Ok hear me out, Kermit is the male demolition lover. The idea of him “getting shot” and going to hell is really a metaphor for kermit pursuing his movie career. The movie industry is big and hard to navigate (much like hell) and throwing yourself into the movie making scene is much like getting shot. Along the way he meets friends, having tumultuous relationships which ties back in with the 1000 evil souls and how he needed to gather them to see his lover (the music industry) through the many struggles of Kermit’s sexuality (canon) Kermit realizes that the movie industry isn’t what he thought it was and the “souls” (friends) that he had gathered along the way were just in it for money and the movie industry wasn’t for him. Finally letting his dreams die, letting his one true love perish. Leaving him with a life he never wanted, and a story to he told. And that is how mcr tied their album in with the muppet movie.
For “to the end” I always interpreted the line “he’s not around he’s always looking at men” as the male demolition lover stalking his victims before going in for the kill
I’ve always thought that the demolition woman was alive but the demolition man believes she’s in heaven and that the devil tricked him into thinking she’s dead. It kind of explains the contradicting lines.
I think Fashion Statement is about how he kills the men that killed him, like they’re part of 1000 evil men. especially when he says “this hole you put me in wasn’t deep enough”
i know, Gerard has always been extremely talented at portraying emotion in his singing, even in the early albums when he didn’t have as much singing experience or training (i personally think portrays more emotion in the early albums than the later ones)
"Hang 'Em High" is a Clint Eastwood western about a man taking revenge on the people who tried to hang him for a crime he didn't commit. The song is probably about him going after the people who killed him in the first place
My opinion is that i think they added double meanings to all the songs, which goes for all the concept albums, where they have a more emotional meaning like most songs, that also fit into their story. Like ghost of you is about losing someone you love THEREFORE its the lovers mourning each other when put into the story along with the rest of the songs. Prison is likely about questioning sexuality and prison representing being trapped in your own mental state, and when put into the story gains a double meaning. I also have a theory that the story itself is a metaphor. About losing someone you love, or even yourself, and going down a path of self destructive behavior, maybe questioning and discovering your sexuality, hurting yourself and others (also probable addiction, especially since gerard has struggled with addiction) hoping and believing it will make you feel better, then committing suicide in the end OR accepting that you aren't the same lerson as you were before, whether or not you have become someonw you hate Idk if this makes sense, tried my best to explain lol
This is so beautiful, I really enjoyed reading your take. I always took the metaphor of the story/the self destruction as something akin to obsession... at first he is motivated to complete his task by his love of someone/something, but soon finds himself consumed by the new lifestyle and is losing himself to it, probably never to find himself as he once was ever again. Just as in life, we can first be motivated by something pure but can be eaten alive by the processes through which we interact with what we love/seek to have ownership over what we love. But to be honest... I really like your interpretation better. It's beautiful and definitely going to stick with me. So thank you!
Yeah the ghost of you can def be for someone you lost, if you watch the music video it’s Gerard way losing his brother during the invasion of Normandy.
MCR is so genius like that; all their story albums' songs can be enjoyed on their own and be understood without the rest of the story, but if you piece it together with the album you get an incredible masterpiece and a rewarding storyline, rewarding because it was subtle, and you feel really connected to a story when you invest time into figuring it out. Gerard Way and the whole band is such a gem
100% and that goes with what Gerard has said in the past about the album. They started it with the idea of the demolition lovers plot, and then Gerard and Mikey lost their grandma and Gerard has said after listening to the whole album he realized it’s a lot more about life and loss than originally intended because of that
Heck with the ghost of you you can add the meaning of the music video kind of giving it a war story for a grand total of three meanings Reminds me how I always thought welcome to the black parade was actually about the dad in the start dying and how the son and the rest of the family will carry on and how they’ll carry his memory on + added paradery, emory, and deathery cause MCR
Tw/suicide I love this video so much, but i've got my own theory about what happened to the demolition woman. I saw a comment here saying that the demolition woman is really alive and the devil tricked the demolition man into thinking she's dead, which makes sense. In my opinion she was definitely alive at least for the first few songs. In the ghost of you she sings "if I died we'd be together", which sounds like she's alive, but is having suicidal thoughts. Then a few songs later there's it's not a fashion statement, it's a fucking deathwish. I think it's almost entirely about the demolition guy getting revenge on the man who killed him, but the ending I always thought didn't fit with the rest of the song. The lines "I lost my fear of falling, I will be with you" really sound like someone committing suicide to reunite with their dead love, and that's what I think the woman did. It's no longer just thoughts. Also the title of the song speaks for itself. Then, in cemetery drive I believe the guy somehow found out what really happened to her and had kind of a breakdown, because again, this song also sounds like it's about someone very suicidal: "and they found you on the bathroom floor", "singing songs that make you slit your wrists", "did you get what you deserve". Also, at the beginning of I never told you what I do for a living the guy talks about grieving her, as if she just died. But then I'm not sure if the ending of the song makes much sense. That's pretty much how I see it, though I'm probably forgetting about so much stuff lol.
I came to the same conclusion cz I like this take the most. How it all ties up in the end is thew two of them are reunited in hell rather than life which is not what demo man bargained for after begging the devil for "one more night" in life he surrenders ("well, I tried"). Upon his reunion, the demo lovers try to console eachothers harsh reality when they say. "we'll love again, we'll laugh again, and it's better off this way". This versions definitely more of a bitter sweet tragedy compared to some of the other interpretations but that's the beauty of the album
ALSO this would make sense with cemetery drive being the next song and him going to visit her grave, she probably like freshly killed herself and he had to go see if it was true
The way I interpret the “I’m taking back the life you stole” line was the male demolition lover starting to grow resentment towards the female one. He’s starting to come to terms with the fact that she’s in large part responsible for not only his death but the bloody quest he’s been sent on. Questioning his path as well as her.
Whenever I listen to this song, I see her putting him in the hole, which is going to climb out of. Then he will take back from her the life she stole from him. The reference made about taking it all out on her, because she was the cause of it; I think this jibes
I always knew Gerard way was an absolute genius but this is next level genius. This is crazy. I have loved mcr for 16 years, I started listening to them right when three cheers came out and I didn’t know any of this 😂
Fr, same thing with vampires will never hurt you, in the surface it just sounds like a song about vampires but the meaning can be broken into many other things like drug addiction and other things
I’ve also seen interpretations of this where the demolition lovers are two versions of the same person looking in a mirror and it’s mourning the loss of a different side of demolition man and it’s all a whole lot more metaphorical
(I only just started the chapter about “Give ‘Em Hell, Kid” so I don’t if you mention this in the video or not) There’s an alternative intro to “Give ‘Em Hell, Kid” that’s on some versions of the album (it’s on my version and i only recently found out that it’s not the official version lol). During the instrumental intro Gerard says: “Kid! Kid! Brothers and sisters, put your hands together because I feel a war coming on! The devil knows where you live, and the devil knows where to find me!”. I see this as the introduction of the story, as it foreshadows (or warns the listener of) the killing of 999 men (because the Demolition Man is the last evil man) and it mentions the Demolition Man’s deal with the Devil. The line “The devil knows where you live, and the devil knows where to find me!” could be interpreted that the Devil is the one telling the Demolition Man who to kill. This would make the Demolition Man the hitman who obeys the Devil. Additionally, this line could also be interpreted as the Demolition Man warning his future victims. “The devil knows where _you_ live, […]”, the Demolition Man is directly speaking to his future victims, this would solidify that the listener is an outside character that none of the characters in the story know about. Edit: I absolutely love the alternative intro so I definitely recommend listening to it!
