MRO1989 October 3rd, 2006 10:59AM  

This song is a about a character called "the patient". His greatest memory was when his father took him to see a parade when he was younger. He is now dying from cancer at a young age, and death comes to him in form of his best memory, which of course, is the black parade.

anonymous October 28th, 2006 01:05AM  

The second one is correct. The song is all about how the patient is joining the black parade. The black parade being a metaphor for death. Hence the title of the track too.

The video clip doesn't leave too much to the imagination either... Pretty straight forward. Having listened to this whole album, it's going to be a lot easier to decipher the meaning/ideals behind each track.

anonymous November 8th, 2006 08:10PM  

This is about the patient and his memories about going to his first parade with his father.While he slowly dies of cancer his memories move on. And the form in which he is taken to the next life is his greatest memory:the black parade carries him off to death.

anonymous December 7th, 2006 10:54AM  

Don't laugh, but is there ANY chance that the black parade could be reminiscing about the Phantom Regiment, which is a drum and bugle corps band? Just a small thought. When I first heard this song, it brought back memories of DCI where the Phantom Regiment played.

anonymous December 8th, 2006 01:29PM  

Gerard actually said in an interview that it's about how when death comes for the Patient, it comes in the form of a parade which represents the Patients best memory from when he was a kid (when his father took him to see a parade)

anonymous December 28th, 2006 08:47PM  

Well this whole album is Gerard recovering from alcohol addictions and whatnot, and he's starting a whole new life, sober, blonde, new. So, I'd say when he refers to his father saying "son, when you grow up, will you be the savior of the broken, the beaten, and the damned?" he's saying that he is here to rescue others (the broken, beaten, and damned) from a fate similar to the one he was headed towards until he sobered up. He's reaching out through the power of music to all those people with addictions and such, to be their savior, just like his father said. That's what I could gather from that part.

anonymous January 5th, 2007 11:10AM  

Honestly I love hearing peoples' interpretations of songs because they are just that. Anyone who has ever written a song knows that not every single line has some deep, dark meaning. I think at the heart of this one is a simple message that life can start out great when you are young, naive, and untainted, and little things (like parades with dad) can be the most memorable moments. And then you grow up, people leave, sometimes you disappoint yourself and others, and you realize that life is hard and dark and sucks. But in the end there's the optimism that things will get better, and you learn to appreciate those perfect moments. And yes, death will come get you whether you're ready or not- though there really is no "end." That parade will just keep marching on whether you're here or not (hence the snare fading off at the end), so live it up while you can.

anonymous January 6th, 2007 07:24PM  

"When I was a young boy,
My father took me into the city
To see a marching band.
He said,
"Son when you grow up, will you be the saviour of the broken,
The beaten and the damned?"
He said
"Will you defeat them, your demons, and all the non believers, the plans that they have made?"
Because one day I'll leave you
A phantom to lead you in the summer,
To join the black parade."

What intrigues me is the fact that on one hand the father is asking him to be a hero:
be the "saviour", defeat your "demons" -vices and logical contradictions, that's to say, misunderstandings of reality which make us do stupidities- and all the "non believers" (quite intriguing in the way it is said... leaves me with several doubts and even fears).

And on the other he is saying that he will give him help to understand how to pass away (the ghost thing).

This part is quite contradictory with common logic schemes. But, if we think that they may be seeing death as something good, then all may make some sense.

The problem with this hypothesis is that he also mentions "summer". Summer is generally understood as a good thing, and so they would be portraying the black parade as something fantastic, something that continues to the summer.

Then the ghost is experience and advice. But the problem is, once more, is it that death is fantastic? Or is it that they break our schemes once more and so say that death is what logically follows life (which is "summer", wonderful)? Is it that we are condemned to be eternally happy at the beginning and then stop being so?

"Sometimes I get the feeling she's watching over me.
And other times I feel like I should go. Through it all, the rise and fall, the bodies in the streets.
When you're gone we want you all to know We'll Carry on,
We'll Carry on
Though your dead and gone believe me Your memory will carry on
Carry on
We'll carry on
And in my heart I can't contain it
The anthem won't explain it."

Who is she? The widow (and so the singer's mother)? His girlfriend?

The problem is that she sounds more like a supernatural being rather than a common one. Is it that she's the Virgin Mary?

