I am so happy that people are starting to watch this video, thank you so much! There is one amendment I’d like to make since this video has come out: I do not think the patient’s lover left him, instead, he made her leave. The shift from “know that I will never marry” in Cancer to “When after all the blood that you still owe, another dollar is just another blow. So take your gloves and get out while you can” in I Don’t Love you feels like he doesn’t want her to face the pain he’s going through. He’s intentionally hurting her to make her leave. This can be viewed as a selfless act and be part of the reason Death has a change of heart and why the patient came to the point he did in Disenchanted. TLDR; she didn’t leave him, he made her leave. Again, thank you for watching!
Dude... I don’t know if there’s some unspoken rule for why nobody is saying anything on your comment but anyway, this is my personal canon for this album now. So many good things about your channel man like fr!
Excellent observation, man. I feel like that pulls it all together interpreting it this way. It adds more of a tragic, anti hero feeling to the storyline. Awesome work, as always. It's so cool to see it getting more traction!! Hey! Have you seen Inside Llewyn Davis??
I’m sorry but, the “I have less than a thousand subscribers” and seeing how this dude has over a million now makes me so happy. Look at him, look how far he’s come. I’m so proud of you, good job.
@@Mystery-Wolf it’s so sweet how humble he is and that he’s surprised people want to subscribe to him. he’s come a LONG way as far as viewership and he deserves it. I just started watching him recently but the variety in topics and video lengths are *chef’s kiss*. you can tell he likes what he talks about & i hope i can get to that point someday
Thisssss! I just watched an amazing fan video for Sleep today and watching the Patient in that screaming “wake up” and the Widow character gave me goosebumps, too!
When I was 14 my father introduced me to MCR through the song Welcome to the Black Parade specifically. He loved music and loved that song specifically from their catalog. He developed cancer when I was 15 and took his own life a year later so this album and his enjoyment of that specific song really meant a lot to me as a teenager and still today.
The part when his Father took him to see a marching band, I think was a literal event in the back story of the parader. When he died he fulfilled his Fathers wish by joining the Black Parade to help lead lost souls into the afterlife. Edit: Also, early 19th century going to the city to view a marching band would have been a huge event in a child’s life that they would always remember.
Love this idea, but I think I can make it work with the original narrative. The Patient's dad was dying of an unknown illness and probably had days to live, so in his final days he took his young son (the Patient) to the city to see the marching band. While there he meets his own "Parader" where the Parader tells of how the father's son will also die young and will be on a path to become a "Parader" himself because of the fathers imminent death. Also telling him of who is supposed to help his son into the afterlife and how it can only end badly for both The Patient and The Parader. So while watching the marching band the father tells his son the quote The Patient sings in the song. A day or so later The Patient's father dies and he can't deal with it and the memory of the marching band is suppressed until he realized at the end that he'd fulfilled his father's request and saved not only his own soul, but helped The Parader come to terms with his destiny and becomes a better soul for those who will need him later.
The band themselves have said that the reason death comes to him as a parade is because one of the characters strongest memories as a child is being literally taken to see a marching band in the city. He's dying and remembering going to see the parade with his father.
This is the literally the greatest interpretation of the album I have ever came across. Holy shit dude, why does this have such little views?!?!?! I am legitimately moved
Another minor detail that wasn't mentioned yet really reinforces this theory is that, in all the music videos for the Patient's songs, Gerard has black hair and is wearing regular clothes, while in the Parader's songs he has white hair and the ever-famous black Parade outfit, and in Welcome to the Black Parade, the patient is played by someone else with black hair, with white hair Gerard as the Parader. In addition to the look, these are specifically the videos where Gerard really adapts the whole batshit crazy, sassy, pompous Freddie Mercury-esque personality (which is more or less Gerards own energy anyway) which I 100% believe is him playing the character of the Parader, and in the Patient videos, he's noticeably toned it down (save for Teenagers, which is appropriate given the song). It all fits in perfectly with this take on the album and I love it. I also like to imagine that the rest of MCR, in the Parader's videos, are his brothers in arms who died in the same air raid and are now with him playing in the Black Parade.
i agree so much with the last line, i don’t remember where i saw it but someone pointed out that Mikey’s jacket has the same cross on the jacket he wore in ghost of you
“Mama” reminds me of a client I once cut hair for. This man literally had me in tears after he walked out.. I’ve been doing hair for 15 years now so I have had many weird, crazy, somber, and hilarious encounters with all types of personalities. Some are forgettable. But this man, I will remember him for the rest of my life. He was a Vietnam war vet. He told me about how hard it was for him to come back home and just cope with the guilt of living through the nightmares he endured first hand (without going into detail of those nightmares, of course) He told me about how he ruined his own life by running his wife and kids off, becoming homeless, struggling with addiction, and basically just trying to find his way home. My ex husband is a army vet and I’ve dated a couple of army vets as well.. I’ve seen the struggle with PTSD and the struggle they’ve had to just be a normal civilian.. so hearing some of his stories weren’t anything I haven’t heard before. It’s heartbreaking regardless.. but this man was different. He asked me if I am a mother. And I said “Yes sir, I have 3 little ones”. He turned to face me, looked me in my eyes and said, “You’re more of a hero than I could ever be”. Of course I spoke up and said “I could have never endured what you have and I am very grateful for your service.. but why do you say that”? He said, “Do you know what grown men scream when they’re facing death? They scream for God and their mothers.. nothing else”. My heart dropped when he said that and I teared up. I had to turn around to keep from bawling my eyes out. The way he said it was just so blunt and so nonchalant, it was almost chilling. This might not seem like a lot to some people.. but for me, it almost changed my look on life.
That is a very touching story, and it is something I'll remember. Thank you! It is true that, whether it's war or something difficult going on in your life, you'll most likely think of your mum and will just want to be beside her in those moments. It's powerful to have a former soldier tell you that, it hits differently. All the best to you!
@@liamcole2701 im procrastinating, but it will happen! lost motivation after dead! LMAO but i promise i'll have it finished at some point. i can paste the doc link here when i'm finished!
2 years ago: “. . . I have less than a thousand subscribers . . .” Now: Over 3M. It’s so awesome to see how far he’s come, I hope he continues to grow and succeed
Something great about this Theory is, during the last black parade concert video, you see Gerard as the patient singing “The end”, in a hospital dress, then when the parade music hits, you see Gerard tearing up his hospital dress, and reveals the parader. - just something cool I noticed while re-visiting MCR
You somehow made Teenagers fit in perfect with the rest of the album, that song always felt like it didn't fit with the rest of the album theme-wise. This interpretation makes so much sense to me, Id love to see more concept album videos at some point.
Frankly I just found this channel thanks to the "Staircases" video, saw this video and I just had to watch and I'm so glad I did! I'll be a regular on this channel going forward
This makes me wish that Wendigoon made more videos about music. I would love for him to make a similar video about Ghost Quartet, American Idiot or another concept album with an obscure story.
