What does Welcome to the Black Parade mean?

My Chemical Romance: Welcome to the Black Parade Meaning

Album cover for Welcome to the Black Parade album cover

Song Released: 2006


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Welcome to the Black Parade Lyrics

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
Would you be
The savior of the broken
The beaten and the damned?"

He said "Will you
Defeat them
Your demons
And all the...

  1. Cloud
    click a star to vote
    Jul 1st 2009 !⃝

    i see Welcome To The Black Parade as a song of love gained, and love lost. The man in the hospital, he is loved by a woman, and he is to delirious to realize shes still there with him. In his mind, he is still a little boy with his Father, at a parade, only now, he is with his dead father at deaths parade.When he dies, he leaves the love of his life behind, and she commits suicide and we see her in the parade later in the video.

  2. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 25th 2009 !⃝

    damn i hit enter...ill continue on tho

    just a man not a hero--he is a man going to war but was no hero...he was either a normal soldier or died.

  3. sLy777
    click a star to vote
    Apr 15th 2009 !⃝

    I am not really a fan of Rock but when I listened closely to the lyrics of this song I just felt my inner soul screaming, sharing its exact same sentiments. Well, according to my understanding of the song of course. So here let me share with you my interpretation of this:

    For me, the father that the song talks about represents GOD. I see myself as the daughter who GOD is talking to. The scenario could be in Heaven and He is basically giving me the heads-up on how it is gonna be like living here on earth before He even sends me. It could be awareness, maybe, of my MISSION here on earth which is to serve Him by spreading the WORD of His undying LOVE for us and help the ignorant people of the world realize that.

    He's soliciting my faithfulness to Him so that once I get deployed in the LOST WORLD I may fulfill my mission. He wants me to be ready, having HIS WORD (promises) as my ONLY ARMOR. And coz He trusts my ability I was finally sent here on earth.

    Now here on earth, I got exposed to all types of sins and its deception. And found myself being one of the sinners recklessly indulging in whatever satisfies the FLESH rather than SPIRIT. And though I have wandered from my commitment to GOD, deep in my HEART I can still feel Him there... constantly reminding me of His LOVE for me---that I can always go back to Him...anytime. But coz of too much guilt and pride, I am sometimes hesitant to do it..like I am filled with so much guilt for disappointing Him...at the same time there’s this stubborn spirit in me saying I can get by fine and find happiness in my own strength and will. So basically my (heart,spirit) VS (flesh,mind)....drastically clashing, causing this chaos in my life. I AM A LOST SOUL WANDERING IN THIS FILTHY WORLD OF SIN.

    I thought I could move on. There were moments actually that my mind would say I was happy...but my heart disapproves--for the genuine happiness it knows...and that is with HIM. My mind may have forgotten Him but never did my heart. So if sometimes I may forget about Him, it is my heart that constantly reminds me...HE never left my heart. The devil may have at some point ruled over my mind and flesh but NEVER can it take my heart! God won’t allow that to happen...He has firm grasp of my heart. And what can possibly overpower God’s grasp? NOTHING! I may have disappointed GOD a lot of times but my heart continues to scream that I WILL CARRY ON WITH MY PROFOUND COMMITMENT TO HIM. Who cares about those people who are devoted to mockery?!? people who don’t believe that I can rise again from filth and carry on with my walk with God?!?! people who find delight in the failure of somebody else because it makes them feel less guilty?!?! I don’t care anymore about these people...all I care about now is what’s in my heart. I promised Him then and that promise I shall keep. So many delays I know, big deal! I admit that I made a lot of mistakes in this lifetime. I am not perfect, who is? I’m just another human being likely to make mistakes. From these mistakes I shall continue to learn. Eventually, I STRONGLY BELIEVE, I can fulfill that PROMISE I made---to play the role as HIS SERVANT. No matter how many times I may fall, I shall rise over and over again and never give up trying for as long as I have air to breathe. Nothing is really over until my life is over.