"I feel like I should go", well, killing himself, that does not need that much of an interpretation.

The problem is the present contradiction: If life's summer, why does he need that care from that feminine figure, and even better, why is it that there are bodies in the street (and all this not taking his suicidal tendencies into account)?

Life is hard but at the same time summer? If we now take the video into account, we see that life is painful. "Starved to death in a land of plenty" together with the "bodies in the streets" make us think that calling life "summer" is rather a sarcasm. Life is not summer, we/they all act as if it were, but life is painful. Why? Because of us. We make life painful.

However, even though we are the ones who make it painful, we cannot change it (and so the suicidal part would make sense).

That would make "them" the guilty ones rather than "we" (and what distinguishes both groups is this superior knowledge of life).

The problem is that he also tells dad not to worry, as his "memory" will "carry on". This makes us re-think the "black parade" symbol. It may not be death/afterlife, but rather a metaphorical death/end of existance.

The problem is, once more, why is ending existance (which is the only way in which suicidal tendencies could be some way justified, as we stop existing, we stop feeling pain) that good?

Of course, that would justify the "summer" - "black parade" passage. Life is summer, and the logical end of summer is eternal sleep. The problem is that summer has then got a double meaning: life is essentially fantastic while we all (more precisely, "they")make it a painful place experience.

Logically, this leaves the supernatural feminine figure lacking an explanation.

"And we will send you reeling from decimated dreams
Your misery and hate will kill us all
So paint it black and take it back
Lets shout it loud and clear
Do you fight it to the end
We hear the call to
To carry on
We'll carry on
Though your dead and gone believe me Your memory will carry on
We'll carry on
And though you're broken and defeated You're weary widow marches on"

Well, this part quite proves my "they" are ruining our only opportunity to dream, to be happy.

An interesting doubt: why is dying wrong here ("your misery and hate will kill us all") while it was right before?

"And on we carry through the fears
Ooh oh ohhhh
Disappointed faces of your peers Ooh oh ohhhh
Take a look at me cause
I could not care at all Do or die
You'll never make me
Cause the world, will never take my heart
You can try, you'll never break me"

He will stay strong against "them" ("the world") and their wishes to oppress him as well.

"Will never take my heart", so heartless is what they want us all to be.

"Want it all,
I'm gonna play this part
Wont explain or say I'm sorry
I'm not ashamed,
I'm gonna show my scar
You're the chair, for all the broken Listen here, because it's only..
I'm just a man,
I'm not a hero
Just a boy, who's meant to sing this song
Just a man,
I'm not a hero
I -- don't -- care"

On one hand, "you are the chair for all the broken" (you = his father?), and so they can stop running (fighting) against life, so they can feel relief once and for all, and on the other, he is telling his father that he cannot be the hero, the saviour he wanted him to be.

Meanwhile, even though he said all what he said, he says he's apathetic ("I don't care").

"Carry on
We'll carry on
Though your dead and gone believe me Your memory will carry on
We'll carry on
And though you're broken and defeated Your weary widow marches on
We'll carry on
We'll carry on
We'll carry on
We'll carry
We'll carry on"

Well, this confirms what I say. "Though you are dead and gone" makes us think of death as unexistance and of the black parade as a synonim of it.

His father is therefore logically "broken and defeated" because he did not manage to change things when he could.

Well, that supernatural figure appears to be the widow -who keeps on with her husband's struggle-, but the way in which she's mentioned here is not the way in which he was before, and so I feel a lack of coherence between the first female figure and the widow.

About the father being part of the armed forces, I am somewhat for but my intuition puts me fully against it.

As hard as it may seem after all this huge analysis, this song still makes me feel somewhat great (while I am currently suffering my lack of faith, and so I am trying to grip to sure existance, to this life, I have as much as I can).

anonymous January 8th, 2007 11:23PM  

My interpretation is when the lead singer was a boy his father(the man in the hospital) took him to see a parade and said to him "one day ill leave you a phantom to lead you in the summer..." by that he means when he dies his spirit will still be leading him.