@@shatteredmoonyt434 No, it says a lot about the character of the Parader because it shows us his backstory as he said in the video. Mama is about the death of the Parader in WW1. The Parader is talking to his own mother.
I may be reaching, but for “Mama” (my fave song btw) I love how after all of the loud music and sirens and chaos and everything, the song ends with a single pluck. No grand finale, no lingering note. Just a single pluck, symbolizing the finality of death. There is no great exit, there is no blaze of glory, you’re just gone. Nothing afterwards to help the listener cope or grieve with the song being over. It’s chillingly accurate.
Famous last words is def the most powerful song to me. I feel it's like a young couple with the shitty world and the characters partner is ready to commit suicide and the character comes to and is afraid to keep on living and will walk the world alone if the partner won't change their mind but is begging and pleading them to keep living with them. I feel the verses very well support this as well.
Going off of the finality (also reaching), how about this? The abrupt end is his end and it makes him cynical. That cynicism lingers until he meets the patient and in the final track, he prevents that abrupt end by playing him one last grandiose orchestra, which the parader didn't get.
@@terminalcreature1560 to piggyback off what you said. Maybe the reason he is giving the patient the big end is because the single pluck the abrupt end is what turns them into Paraders since the common idea for why spirits stay on earth is because of unfinished business or situations like being killed all of a sudden
Huh, it kinda explains why the parader made such a grand parade for the patient. Also supports the suppossed respect the parader has towards the patient. He respects him so much that he wanted to give him a grand sendoff that himself wasn't able to have.
the way wendigoon has always talked about his topics never fails to get me. it's not for the subjects alone, but the way he talks about them with tmhis unique compassion never fails to make me tear up.
Trust me, as someone who’s been around those nearing the end of their battle with cancer, “the hardest part of this is leaving you”, is far from cliché. It’s a very simple, yet visceral way of encompassing the true horrors of battling cancer.
This is the same with "Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge" it tells the story of a "Bonnie and Clyde" type of couple from the beginning all the way to the cemetery. They are by far the most genius band of that decade.
I always liked Danger Days most because I think 13 year old me found it wayyy easier to interpret the concept from that album. C'mon, dystopian societies? SCARECROW as a whole ass thing? Fucking, lazer guns?!?! I loved that! Still do. But after growing up (just a bit, I'm still a teenager), I think I've learnt to appreciate TBP and Three Cheers a bit more.
I like to think of Three Cheers as a psudo story of the patient before The Black Parade. It's strange, but Teenagers seems like a summary of it pretty much. I'm not sure on it but the more I listen to it the more the idea develops in my wack brain
I feel like the first three albums are more connected like three cheers basically picks up from bullets and as someone mentioned in this comment string tbp being the wrap up of three cheers
@@emoticpen404 I'm the guy in the last part of your comment. Hi. I've edited my interpretation of this rendition a little bit and I think Sharpest Lives isthe summary and Teenagers is the Parader's reaction to it.
one thing i think adds to this explanation beautifully is a detail in the wttbp music video: for context, there are, among others, two more characters that are part of the parade (the two girls with black streaks over their eyes), and they are canonically called Fear and Regret. in the video, after the Patient is made a part of the parade and receives a medal, they both kiss him goodbye and simply go away. if we look at the entire album as a story about making peace with his mistakes in life and with the fact that he's dying, the ending track featuring him letting go of all the fear of death and regret about his life he held is both thematically coherent and a beautiful addition.
Now I REALLY like this interpretation, but I wanted to see how I could fit the B-sides and Blood into the story (they were written as part after all, even if they were removed) and here's what I came up with 1: The End 2: Dead 3: Teenagers 4: Kill All Your Friends - this is the parader making fun of the patients view of his youth and counteracting it with stories of his own youth (you've done this? well I've done worse) 5: The Sharpest Lives 6: Cancer 7: House of Wolves 8: Heaven Help Us - this is the patient realizing that he doesn't want people to remember him as anything but what he was, a terrible person 9: I Don't Love You 10: This is How I Disappear 11: Disenchanted 12: Mama 13: Sleep 14: My Way Home Is Through You - this is the parader after coming to terms with the fact that the patient doesn't want to fight anymore, now realizing that what he (the parader) needs, is for the patient to accept his life and go freely into death 15: Famous Last Words 16: Blood - this is the parader and patient both on the same page taking one last moment to lament all the screwed up stuff that happened in their lives 17: Welcome to the Black Parade
Perfect placement! Hope Wendi sees this. Edit: I would personally put Blood between Cancer and I Don't Love You, showing his attitude carrying on into the disease until he loses everything with I Don't Love You and has to reflect and so on.
Yes I believe Blood isn’t just about the patient, I think the patient and parader are both talking to eachother I see it as the first verse is the patient talking and second verse is the parador, and the 3rd part is both of them singing together or agreeing together
@Gianna G. I thought so too, but the expression of "famous last words" is usually used to contradict what the last words are referring to. I find it tragically ironic that the patient dies saying he's not afraid to keep on living. But also uplifting, even if the patient doesn't want to die (who wants that?), his arc is done the moment he's willing to keep on living and rectify his life.
I really like this placement but I would put blood as a separate ending to famous last words as apposed to before welcome to the black parade where the parader joins the patient in hell and is being tormented by all of the messed up stuff they had done
I personally might place My Way Home is Through You after Famous Last Words only because Famous Last Words is them still arguing about whether the patient should live or accept his death, then the parader realizes he can't do anything and accepts the patients request after famous last words, then throws him a parade
Seeing them in concert during The Black Parade phase was like an actual musical. Starting with The End, with Gerard coming out pushed on a gurney in a patient's robe singing the song and tearing it off revealing the parade outfit and going into flames and changing out of the parade outfit when they finish The Black Parade and ome back on stage dressed different to perform "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge"
When I was 7 my mom died, December 20, 2007. After a couple days when brother and I were going back to school he turned on Mtv like our mom had always done, and that morning the first song that played was Welcome to the Black Parade. I was so scared of the video at the time, and was sure it was a horror movie trailer. 6 years later I started listening to MCR and rediscovered the song. Part of me believes the song played at that time as a way for my mom to tell us everything would be okay. It's now been 15 years and I miss her so fucking much.
What a beautiful story. I’m sure your mum is looking down from the heavens, eternally proud of the people you and your brother have become. Keep pushing for her, she’s always with you
I know your comment is 6 months old at this point, but I had to share: This was about 4 years ago. I was at work when I got a phone call. I was informed that my dad had died in his sleep (without warning... nothing specifically wrong with him other than just being generally unhealthy). Anywho, I sprinted out of work, got into my truck, and started the 10 minute drive to my parents house. I wasn't focused on anything other than the road and getting there as fast as possible. Then, just out of the blue, my awareness was shifted to the song on the radio... almost as if someone was in the passenger seat and turned the volume up. The song was "Knockin on Heavens Door." Looking back, I sometimes wonder... was it his way of comforting me before I reached the house to see his body? Or was it coincidence that THAT song was playing, instead of "mmmBop" or "Living in a Material World?" I doubt it was coincidence and after reading your story, it further solidifies my belief that our loved ones CAN reach out to us from beyond the grave. I'm sorry for your loss, brother. It never gets any easier, we just learn to cope better. I hope you have a long, fulfilling life as I'm sure your mother would've wanted for you
That, has to be, bar none, the single greatest interpretation of this album ever. full stop. Its clear that this album touched you in that certain way only art can. For what it's worth, I'm certain that you'll be welcomed with open arms into The Black Parade.