Wait where'd you get this intro? It's not the live versions they covered from the Mexico show ( since its the version that ends in "just cause you're bigger than me, just cause you're smarter than me, just cause you drive a better car than me, does not mean, no way no how, I am sucking you off, for any amount of money" I always like to sing that part at the end regardless though :p
I think assuming the woman is in heaven creates a lot of plotholes. I think its very clear she's still alive. This video goes into amazing detail and depth though, so a good watch! :3 On the CD sleeve, she is likely the only of the two pictured in an operating room because you don't operate on the dead. He didn't survive to make it to treatment, so he was left to his grave. I would agree this is death imagery if both of them were pictured. On "To the End" "Say goodbye to the vows you take. Say goodbye to the life you make. Say goodbye to the hearts you break. And all the cyanide you drank." along with "She keeps a picture of the body she lends. Got nasty blisters from the money she spends" makes much more sense as her still on earth. Contemplating suicide, killing then taking a picture of the body (or possibly making nsfw..?) and spending her diseased husband's money respectively. None of this really makes sense for someone on earth, or in the man's perspective. - I think this song's use of paralleling death and parades is what ultimately confirms the woman is not in heaven. If death is explored as a parade in this universe in the way Black Parade uses it, heaven isn't real. There isn't a heaven or hell, there's just a nothingness called purgatory. Though Black Parade explores this, Gerard directly talks about it directly in interviews. I'm unsure whether the Demolition Lovers would be united in purgatory, but they would be in life. I doubt the Devil would have any power over who makes it to heaven, but bringing someone back to life is clearly in his realm of reason. Possibly, the Demolition lovers cannot meet in life until the man's task is complete or the man doesn't want the woman to discover his unethical deal. On "The Ghost of You" The line "I never said I'd lie and wait forever. If I died we'd be together." Makes more sense from the woman's perspective, wondering if suicide would be a surefire way to reunite, if there is an afterlife, whereas the man knows if he can accomplish his goal, they can be reunited supposedly alive. Just like you say, survivors' guilt. This especially comes to a head at "I can't always just forget her, but she could try." She still lives on, and can create a new meaning for herself in life. He can't, he's chained to his goal. His longing "Could I? Should I?" is more expediently and reasonably a moral consideration, or whether his pain in his journey is worth it. On "Thank You for the Venom" The lines "poet but a criminal, and you never had a chance" calls back to heaven not being real in his universe. You march on the inevitable parade, and the wastes of religious practice can't save you in death. Only killing 1,000 evil men can. He then embraces his title as a murderer, abandoning his morality in its entirety. "I wear this on my sleeve. Give me all your poison, and give me all your pills, and give me all your hopeless hearts and make me ill." He uses a bible as a cover for his gun ironically. He doesn't hate god, his goals are just in opposition to him. Why should he appeal to Christian morality when killing is the only way to reach happiness? The line "Give me a reason to believe" is genuine. His lover is still alive, and even if there is a god, he's dealing with Satan. He has no more reason to believe in a Christian deity than the rest of us, but he's morally biased against him either way. Why have faith in god, both as a moral agent and as a real being? On "Thank You for the Venom" the line "After all is said and done, climb out from the pine box. Well I'm asking you, cause she's got nothing to say" is the man confronting the possibility that the woman committed suicide. It was hinted at in "To the End" that she might've developed suicidal ideation after having survivors guilt. I think this creates a very poetic (and I think intentional) Romeo and Juliet situation not possible with the woman in Heaven. If the man is not quick enough to accomplish his goal, or if the women is convinced entirely of the unconfirmed possibility of them meeting in purgatory, they'd have both died for one another either ending up once again in opposite realms or both in an afterlife isolation. Again, "But don't stop if I fall and don't look back. Oh baby don't stop, bury me and fade to black" is again the man hoping she lives in, either in moving on from him or holding on until he accomplishes or fails his goal. - Then we get the line "She won't stop me, put it down." This, again, creates a plot inconsistency with the woman being in heaven. Now, having discovered his deal, the woman can plead with him in life to stop his deal despite their desperation. In one sense, this can either mean the lovers can no longer be reunited, the man isn't "alive" in a meaningful sense as a ghost, zombie or other "soulless" apparition, or it could mean it wouldn't matter as she disapproves of his intentions. On "It's not a Fashion Statement, It's a Fucking Deathwish", this sentiment is only supported. "I'm coming back from the dead" has one of two meanings, either he's reunited with his lover once he accomplishes his goal, or he's already back from the dead as an undead to see his deal through. On "Cemetery Drive" I can't tell whether this means she went through with her suicide, or whether his desperation and the possibility of her suicide leads him to hallucination as the song implies with "This night, walk the dead in a solitary style". The whole song seems to include much longing about times they shared alive "Drinking by the mausoleum door. And they found you on the bathroom floor" instead of times they are sharing or will share. However, the woman could've possibly having died either wrought with the guilt that she was the reason for his murder spree, his changes as a person or in doubt he'd be able to accomplish his goal and hoping to be united in purgatory. In the line "If you want I'll keep on crying. Did you get what you deserve? Is this what you always want me for?" He resents the Devil for this, tagging along with the theme also established in "To the End", blaming the Devil for a deal he agreed to by lambasting his moral drive. Either way, this song is vague. It could simply be a "Cemetery Drive" as her grave is never mentioned, or possibly a stroll through his own kill count before once more approaching the devil. On "I Never Told You What I do for a Living" the devil's trick is two-fold in that he is "reunited" with his lover in death, but even if she was alive, he could not be reunited with her as a dead man. He feels this is not what he's promised, he bargained for being reunited in life. Instead, he receives a reality where both him and his lover died in the gunfight. On "Bury Me in Black" first, he takes his rage out on his lover. Jealous of "worn out all your dancing shoes" and "war-worn lipstick, blood and purifying flame". How she lived a life where she was both able to enjoy the splendors and beauty of living, yet threw it away in desperation. In direct contrast to his life filled with "not so pretty" "insides". A completely unrecognizable mess, disillusioned with the living, understanding of his place separate from his former lover. ...On "Desert Song" in the line "We hold in our hearts" the lovers hold onto hope, wandering an endless sea of bodies "To carry on through cartilage and fluid". Wondering "Well tonight, will it ever come?" in purgatory. With the line "Swelled up from the rain clouds. Move like a wraith." they convey how crushing their conclusion was, moving through purgatory like a wraith. Though they bargain to "Spend the rest of your days rockin' out just for the dead". Hoping that some day "And through it all, we'll find some other way". Ultimately, the man accepts that his image of her is all he has left "I can see you awake anytime in my head" finally accepting their defeat "All fall down, well after all..."
Really great analysis, but I’m wondering, if they’re both alive in some parts (where she’s begging him not to go through with the killing) then what’s he even killing for? Because they’re already together in life then
@@h077y I felt like if he didn’t go through with the killing the devil would just take him back to hell bec it’s literally the devil if he brought him back he can take him back idk tho the story is very much up for interpretation
Great video, Theo! I think it's worth noting that God is represented as a cowboy in Gerard's comic series "The Umbrella Academy," so Hang Em High's cowboy symbolism could be a reference to him now having a God complex.
I'm pretty sure helena is her own character and not the female demliton lover due to the fact she's meant to represent gerard and mikey's grandma named Elena
Gerard has said it was a song about self loathing and guilt because when their grandma died, they missed the funeral because they were on tour. Helena is disconnected from the story of the album.
I thought “I’m Not Okay” would be about him escaping prison and reflecting on his highschool years with his lover, and now even though he’s out of prison, he should be okay but he’s not really okay.
THEO!! I literally love this so much! As a sad trans kid I naturally gravitated toward MCR, but this album in particular has been so influential in my life and is potentially my fave album of all time, and I do feel highkey dumb for not realizing its genius rock opera storytelling despite knowing every word and interpretive dancing to it daily in middle school. But I’m so lucky to have YOU to enlighten my little emo brain with all this knowledge and culture. Seriously, this format was fantastic, dude, you’re a true artist and I’m in awe. Love you king!!! 👑👑
tis how I discovered them as well. however I personally adore the black parade above everything else. it's helped me with alot of the emotions I feel on a daily basis
Hey there, ftm here, got into mcr maybe 15 years ago? And I didn't realize all the albums were concept albums (aside from tbp but that's we'll known) until recently when I saw them play life and met people who were half my age but knew more than me. But this video essay was definitely awesome to find and explain it all to me too.
This video sent me into a spiral and within 2 weeks I have written essays on all of the bullets and revenge songs 😭😭 this is a great video!! It’s become one of my comfort ones
The woman is very much so alive, gerard way says so in a few interviews so, all the lines that could mean she didn't die, probably mean literally that lol.
The more I listened through this. The Demolition Man could be The Patient in Black Parade. This means that the devil left him alive with cancer which when that kills him, would reunite him with Demolition Woman in heaven. This would also change how “I Don’t Love You” is interpreted. This means the patient is forced to believe that he won’t be reunited with her while his personal Devil, The Parader, mocks him and laughs at him. All as a ruse to get his despair and agony. His pain and his loss. This could mean The Parader has lost too and he’s taking out his trauma on The Patient. This could mean the music video of “Ghost of You” could be about Parader.
I was about to be like "erm akshualy" but holy crap hold on. Omg this is too much for me 😭😭😭😭😭 if this is true wow. Gerard way is like an insanely talented genius, Idk a bigger way to call him but he is just A. GENIUS. !!!!!
Video: "leave any comment, even if it's telling me that the video sucked!" Fans of the album: "Well if you wanted honestly, that's all you had to say!"
i love your interpretation of this album, but i have my own story for it that manages to include Helena as well. In the opening lyrics, we learn that this is taking place “long ago” and that the singer is “so far from you.” This refers to the fact that, in the opening of The Muppets Movie (1979), the characters are watching a film of themselves, with “so far from you” illustrating the time that has passed as well as the grown that has occurred since the filming of that movie. In the same verse, the singer mentions “the match you strike to incinerate the lives of everyone you know,” foreshadowing the fact that the movie screen, and by extension, the characters lives, will be destroyed at the end of the film when Sweetums tears through the screen. In the bridge of the song, the singer contemplates “can you hear me? are you near me?”, showing the internal conflict of the muppets being asked to evaluate whether their on-screen characters match the truth in this test screening. Regarding the plot of the film, the lines “well, if you carry on this way, things are better if I stay” refer to Kermit, who, after realizing that he and his friends will miss their audition because of him, thinks back to how they would all have been better off if he had stayed in florida and they had all carried on with their lives. Finally, the repeating of “so long and goodnight” shows how there are many points throughout the narrative that Kermit seems to give up and end his story, only to, once again, carry on the way he always had. I'm so sorry for that, but you did ask for it
the way i interpret jetset lifes drug addiction theme is that, as stated in give em hell kid, he takes ephedrine, and throughout the story he probably builds up an addiction to it as he wants to get to the female demolition lover as fast as possible so hes relying on the drug to stay awake and continue to kill more and more bad men
i was trying to watch this on the way to sleep but you said something here i really wanted to address at Hang Em High because i really do think this works perfectly with the story He was telling her to bury the thought of her & move on in the afterlife Him saying "she won't stop me" is going back to his morals & faith questioning if she'd really want him ti be killing all of these people for her he's second guessing himself thinking about what would she think but at the same time is like shut up this is what is necessary ya know she very much is dead this does fit the canon very well
well i know that we all joke about you know what they do to guys like us in prison being gay and you kinda mentioned something about this at one point but gerard said this song was about prison rape and about the man fearing for his life being there “am i losing myself” “i miss my mom will they give me the chair” about thinking about the possibility of getting maybe a death sentence or something and all of that stuff. the chorus talks about what i mentioned also something that you didn’t mention was the bridge of the song that is basically the man setting the prison on fire to escape and to kill the people in prison that took advantage of him like it’s mentioned in the lyrics. i was surprised you didn’t mention that because i thought we all knew that lol. i know people may have different interpretations but i think that given the lyrics more linked to frustration it’s far beyond only being about “the man questioning his sexuality after experimenting” but it’s still a good analysis
I SAW MCR THIS PAST WEEKEND it was my dream come true. I was 14 when I got really into mcr, one year after they broke up. I felt like GoDDAMN how fucking unlucky, but just my luck right, I was a sad depressed teen just trying to leave my home first chance i got. I got really lucky, and worked hard to go to school and i was able to move away. When they reunited, i was ECSTATIC. i was going to see them no matter what, then covid happened. I had go go home, and my life went downhill again. Im dealing with a really bad eating disorder relapse and I got so see them and they have filled me with new hope and motivation to carry on and see them again hopefully. Im in graduate school now and life is better and im so thankful to still be here, with a huge thanks to mcr and the mcrmy for getting me thru the hard dayz
I hope I get to see them live before they go away for good. I am just a stupid 12 year old who spends most of their time screaming the lyrics to an MCR song. My mom showed me MCR and I immediately became obsessed. The only problem is that I can’t relate to anybody at my school. The first question I ask a new person is “do you listen to MCR?” And they always say no. But who cares about that now I don’t know what I would do without MCR or that daily dose of Gerard. Plus I still have friends…………..They’re all in the comments of an MCR video.
