashback"

* WWTBP involves a Patient (we assume's it's a cancer patient) who's struggling to carry on with whatever courage he has (2nd half of the song) / in Ring, Asakawa compares his life with five more days to live, to a cancer patient, "There were some people who, when facing death, would burn brightly with what life they have left"

* "Because one day, I leave you, a Phantom to leave you in the summer to join the black parade." / if we put the Ring in this line, the "I" is Sadako, the girl who has left a phantom as the curse to the 4 teenagers who have previously failed to carry out the charm. Black parade means death, & promptly, the teenagers met their deaths in summer.

* "Sometimes I get the feeling, she's watching over me" / all the people who have watched Sadako's psychic video is plagued with the feeling of her prescence.

* "And when you're gone we want you all to know, We'll carry on...your memory will carry on" / The riddle of the charm to save your life is to reproduce Sadako's video & show it to someone- thus, Sadako's memory will carry on like chain mail.

* "A world that sends you reeling, from decimated dreams, your misery and hate will kill us all"..."And though you're broken and defeated, Your weary widow marches"/ Solving the mysteries of Sadako's past, Asakawa finds her life was broken and defeated- her mother suicided by jumping into a volcano, her father went to a mental institution, she herself lonely & isolated from people & before her death, she was raped & killed by the same man. Surely her hatred towards the world is why she created the video as a curse to kill everyone who ignores the charm. Asakawa can stand in place of the song's 'widow' or widower, in the sense that he's bound to the responsibility of fulfilling Sadako's charm- her wishes for her memory to be carried on.

For the rest of the song when Gerard sings "on and on we carry through the fears...etc", it is like Asakawa pushing on through the course of his investigation, & standing up for what he believes is true & is jeopardising his own life and everyone else's.

* earlier on in the song: "son when you grow up, will you be, the saviour of the broken, the beaten & the damned?" / this is like Sadako asking Asakawa; by solving the mystery of the charm, he is the saviour of the dead Sadako, who was thrown into a well after being broken (raped) & beaten (Asakawa excavates her remains for a decent burial), he is also the saviour of the damned (ie: his wife and daughter who's also seent he video).

Basically, in every just about every line of the song, there is a connection with the Ring. Creepy eh?
dreamerforever
Salute You in Your Grave
dreamerforever
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 4287
November 22nd, 2007 at 04:26am
Very ^^^ The song is an amazing anthem for me.
ifreakinlovegerard
Killjoy
ifreakinlovegerard
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Posts: 12
November 23rd, 2007 at 04:10am
well in the video the man is being picked up by mcr who is patreying a band called the black parade "when i was a young boy my fother toke me in to the city to see A MARCHING BAND" there gerard is talking asif he was the man which sybolisis that death picks you up in a memorey it could be any thing from a marching band to a man on a unicycle
mehr
Killjoy
mehr
Age: 57
Gender: Female
Posts: 1
November 30th, 2007 at 05:40am
I always thought they were just kidding.......
I mean, it is sort of funny
writerGrrl
Salute You in Your Grave
writerGrrl
Age: 31
Gender: Female
Posts: 2286
December 2nd, 2007 at 04:16am
I think it's about the patient and his memories about his first experience of death and how they relate to what his Dad said.

I heard one time that Gerard said this song was about him and the fans and about how we should continue his message and remember the band even after it ends.

I like that mostly because, considering all the times Gerard has been called "the savior of the broken, the beaten, and the damned" I would like to think that it isn't him but who he wants us to be.
jmo13
Killjoy
jmo13
Age: 33
Gender: Male
Posts: 1
December 4th, 2007 at 04:40am
CAcT '-.-' tux:
I have a few paragraphs to explain parts of this song that I've copied from my blog & edited:

In the beginning, the song talks of the main character's (the patient's) memories of his father's words said to him when he was little. The way that Gerard sings it means to convey a tone of innocence for the patient's recollection of his memories of childhood- of seeing a marching band with his father, however, before the 2nd verse is even sung, there is something in Gerard's voice that tells us there is an underlying negativity of the patient's memories. (Note that Gerard is the patient's voice telling the patient's story)

We are affirmed of the feeling described above when the 2nd verse is sung- from the scream-like singing, we can tell that the patient is caught in a struggle between carrying out his father's wishes for him to be the saviour of the broken, beaten and the damned- and his own burdens of his grown up life. These may include regret, resentment and impacts of tragedies that may have happened.

Also, when the patient recalls his father's hope for him to be the saviour, it is a 'wake up call' for him to know that he has more to his life and that he needs to win the battle with sickness. From the viewpoint of the patient as a young boy, having his father place such a hope on him imparts strength into the boy- it lets him know that there is at least one person who believes and has confidence in him. It calls him to live with his head held high. We can tell by Gerard's singing on the tv screen with his eyes fixed on something above symbolising the future.

The meaning of the Black Parade:
It seems like it means hell, but I think it has multiple layers of meanings. It may encompass emotions, the degraded world we exist in, and all the dissent there is. The fact that the patient rises out of the bed, the room destroyed; and joins the parade may mean that he has recovered, only to join the world again that is as good as hell can get. The patient is swept up by this disgusting band that represents all the evil there is and continues living a life as miserable as the one he lived in the hospital bed. This black parade however, is a force to drive the patient through life nonetheless. It is sarcastic when it rewards him with a medal that anything but glorious.

The reason why I think it's not hell is that the 'carry on' part doesn't make sense if you're dead in hell. This is where there is confusion if it's linked back to the father's words, "but one day I'll leave you a phantom to lead you in the summer to join the black parade". Maybe the father can foretell that the world his son will grow up in will not be as pure as a little boy would think it is.

I think the rest is pretty self-explanatory- the sound of struggle between surrender and determination is carried out through the 2nd half of the song- the central theme.
jared leto.
Awake and Unafraid
jared leto.
Age: -
Gender: Female
Posts: 12568
January 25th, 2008 at 10:55pm
The song is about The Patient, who dies an young, untimely death. gerard sed in the black parade press conference that this song was written to show his belief that when you die, death comes for you in your fondest memory. In this case, its his father taking him to the parade.


Whats weird is that I watched "tuesdays with morrie" in school and it reminded me so much of this song. The guy, Morrie dies at 77 from ALS and one of his students comes to visit him every tuesday. The tuesday before he dies, Morrie tells Mitch (the student) that when he dies, he wants mitch to visit his grave every tuesday to go talk to him. \Mitch was confused, and he asked, "why? Im not going to hear your voice." and then Morrie sez, "You talk I'll listen. Death ends a life, not a relationship"
I seriously cried, it was so sad. but it did remind me of Welcome to the Black Parade, because it shows that "Although your dead and gone, your memory will carry on" Pretty weird...huh?

^I know.... it was pretty random. I thought it was appropriate to say though^
earth2themorgue
Bleeding on the Floor
earth2themorgue
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Posts: 1475
January 28th, 2008 at 02:46am
i think its about something much deeper than the patient or how death comes for you.
i think its more about the band and how they dont care about people criticising them because they just want to be themselves and help people.

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 scar
Give a cheer for all the broken (refering to fans who need their help)
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!