  4. anonymous
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    Mar 8th 2009 !⃝

    I think that th whole song is about remembering those that you loved who have died, and realizing that they are in a better place. Literally. All their cares are gone, and they are happy. It's also about all the people in the world who feel like they are worthless, or broken, and how they should just stand up and say, "You know what, I don't care what you think, or say, or do, cause you can't control me! I'm proud of who I am, and you'll never change that! I may not be perfect, and yeah, I'm just a regular guy, but that's OK, and to anyone who thinks any different I say, 'F#ck You!'"

  5. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jan 4th 2009 !⃝

    This song Is about a man that has cancer and is dying In a hospital. He dies and thinks about his strongest memory of all time and his greatest memory is from childhood when he was a young boy when the patient's father took him to the city to see a marching band (parade)
    Death takes him to his memory when he was at the parade but In a more depressing version of a parade called the Black Parade, there are some people In the Black parade he knew like Mother War(his ex girlfriend). The Patient carries on in the black parade to go to Heaven or maybe the parade never ends. The Parade keeps on going on...

  6. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Dec 5th 2008 !⃝

    I could be wrong, but the more I think about it, I may have something.

    "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,
    would you be the savior 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."
    -----
    Could this possibly be the case?: His father is relatively young. He's not lived his life the way he wanted to, maybe hasn't finished what he'd planned. But he's dying of some disease, possibly cancer. He takes his son to the parade perhaps because it could be the last time he gets to spend time with his son. He KNOWS he's dying.

    I think maybe he's telling his son that he doesn't have long, and is entrusting all the things he needed or wanted to do to get done through his son. A black parade could be a decent way to explain death to a younger person.
    -----
    "Sometimes I get the feeling she's watching over me.
    And other times I feel like I should go.
    And through it all, the rise and fall, the bodies in the streets.
    And when you're gone we want you all to know."

    "We'll carry on,
    We'll carry on
    And though you're dead and gone believe me
    Your memory will carry on
    We'll carry on
    And in my heart I can't contain it
    The anthem won't explain it."
    -----
    In this part, I think the boy, now a patient himself, may be speaking of his mother, saying that sometimes he feels his mother is there for him, but at other times he thinks he should just die, let himself go. But through both situations, maybe through short-lived recoveries only to get worse again, he addresses the already dead, and likely his father, letting them know that though they're dead, buried, and gone, we as a people, the living, will carry on. We won't be overcome by our grief. The last two lines can be explained by the next verse.
    -----
    "A world that sends you reeling from decimated dreams
    Your misery and hate will kill us all.
    So paint it black and take it back
    Let's shout it loud and clear
    Defiant to the end we hear the call"

    "To carry on
    We'll carry on
    And though you're 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"
    -----
    After listening to this verse and chorus again, I changed my interpretation. I think the last two lines of the previous chorus, 'And in my heart I can't contain it/The anthem can't explain it' are descriptive of the first part of this verse. He can't contain in his heart all that his father wanted him to/wanted to. The boy/patient is now addressing the world and its evil, telling them that their misery and hate at having their dreams (as well as his dreams?) shattered is enough to kill everyone. Why don’t they just paint it black, make it go away, and take it back, apologize, so everyone can hear and answer the call to carry on.