I really enjoyed this. The visuals, the portrayals, everything was amazing. Before this video, I don't think I would ever be interested with anything MCR related. But after watching this, that totally changed. Would definitely love to see more content like this, whether or not MCR/music related. Also loved the 965-999 names in the journal bit.
Ok so I have an idea for the line “she won’t stop me put it down” in hang ‘em high. I think that it may be his mental struggle with thinking if she would still love him as the man he’s become. First thinking that all he had to do is finish the mission and get back to her but then realizing she wouldn’t except him now then telling himself to put it down.
Wow. This really opened my eyes I now see the, as others have mentioned, culture. Its amazing. And as someone under the age of 16, I lack opportunities to venture out and explore these communities. This was really amazing. Great content, I hope you go on to achieve great things.
There’s actually 3 songs on the first album about the demo lovers, and listening to all 3 in context helps make three cheers make more sense…best day ever (how they meet), demolition lovers (how they die), then drowning lessons. In drowning lessons they’re both in hell, she’s being tortured, and the devil offers him a deal of killing 1000 men to free her from hell. I feel like bury me in black is an alternate ending, where they both get to live but he’s changed so much she can’t love him anymore. He feels betrayed and kills her. Which is where you get the album cover. Just my opinion I have no clue if that’s actually the case lol
ANDD if you look on the album cover you can see demo man having more blood on the front forehead area dripping down. Meaning when it came time to take his life, he most likely shot through the front of his head.
It is very tough for me to decide which one of their songs is my favorite, but I'd say Helena. It's the second song I discovered when I began listening to MCR, with I'm not okay being the first, and I quickly fell in love with it.
If you're wondering what else I'd consider my other favorites, I love headfirst for halos, drowning lessons, i'm not okay, to the end, thank you for the venom, it's not a fashion statement, cemetery drive, i never told you what i do for a living, dead, sharpest lives, g-note, house of wolves, cancer, teenagers, disenchanted, famous last words, bulletproof heart, the only hope for me is you and the foundations of decay. Each of those have their own claim as my favorite MCR song, but the ones that truly had the strongest claims are thank you for the venom, it's not a fashion statement, I never told you what i do for a living, cancer, famous last words, the only hope for me is you and foundations of decay.
i always thought that the woman died but that man didn’t and he like summoned the devil to find a way to bring her back to life. it’s not that different but that’s how i have always thought of it and i think it’s interesting how different versions of the story can be told!! also amazing job this video is so great :)
Yk 12 year old me would've eaten this video UP. I definitely recognised that there was a story happening within each album (they honestly inspired a couple fan fictions), especially The Black Parade and Danger Days. But i didn't have the brain power to put all the pieces together for Three Cheers. Thank you for making this, because it has filled a nearly 10 year void within me.
this was the album that introduced me to MCR. it was 2005, i was 6 years old, and my mom had downloaded the I'm Not Okay music video off of LimeWire because she saw it on MuchMusic. she ended up showing it to me (thanks mom, im emo now bc of you) and a few weeks later she had bought Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge on CD and then made a burned copy for me to listen to on my own time so i wouldn't steal the actual CD (i had a habit as a kid of stealing my mom's CDs. i still have her copy of Dido's album No Angel in my possession lmao) and she ended up having to burn me like six different copies throughout my childhood bc i kept wearing the CD down from how much i listened to it. my mom eventually turned me onto Fall Out Boy and The Used and then a few years later she showed me Paramore and the rest is history. been absolute emo trash ever since.
I’ve sort of had a idea of the stories from this album but you did an amazing job i love to the end and i love literally every song from mcr it’s so hard to have a fave song i love cubicles our lady of sorrows fashion statement and now foundations of decay
to interact with this video: my favorite album is bullets, my favorite songs is our lady of sorrows and my favorite band member,, i love them all but im obsessed with the guitar skills of ray toro, i love gerards voice, mikey is awesome and ofc frank rocks and makes the band amazing. i love this video!!
MCR is one of the few bands I still listen to from my middle school emo days and one of the few that have actually held up, imo. I have an even deeper appreciation for them now as an adult. The lyrics meant so much to me then, and even more so now - not to mention their iconic sound. Videos like this help me appreciate them even more. I’m loving reading all these comments of people sharing their interpretations, memories, and fondness for this amazing band - almost feels like healing for my inner child. Sending all the love to everyone in the comments🖤
Idk if anyone else has actively been in love with someone that died but this album actually helped me get through that and I really relate to the perspective of the male demolition lover actually, I had no idea this story line was part of the album the lyrics just flashed back from my emo phase when I was going through that grief. Especially cemetery drive.
I think hang em high is a flashback to when he Was alive and him staring back at how even in life he was a murderer and she Tried to stop him but he wouldn't, and now he's doing what she tried to stop him from doing in the first place to get back to her
This video makes me very excited!!! I've been a loooonnngg time MCR fan and watching this just reignites my love for them and this album!! I loved hearing your interpretations, thanks for uploading this!
I’ve been wanting to get into MCR for a while now, but I’ve never actually tried. This might be the thing that puts me over the edge, this sounds like something my depressed ass would absolutely love. Although I didn’t know pretty much anything about this album or story, other than the names “demolition man/woman,” through this whole video it seemed like the kind of story that would end with “you’re the final evil man, you have to kill you now” although I can’t justify why those lyrics make sense to me. They do in some way, I’m just tired and stupid. But this video was fantastic, I loved the format. And the names in the journal absolutely killed me lmfao
honestly, i felt the same for a while. the first thing i wanted to get into when i decided to try mcr was this album and it changed my life. they’re music is so incredible and one of the most heartbreaking yet dramatic sequences of story telling ive ever heard. i heavily recommended. it’s also tons of fun :)
fave mcr song: I Never Told You What I Do For A Living. just loud, esp the last part of the song. I remember when the original cut of "the world is ugly" came out and fans were rabid for that song to have a studio album. such good times. Great video! love breakdowns of mcr songs.
i still think it's hilarious that he thought killing 1000 dudes would get him into heaven. Yea sure, their evil, but still. God's just gonna notice him there and be like 'how did u get here' and he'll be like 'killed some dudes for u'
hell yeah mcr video essay. happy adulthood, revenge also, the way i viewed the whole demolition man is alive and also trying to come back to live: he's back on earth and alive, yes, but so long as he hasn't finished his quest the devil can just call him back anytime, he has to finish the quest to truly "come back to life and/or go to heaven"
has anyone considered that in i never told you what i do for a living, the man considered taking her to hell with him? that he realizes that he’s not making it to heaven with her, so he might as well take her down to hell? it makes a lot of sense to me when you look at the lyrics, as well as the way gerard way sings them. here’s my own analysis of all the lyrics in order starting at the breakdown. in the lines “down, and down we go, and down we go, and down we go, and we all fall down”, i think the man is so desperate by this point, knowing that he’s going back to hell, that he’s willing to take everyone with him not matter who they are, even willing to take his lover to hell with him rather than meet her in heaven. he’d rather spend eternity in damnation with her than her be in paradise. gerard sings these lines with increasing intensity, which could show the man’s growing desperation. the first “down” is relatively quiet, but as it goes on he gets louder and sounds more emotional, and by the line “we all fall down” he’s screaming. the “i tried” is him saying that he tried to make it to heaven with her, but that plan didn’t work out, which further proves that he’s given up on the idea of getting back with her in heaven. again with the way gerard sings it, he’s screaming and angry and desperate. i think the line “and we’ll all dance along to the tune of your death” is referring to her if she came to hell with him. it would be like her death all over again, except this time she’s dying and going to hell with her lover. the next lines being “we’ll love again, we’ll laugh again, and it’s better off this way” mean that they’ll be reunited in hell, and it’s better that they’re together even if they aren’t in heaven. these lyrics, as well as “we’ll all dance along to the tune of your death”, are sung more quietly than the previous lines, and i think it shows that the male demolition lover has calmed down slightly, and has decided that the only suitable course of action is to bring the woman to hell. the post chorus lyrics “and never again, and never again” in my opinion is the man finally coming to terms with the fact that the female demolition lover is in heaven, and he’s going back to hell. this part is the realization that he’s not ever going to see her again. “they gave us two shots to the back of the head and we’re all dead now” is referring to the fact that they were gunned down in the desert, and neither them, nor anyone else he killed, is coming back from that. they are stuck in their respective afterlives, and this is when he starts to become desperate again. with the next few lines “i tried, one more night, one more night. well i’m laughing out, crying out, laugh out loud” show the man’s shattered mental state, saying that he’s laughing and he’s crying. he’s in such a bad state and completely helpless to stop anything that’s happening despite his best efforts, that it’s entirely tipped him over the edge. he’s bargaining and begging for one more night to try and get to her, but knows he can’t do anything. he already was not in a good place mentally, but that realization that he can’t do anything has broken him. i think by this point in the story the man has just absolutely lost it. just like in the breakdown, gerard is screaming these lines showing an intense mental state. the repeated “i tried” following this seems like his attempt to prove that he did it all for her, that he tried to get to her but couldn’t. i think this is also when the man truly starts to feel the guilt, and thinking that maybe they shouldn’t be together as he’s killed so many people and knows she wouldn’t approve. “we’ll love again, we’ll laugh again, we’ll cry again, and we’ll dance again” is his imagination thinking about what they would do if they were together, like said in the video, it’s just empty promises of what they could’ve had. “and it’s better of this way so much better off this way, i can’t clean the blood off the sheets in my bed”. the “better off this way” is repeated from before, only this time he doesn’t think they should be together. he’s saying that it’s better that they are separated due to the fact that he’s a killer, because even if they were to be reunited, nothing is going to change the fact that he’s murdered hundreds, if not thousands of people, even if it was all for her. the repeating of the post chorus at the end works to solidify the fact that nothing has changed. him and his lover are dead, and he’s kills hundreds of evil people, more if you count the wedding and nun (which i do), and he feels this overwhelming guilt and frustration, but he’s still no closer to seeing his lover again, and knows that he never will. so overall the ending of this song shows the man realizing he won’t get to heaven, so he plans to take her down with him, only he realizes he can’t do that and goes crazy. i think this interpretation also works very well with the video’s analysis of bury me in black, as it shows his anger that he couldn’t bring her to hell with him. the idea of the man wanting to kill her to bring her to hell with him could be a callback to the line from i never told you, when the man says “and we’ll all dance along to the tune of your death” about bringing her to hell. only this time it’s not to be reunited, he wants her to suffer just as he has. bury me in black does a great job of showing the male demolition lover’s insanity, because now after killing thousands to get his lover back, the only one he truly wants to kill is her. this is my interpretation of how the story ended, and theo you did a great job explaining your ideas and analysis. this video is by far my favorite analysis of three cheers that i’ve heard :)
The story as I've always understood it is that she has died, and the man has to go on this mission to a. save her from going to hell and b. to be reunited with her again. The end and after years of listening to this album..it dawned on me at the end, that the last man he has to kill is himself. I just started watching this video so no idea if that is a similar conclusion you made. Great album, great band!