He sets up his own ideas for how the album works and then just doesn't follow them. I like Wendigoon, but no. If the band wanted the album to be this way, then they just would have ordered it that way. I doubt they wanted enjoying their album correctly to be homework.
@@nibiru2x410 I don't see the first half of your point please do elaborate a but here. Secondly, while most artists and most albums want a simple listening experience, MCR has a history of overarching themes and storyline in their other records for those willing to pay enough attention, so I wouldn't say it's fair to claim MCR didn't do so intentionally in the case of The Black Parade.
@@nibiru2x410 Why do you sound mad lmao If you think about it, it makes total sense for them to order their songs the way they did. Casual listeners like you can enjoy the them as individual songs, whereas deeper listeners can put it together as a fun little puzzle and enjoy as a more theatrical piece. I mean, Wendigoon pretty much says that himself at the end, so idk why you're disagreeing with him lol
Every time that meme comes up, where someone fits "WAKE UP" into some text as if directed at you to wake you up from a coma or something, it always fucked with me. Ever since first seeing that, those two simple words always kinda fuck with me
I heard the screaming in the background, but literally never realized the true meaning of it until this video. Holy shit the goosebumps when Sleep and the actual meaning of Famous Last Words became clear.
I was in awe when I realized the paraders "wake up" scream at the end of Sleep. I've listened to this song so often and just didn't realize. Now I can't unhear it. And I personally think it's answered by a "leave me alone" from the patient. NOW IT ALL MAKES SENSE.
Ignore me, I'm just going to write the story order of the songs so I can cry later while listening: 1. The End 2. Dead! 3. Teenagers 4. The Sharpest Lives 5. Cancer 6. House of Wolves 7. I Don't Love You 8. This Is How I Disappear 9. Disenchanted 10. Mama 11. Sleep 12. Famous Last Words 13. Welcome To The Balck Parade
Wendigoon is literally the greatest comfort of my “way too long” nights. The fact that he is an MCR fan just solidifies my appreciation. Can’t wait to see you hit 1,000,000 subs
Kinda like how nirvana wasn't really grunge but inspired the entire grunge movement. I know some people consider them grunge but Kurt Cobain hated that they were viewed like that
MCR is to Emo music what Motorhead is to Metal. MCR is NOT an Emo band but they had a massive influence in the genre, just like Motorhead throughout their career denied being a Metal band AT ALL, but still had a massive influence in the genre.
the setup for the thirteenth track being The Black Parade was GLORIOUS. i’d been compiling a journal page about this concept and had made a list of the tracks in order as you went and i say for a bit like “ wait what’s the last one??” and i got chills when the key played it was so good
Holy crap dude, I've never really given MCR a chance but the way you described the overarching story gave me goosebumps. Came across your channel in my recommended feed and have been binging since, may the algorithm be in your favor.
Ok, but hear me out. I like to think that the whole point of the Parader and the Parade is to usher a soul into “The Good Place”. To piggy back off of everyone else’s theories, the Parader is given this job as sort of a punishment for the bad life he lived beforehand. If he can salvage a soul to “The Good Place”, then he can rest peacefully too. Since he’s never been able to do that and it’s going on 75 years, he’s become quite cynical about the living. Hence his sarcastic tone until The Patient starts on his own redemption story. The Parader starts becoming impatient, thinking this kid may be his ticket out of this job. But in this journey he finds that life is worth living after all, and he attempts to get The Patient to fight for his life instead; an opportunity never given to the Parader. At this point, The Patient is tired of living and found more meaning and purpose in death than he ever did living. At the end of Famous Last Words, the Patient makes an agreement with the Parader: as a show of gratitude for helping him find redemption in death, he agrees to take over The Parader’s job; as he now finds fulfillment in helping lost souls find redemption in their last moments. After all, the Parader finds redemption through the Patient’s story too. The Parader passes on peacefully, The Patient takes over the parade. That’s why Gerard’s hair is black at the final leg of the Black Parade tour with: The Black Parade is Dead! The Patient is the new Parader.
This! I like this along with the videos theory. Because the Parader has a song of his own after the patients songs. He keeps popping up in the patients life because he has a job to do, and feels maybe this will be the last soul he has to guide in order to finally be at peace. Which is why he does become impatient. Then everything the video says is spot on. Then in famous last words, the parader might be saying the patient should keep living, “with words I thought I’d never say” he wants the patient to live and doesn’t want to take him to die. Which would be a selfless thing for him to do, but patient has taught him something about living. Which then might be the one redeemable thing the parader needed to be able to pass on, finally be at peace and never having to usher another soul into the afterlife ever again. I would like to picture that Blood is an end credit scene where the Parader is off in “heaven” or wherever he ends up, having a drink and telling stories of his time when he was alive, maybe before he died, still his same cynical sassy self. He’s the “kind of human wreckage that you love.” Didn’t give this a ton of thought, but I got exacted after watching this video and seeing this comment.
I had the same thought since the first time i heeard the album, that at the end the patient gives the parader release by taking his place as a psychopomp to help others on their journey
After watching this video a couple times, I am positive that Gerard Way needs to see this. That man is a creative genius in his own right and even if this is not his “intended” storyline I’m incredibly confident he would enjoy it. It’s such a gut wrenching yet beautiful tale. Unbelievably well thought out, great job my dude. GET THIS TO MCR IMMEDIATELY
It was his intended storyline, it was about a guy dying of cancer and basically being forced to welcome death (the black parade). They had an interview about it.
An addition to Mama (3 years later). Practically the whole album is written in 4/4 time. Very common for rock /pop punk/emo. Mama switches to 3/4 at the very end of the song, 3/4 is famous for being the time signature that you would waltz in. The waltz was originally a dance about freedom and expression. Perhaps this was what he thought was his freedom and well... it wasn't
This was one of my favorite albums as a kid but after my mom died of cancer the entire thing hit completely differently. Im glad someone was able explain the album better.
Same with my step-dad... UA-cam mix started playing Cancer the other day while I was driving with my gf and I just broke out into tears.... Just from the music at the start.
When I was in my early teens and my mum still had a few years left in her, I remember having The Black Parade tracklist open on windows media player. She came to sit with me, saw "Cancer", asked what that song was, and I hit play. It didn't take long for her to start sobbing, and all I could really do was hug her and try to comfort her. That memory still fucks me up to this day. I miss her. I'm glad I'm not the only one with those kind of ties to the song.
