#mcr analysis

[andoutofharm]

the clown possibly yelling “this is my job” and the final task on the clerk’s to do list being “do what must be done”. ohhhh it’s so all connected

[a-better-son]

Thinking about mama and why it’s my favorite mcr song

Of course there’s the obvious pull of the line “You should’ve raised a baby girl I should’ve been a better son” and the queer interpretations that can be taken of that, but even outside of that.

The strange fact that it’s got that odd little polka beat. The air raid sirens in the back.

The beginning of it. The blunt way they just say it. “Mama we all go to hell.” It’s so matter of fact, but it’s not hopeless in that they just don’t want to go on.

The almost barbed way that they say “and right now they’re building a coffin your size” juxtaposed with “I hate to see you cry”

I just love the feeling of “we’re meant for the flies” and the bathing of the fires line both alluding to the fires of hell and purification in flames.

Yet more juxtaposition with “coddle the infection” and “you ain’t so son of mine” especially with how personal and informal ain’t makes it feel. Mind your manners feeling so motherly right before she says don’t return to me my love. Don’t come back. I love you and I don’t want to see you again

The almost manic feeling of “it’s really quite pleasant except for the smell”

The whole Liza minelli bit showing how Gerard’s character feels like even if mother were to accept him back he still wouldn’t deserve it. He should’ve been a better son.

It all feels like it starts to shatter in the outro. We’re all going to die. We don’t have a future. Most of us are dead now anyway, but who cares! We’re going in anyway because we don’t have anything to lose. It just adds one more little queer layer to it. That “I’ve been abandoned. My friends are gone, but I’m going to keep going because fuck you that’s why” as a very wise person once said “in the face of extermination say fuck you!”

The whole thing just has this incredible push and pull to it that’s only exacerbated by the in out in out feeling created by the polka beat

(bonus mama page of my scanned mcr zine)

[clowns-ofthesame-circus]

Potential new information on Ray's LLTBP costume military influences?

Alright, so I've been going through deerlikeaspider and htlbellamuerte's posts analyzing the buttons of the Black Parade uniforms, and accidentally went down a rabbit hole.

Most of the confirmed usage of the lyre that was found was from the Civil War, which confirmed that the lyre has historically been used for military musicians, but only one confirmed usage in the US military during WW2. I found a few lyre logos for divisions that were active then, but nothing that confirmed that these were used on uniforms.

I also found this uniform insignia for the United States Army Field Band, which was formed after WW2.

But that's not the interesting thing that I found.

I found this ebay listing, which is a pin used by the band of the 1st Infantry Division of the German Army in WW2.

I know this is from WW2, as Bad Tölz is where the 1st Infantry Division was based.

I just thought I should note that I found another instance of the lyre being used in military uniforms during WW2, specifically one from Europe. If you have more knowledge on this stuff, please feel free to add it in the notes!!

[beginnerblueglass]

Today on "Never Underestimate My Ability to Find Christian Themes and Messages in Secular Media,"

The Trinity in Welcome to the Black Parade

You thought I was done talking about The Black Parade? Not as long as I'm still breathing.

Everything in this album, and I mean everything, has double (or more) meaning. The Patient's heart is sick, but his heart is also sick. His mother is also Mother War is also the abstract concept of war. Everything is also something else in another layer of the story.

"When I was a young boy, my father took me into the city to see a marching band."

If every other character in this story has a double role, why not the father as well? The Patient's earthly father shares his role with God the Father. As the boy's father gave his son a calling, the Father gives each of His children a calling, to be like His Son Jesus, to be a little Christ, a little saviour. The Patient's father, like many fathers, calls his boy to follow Christ's example to save the broken, the beaten, and the damned, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, visit the prisoner, proclaim a message of salvation and forgiveness to a lost world, (Matt. 25:31-46, 28:19-20), to defeat his demons, and destroy the plans of the enemy. He's calling the boy to a kind of warfare, but not as the world wages war,

"We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete" (2 Cor. 10:5-6). "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12).

So in this, the Patients joins the ranks of Christ figures in literature. Most of them are imperfect images, but are meant in some way to reflect parts of Christ's character or place in the narrative of a story.

As the rest of the album shows how badly the Patient failed in carrying out his calling, he is certainly a failed, flawed Christ figure, but good news! everyone fails to follow Christ perfectly, that's kind of the point of His death and resurrection.