I've always understood like the man going on a mission to save her soul from purgatory and failing and going to hell for his doings on his quest to save her, so they end up being apart anyway! Gerard's mind is simply genius
I'm so glad the legacy of MCR is still being raved about and uncovered presently. I'm 24, almost 25 and the first time I heard MCR was in 4th grade. A friend of mine showed me them and from that day forward I was hooked. Usually with songs or band, I can sometimes play them a bunch at a time and get tired of them. I in my adult years come back every single time and fall in love with them all over again. They were such an iconic band, extremely talented and creative. Their songs sound GOOD, the stories are fluent and fun to guess about. Keep listening to them and if you ever get the privilege to pass them along, do!
I'm an elder emo myself and was in my early teens when this came out. It has been my favorite album and concept they've done ever since, you did an INCREDIBLE job of this and even being a fan for decades I learned a lot I didn't know before!! Loved this. Thank you pls make more delicious MCR content lol
Three Cheers is easily in my top ten and I've never had any notion of a story behind it, I just love the sound and feel. It hits every beat it needs to and leaves right when it's done. Never seen your channel, but I'm here to get educated.
The Black Parade is very familiar and most MCR fans, even those who listen loosely, probably know the story behind it even if you don't know the entire story about the Paramour hotel and what happened with Mikey and all that noise. HOWEVER. Three Cheers is such an iconic era and it's an iconic 'look'. Anyone who wears red or black is instantly paired with that era, whether intentional or not. It has almost become its own language, that like only other fans can communicate fluently in. So, the fact that you are sharing not just the songs but what you personally take from the songs is very fascinating and makes me appreciate the album in a whole new way. We all know Gerard is a conceptual queen so this video makes me very happy.
Thank you for this video, because for me its incredibly hard to find "hidden" meanings in lines of text. I would have never found out by myself what exactly this, my favorite, album would actually be about
i really loved this video and i think its so cool of your friends to be actors only for this video. i also really enjoyed just hearing you talk and showing your interpretation of the whole album. id love it if youd also do a video on the black parade but ik that youre not getting any money out of it so i could totally understand if you wouldnt
I’m making a fanmade musical based off of three cheers for sweet revenge and im making the storyline based of this video so thank your for telling this story!! its actually helping out alot!!
Very well put together video ! I wanted to say that it occurred to me while listening to your analysis that it's possible that the male demolition lover was actually in hell for the entire duration of the song and the Entire mission and all of the murders and everything was just part of his eternal punishment.
This is also just speculation on my own part, but I think an important detail is that many of Gerard's songs have "double meanings", one as sort of a real life/personal meaning, and one pertaining to the concept album's story. For example, on the Black Parade, Teenagers was literally written after Gerard was on a subway/train around a bunch of teenagers and realized how out of touch he felt with them (or something like that), or The Sharpest Lives is about struggling with addiction/alcoholism and whatnot. I fully believe Helena is *both* about Helena (obviously), and within the story is also about the male grieving the female and dealing with the initial loss and grief of her death *before* the deal with the devil. The music video really reinforces this, as Gerard could be seen as the male here (the suit, black hair, etc) and the girl in the coffin could be seen as the female, it seems to literally be a funeral for the female.
It's genuinely so fucked up how much I relate to three cheers minus like the actual murder and clearly unrealistic things that can't happen in reality- no wonder I still listen to them now ahggg
I think “you know what they do” is not about him falling for another man, or being gay. I believed he’s getting roped and that’s why the line they say they are making me do push ups in drag… they are bullying him.
i totally think it makes more sense for the both of them to be dead. In the song “Demolition lovers” (a prequel to the album) it says “i’d end my days with you, in a hail of bullets” probably implying how they died together in the gunfight
40:00 when I here “we all fall down” it reminds me of the nursery rhyme ‘ring around the roses’ in which everyone dies miserably. By saying ‘we’ it seems like he’s also implying himself showing he is going down with the same fate as everyone he has killed. That’s what it conveys to me but that’s just that Yk?
Here's my explanation for Hang 'em High: The chorus "don't stop if I fall..." could be about his hopes for her in heaven. He hopes she hasn't given up on living (in the afterlife). Maybe it's kind of a flashback to before they both died. He told her something to the effect of "hey if I die, don't let that stop you from living your life, he probably didn't expect her to die with him. "She won't stop me, put it down" can be him being like "the thought of her and her morals won't stop me from carrying out this deal". Or maybe as he's been wavering over how she'll react to the deal, he's trying to convince himself that she'd be all for it.
with hang em high i like to think him saying "she wont stop me, put it down" is less of a concrete idea but more of delusions from the male protagonist that she could stop him when she literally cant
Even though Helena doesn’t really fit,since its about the passing of Gerard and Mikey’s grandmother..I think it can in a way. And since these characters have no name maybe the lead singer is using his grandmother’s name to place onto his creation as a reference to himself and to keep himself comforted that theres some sort of closeness between himself and his work. And the video as well could definitely be referring to the demo-lovers, maybe even the demo-man witnessing his lover’s burial/funeral.
I always thought that 'hang 'em high' was like a flashback and going back to explain how they originally died which is why it talks about the demolition woman being dead and alive in the song
I feel that the part down we go, I tried I tried was referring to him going to hell bc he killed and it was a trick to make him think he's going to his lover and won't be able to see his lover
I feel the demolition woman is alive, and he is under the impression she is dead/in heaven, when he goes back to hell he finds out she was actually alive and wants to kill her so she can be with him together in hell to suffer with him, then of course decides it's better this way. (I think it would totally explain the differing lyrics) I feel like the explanation for the vynl is that the pain she feels within her heart is so bad that she feels as if she was shot too (hence the gun wound in her chest)
24:10 probably because by this point, he knows there’s no hope of him getting into heaven to see his lover, so whenever someone preaches to him it reminds him of this fact and thats what formed his hatred towards it
Ok hear me out, Kermit is the male demolition lover. The idea of him “getting shot” and going to hell is really a metaphor for kermit pursuing his movie career. The movie industry is big and hard to navigate (much like hell) and throwing yourself into the movie making scene is much like getting shot. Along the way he meets friends, having tumultuous relationships which ties back in with the 1000 evil souls and how he needed to gather them to see his lover (the music industry) through the many struggles of Kermit’s sexuality (canon) Kermit realizes that the movie industry isn’t what he thought it was and the “souls” (friends) that he had gathered along the way were just in it for money and the movie industry wasn’t for him. Finally letting his dreams die, letting his one true love perish. Leaving him with a life he never wanted, and a story to he told. And that is how mcr tied their album in with the muppet movie.
WTF💀🤚
....So "3 Cheers" is actually a metaphor for a bio on Cory Feldman?
BRO NOW U GOTTA MAKE ME QUESTION MY LIFE
straight up thought you were talking about kermit like kermit the frog 😭
slay based
For “to the end” I always interpreted the line “he’s not around he’s always looking at men” as the male demolition lover stalking his victims before going in for the kill
i always thought it was him having his bisexual awakening but yeah that works too
also emily!s husband being gay
Same
I saw it as a bisexual awakening but yea that makes sense
I like to think it’s both
I’ve always thought that the demolition woman was alive but the demolition man believes she’s in heaven and that the devil tricked him into thinking she’s dead. It kind of explains the contradicting lines.
OOOOH i like that interpretation
That's kinda what Gerard said in an interview in 2004
That’s what I also believe- he finds out shes been alive this whole time though, she didn’t die. Somehow the devil made him think that.
Ooh, and maybe he was never dead to begin with? But ended up selling his soul to the devil.