I could sort of see how “Teenagers” could fit into the paraders perspective. It’s being told from him that teenagers scare him because of their obsession with death. Yes he mocks those dying, but why mocking those who aren’t afraid and are risking death? It scares him.
it's also kind of a "kids these days" song where people just ASSUME teenagers as a whole are just worse than they are because of what gets talked about most in news and gossip
I did agree with this theory, as I felt that wendigoons interpretation conflicted too much with the song by itself. However listening to the rest of the album, I believe teenagers was 100% being sung by the patient. In disenchanted (which was 100% being sung by the patient), the patient explained that his anger was caused by bullying and seeing his heroes sellout, which seems like a reference to teenagers
@@highdifficulty4184 I think teenagers could be sung by both, but personally I think it was death during his initial meeting with the patient. I imagine that it's what death usually tells the people he's guiding into the afterlife. Kinda going through the motions, only for death to learn more about the patient later in the album. Mainly I think its death cause of the line "maybe they'll leave you alone but not me" and the tone of the song being sung by a scapegoat. Perhaps death is just trying to convince the patient to just listen to him and go along with it so death can move onto the next one. Kinda like "Everyone hates you anyways, might as well leave on your own terms"
I had to watch this twice and I cried like a baby both times. Gerard is one of the best storytellers of this generation. This album is just beautiful in every way
Just listened to the playlist in your order and have to add one more wrinkle. Sharpest Lives is not just the Parader reacting to the prior song. It's part of his story. The language of the song is actually very period phrasing when you listen to it, and he is telling his lover to leave so she won't be killed. "So you can leave here like the sane, abandon me". It's a very literal scene if you listen carefully, a flashback. And in that, it's a parallel to the Patient doing the same to his lover in "I Don't Love You". Reading "Disappear" in this light, The Parader is singing to the girl he sent away. "And if you could talk to me, Tell me if it's so, That all the good girls go to heaven. Well, heaven knows." then later, "Can you hear me cry out to you? Words I thought I'd choke on figure out. I'm really not so with you anymore. I'm just a ghost, So I can't hurt you anymore, So I can't hurt you anymore." He's lamenting that he doesn't even know if he saved her by sending her away, he condemned himself to being alone, now being alone forever. His rant about how far he can fall and telling her to let go - Perhaps in a sense she is what has him stuck between. Her love for him and his for her is his redeeming point. The more I listen in order, the more I agree. The callback in "Disenchanted" to "Teenagers is another supporting piece about his 'angry days' - "I spent my high school career / Spit on and shoved to agree / So I could watch all my heroes / Sell a car on TV / Bring out the old guillotine / We'll show 'em what we all mean". I hope you don't mind my building on your theory, I believe you're very right.
This album impacted me so heavily as a child and to have the story laid out for me now gave me chills. I cried at multiple points in this video because A) i am a baby and B) your explanations made so much sense and were so chilling (i.e. the Parader screaming during Sleep). You’ve grown from a thousand subs to over 2.5 million, so I know the chance of you seeing this now is low. But I’m proud of you, we’re all proud of you, and thank you.
Damn man I can’t believe I am just watching this. This theory is so solid and makes so much more sense than any other theory I’ve seen. So succinct and the act structure really does match up. Really makes a lot of the songs hit a lot harder. i know each song on its own was amazing and the album as a whole as well, but this makes the album so much more interesting to listen to.
i discovered this album in 2014, literally weeks before i was rushed to the hospital with ovarian cancer for emergency surgery. the damage done to my psyche from an album about accepting a cancerous death- as a suicidal kid who will soon get cancer- was UNIMAGINABLE. i was 14. my bf at the time was as scared as the antagonist in #7. i still love this album more than anything for what it got me through.
Just gave the album a listen with this context in mind. Teenagers is a song about how death is scared of teenagers, because they aren’t scared of him. He starts out by talking about the struggles young adults have, and sounds giddy while doing so because they’re things that bring them closer to death. I’d even go as far as saying the line “what you’ve got under your shirt will make them pay for the things that they did” is death goading the cancer patient into “making them pay for the things that they did” and the album is about karma, and deaths manipulation of the cancer patient until he takes them too.
Nice take, but my punk head will stick with the one on the christian capitalistic patriarchy* who wants to make everyone puppets for them to play with and, torture and call names the ones that don’t fit or/and stand against, the “teenagers”, but knowing the power they have together they’re scared. The “what you got under your shirt” makes me think about the s3lf h4rm that many go trought, leaving scars (and rage) hidden by shirts, that *THEY have to pay for, being the reason of it, and “they could care less as long as someone will bleed” is very clear from this point of view.
I made another comment, but I grew to disagree with it so much that I deleted it and made a whole new one. I think that death actually *loves* teenagers because they aren't scared of him. The line in the song is *"They* say 'Teenagers scare the living shit out of me'". The parader is saying that someone *else,* not himself, is scared of teenagers. I'm going to assume he means adults. The parader is telling the teenagers to "darken your clothes or strike a violent pose" because "maybe they'll leave you alone." The parader knows that teenagers can scare away adults, but they can't scare away death itself--they can't scare away *him.* And, if the adults are scared away, those same teenagers are probably more likely to get into trouble and danger.
Timestamps and also the order 0:00 Introduction 3:23 The End 6:24 Dead 7:47 Teenagers 9:02 The Sharpest Lives 10:12 Cancer 11:27 House of Wolves 13:24 I Don't Love you 14:59 This is How I Disappear 17:25 Disenchanted 19:11 Mama 23:50 Sleep 25:25 Famous Last Words 28:10 Welcome to the Black Parade 33:47 The Bonus Tracks (Blood and Kill All Your Friends)
To reinforce the idea that he was from WW1, it appears that on the parade float are red poppies which are famously mentioned in the poem Flanders Field
When my long distance girlfriend died from COVID-19 a short time ago, I remembered how she was a fan of "Welcome to the Black Parade". Now I fully understand why. And I understand why she told me love is weak, but it's the best we can do in this life.
@@inlovewithanapparition Thank you. I decided to Fight Entropy. "Paint it black and take it back!" Ness would expect no less from me. "Defiant to the end, we hear the call!" I'll carry on!
Holy fuck when you revealed what Mama was about, my jaw dropped. I never knew how to fit Mama and Sleep into the story of a teenager's death, but now it makes so much sense. holy shit
Mama is thematically based on the late 30s/early 40s around wwii, the air raid sirens are from that time period. This is solidified by the fact that the song is inspired by the musical Cabernet. Which takes place in the Weimar Republic just before the start of wwii. The lead actress in the movie adaptation is Liza Minnelli, who is featured in the tract. Love the vid!
We know air raid sirens are historically inaccurate in ww1, blow me. Dying in an unending artillery strike in the middle of No Man's Land with hundreds of others is better for the musical narrative and a lot more fucked up for The Parader's backstory
As someone with a lot of love for MCR, I am so ashamed of myself for not watching this video sooner, holy shit. You unfolding this album's story was a great experience, and has made my love for The Black Parade go up a billion times more.
Just listened to the album in this order while having a massive depressive episode because my grandmother has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Absolutely amazing. Bravo Wendi. Bravo.