    He again addresses his father and the rest of the Parade, pledging that their memory will never fade. I think the second part may be aimed at the aforementioned evil in the world. We’ll carry on, and even though the evil has been defeated, its weary widow, the good of the world, still goes on. The banner in the video that reads ‘Starved To DEATH In A Land Of PLENTY’ held by the woman wearing a gas mask in my opinion may be a reference to those broken, beaten, and damned who were robbed of the good, starved of the goodness of those, and it ultimately killed them. One of the other interpretations mentions the woman in the gas mask being Lady War, and that could be part of it, too, because after all, what good REALLY comes of war?
    -----
    "On 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"
    -----
    Since the next part is kinda long, I’ll do this by itself. I think the boy/patient is speaking of his initial worry that someone would look down on him because he hadn’t filled his father’s and possibly his duty to society. He speaks of the disappointed faces, which could be part of the fears. He states then that they can look disappointed because he really doesn’t care anymore.
    -----
    "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
    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!!"
    -----
    He’s still speaking to the disappointed faces, or else to any others who would make him feel bad for not completing his task. No matter what, they’re not going to make him be someone else because he’s not going to let his heart fall to the evils of the world. He’s confident – 'Go and try, you’ll never break me' – that he’s not going down completely. He and the ones like him that were entrusted with a task bigger than they themselves, that collective we, want to have things this way, want to be dying before they get the chance to destroy themselves trying to save the world. They want to act like they meant to do it, when maybe they knew all along they couldn’t. He says he’s not going to explain or apologize, because he’s not ashamed of any tarnish that the failure of this task might put on his name, he’ll show that off proudly. Give a cheer for him and those like him, and listen up, because it’s who they are. He’s just a man who can’t do more than what normal men can; he’s not a hero or a martyr. He’s actually still a boy, forced to live this way. He restates he’s just a man, not a hero, and he doesn’t care what people think of him. With this new mentality and now as a deceased, he speaks to the living and perhaps that worldly evil through to the end, where all the other broken and deceased join him in assuring those still living that they’ll carry on:
    -----
    "We'll carry on
    We'll carry on
    And though you're 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"

    "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 (We'll carry on)"

    "Do or die, you'll never make me (We'll carry on)
    Because the world will never take my heart (We'll carry on)
    Go and try, you'll never break me (We'll carry)
    We want it all, we wanna play this part (We'll carry on)"

  7. anonymous
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    Jun 18th 2008 !⃝

    I think "the patient" is thinking of purgatory...look at the video...it's a parade of the dead who have yet to pass on...thats just my thought on it...-joseph

  8. anonymous
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    May 17th 2008 !⃝

    Im thinking the second one is definitely correct, but what I'm wondering, in the music video, the patient gets a medal. What's the point of the medal?

  9. anonymous
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    May 11th 2008 !⃝

    If Gerard Way tells you what it's about listen to him...HE WROTE THE SONG!

  10. anonymous
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    May 10th 2008 !⃝

    All that stuff about being gay was the stupidest things I've ever heard about this song.

  11. smartypants16
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    May 5th 2008 !⃝

    The song unravels a man's memory and the guy's son is telling the story from his point of view. He wants his father not worry because his memory "will carry on" and in the end, his father presumably dies peacefully.=)

  12. anonymous
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    May 2nd 2008 !⃝

    This song to me seemed to be about a boy who had a dying father, and all he remembers is when he took him to a parade. The black parade does seem to be a symbol of death, because its welcome to the black parade, like welcoming death and its riches. But its also saying that you can continue to live on with the memory of someone, and that someone gives you power. Though people are saying their wrong for their path, they still fight for what they say is right, and yes this iss alot. XD

  13. anonymous
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    Apr 23rd 2008 !⃝

    It's about when you die. Gerard believes that something comes and takes you to heaven/hell like a limo a plane horses with a wagon etc, and that the patient that is dying what takes him is his favorite memory of a parade.

  14. anonymous
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    Apr 15th 2008 !⃝

    OK, so in my opinion, THE END, DEAD, and WELCOME TO THE BLACK PARADE all tell a story. Ok so first off, THE END is when a patient is on his death bed telling people not to be sad. DEAD! is obviously him dying. WELCOME to the BLACK PARADE, is his musical trip to the afterlife, which is a huge melencholic parade That will go on for eternity (We'LL CAAARRY OOON!) hence all the people in the video looking like they have been there for quite some time.


    !That is just my opinion don't crucify me!

    ......MCR Rules!!

  15. anonymous
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    Mar 4th 2008 !⃝

    Well this song is about the guy in the hospital, when the curtain falls, that's when the guy dies. Gerard believes that death comes to you in any way you want it to. In this situation death comes to the guy in a marching band, the city in the background is the city of the dead. The Black Parade, are just the people that died before the guy. The two people that kiss the guy at the end of the video are Fear and Regret, the thing with the gas mask is Mother War. This Song Owns!!




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