If you ask someone what thee running motif of mcr is, you usually get one of these answers: heart, death, finding strength, or something along those lines. All good answers! All correct! However, I think if you really broke everything down, you could say mcrs running motif is ‘stay’. Just, stay/staying. It comes up repeatedly throughout their discography, in so many contexts and iterations. Until it doesn’t anymore. I’ll get to that.
Throughout their discography “staying” is a very prominent theme. It’s everywhere. Even if the word ‘stay’ itself is never uttered, the sentiment is still there. It’s heard as a statement, a plea, an act of rebellion; an absolution; a declaration of intent. It makes sense, in the grand scheme of everything. It fits with their message. ‘Stay with me, until the end. Hold my hand and never be afraid again. Take strength in knowing you’re not facing the hardest part alone, I’ll be with you.’ That’s mcrs message. Survive. Stay. The fact I can write it out using their lyrics says it all, honestly. But somewhere down the line, the message shifted. Mcr (more Gerard) no longer wanted to ‘stay’. Danger Days was the beginning of the end, and I think Gerard knew it. Whether conscious or subconsciously, that was when the message shifted from ‘stay’ to ‘leave’.
This isn’t to say that the motifs of leaving or running away aren’t ever used before this, but it’s usually only in dire circumstances. Off the top of my head the only example I can think of is early sunsets (running away and hiding with you), which is a song based off dawn of the dead and also wasn’t even written by Gerard. I’ve talked about this on another post, but the way Gerard writes it’s so interesting because it’s the same themes, even the same exact lyrics, over and over. Yet, it never sounds the same. The other interesting thing is the way concepts will just, sit in his head for a while. A very long while. You’ll see glimpses of them, like little breadcrumb trails you didn’t even notice where being left for you to find and follow, until the you get to see the whole picture and realize it was always there. the leaving motif wasn’t like that, isn’t like that. It popped up out of nowhere. And I can’t help but wonder what caused it. A mix of things, the industry stifling the bands creativity; the fan’s reaction to such drastic change from them; Gerard’s mental health at the time. I think Gerard was right about mcr dying young, but I don’t think it was ever going to die in a car crash. I think it was more like the warmth and comfort of your home rotting away with you still inside. Where do you go? When your sanctuary isn’t safe anymore? You either leave, run away while you still can; or it collapses with you in it. I’m happy they got out in time.
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