I always thought the woman died and the man is killing 1000 men to get her back
Ah yes the three genders, man ,woman, and devil
If you ask a Christian non binary people probably equal the devil so that actually makes sense xD
I'm the third one, and I'm inside your house
Hello I identify as the devil
@@justarandomcat2367 cringe
SO TRUE AND REAL
I think Fashion Statement is about how he kills the men that killed him, like they’re part of 1000 evil men. especially when he says “this hole you put me in wasn’t deep enough”
I agree
And the opening line before the song actually starts, that ends in "...you get a lifetime" etc
Thats what i thought
Fallout New Vegas vibes
And I it ties in with the album title “three cheers for sweet revenge”
This is my favorite MCR album. The story is almost a 19th century gothic novel, like dracula or the portrait of Dorian gray
I love gothic literature and this album is basically that, i love it
MY favorite album has gotta be bullets but three cheers is also my favorite. I love how the stories connect❤
YES
Gerard screaming and pleading “one more night” was such a fucking heartbreak for me
i know, Gerard has always been extremely talented at portraying emotion in his singing, even in the early albums when he didn’t have as much singing experience or training (i personally think portrays more emotion in the early albums than the later ones)
"Hang 'Em High" is a Clint Eastwood western about a man taking revenge on the people who tried to hang him for a crime he didn't commit. The song is probably about him going after the people who killed him in the first place
My opinion is that i think they added double meanings to all the songs, which goes for all the concept albums, where they have a more emotional meaning like most songs, that also fit into their story. Like ghost of you is about losing someone you love THEREFORE its the lovers mourning each other when put into the story along with the rest of the songs. Prison is likely about questioning sexuality and prison representing being trapped in your own mental state, and when put into the story gains a double meaning. I also have a theory that the story itself is a metaphor. About losing someone you love, or even yourself, and going down a path of self destructive behavior, maybe questioning and discovering your sexuality, hurting yourself and others (also probable addiction, especially since gerard has struggled with addiction) hoping and believing it will make you feel better, then committing suicide in the end OR accepting that you aren't the same lerson as you were before, whether or not you have become someonw you hate Idk if this makes sense, tried my best to explain lol
This is so beautiful, I really enjoyed reading your take. I always took the metaphor of the story/the self destruction as something akin to obsession... at first he is motivated to complete his task by his love of someone/something, but soon finds himself consumed by the new lifestyle and is losing himself to it, probably never to find himself as he once was ever again. Just as in life, we can first be motivated by something pure but can be eaten alive by the processes through which we interact with what we love/seek to have ownership over what we love. But to be honest... I really like your interpretation better. It's beautiful and definitely going to stick with me. So thank you!
Yeah the ghost of you can def be for someone you lost, if you watch the music video it’s Gerard way losing his brother during the invasion of Normandy.
MCR is so genius like that; all their story albums' songs can be enjoyed on their own and be understood without the rest of the story, but if you piece it together with the album you get an incredible masterpiece and a rewarding storyline, rewarding because it was subtle, and you feel really connected to a story when you invest time into figuring it out. Gerard Way and the whole band is such a gem
100% and that goes with what Gerard has said in the past about the album. They started it with the idea of the demolition lovers plot, and then Gerard and Mikey lost their grandma and Gerard has said after listening to the whole album he realized it’s a lot more about life and loss than originally intended because of that
Heck with the ghost of you you can add the meaning of the music video kind of giving it a war story for a grand total of three meanings
Reminds me how I always thought welcome to the black parade was actually about the dad in the start dying and how the son and the rest of the family will carry on and how they’ll carry his memory on + added paradery, emory, and deathery cause MCR
Tw/suicide
I love this video so much, but i've got my own theory about what happened to the demolition woman. I saw a comment here saying that the demolition woman is really alive and the devil tricked the demolition man into thinking she's dead, which makes sense. In my opinion she was definitely alive at least for the first few songs. In the ghost of you she sings "if I died we'd be together", which sounds like she's alive, but is having suicidal thoughts. Then a few songs later there's it's not a fashion statement, it's a fucking deathwish. I think it's almost entirely about the demolition guy getting revenge on the man who killed him, but the ending I always thought didn't fit with the rest of the song. The lines "I lost my fear of falling, I will be with you" really sound like someone committing suicide to reunite with their dead love, and that's what I think the woman did. It's no longer just thoughts. Also the title of the song speaks for itself. Then, in cemetery drive I believe the guy somehow found out what really happened to her and had kind of a breakdown, because again, this song also sounds like it's about someone very suicidal: "and they found you on the bathroom floor", "singing songs that make you slit your wrists", "did you get what you deserve". Also, at the beginning of I never told you what I do for a living the guy talks about grieving her, as if she just died. But then I'm not sure if the ending of the song makes much sense. That's pretty much how I see it, though I'm probably forgetting about so much stuff lol.
YES I LOVE THIS I AGREE W UR TAKE ON IT
omg yes i love this interpretation
I love your idea for it!! It makes so much sense, and almost adds to a Romeo and Juliet interpretation
I came to the same conclusion cz I like this take the most. How it all ties up in the end is thew two of them are reunited in hell rather than life which is not what demo man bargained for after begging the devil for "one more night" in life he surrenders ("well, I tried"). Upon his reunion, the demo lovers try to console eachothers harsh reality when they say. "we'll love again, we'll laugh again, and it's better off this way". This versions definitely more of a bitter sweet tragedy compared to some of the other interpretations but that's the beauty of the album
ALSO this would make sense with cemetery drive being the next song and him going to visit her grave, she probably like freshly killed herself and he had to go see if it was true
The way I interpret the “I’m taking back the life you stole” line was the male demolition lover starting to grow resentment towards the female one. He’s starting to come to terms with the fact that she’s in large part responsible for not only his death but the bloody quest he’s been sent on. Questioning his path as well as her.
Whenever I listen to this song, I see her putting him in the hole, which is going to climb out of. Then he will take back from her the life she stole from him. The reference made about taking it all out on her, because she was the cause of it; I think this jibes
Yeah the entire song was obviously about the twos relationship together, I don't understand how OP could be so far from the mark on this.
Is she really responsible though or did the devil manipulate him?
love your profile picture, love jeff rosenstock
I always knew Gerard way was an absolute genius but this is next level genius. This is crazy. I have loved mcr for 16 years, I started listening to them right when three cheers came out and I didn’t know any of this 😂
Saaaaame
You’re not in this alone (Get It?)
He also made the umbrella academy comics my man is definitely next level
@@christinaharris4298Let me break this awkward silence (I do, you better follow this now)
Fr, same thing with vampires will never hurt you, in the surface it just sounds like a song about vampires but the meaning can be broken into many other things like drug addiction and other things
the women never died, she survived the gun fight. on the vinyl it’s her getting surgery to remove the bullet, not an autopsy.
I’ve also seen interpretations of this where the demolition lovers are two versions of the same person looking in a mirror and it’s mourning the loss of a different side of demolition man and it’s all a whole lot more metaphorical
He says in an interview it’s a Bonnie and Clyde situation. That she lives and he goes to hell
MCR meets fight club
(I only just started the chapter about “Give ‘Em Hell, Kid” so I don’t if you mention this in the video or not)
There’s an alternative intro to “Give ‘Em Hell, Kid” that’s on some versions of the album (it’s on my version and i only recently found out that it’s not the official version lol).
During the instrumental intro Gerard says: “Kid! Kid! Brothers and sisters, put your hands together because I feel a war coming on! The devil knows where you live, and the devil knows where to find me!”.
I see this as the introduction of the story, as it foreshadows (or warns the listener of) the killing of 999 men (because the Demolition Man is the last evil man) and it mentions the Demolition Man’s deal with the Devil.
The line “The devil knows where you live, and the devil knows where to find me!” could be interpreted that the Devil is the one telling the Demolition Man who to kill. This would make the Demolition Man the hitman who obeys the Devil.
Additionally, this line could also be interpreted as the Demolition Man warning his future victims. “The devil knows where _you_ live, […]”, the Demolition Man is directly speaking to his future victims, this would solidify that the listener is an outside character that none of the characters in the story know about.
Edit: I absolutely love the alternative intro so I definitely recommend listening to it!
Wait where'd you get this intro? It's not the live versions they covered from the Mexico show ( since its the version that ends in "just cause you're bigger than me, just cause you're smarter than me, just cause you drive a better car than me, does not mean, no way no how, I am sucking you off, for any amount of money" I always like to sing that part at the end regardless though :p
BRO IVE BEEN TRYING TO KNOW WHAT THOSE POST-LYRICS WERE AT THE START OF THAT SONG
@@bruh5491 I had to look at the lyrics for the alternative intro 😂
Where can I find this version?? Sounds cool
I think assuming the woman is in heaven creates a lot of plotholes. I think its very clear she's still alive.
This video goes into amazing detail and depth though, so a good watch! :3
On the CD sleeve, she is likely the only of the two pictured in an operating room because you don't operate on the dead. He didn't survive to make it to treatment, so he was left to his grave. I would agree this is death imagery if both of them were pictured.
On "To the End" "Say goodbye to the vows you take. Say goodbye to the life you make. Say goodbye to the hearts you break. And all the cyanide you drank." along with "She keeps a picture of the body she lends. Got nasty blisters from the money she spends" makes much more sense as her still on earth. Contemplating suicide, killing then taking a picture of the body (or possibly making nsfw..?) and spending her diseased husband's money respectively. None of this really makes sense for someone on earth, or in the man's perspective.
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I think this song's use of paralleling death and parades is what ultimately confirms the woman is not in heaven. If death is explored as a parade in this universe in the way Black Parade uses it, heaven isn't real. There isn't a heaven or hell, there's just a nothingness called purgatory. Though Black Parade explores this, Gerard directly talks about it directly in interviews. I'm unsure whether the Demolition Lovers would be united in purgatory, but they would be in life. I doubt the Devil would have any power over who makes it to heaven, but bringing someone back to life is clearly in his realm of reason. Possibly, the Demolition lovers cannot meet in life until the man's task is complete or the man doesn't want the woman to discover his unethical deal.
On "The Ghost of You" The line "I never said I'd lie and wait forever. If I died we'd be together." Makes more sense from the woman's perspective, wondering if suicide would be a surefire way to reunite, if there is an afterlife, whereas the man knows if he can accomplish his goal, they can be reunited supposedly alive. Just like you say, survivors' guilt. This especially comes to a head at "I can't always just forget her, but she could try." She still lives on, and can create a new meaning for herself in life. He can't, he's chained to his goal. His longing "Could I? Should I?" is more expediently and reasonably a moral consideration, or whether his pain in his journey is worth it.
On "Thank You for the Venom" The lines "poet but a criminal, and you never had a chance" calls back to heaven not being real in his universe. You march on the inevitable parade, and the wastes of religious practice can't save you in death. Only killing 1,000 evil men can. He then embraces his title as a murderer, abandoning his morality in its entirety. "I wear this on my sleeve. Give me all your poison, and give me all your pills, and give me all your hopeless hearts and make me ill." He uses a bible as a cover for his gun ironically. He doesn't hate god, his goals are just in opposition to him. Why should he appeal to Christian morality when killing is the only way to reach happiness? The line "Give me a reason to believe" is genuine. His lover is still alive, and even if there is a god, he's dealing with Satan. He has no more reason to believe in a Christian deity than the rest of us, but he's morally biased against him either way. Why have faith in god, both as a moral agent and as a real being?