I could be way off, but I think the parader is the patient's father. He died at war when his son was very young and doesn't realize that the patient is his son until famous last words. "I know there's nothing I could say to change that part" is him essentially apologizing to his son for having to grow up without his father. In the bridge of Welcome to the Black Parade, "I'm just man, I'm not a hero. I'm just a boy who had to sing this song" is a back and forth between the father saying that he didn't ask to be a hero, he was just doing his duty as a man and a soldier and the son who is saying that all he wanted was to just be a boy and live his life, but he spent his life trying to live up to the hero everyone made his father out to be. This could explain the reason why he acted out as a youth in Teenagers and had such a lackluster attitude about life throughout the story.
Listened to it again and changed my mind a little bit about the timeline. I think I don't love you is the patient talking about his dad leaving without saying he loves him and then dying, not coming home, and the patient having to deal with that during his childhood. The next song, This is how I disappear, is the parader realizing this guy he's pretty much been shitting on for the first half of the album is actually his son. The part where he says "now you want to see how for down I can sink. Let me go. Fuck." Is the dad pleading to his son to stop hating him.
@@TDQdrummer Interesting ideas! This sounds very plausible to me and I'm going to try to keep it in mind when listening to The Black Parade next time I listen to it through.
as a big MCR fan and also a big wendigoon fan, finding out this video existed was a great experience, and i now need to actually listen to all these tracks in the correct order lol a credit to how good the lyrics are that i had not realised all of these were part of the same album and interpreted them compeltlely differently
As an Elder Emo [nearly 30 myself] this was the first album I ever bought for myself as a preteen. I didn't grow up in the best situation and this album helped me through difficult times. I always viewed it as someone going through the stages of grief due to mental illness landing on acceptance and perseverance.. but it was really cool to hear your analysis. I had never thought of it this way and admittedly I'm sure my own situation applied to my understanding, yet your conclusion is way more poetic. I had been putting off this video for a while, scared to have someone ruin my perception of something I cherish so much from those days. I don't know why I was scared because you always shed light to all little things worth mentioning in most all of your videos i've seen thus far while doing so with unbias, fairness, and enthusiasm. While I usually enjoy your videos of things I'm most unfamiliar with... this one delighted me as well. I remember seeing one of your records in a video was MCR and being like "no way!!" excitedly. Thank You for doing this video.
This album just holds the most special place in my heart. In 2006, I visited their website every single day to see if they posted something new. I remember when they posted a sneak preview of every song on the album. About 10 seconds each, and gosh I listened to those snippets over and over again until the album came out. I bought their special edition package of the album that came with a whole booklet describing their process behind making the album. I actually had to save up my lunch money at the time because I was 13 and didn't have a job haha. But the second I got it, I popped that CD in my boombox and played the entire thing while reading that booklet front to back. It's a moment in time I'll never forget. Listening to the greatest album ever made.
Damn, I would have loved that. I feel like if death is really pictured in the receivers fondest memories, it's gonna go just like this amazing album did for me. I'm gonna be honest too, I see a bit of the patient in myself...
Teenagers might be able to also be taken as the Parader expressing a lack of sympathy for humans, living and newly dead, which it perceives to be a horde of psychotic naive children. The other interpretation STILL applies, though, almost as justification for its disdain for the Patient.
as much as i love the album as a listening experience, someone really needs to make an animated short movie for the album because i feel like adding visuals to the already graphic lyrics will give a bigger gut punch
MCR was a side project for Gerard Way. He always wanted to make comics and he did. He was successful enough that they made a live action series based on his comic, The Umbrella Academy. So it's not even a stretch to think that TBP has a story behind it, it makes a TON of sense.
There are. The progressive band Marillion has a few concept albums. It was pretty much what they've been known for. Their album Brave is my favorite. Check it out
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 🎶 The album "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance is a concept album that tells a grandiose story using rock music and opera elements. 03:32 🎭 The album follows a three-act structure, with the first act establishing the characters and conflict, the second act exploring the patient's emotional journey, and the third act providing resolution. 10:11 😢 The album delves into the emotional turmoil of a dying cancer patient, who faces the consequences of his past actions and abandonment by his lover. 16:15 🤘 Death, portrayed as "the parader," initially appears indifferent and mocking but begins to show signs of empathy and concern as the patient's condition deteriorates. 20:53 🎵 The album's music and lyrics are skillfully crafted to enhance the storytelling, with instruments, choruses, and themes reflecting the characters' emotions and experiences. 23:39 🤔 "Mama" provides the parader's backstory, revealing he was a soldier in World War I who died alone, adding depth to his character and explaining his attitude towards death. 26:30 ⚖️ The album's closing track, "Famous Last Words," features a dualistic argument between the patient and the parader, offering a sense of resolution and suggesting two possible outcomes for the patient's afterlife. 27:09 🎵 The patient's journey in "The Black Parade" album is a reflection of personal growth and redemption, with the patient evolving from hate to acceptance. 28:25 🥁 The parader's appearance as a parade leader is inspired by the patient's childhood vision of his father, symbolizing goodness and justice. 29:48 🎤 In the final moments, the parade sings the patient's song, signifying respect and equality between the patient and the parader. 30:28 🎖️ The parader grants respect to the patient as he departs into the afterlife, offering closure to the story of "The Black Parade" album. 31:03 🎶 Each song on the album can stand alone, making "The Black Parade" appealing both as a story and a collection of individual songs. 32:13 📖 Discovering the deeper story behind the album adds a layer of meaning and power to the music, emphasizing the importance of personal interpretation. 33:39 🙏 The video creator expresses gratitude to Gerard Way and others involved in creating "The Black Parade," acknowledging its impact on his storytelling journey.
Holy fuck when you explained why The Parader WAS the parader i fucking cried. He saw the one thing that brought him happiness, the memory of being at a parade with his father before his father died. I also think the reason why the patient was so off putting of people and pushing them away because of him losing his father, he couldn’t get close to people. He faced trauma from that and it destroyed him but he changed and that made him realize he made his father proud.
You have an elegant and concise way of telling stories that is both profound and easy to understand. It's no surprise to me how fast and organically your channel is spreading. My dream as an artist was always to make an album like The Black Parade. With your analysis of the album in mind I think I at least know where I've failed in my previous attempts.
You are the only reactor/reviewer I've watched that understood that Blood actually had meaning that fit into the story. As someone with a chronic disease myself, the number of vials that have been sent off for testing is nearing an obscene level. When the patient says "gallons of the stuff --- it will never be enough" that hits the nail on the head, and sometimes the only way you can get through that needle prick is to smirk and be snarky about it. Great video for an even greater album. Thank you for your thoughts!
I'm just over here balling my eyes out. My cousin died at 18 from cancer. It was a 3 year battle. I remember hearing Black Parade and just being overwhelmed wit so much emotion.
I remember the black parade so vividly. Around 4-5 years ago my grandpa was on his death bed and it was about 12 at night and as I was just sitting in the lobby in the quiet dead of night, I popped in my headphones and listened to the song, it was weirdly comforting.