Then the father dies and is wandering around and he finds the black parade and he joins them.

anonymous January 11th, 2007 11:04PM  

The song reminds of the smiling skeletons during Dios de los Muertos. Day of the dead. They're all smiling because they're laughing at the living; everything that was such a big screaming deal is like who cares to them. It's liberation in total.
I'd join the black parade if I could, and be the misfit army for what matters.
"Defiant to the end, we hear the call: to carry on"
Something about that gives everything a luster.

popcrotch January 12th, 2007 11:50PM  

I agree with the previous comments but there seems to be more to the song than just death. It is not only the memory of his father but also the sorrow of his fathers death(black parade) which may suggest the many forms of death but more importantly emphasizes it's unpredictability.

I believe that part of the message is not only death but that of life as well. A kind of Carpe diem. Buddhism believes life is suffering... even though we have good intentions, they can be subdued by the miseries of the world (i.e. The loss of a loved one). But if you live a principled life, you are survived by the memories you leave behind.

With all of the shallow music being released today, the lyrics of this song offer a profound complexity that I feel deserves to be acknowledged.

anonymous January 25th, 2007 11:30PM  

Someone made a comment about the song being about 9/11 and the aftermath of the bombings. I agree this could be part of the interpretation especially if you look at the actual release date of September 11, 2006.
He (the patient) did not want to be a hero after this and didn't want to go to war.
The lady with the mask (mother war I think they call her) is an odd twist but the character is in another video as well....just odd....

anonymous January 27th, 2007 02:43PM  

Its clearly a guy dying and joining the black parade (dead people) if you watch the video, every body in the video has sunken black eyes (e.g. dead) in the beginning, he's on his death bed, he looks fine one minute, then shakes and fits holding the nurses hand, as he does, his eyes become sunken and black, showing he just died, and has entered the black parade!
Max

satanslilwhore_666 January 30th, 2007 04:31PM  

Welcome to the black parade. It's about the patient dying and seeing life in the form of a parade because his greatest memory is of his father taking him into the city to see a parade. The black parade is about his life through death and how it comes to him.

anonymous January 31st, 2007 07:41PM  

I Just figured this through a music video on you tube.

I figure, that, the man dying is the singer's father, and he took the singer to see a marching band when he was a young boy, and his father is about to die. When his father dies he will join the black parade aka a place where (as in the song) you join when you die. This explains the whole song. And the carry on part. Think about it.

radical_pixie February 1st, 2007 09:41AM  

This song is an inspiration to me, for some reason. Whenever I listen to it I feel like ... doing something to rebel. mostly just because of the part that starts out "do or die, you'll never make me..." and so on. Ha, anyone else out there feel the same way? :D
i love MCR!

anonymous February 3rd, 2007 03:51PM  

This song is about a boy whose padre is dying and needs help dealing with it. while his padre is dieing, he tells his son that he will help him through all of the depressing times he has to go through after he is dead. I think it resembles how when loved ones die, they are still with us... In our hearts.
'sob'
toodles

anonymous February 4th, 2007 09:11PM  

I was so far off: I thought it referred to the OLD belief that some people's souls rise at night to fight witches during full moons, etc. as werewolves in order to protect the crops. Those people (and the witches) don't get to go to heaven/hell until the apocalypse and thus wander the world at night as a sort of dead "black parade." Although, the real meaning is just as strange.

anonymous February 5th, 2007 04:24PM  

wow, I've read some of the interpretations, which are all pretty much the same. I've never seen the video, so I don't have the advantage of that insight, but I just thought the song was about the underdog. you know, like the message is that even though were pressed down by society and all the popular people and their little cliques that we matter an to join the black parade because were not alone, and not to let yourself be supressed by all that stuff, keep fighting. " we'll carry on"

anonymous February 5th, 2007 09:01PM  

wow maybe i, wrong but I didn't really take this song the same way as everyone else. I know this album is about the patient but I don't think this song is about his best memory as much. I think its more general and saying that after you die you will live throught people's memories and the black parade. I think the black parade is the everlasting march of all the dead people who's memories keep them "alive". and I think its the guy's (gerard?) responsibility to keep the black parade going and not let the memories die. He's saying reassuring the dead people that he and the world will keep them living through the parade.

i could be completely wrong but that's kind of what I thought. and I think this song is amazing. I know its overplayed now because a lot of people think they like because they listen to whatever is on MTV but it really is a good song. not to offend anyone or anything, I just thinks it kind of annoying.