My Chemical Romance - Welcome to the Black Parade
Ping, Ping ping ping. Four little keys that made up the basis for an entire social group, the opening notes to the title track from My Chemical Romances finest work are seen as the best example of Emo-Rock, hey don’t hate me for the genre it’s what everyone labels the iconic song as, however the songs switch from calm acoustic and to loud heavy metal is similar to a particular masterpiece by Freddie Mercury. To understand the song, the actual album has to be spoken about first. It’s a concept album, meant to tell a story that runs through every song and the story that this song tells is one that whilst you’re at deaths door you replay not exactly your whole life, but your best memory as seen in the video following the patient, a video in which Gerard Way appears at his most iconic, if my angsty (read as edgy) friends opinion on the band is. Back to the song itself, an anthem for the teenagers of the mid 2000′s as David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust was for all the post war teens of Britain and America in the early 1970′s. The theatrics can also draw comparisons between the two, relying on shock factors to initially draw in an audience, in the case of My Chem’ the sight of a dying man on a hospital bed. The song’s an uplifting and motivating piece of craftsmanship, reflecting the ideal relationship between parents that Way sings about at the start, that as the son lies dying he thinks of a day with his father viewing a marching band, personally some of my best memories also include my father, with a large amount being concerts and our shared love of music, taking me to my first gig and seeing my favourite guitarist live. Perhaps this is why, although I only recently came to My Chemical Romance in the last 5 months or so, despite being aware of their presence that I can see an element of myself in this song and as such so could the millions who have heard the song, the band and can put themselves into the shoes of the patient, that they want to be able to think “Yeah If those were my last minutes I’d want to think about a great time with my friends or family.”
The song is hard to pick flaws out of, it’s easier to say that all the other songs on the album are actually more ‘one-shot’ style, telling one unconnected story, whilst Welcome to the Black Parade is what makes what would be a solid album from My Chemical Romance into one which defines their careers, and as such the song is held in the same light as anthems such as We are the Champions, and Hey Jude for different generations, it’s easy to say that this was the children of the noughties “Heroes” an uplifting song about an upsetting subject that will always be held in the highest of regards.