On "Thank You for the Venom" the line "After all is said and done, climb out from the pine box. Well I'm asking you, cause she's got nothing to say" is the man confronting the possibility that the woman committed suicide. It was hinted at in "To the End" that she might've developed suicidal ideation after having survivors guilt. I think this creates a very poetic (and I think intentional) Romeo and Juliet situation not possible with the woman in Heaven. If the man is not quick enough to accomplish his goal, or if the women is convinced entirely of the unconfirmed possibility of them meeting in purgatory, they'd have both died for one another either ending up once again in opposite realms or both in an afterlife isolation. Again, "But don't stop if I fall and don't look back. Oh baby don't stop, bury me and fade to black" is again the man hoping she lives in, either in moving on from him or holding on until he accomplishes or fails his goal.
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Then we get the line "She won't stop me, put it down." This, again, creates a plot inconsistency with the woman being in heaven. Now, having discovered his deal, the woman can plead with him in life to stop his deal despite their desperation. In one sense, this can either mean the lovers can no longer be reunited, the man isn't "alive" in a meaningful sense as a ghost, zombie or other "soulless" apparition, or it could mean it wouldn't matter as she disapproves of his intentions.
On "It's not a Fashion Statement, It's a Fucking Deathwish", this sentiment is only supported. "I'm coming back from the dead" has one of two meanings, either he's reunited with his lover once he accomplishes his goal, or he's already back from the dead as an undead to see his deal through.
On "Cemetery Drive" I can't tell whether this means she went through with her suicide, or whether his desperation and the possibility of her suicide leads him to hallucination as the song implies with "This night, walk the dead in a solitary style". The whole song seems to include much longing about times they shared alive "Drinking by the mausoleum door. And they found you on the bathroom floor" instead of times they are sharing or will share. However, the woman could've possibly having died either wrought with the guilt that she was the reason for his murder spree, his changes as a person or in doubt he'd be able to accomplish his goal and hoping to be united in purgatory.
In the line "If you want I'll keep on crying. Did you get what you deserve? Is this what you always want me for?" He resents the Devil for this, tagging along with the theme also established in "To the End", blaming the Devil for a deal he agreed to by lambasting his moral drive.
Either way, this song is vague. It could simply be a "Cemetery Drive" as her grave is never mentioned, or possibly a stroll through his own kill count before once more approaching the devil.
On "I Never Told You What I do for a Living" the devil's trick is two-fold in that he is "reunited" with his lover in death, but even if she was alive, he could not be reunited with her as a dead man. He feels this is not what he's promised, he bargained for being reunited in life. Instead, he receives a reality where both him and his lover died in the gunfight.
On "Bury Me in Black" first, he takes his rage out on his lover. Jealous of "worn out all your dancing shoes" and "war-worn lipstick, blood and purifying flame". How she lived a life where she was both able to enjoy the splendors and beauty of living, yet threw it away in desperation. In direct contrast to his life filled with "not so pretty" "insides". A completely unrecognizable mess, disillusioned with the living, understanding of his place separate from his former lover.
...On "Desert Song" in the line "We hold in our hearts" the lovers hold onto hope, wandering an endless sea of bodies "To carry on through cartilage and fluid". Wondering "Well tonight, will it ever come?" in purgatory. With the line "Swelled up from the rain clouds. Move like a wraith." they convey how crushing their conclusion was, moving through purgatory like a wraith. Though they bargain to "Spend the rest of your days rockin' out just for the dead". Hoping that some day "And through it all, we'll find some other way". Ultimately, the man accepts that his image of her is all he has left "I can see you awake anytime in my head" finally accepting their defeat "All fall down, well after all..."
this comment is so amazingly written!!!! i love your take on the album
Really great analysis, but I’m wondering, if they’re both alive in some parts (where she’s begging him not to go through with the killing) then what’s he even killing for? Because they’re already together in life then
@@h077y I felt like if he didn’t go through with the killing the devil would just take him back to hell bec it’s literally the devil if he brought him back he can take him back idk tho the story is very much up for interpretation
"that was cringe, don't leave that in"
cringe is dead, buddy, this video is proof of that. And it was great
Great video, Theo! I think it's worth noting that God is represented as a cowboy in Gerard's comic series "The Umbrella Academy," so Hang Em High's cowboy symbolism could be a reference to him now having a God complex.
OH very interesting i didnt know that
7:10 I always took Helena as the man’s grief for being separated from his love (who’s named Helena)
to me the song sounds like the man making a promise to her that hell meet her again
I'm pretty sure helena is her own character and not the female demliton lover due to the fact she's meant to represent gerard and mikey's grandma named Elena
Gerard has said it was a song about self loathing and guilt because when their grandma died, they missed the funeral because they were on tour. Helena is disconnected from the story of the album.
I thought “I’m Not Okay” would be about him escaping prison and reflecting on his highschool years with his lover, and now even though he’s out of prison, he should be okay but he’s not really okay.
THEO!! I literally love this so much! As a sad trans kid I naturally gravitated toward MCR, but this album in particular has been so influential in my life and is potentially my fave album of all time, and I do feel highkey dumb for not realizing its genius rock opera storytelling despite knowing every word and interpretive dancing to it daily in middle school. But I’m so lucky to have YOU to enlighten my little emo brain with all this knowledge and culture. Seriously, this format was fantastic, dude, you’re a true artist and I’m in awe. Love you king!!! 👑👑
tis how I discovered them as well. however I personally adore the black parade above everything else. it's helped me with alot of the emotions I feel on a daily basis
Hey there, ftm here, got into mcr maybe 15 years ago? And I didn't realize all the albums were concept albums (aside from tbp but that's we'll known) until recently when I saw them play life and met people who were half my age but knew more than me. But this video essay was definitely awesome to find and explain it all to me too.
The black parade feels like the only album with a happy ending-
I cried at the end of this video
@@christinaharris4298 ME TOO
This video sent me into a spiral and within 2 weeks I have written essays on all of the bullets and revenge songs 😭😭 this is a great video!! It’s become one of my comfort ones
The woman is very much so alive, gerard way says so in a few interviews so, all the lines that could mean she didn't die, probably mean literally that lol.
The more I listened through this. The Demolition Man could be The Patient in Black Parade. This means that the devil left him alive with cancer which when that kills him, would reunite him with Demolition Woman in heaven. This would also change how “I Don’t Love You” is interpreted. This means the patient is forced to believe that he won’t be reunited with her while his personal Devil, The Parader, mocks him and laughs at him. All as a ruse to get his despair and agony. His pain and his loss. This could mean The Parader has lost too and he’s taking out his trauma on The Patient. This could mean the music video of “Ghost of You” could be about Parader.
I love this!!!
I was about to be like "erm akshualy" but holy crap hold on. Omg this is too much for me 😭😭😭😭😭 if this is true wow. Gerard way is like an insanely talented genius, Idk a bigger way to call him but he is just A. GENIUS. !!!!!
This would also fit with bullets being the origin story of the demolition lovers, making it a trilogy
HOLY CRAAAAP WAIT
Video: "leave any comment, even if it's telling me that the video sucked!"
Fans of the album: "Well if you wanted honestly, that's all you had to say!"
i love your interpretation of this album, but i have my own story for it that manages to include Helena as well.
In the opening lyrics, we learn that this is taking place “long ago” and that the singer is “so far from you.” This refers to the fact that, in the opening of The Muppets Movie (1979), the characters are watching a film of themselves, with “so far from you” illustrating the time that has passed as well as the grown that has occurred since the filming of that movie. In the same verse, the singer mentions “the match you strike to incinerate the lives of everyone you know,” foreshadowing the fact that the movie screen, and by extension, the characters lives, will be destroyed at the end of the film when Sweetums tears through the screen. In the bridge of the song, the singer contemplates “can you hear me? are you near me?”, showing the internal conflict of the muppets being asked to evaluate whether their on-screen characters match the truth in this test screening. Regarding the plot of the film, the lines “well, if you carry on this way, things are better if I stay” refer to Kermit, who, after realizing that he and his friends will miss their audition because of him, thinks back to how they would all have been better off if he had stayed in florida and they had all carried on with their lives. Finally, the repeating of “so long and goodnight” shows how there are many points throughout the narrative that Kermit seems to give up and end his story, only to, once again, carry on the way he always had.
I'm so sorry for that, but you did ask for it
the way i interpret jetset lifes drug addiction theme is that, as stated in give em hell kid, he takes ephedrine, and throughout the story he probably builds up an addiction to it as he wants to get to the female demolition lover as fast as possible so hes relying on the drug to stay awake and continue to kill more and more bad men
i was trying to watch this on the way to sleep but you said something here i really wanted to address at Hang Em High because i really do think this works perfectly with the story
He was telling her to bury the thought of her & move on in the afterlife
Him saying "she won't stop me" is going back to his morals & faith questioning if she'd really want him ti be killing all of these people for her he's second guessing himself thinking about what would she think but at the same time is like shut up this is what is necessary ya know
she very much is dead this does fit the canon very well
well i know that we all joke about you know what they do to guys like us in prison being gay and you kinda mentioned something about this at one point but gerard said this song was about prison rape and about the man fearing for his life being there “am i losing myself” “i miss my mom will they give me the chair” about thinking about the possibility of getting maybe a death sentence or something and all of that stuff. the chorus talks about what i mentioned also something that you didn’t mention was the bridge of the song that is basically the man setting the prison on fire to escape and to kill the people in prison that took advantage of him like it’s mentioned in the lyrics. i was surprised you didn’t mention that because i thought we all knew that lol. i know people may have different interpretations but i think that given the lyrics more linked to frustration it’s far beyond only being about “the man questioning his sexuality after experimenting” but it’s still a good analysis
what a cool and cultured video! as a young person between the ages 13-19, this really has engaged me with culture and informed/entertained me :)
totally a young person between ages 13-19 writing this
@@929er13 lmao
I too totally am I young person between the ages of 13-19 :)))
You have to be a NPC
I SAW MCR THIS PAST WEEKEND it was my dream come true. I was 14 when I got really into mcr, one year after they broke up. I felt like GoDDAMN how fucking unlucky, but just my luck right, I was a sad depressed teen just trying to leave my home first chance i got. I got really lucky, and worked hard to go to school and i was able to move away. When they reunited, i was ECSTATIC. i was going to see them no matter what, then covid happened. I had go go home, and my life went downhill again. Im dealing with a really bad eating disorder relapse and I got so see them and they have filled me with new hope and motivation to carry on and see them again hopefully. Im in graduate school now and life is better and im so thankful to still be here, with a huge thanks to mcr and the mcrmy for getting me thru the hard dayz
I hope I get to see them live before they go away for good. I am just a stupid 12 year old who spends most of their time screaming the lyrics to an MCR song. My mom showed me MCR and I immediately became obsessed. The only problem is that I can’t relate to anybody at my school. The first question I ask a new person is “do you listen to MCR?” And they always say no. But who cares about that now I don’t know what I would do without MCR or that daily dose of Gerard. Plus I still have friends…………..They’re all in the comments of an MCR video.