"Because one day I'll leave you a phantom to lead you in the summer to join the Black Parade."

Now the Patient's earthly father could be saying, "One day I'll leave you, I'll be dead (a phantom), and then one day you'll follow after me and join the Black Parade." A perfectly valid interpretation and description of the story.

The Patient's Heavenly Father is saying, "One day I'll leave with you a phantom, a ghost, a Spirit, and He will lead you to join the Black Parade."

"And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth" (John 14:16-17a). "These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all that I have said to you" (John 14:25-26). "When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth" (John 16:13a).

So what exactly is the Black Parade? On the one level, it's those who have died and have gone on to become guides through the afterlife. But on another level, it's those who defy the world, who take all the ugliness the world throws at them, and "paint it black and take it back." They take the pain and suffering that could lead to "misery and hate," and they redeem it. Their weaknesses, according to the world's point of view, are their true strengths.

"That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:10).

The Black Parade is scorned by the world--they're weird and offputting and kind of disturbing and they don't react to suffering the way the world expects. Against all odds, they persevere to the end, and don't care that they're a disappointment to their peers.

"Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Rom. 5:3-5).

They remember, and don't forget those who have gone before. They remember the One who is coming back for them. They memento mori like nobody's business. They carry on. Give a cheer for all the broken (Ps. 34:18). The world will never take their heart, for it belongs to Christ.

[everyloversgotalittledagger]

Conventional Weapons: the product of burning out vs burning bright

BOY DIVISION

TW for drug addiction references and specifically cocaine reference along with suicide references

Picture this: it's 2009 and My Chemical Romance are at the height of their fame. Coming off of their biggest album yet, The Black Parade and their biggest tour yet, The Black Parade World Tour. They were burnt out and beat up.

Dealing with the effects of touring for so long had taken them out and the effects of fame were very clearly wrecking them too, being blamed for deaths of teens and even being called a death cult by major publications such as mainly The Daily Mail was taking a toll on the band so when they were sent into the studio to make the follow up album that would have to live up to the Black Parade, something broke.

Frontman Gerard Way would set up some guidelines for the following album, it would not be a concept album, it would be raw, angry and it would be the opposite of the grandiose nature of their previous efforts.

The album would be called Conventional Weapons and it was gonna bring MCR back to just being a band, no industry bullshit and no wild concepts, just a raw gritty punch to the face of the image thrown at them.

This collection of songs is a angry angry listen, the first song 'Boy Division' is a satire on the way the industry was killing the band.

The first lines basically ask the question of "if the industry tears you apart, would you let them?"

Cause Gerard has done that many times, he's talked at length about how during MCR, he weaponized feeling miserable and destroyed himself for his art, being thrown around and wrecked by people who viewed the band as just dollar signs.

These lines drip of sarcastic spite towards the view that the world had towards My Chemical Romance. They wore all black and were "oh so emo" despite hating that label and by god it almost killed them, that black was almost his casket gown, buried in the things they never wanted.

Also possibly a reference to 'Bury Me In Black' a demo that seems to be about Gerard's gender identity, so that makes the casket gown a duel metaphor as it's possibly about his identity.

-

These next lines are even more sarcastic which is the theme of the song: My Chem were rockstars and the life that demands consists of shopping and flying in planes and playing to their adoring fan base of mainly teenage schoolgirls (MCR has always had a large female fanbase as opposed to other rock bands)

"I'm not asking, you're not telling" seems to be a reference to two things, during MCR the band had a rule of not defining their sexuality to interviewers no matter how much they asked. Also connected here is the US army's rule of allowing gay soldiers into the army only if they didn't say they were gay, it was known as the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell rule" and it lasted from 1994 - 2011 and was active during the making of this album.

it's fitting given another song on this album 'GUN.' is a mockery of the US Government and I will do a text post on that soon enough.

"He's not dead, he only looks that way" is another dig at the image of them due to their last album being based around the concept of death and how it made the general public view them as a band obsessed with death.

-

The first three lines of the chorus paint a strong picture, Gerard is begging almost for something to save him from destroying himself for his own art and work and then the last line is a dig at the music industry and how his life now revolves around singing songs for the people who are forcing MCR to make them money.