I'll always be a black metal type of guy but I'll never forget my roots. And My Chem Romance happened when I was around 10 or 11. Definitely inspired my music and definitely made a strong impression on me.
recently i've been binging your videos. I've been really really lonely and even though I know we don't really know each other, your presence has brought me a lot of comfort and company that I greatly appreciate. I rarely find videos that I'm actually interested in and I'm sincerely relieved I found your channel, as the way you commentate has always come across as genuine and intrigued. I'm trying really hard not to trauma dump while relaying my gratitude, so I'll just chalk it to I've been under an egregious amount of pain lately. My boyfriend is a huge fan of yours and introduced me to your content, I thought it was really sweet the way he's picked up some of your speech patterns. That being said, he's been super busy trying to support us and I miss him a lot, I love him so much and I can really see why he loves your channel. Again, I know we don't really know each other, but thank you for keeping me company.
I’ve listened to this album for years and just wanted to say thank you so much for giving me another perspective of the overarching story! I had also never heard the “wake up” in sleep and it gave me goosebumps!
This honestly took my absolute adoration for this album and multiplied it by like 1000. I always knew there was a story there but I never could figure it out. Thank god for this video
There are a good few albums that tell a story, they're called concept albums, my personal fave is 7th son of a 7th son by the mighty Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd's the wall is another extremely well known one.
this is .. an absolute piece of genius analysis. im completely blown away. i already love the album as it is, and you just magnified that love even more. im making a playlist of this in your order, and will probably listen to this album that way for a long time. i never thought of it as a story with 2 characters, it will be a really fresh take for me when i will listen to the album again with your presented story in mind. i'll also be reading the lyrics as i go things that really gave me literal whole body goosebumps: - the entire mama explanation, i never realized the instrumentals (sirens) and the son-and-mother exchange until you mentioned it - famous last words as a conversation... im convinced that it truly was written as one - welcome to the black parade as the ending... i am again convinced that this should really be the last song, especially with the final lyrics saying "we'll carry on". putting this at the beginning or the middle will lose its very powerful "everyone-singing-at-once" feeling this video will now be my point of reference for genius when it comes to album analysis. i think i can never shake your reinterpretation of the story out of my head from now on. thank you for this and i hope mcr fans will pick this up!
Wow, this is an incredible analysis of the story dynamics. I knew the concept of the album but did not catch the different perspectives, I just thought this was the patient on a path through the different stages of grief over his own death and those he left behind. But this was pretty sick.
I never felt like teenagers fit on this album, however. Gerard once talked about in an interview their feelings about teenagers on a train and how they freaked Gerard out, and caused a lot of anxiety and that inspired the song.
Why am I in tears after this analysis. Lmao. It is such a heatbreaking and moving piece. I'm so excited to see MCR in concert soon after all these years. There is such a cathartic release in understanding some of their albums through the lense of my own experiences as I progress in life. Excellent job breaking this down. ♡
@@grahamcrackers7205 OH boy was it! I saw them a few weeks back finally and stand by those words as well! They were phenomenal and my inner young self is so happy.
It was such an amazing show! Its been a rough year for me, and as someone who didn't really listen to MCR until a few years ago, while I was there in the audience I finally understood what it was like to be so moved by their music and their lyrics. I cried twice (WttBP and Cancer) 🥺
The second you mentioned the thing about “death” songs starting with the heavy or rock music and the “patients” songs with softer sounds all the puzzle pieces clicked together and holy crap u didn’t half do a great job of explaining it !
Listening to your interpretation made me think about this album and story in a new way, I think you hit the nail on the head with this one. You thought this out pretty well clearly. Your version of it was almost as if I was experiencing the album for the first time all over again! Some ideas which I came up with while listening: The contrasting characters: The Parader and The Patient. In my perspective you gave them a sort of relationship and some common characteristics. And that The Parader feels something towards the Patient.. That makes me think that The Parader is the father of the Patient. The Parader feels different about The Patient the further we go along because he learns that The Patient is actually his son. As for blood I sometimes visualize it as when The Patient is in the hospital getting tests done but before dying.
Oh God the smile on my face right now! I can’t say that I’m 100% convinced of this particular story thread but I absolutely loved it. I’ve spent the last 12 years wondering why the hell some of these songs were on the album and now I have a wonderfully satisfying explanation! Excellent job!
I watched this last night and after listening to the album again, I just want to say THANK YOU! And i agree with your theory. It all just clicked into place. As someone who considers TBP one of the most masterfully done albums of all time, I can honestly say you brought a level of depth to the story that (because of the out of order nature) i never would have considered previously. Obviously i got the gist of the story, but there were parts you brought light to that just... *chefs kiss* i didn't think this album could be improved on but your deep dive has absolutely brought it to the next level. I have listened to this album so many times that i can envision every aspect of every song vividly in my imagination. Famous Last Words in particular got me through some pretty dark times. The choral ending has always given me chills but now even more so. I cannot thank you enough for this video. It also brings more context to Gerard's struggles during this time, having to embody both the Patient and Parader during the tour period. He's mentioned the dark places the album brought him along with other things he was dealing with at the time, and i cannot imagine the kind of effect it had on him to essentially be method acting this spiritual battle night after night. There is so much i could say but it wouldnt come close to encompassing my feelings about this album. So THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for reigniting my passion.
I think my only different opinion is that Teenages IS from the parader's perspective, as is talking about how the actions of the patient as a teenager are super shocking and "scare the shit out of me". He taunts him, despite the patient not being able to hear him yet, saying "maybe they'll leave you alone, but not me". Adults might ignore them for dressing in black and being crazy, but death doesn't give a shit. I love your interpretation of thr album and totally agree with everything else! Definitely adding it all to my personal headcanon of the album
Honestly the best interpretation of this album that I've ever seen. This makes so much sense and ties everything together. A concept album that clearly follows the three act story structure and has character arcs?? My weakness, honestly. I also almost made myself cry when you were explaining the Black Parade and how that song ends it and I thought of the line, "I'm just a man. I'm not a hero. I'm just a boy who had to sing this song." Gave it a whole new meaning. It just gave me chills, I transcended to another plane of existence I dunno. You mentioned how this album was inspired by Freddie Mercury, but did you also notice how heavily inspired by Pink Floyd's The Wall it was? Especially in The End you can hear In The Flesh so clearly. I dunno, that's my own trivia that I always found neat. I've been binging your videos for a couple days now, and man the quality or research and thought you put into every video.. Amazing. Absolutely incredible. And hey, if you're into analyzing rock opera concept albums, American Idiot is a work of art (and I freaking love Green Day but that's besides the point)
Something to add to the final song in the timeline: In Welcome to the Black Parade, I think the Patient helped the Parader realize that both life and death have meaning, that it's not just a meaningless fucking joke leading up to a punchline (where you die pointlessly, violently and alone.) That people remember you, and your story lives on. Now that they've both realized this, the Parader gets to move on into the after life with him, since they figured it out together. I can imagine it now. The Parader picking the Patient up and carrying him to the afterlife, lots of happy tears and hugging and goodbyes when they finally get to the gates. The Patient asks the Parader to hold his hand and walk with him. The Parader tells him that he can't, he's stuck in purgatory, but he'll go up to the edge with him. As they approach it, side by side, hand in hand, the Parader braces himself to hit the invisible wall blocking him from ever heading towards the light. It's happened every time he tried before, why would it be any different now? But to his surprise, his foot passes through, then the rest oc him. Finally, after a century of mocking the dying carelessly shoving them off to the afterlife no matter how they feel about it, he's done. He's learned his lesson, he can finally rest. Honestly, I might make OCs based on your interpretation, I really love it! If I had the spoons, I'd make a whole series of animatics following the story, but I'm not sure if I'd be able to stick with it. If that ever happens I'll be sure to credit you for putting the pieces together and inspiring me! I know this video is hella old but it's definitely getting the creative juices flowing!