I really enjoyed this. The visuals, the portrayals, everything was amazing. Before this video, I don't think I would ever be interested with anything MCR related. But after watching this, that totally changed. Would definitely love to see more content like this, whether or not MCR/music related. Also loved the 965-999 names in the journal bit.
I don't care how many videos about the albums I watch throughout the years, I will ALWAYS be here for them!
Ok so I have an idea for the line “she won’t stop me put it down” in hang ‘em high. I think that it may be his mental struggle with thinking if she would still love him as the man he’s become. First thinking that all he had to do is finish the mission and get back to her but then realizing she wouldn’t except him now then telling himself to put it down.
I’ve been waiting for someone to make this exact video!!
same
Wow. This really opened my eyes I now see the, as others have mentioned, culture. Its amazing. And as someone under the age of 16, I lack opportunities to venture out and explore these communities. This was really amazing. Great content, I hope you go on to achieve great things.
Happy 20 year anniversary to this legendary album
There’s actually 3 songs on the first album about the demo lovers, and listening to all 3 in context helps make three cheers make more sense…best day ever (how they meet), demolition lovers (how they die), then drowning lessons. In drowning lessons they’re both in hell, she’s being tortured, and the devil offers him a deal of killing 1000 men to free her from hell. I feel like bury me in black is an alternate ending, where they both get to live but he’s changed so much she can’t love him anymore. He feels betrayed and kills her. Which is where you get the album cover. Just my opinion I have no clue if that’s actually the case lol
I like that idea
ANDD if you look on the album cover you can see demo man having more blood on the front forehead area dripping down. Meaning when it came time to take his life, he most likely shot through the front of his head.
It is very tough for me to decide which one of their songs is my favorite, but I'd say Helena. It's the second song I discovered when I began listening to MCR, with I'm not okay being the first, and I quickly fell in love with it.
If you're wondering what else I'd consider my other favorites, I love headfirst for halos, drowning lessons, i'm not okay, to the end, thank you for the venom, it's not a fashion statement, cemetery drive, i never told you what i do for a living, dead, sharpest lives, g-note, house of wolves, cancer, teenagers, disenchanted, famous last words, bulletproof heart, the only hope for me is you and the foundations of decay. Each of those have their own claim as my favorite MCR song, but the ones that truly had the strongest claims are thank you for the venom, it's not a fashion statement, I never told you what i do for a living, cancer, famous last words, the only hope for me is you and foundations of decay.
@@lilithramirez7719 might as well just cite their whole discography
@@3twibles4sweetrevenge Yeah pretty much
THANK YOU THIS LITERALLY MADE MY WHOLE LIFE SEEING SOMEONE FINALLY DO THIS
I love you so much mate i was trying to find lore but nobody explained it well enough
i’m not emo but i’m so excited to watch through this! and i’m definitely gonna send it to my friend who loves MCR!!
i always thought that the woman died but that man didn’t and he like summoned the devil to find a way to bring her back to life. it’s not that different but that’s how i have always thought of it and i think it’s interesting how different versions of the story can be told!! also amazing job this video is so great :)
That's my favorite wendigoon video and this is exactly what I was looking for when I searched for the album's story. I'm so glad I found this.
Yk 12 year old me would've eaten this video UP. I definitely recognised that there was a story happening within each album (they honestly inspired a couple fan fictions), especially The Black Parade and Danger Days. But i didn't have the brain power to put all the pieces together for Three Cheers. Thank you for making this, because it has filled a nearly 10 year void within me.
this was the album that introduced me to MCR. it was 2005, i was 6 years old, and my mom had downloaded the I'm Not Okay music video off of LimeWire because she saw it on MuchMusic. she ended up showing it to me (thanks mom, im emo now bc of you) and a few weeks later she had bought Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge on CD and then made a burned copy for me to listen to on my own time so i wouldn't steal the actual CD (i had a habit as a kid of stealing my mom's CDs. i still have her copy of Dido's album No Angel in my possession lmao) and she ended up having to burn me like six different copies throughout my childhood bc i kept wearing the CD down from how much i listened to it.
my mom eventually turned me onto Fall Out Boy and The Used and then a few years later she showed me Paramore and the rest is history. been absolute emo trash ever since.
I’ve sort of had a idea of the stories from this album but you did an amazing job i love to the end and i love literally every song from mcr it’s so hard to have a fave song i love cubicles our lady of sorrows fashion statement and now foundations of decay
to interact with this video: my favorite album is bullets, my favorite songs is our lady of sorrows and my favorite band member,, i love them all but im obsessed with the guitar skills of ray toro, i love gerards voice, mikey is awesome and ofc frank rocks and makes the band amazing. i love this video!!
MCR is one of the few bands I still listen to from my middle school emo days and one of the few that have actually held up, imo. I have an even deeper appreciation for them now as an adult. The lyrics meant so much to me then, and even more so now - not to mention their iconic sound. Videos like this help me appreciate them even more. I’m loving reading all these comments of people sharing their interpretations, memories, and fondness for this amazing band - almost feels like healing for my inner child. Sending all the love to everyone in the comments🖤
Awesome to see someone as passionate about this album as I am
Idk if anyone else has actively been in love with someone that died but this album actually helped me get through that and I really relate to the perspective of the male demolition lover actually, I had no idea this story line was part of the album the lyrics just flashed back from my emo phase when I was going through that grief. Especially cemetery drive.
I think hang em high is a flashback to when he Was alive and him staring back at how even in life he was a murderer and she Tried to stop him but he wouldn't, and now he's doing what she tried to stop him from doing in the first place to get back to her
This video makes me very excited!!! I've been a loooonnngg time MCR fan and watching this just reignites my love for them and this album!! I loved hearing your interpretations, thanks for uploading this!
I am in such awe of this!!! I loved every moment of this well thought out piece. As an elder emo, I’m so proud we still have an impact 🎉
you're so underrated. I love this video and it's super high quality. keep it up dude
I’ve been wanting to get into MCR for a while now, but I’ve never actually tried. This might be the thing that puts me over the edge, this sounds like something my depressed ass would absolutely love.
Although I didn’t know pretty much anything about this album or story, other than the names “demolition man/woman,” through this whole video it seemed like the kind of story that would end with “you’re the final evil man, you have to kill you now” although I can’t justify why those lyrics make sense to me. They do in some way, I’m just tired and stupid. But this video was fantastic, I loved the format. And the names in the journal absolutely killed me lmfao
honestly, i felt the same for a while. the first thing i wanted to get into when i decided to try mcr was this album and it changed my life. they’re music is so incredible and one of the most heartbreaking yet dramatic sequences of story telling ive ever heard. i heavily recommended. it’s also tons of fun :)
Never knew how fruity that the demolition man is😭😭😭😭 OMFG LMAO MY BRAIN IS SOBBING AND LAUGHING
fave mcr song: I Never Told You What I Do For A Living. just loud, esp the last part of the song.
I remember when the original cut of "the world is ugly" came out and fans were rabid for that song to have a studio album. such good times.
Great video! love breakdowns of mcr songs.
Very random comment: Your shirt says "make emo great again" FR!!!!! Emo was more like a community and life style but now it's an "AEstHETiC 🤪"
i still think it's hilarious that he thought killing 1000 dudes would get him into heaven. Yea sure, their evil, but still. God's just gonna notice him there and be like 'how did u get here' and he'll be like 'killed some dudes for u'
hell yeah mcr video essay. happy adulthood, revenge
also, the way i viewed the whole demolition man is alive and also trying to come back to live: he's back on earth and alive, yes, but so long as he hasn't finished his quest the devil can just call him back anytime, he has to finish the quest to truly "come back to life and/or go to heaven"
has anyone considered that in i never told you what i do for a living, the man considered taking her to hell with him? that he realizes that he’s not making it to heaven with her, so he might as well take her down to hell? it makes a lot of sense to me when you look at the lyrics, as well as the way gerard way sings them. here’s my own analysis of all the lyrics in order starting at the breakdown.
in the lines “down, and down we go, and down we go, and down we go, and we all fall down”, i think the man is so desperate by this point, knowing that he’s going back to hell, that he’s willing to take everyone with him not matter who they are, even willing to take his lover to hell with him rather than meet her in heaven. he’d rather spend eternity in damnation with her than her be in paradise. gerard sings these lines with increasing intensity, which could show the man’s growing desperation. the first “down” is relatively quiet, but as it goes on he gets louder and sounds more emotional, and by the line “we all fall down” he’s screaming.
the “i tried” is him saying that he tried to make it to heaven with her, but that plan didn’t work out, which further proves that he’s given up on the idea of getting back with her in heaven. again with the way gerard sings it, he’s screaming and angry and desperate.
i think the line “and we’ll all dance along to the tune of your death” is referring to her if she came to hell with him. it would be like her death all over again, except this time she’s dying and going to hell with her lover.
the next lines being “we’ll love again, we’ll laugh again, and it’s better off this way” mean that they’ll be reunited in hell, and it’s better that they’re together even if they aren’t in heaven. these lyrics, as well as “we’ll all dance along to the tune of your death”, are sung more quietly than the previous lines, and i think it shows that the male demolition lover has calmed down slightly, and has decided that the only suitable course of action is to bring the woman to hell.
the post chorus lyrics “and never again, and never again” in my opinion is the man finally coming to terms with the fact that the female demolition lover is in heaven, and he’s going back to hell. this part is the realization that he’s not ever going to see her again. “they gave us two shots to the back of the head and we’re all dead now” is referring to the fact that they were gunned down in the desert, and neither them, nor anyone else he killed, is coming back from that. they are stuck in their respective afterlives, and this is when he starts to become desperate again.
with the next few lines “i tried, one more night, one more night. well i’m laughing out, crying out, laugh out loud” show the man’s shattered mental state, saying that he’s laughing and he’s crying. he’s in such a bad state and completely helpless to stop anything that’s happening despite his best efforts, that it’s entirely tipped him over the edge. he’s bargaining and begging for one more night to try and get to her, but knows he can’t do anything. he already was not in a good place mentally, but that realization that he can’t do anything has broken him. i think by this point in the story the man has just absolutely lost it. just like in the breakdown, gerard is screaming these lines showing an intense mental state. the repeated “i tried” following this seems like his attempt to prove that he did it all for her, that he tried to get to her but couldn’t. i think this is also when the man truly starts to feel the guilt, and thinking that maybe they shouldn’t be together as he’s killed so many people and knows she wouldn’t approve.