-

The verse opens with a dig at the tabloid and paparazzi world, because if Gerard gets destroyed by the industry or by drugs, it will be broadcast worldwide and everyone can watch his downfall.

One thing I think should be kept in mind is that stars like Britney Spears had very famous breakdowns in the 2000s due to paparazzi and media coverage of their every action, here I think Gerard is pointing at the media that causes things like that and saying "when the industry kills me, you can all have a front row seat to the disaster."

This part is much like the first verse's ending but instead of focusing on the aesthetics, this part is about cocaine

Gerard was addicted to cocaine during the beginning of the Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge era and it almost killed him, here he describes exactly that.

He will be here, making this music that kills him until he explodes because that is what the industry wants of him.

-

This line is a more blunt version of the previous pre chorus, it cuts straight to the chase and pokes fun at the image that the world has of the band and the scene that MCR is associated with

I'm now going to skip to the bridge as I've already discussed the chorus.

-

This is a line that becomes more interesting when you view the future of MCR after this song alongside what Conventional Weapons was supposed to be.

Conventional Weapons was made to kill what the world thought MCR was, eventually Danger Days would actually go forward to try and do that as Conventional Weapons was never released as a album.

However it was released eventually and then once it came out, MCR ended and in his explanation post of the MCR breakup, Gerard described that there was a Doomsday Bomb in MCR that when it became too much, they would pull the pin and the band would end. That is what Conventional Weapons was meant to do.

Before ending this post, I want to make a point that I'm not fully confident in but I think is fair to mention that the name Boy Divison is a play on the band Joy Division.

I bring this up because of a rather tragic connection, Ian Curtis was the Lead Singer of Joy Division, he committed suicide and one of his reasons for doing it is said to be that the sudden fame and stress of the band breaking out and becoming famous was too much for him to handle.

I think Gerard saw similarities between himself and Curtis in the way that both were lead singers thrown into the public spotlight as the faces of a subgenre that was looked down upon.

-

Thanks to anyone who reads this, I plan on doing more lyric posts on Conventional Weapons as I find it a very interesting album.

Please leave any thoughts you have in the replies, I would love to discuss, if you have any ideas on how I can make this better please tell me also!

[imyourangel]

Heres the My Chemical Romance Analysis nobody asked for

I made this for my world religion class and its on the impact Catholicism had on MCRs lyrics and stuff

Alexandra McCreary.docx

Microsoft Word Document

[cripplecryptid]

no fucking WONDER people looked at mcr and collectively went "EMO" and labelled them as an empty meaningless band who act ~edgy~ for attention. THEY LACK THE CONTEXT! they dont have experienc being scrutinised for who you are, they lead different lives and see what mcr talks about and have to conclude that none of it has meaning but it DOES! I saw a guy reacting to Prison and say "yeah none of these lyrics make sense" THATS BECAUSE YOURE STRAIGHT! ANY GAY PERSON LOOKS AT THAT AND SAYS "oh. Fuck".

the general public still saw them as something for the gays Without understanding the subtext though, they saw skinny jeans and dramatic black eyeshadow and femininity and teenaged girls in the crowd and said F*GS! ALL FUCKING F*GS and they said WE SURE ARE. AND THEY DIDNT SAY THIS BECAUSE IT WAS COMMERCIALLY SMART, THEY DID IT BECAUSE THEY CARE ABOUT US AND STAND WITH US AND ARE PEOBABLY ONE OF US

[andoutofharm]

ok so here’s what i’m getting (at the most basic level)

gerard: “the shouty one”, has to be kept in line and controlled and forced to obey, continually being reconditioned and molded into their role of singer and performer. tortured artist, manipulated, struggling with what the dictator and the clerk make her do but unable to resist in any way that matters

ray: has moments of clarity where he’ll go to mikey or frank or gerard in confusion or affection, but deeply conditioned and struggles to break out until gerard is actively dying. despite this plays to the crowd often, trying to get them to boo the clerk or express his disapproval of what’s happening. rayrard star crossed doomed lovers get more and more doomed each day babey

mikey: the little brother through and through. stays outwardly happy/oblivious until the brainwashing breaks and he snaps into action to protect his older sibling (at the cost of his own wellbeing)

frank: attack dog/guard dog. causing trouble and generally being difficult but also physically removing gerard from the clerk and putting himself between them to defend gerard