So I just gave the album another listen using your recommendation for the listening order and this just flows so well especially with this newer perspective of the parader and the patient. Amazing
the depth at which this album goes and the story behind it, is almost like a rock version of kendrick lamars to pimp a butterfly. both are beautifully written and produced stories with music.
Thank you so much for making this video! I've been a long time fan of My Chemical Romance since I was a teenager, and I've been saying to anyone who will listen that The Black Parade has such an intricate concept and story behind it--it's all about a deeply twisted, mentally scarred, and depressed Great War/WWI veteran called The Patient coming to terms with his own mortality, among other things, and it's very poignant and moving, I'm so glad people are giving it a second chance and not writing it off as "whiny emo shit" like they did when it was first released in 2006.
I'm thinking of interesting choreo for the songs at the moment. Then I gotta somehow come up with and hour of writing, mix in The Five of Us are Dying as a prelude to make the album come full circle along with adding in My Way Home is Through you, Heaven help us and everything. This is gonna be a project I look forward to for spring break
As a long time fan of this album, this video ishonestly one of my favourites and there were so many parts that straight up gave me chills, but the part at 18ish minutes in when you say 'so it doesn't seem like there is a lot left to do, but throw him a parade', followed by the g note absolutely made my jaw drop. I cannot explain it. This is the best video on the internet. Change my mind.
The praise you gave for Disenchanted made me SO HAPPY. It’s been my favorite MCR song since I first heard it. It’s soooo underrated. I even wanna get a tattoo inspired by it
I always viewed it as an anthology and every song is a different person story about how they died but the narrator attempted suicide in the first song and after meeting everyone in the Parade he had a change of heart and in famous last words he is survives and has a new perspective on life
that's a nice way to think if it. It makes Dead! even better because it's essentially all the paraders mocking the patient, and also makes The End a song about someone who might not really be depressed and rather looking for attention "come one come all to this tragic affair" it's all kinda mellow dramatic; one way is a patient in the hospital for a sickness dejected and tired of dealing with everyone coming to visit, the other is a failed suicide who makes it all about them and isnt being ironic with the lyrics, until the parade comes, interrupts the song and starts mocking them because they actually might die
I am so happy that people are starting to watch this video, thank you so much! There is one amendment I’d like to make since this video has come out:
I do not think the patient’s lover left him, instead, he made her leave. The shift from “know that I will never marry” in Cancer to “When after all the blood that you still owe, another dollar is just another blow. So take your gloves and get out while you can” in I Don’t Love you feels like he doesn’t want her to face the pain he’s going through. He’s intentionally hurting her to make her leave. This can be viewed as a selfless act and be part of the reason Death has a change of heart and why the patient came to the point he did in Disenchanted. TLDR; she didn’t leave him, he made her leave.
Again, thank you for watching!
Dude... I don’t know if there’s some unspoken rule for why nobody is saying anything on your comment but anyway, this is my personal canon for this album now. So many good things about your channel man like fr!
Excellent observation, man. I feel like that pulls it all together interpreting it this way. It adds more of a tragic, anti hero feeling to the storyline. Awesome work, as always. It's so cool to see it getting more traction!!
Hey! Have you seen Inside Llewyn Davis??
This has always been my favorite album and have never really understood it all until now
as someone who has loved this album for the better part of a decade now, this made me appreciate it a little bit more, thanks man.
Algorithm pushing this one (and your channel) more lately for me; I dig it!
Bro, I'm ngl, you made Mama at least 700% more heartbreaking
Duuude, I've never felt so much listening to sleep
Agreeeed
Mama is just a banger
@@wesharveyYT lol
He really did😢
I’m sorry but, the “I have less than a thousand subscribers” and seeing how this dude has over a million now makes me so happy. Look at him, look how far he’s come. I’m so proud of you, good job.
Wendigoon is honestly one of my most watched UA-camrs this month he’s so good
@@parisdubois2188 Yeah, same here. He’s got nice vids to just put on in the background and listen to.
@@Mystery-Wolf it’s so sweet how humble he is and that he’s surprised people want to subscribe to him. he’s come a LONG way as far as viewership and he deserves it. I just started watching him recently but the variety in topics and video lengths are *chef’s kiss*. you can tell he likes what he talks about & i hope i can get to that point someday
I’ve watched his 9 hour conspiracy video like 5 times already.
🤓
Realising that the Parader was screaming at the kid to wake up during "Sleep" actually gave me chills
Thisssss! I just watched an amazing fan video for Sleep today and watching the Patient in that screaming “wake up” and the Widow character gave me goosebumps, too!
@@tinaxlynn9157 yooo I just watched it! Actually cant believe I've never seen this its really good.
Shitfire! That got me too bro.
I knew there was screaming but I didn't know it was death lol
saaame!! literal chills
When I was 14 my father introduced me to MCR through the song Welcome to the Black Parade specifically. He loved music and loved that song specifically from their catalog. He developed cancer when I was 15 and took his own life a year later so this album and his enjoyment of that specific song really meant a lot to me as a teenager and still today.
sorry for your loss, friend.
Im so sorry for your loss
im so sorry
Sorry for your loss bud
I’m so sorry, I hope you’re doing okay now
The part when his Father took him to see a marching band, I think was a literal event in the back story of the parader. When he died he fulfilled his Fathers wish by joining the Black Parade to help lead lost souls into the afterlife.
Edit: Also, early 19th century going to the city to view a marching band would have been a huge event in a child’s life that they would always remember.
Love this idea, but I think I can make it work with the original narrative.
The Patient's dad was dying of an unknown illness and probably had days to live, so in his final days he took his young son (the Patient) to the city to see the marching band. While there he meets his own "Parader" where the Parader tells of how the father's son will also die young and will be on a path to become a "Parader" himself because of the fathers imminent death. Also telling him of who is supposed to help his son into the afterlife and how it can only end badly for both The Patient and The Parader. So while watching the marching band the father tells his son the quote The Patient sings in the song.