“we’ll love again, we’ll laugh again, we’ll cry again, and we’ll dance again” is his imagination thinking about what they would do if they were together, like said in the video, it’s just empty promises of what they could’ve had.
“and it’s better of this way so much better off this way, i can’t clean the blood off the sheets in my bed”. the “better off this way” is repeated from before, only this time he doesn’t think they should be together. he’s saying that it’s better that they are separated due to the fact that he’s a killer, because even if they were to be reunited, nothing is going to change the fact that he’s murdered hundreds, if not thousands of people, even if it was all for her.
the repeating of the post chorus at the end works to solidify the fact that nothing has changed. him and his lover are dead, and he’s kills hundreds of evil people, more if you count the wedding and nun (which i do), and he feels this overwhelming guilt and frustration, but he’s still no closer to seeing his lover again, and knows that he never will.
so overall the ending of this song shows the man realizing he won’t get to heaven, so he plans to take her down with him, only he realizes he can’t do that and goes crazy.
i think this interpretation also works very well with the video’s analysis of bury me in black, as it shows his anger that he couldn’t bring her to hell with him. the idea of the man wanting to kill her to bring her to hell with him could be a callback to the line from i never told you, when the man says “and we’ll all dance along to the tune of your death” about bringing her to hell. only this time it’s not to be reunited, he wants her to suffer just as he has. bury me in black does a great job of showing the male demolition lover’s insanity, because now after killing thousands to get his lover back, the only one he truly wants to kill is her.
this is my interpretation of how the story ended, and theo you did a great job explaining your ideas and analysis. this video is by far my favorite analysis of three cheers that i’ve heard :)
The story as I've always understood it is that she has died, and the man has to go on this mission to a. save her from going to hell and b. to be reunited with her again. The end and after years of listening to this album..it dawned on me at the end, that the last man he has to kill is himself. I just started watching this video so no idea if that is a similar conclusion you made. Great album, great band!
I've always understood like the man going on a mission to save her soul from purgatory and failing and going to hell for his doings on his quest to save her, so they end up being apart anyway! Gerard's mind is simply genius
I'm so glad the legacy of MCR is still being raved about and uncovered presently. I'm 24, almost 25 and the first time I heard MCR was in 4th grade. A friend of mine showed me them and from that day forward I was hooked. Usually with songs or band, I can sometimes play them a bunch at a time and get tired of them. I in my adult years come back every single time and fall in love with them all over again. They were such an iconic band, extremely talented and creative. Their songs sound GOOD, the stories are fluent and fun to guess about. Keep listening to them and if you ever get the privilege to pass them along, do!
i have watched this video 3 times in the past 12 hours. i love this album and i love how you you explained the story :D
I'm an elder emo myself and was in my early teens when this came out. It has been my favorite album and concept they've done ever since, you did an INCREDIBLE job of this and even being a fan for decades I learned a lot I didn't know before!! Loved this. Thank you pls make more delicious MCR content lol
Three Cheers is easily in my top ten and I've never had any notion of a story behind it, I just love the sound and feel. It hits every beat it needs to and leaves right when it's done. Never seen your channel, but I'm here to get educated.
The Black Parade is very familiar and most MCR fans, even those who listen loosely, probably know the story behind it even if you don't know the entire story about the Paramour hotel and what happened with Mikey and all that noise.
HOWEVER.
Three Cheers is such an iconic era and it's an iconic 'look'. Anyone who wears red or black is instantly paired with that era, whether intentional or not. It has almost become its own language, that like only other fans can communicate fluently in. So, the fact that you are sharing not just the songs but what you personally take from the songs is very fascinating and makes me appreciate the album in a whole new way. We all know Gerard is a conceptual queen so this video makes me very happy.
Thank you for this video, because for me its incredibly hard to find "hidden" meanings in lines of text. I would have never found out by myself what exactly this, my favorite, album would actually be about
i’ve been so curious about the story i’ve been a fan for a few months now and this is my favorite album
i really loved this video and i think its so cool of your friends to be actors only for this video. i also really enjoyed just hearing you talk and showing your interpretation of the whole album. id love it if youd also do a video on the black parade but ik that youre not getting any money out of it so i could totally understand if you wouldnt
I’m making a fanmade musical based off of three cheers for sweet revenge and im making the storyline based of this video so thank your for telling this story!! its actually helping out alot!!
Let me know when it’s done!!
Very well put together video ! I wanted to say that it occurred to me while listening to your analysis that it's possible that the male demolition lover was actually in hell for the entire duration of the song and the Entire mission and all of the murders and everything was just part of his eternal punishment.
This is also just speculation on my own part, but I think an important detail is that many of Gerard's songs have "double meanings", one as sort of a real life/personal meaning, and one pertaining to the concept album's story. For example, on the Black Parade, Teenagers was literally written after Gerard was on a subway/train around a bunch of teenagers and realized how out of touch he felt with them (or something like that), or The Sharpest Lives is about struggling with addiction/alcoholism and whatnot.
I fully believe Helena is *both* about Helena (obviously), and within the story is also about the male grieving the female and dealing with the initial loss and grief of her death *before* the deal with the devil. The music video really reinforces this, as Gerard could be seen as the male here (the suit, black hair, etc) and the girl in the coffin could be seen as the female, it seems to literally be a funeral for the female.
It's genuinely so fucked up how much I relate to three cheers minus like the actual murder and clearly unrealistic things that can't happen in reality- no wonder I still listen to them now ahggg
this video gave me a whole new perspective on the album's concept, i might make my own video essay on this.
the slipping out of "is she alive or is she dead" could be a side effect of the drugs hes using or emotions hes feeling or both
i love this type of video. i‘d love if you did more of these
Thank you so much for this video I been wanting something like the Wendigoon video for a while now for the other mcr albums
This NEEDS to be a movie
36:17 THE PEOPLE ON THE LIST😭😭
I love how the notebook in I Never Told You said “machine gun kelly” now im wondering if the male demolition lover is eminem lol
Also we need a MRC musical like Green Day had!
I think “you know what they do” is not about him falling for another man, or being gay. I believed he’s getting roped and that’s why the line they say they are making me do push ups in drag… they are bullying him.
i totally think it makes more sense for the both of them to be dead. In the song “Demolition lovers” (a prequel to the album) it says “i’d end my days with you, in a hail of bullets” probably implying how they died together in the gunfight
40:00 when I here “we all fall down” it reminds me of the nursery rhyme ‘ring around the roses’ in which everyone dies miserably. By saying ‘we’ it seems like he’s also implying himself showing he is going down with the same fate as everyone he has killed. That’s what it conveys to me but that’s just that Yk?
Here's my explanation for Hang 'em High: The chorus "don't stop if I fall..." could be about his hopes for her in heaven. He hopes she hasn't given up on living (in the afterlife). Maybe it's kind of a flashback to before they both died. He told her something to the effect of "hey if I die, don't let that stop you from living your life, he probably didn't expect her to die with him.
"She won't stop me, put it down" can be him being like "the thought of her and her morals won't stop me from carrying out this deal". Or maybe as he's been wavering over how she'll react to the deal, he's trying to convince himself that she'd be all for it.
I just saw MCR live and now I’m in a deep dive.
Fav songs would have to be Mama and Sharpest Lives.
And I’ll always be here for more MCR videos
Thank you so much for this!!!!!!! I genuinely drooled all over this video the entire time
This is an awesome video tysm
with hang em high i like to think him saying "she wont stop me, put it down" is less of a concrete idea but more of delusions from the male protagonist that she could stop him when she literally cant
Even though Helena doesn’t really fit,since its about the passing of Gerard and Mikey’s grandmother..I think it can in a way. And since these characters have no name maybe the lead singer is using his grandmother’s name to place onto his creation as a reference to himself and to keep himself comforted that theres some sort of closeness between himself and his work. And the video as well could definitely be referring to the demo-lovers, maybe even the demo-man witnessing his lover’s burial/funeral.
I always thought that 'hang 'em high' was like a flashback and going back to explain how they originally died which is why it talks about the demolition woman being dead and alive in the song
I feel that the part down we go, I tried I tried was referring to him going to hell bc he killed and it was a trick to make him think he's going to his lover and won't be able to see his lover
I love that Anthony Padilla is the first person I noticed in the man"s journal 💀
The not today Jesus shirt for the devil is peak fashion
I feel the demolition woman is alive, and he is under the impression she is dead/in heaven, when he goes back to hell he finds out she was actually alive and wants to kill her so she can be with him together in hell to suffer with him, then of course decides it's better this way. (I think it would totally explain the differing lyrics) I feel like the explanation for the vynl is that the pain she feels within her heart is so bad that she feels as if she was shot too (hence the gun wound in her chest)
24:10 probably because by this point, he knows there’s no hope of him getting into heaven to see his lover, so whenever someone preaches to him it reminds him of this fact and thats what formed his hatred towards it