A day or so later The Patient's father dies and he can't deal with it and the memory of the marching band is suppressed until he realized at the end that he'd fulfilled his father's request and saved not only his own soul, but helped The Parader come to terms with his destiny and becomes a better soul for those who will need him later.
The band themselves have said that the reason death comes to him as a parade is because one of the characters strongest memories as a child is being literally taken to see a marching band in the city. He's dying and remembering going to see the parade with his father.
Early 20th \ late 19th
@@Burgi959 20th century is 1900s right?
@@jozz7061 yahh
This is the literally the greatest interpretation of the album I have ever came across. Holy shit dude, why does this have such little views?!?!?! I am legitimately moved
That means the most, thank you so much!!!
That means the most, thank you so much!!!
if we are being honest, im not a my chemical romance fan but this shit made my eyes well up haha his interpretation was so thorough and so good
Polyphonic has a done a great video on it.
IKR? I've loved MCR over half my life and IDEK if it's intended this way ro not, this is the headcanon truth of my heart. It's wonderful.
You know Wendigoon's a real one because you can see him tear up when he's talking about Disenchanted.
Best song on the album in my opinion
You can hear it lol
Timestamp?
@@superstriker412 17:25 is when he starts talking about it
probably one of the saddest mcr song
I'd pay a hundred bucks to see Gerard way react to this
Start a kickstarter lol
@@vocondusAyy, the Jon Mess pfp let's go
@@Edman459 hell yeah. Been that way since the video came out
No literally I hope the guys have seen this video 😭
Sounds like fun but I don't think Gerard would just wanna totally give up the story. Though if you just mean watch it without giving it up sure
Another minor detail that wasn't mentioned yet really reinforces this theory is that, in all the music videos for the Patient's songs, Gerard has black hair and is wearing regular clothes, while in the Parader's songs he has white hair and the ever-famous black Parade outfit, and in Welcome to the Black Parade, the patient is played by someone else with black hair, with white hair Gerard as the Parader. In addition to the look, these are specifically the videos where Gerard really adapts the whole batshit crazy, sassy, pompous Freddie Mercury-esque personality (which is more or less Gerards own energy anyway) which I 100% believe is him playing the character of the Parader, and in the Patient videos, he's noticeably toned it down (save for Teenagers, which is appropriate given the song). It all fits in perfectly with this take on the album and I love it.
I also like to imagine that the rest of MCR, in the Parader's videos, are his brothers in arms who died in the same air raid and are now with him playing in the Black Parade.
my jaw actually dropped reading this. wow. thank you for adding this!!!
awww, the last sentence :')
I really wish he saw this comment
i agree so much with the last line, i don’t remember where i saw it but someone pointed out that Mikey’s jacket has the same cross on the jacket he wore in ghost of you
Also the ghost of you music video is literally set in a war so it might as well serve as a second-person POV of the paraders death
“Mama” reminds me of a client I once cut hair for. This man literally had me in tears after he walked out.. I’ve been doing hair for 15 years now so I have had many weird, crazy, somber, and hilarious encounters with all types of personalities. Some are forgettable. But this man, I will remember him for the rest of my life. He was a Vietnam war vet. He told me about how hard it was for him to come back home and just cope with the guilt of living through the nightmares he endured first hand (without going into detail of those nightmares, of course) He told me about how he ruined his own life by running his wife and kids off, becoming homeless, struggling with addiction, and basically just trying to find his way home. My ex husband is a army vet and I’ve dated a couple of army vets as well.. I’ve seen the struggle with PTSD and the struggle they’ve had to just be a normal civilian.. so hearing some of his stories weren’t anything I haven’t heard before. It’s heartbreaking regardless.. but this man was different. He asked me if I am a mother. And I said “Yes sir, I have 3 little ones”. He turned to face me, looked me in my eyes and said, “You’re more of a hero than I could ever be”. Of course I spoke up and said “I could have never endured what you have and I am very grateful for your service.. but why do you say that”? He said, “Do you know what grown men scream when they’re facing death? They scream for God and their mothers.. nothing else”. My heart dropped when he said that and I teared up. I had to turn around to keep from bawling my eyes out. The way he said it was just so blunt and so nonchalant, it was almost chilling. This might not seem like a lot to some people.. but for me, it almost changed my look on life.
I don't care
@@techpriest1852 I dont care about you.
@@techpriest1852 oh hey look you're likely the type who supports isis and spits on the veterans
@@techpriest1852 no one asked :)
That is a very touching story, and it is something I'll remember. Thank you! It is true that, whether it's war or something difficult going on in your life, you'll most likely think of your mum and will just want to be beside her in those moments. It's powerful to have a former soldier tell you that, it hits differently. All the best to you!
he's laid out the blueprints for a black parade musical now make it happen
already started writing it/srs
@@eccentricreptile you bloody fucking legend
Also someone make a Danger Days musical that is just too easy
@@liamcole2701 im procrastinating, but it will happen! lost motivation after dead! LMAO but i promise i'll have it finished at some point. i can paste the doc link here when i'm finished!
this shall be interesting
2 years ago: “. . . I have less than a thousand subscribers . . .”
Now: Over 3M.
It’s so awesome to see how far he’s come, I hope he continues to grow and succeed
over 4M now, so proud of him
Something great about this Theory is, during the last black parade concert video, you see Gerard as the patient singing “The end”, in a hospital dress, then when the parade music hits, you see Gerard tearing up his hospital dress, and reveals the parader. - just something cool I noticed while re-visiting MCR
omg ur right!!
I think it’s because at the end when the patient dies he also joins the parade
You somehow made Teenagers fit in perfect with the rest of the album, that song always felt like it didn't fit with the rest of the album theme-wise. This interpretation makes so much sense to me, Id love to see more concept album videos at some point.
Thank you my man!
Frankly I just found this channel thanks to the "Staircases" video, saw this video and I just had to watch and I'm so glad I did! I'll be a regular on this channel going forward
Same here, teenagers kinda stood out to me, but now it blends more naturally
Your eelcombw@@Wendigoon
This makes me wish that Wendigoon made more videos about music. I would love for him to make a similar video about Ghost Quartet, American Idiot or another concept album with an obscure story.
I would kill for him to cover American Idiot
Pink Floyd's the wall would be fantastic for him to break down
Volbeat's guitars gangsters and Cadillac blood
Ghost quartet?
2112
Mama is just incredible. A lot of these songs feel nostalgic but Mama manages to transcend the time it was created for me
Mama is played by Liza Minnelli. No cap.
I can't believe that STILL after all these years, the first note of welcome to the black parade is INSTANT goosebumps for me
It's a common occurrence. Getting G noted hits different sometimes brotha
It's legit to the point where if I just hear that lone note on a piano, regardless of if it goes into the song or not I get the chills
Fr, every time I hear it it does something to me
Saw them live in May 2022, when that note hit it took me back to my youth, when I first discovered this album. Still gets me every time.
That's the craziest thing to me. An entire album that just about every song hits hard in a different way. Wild how an album can imprint on you.
Finally, someone who believes in Mama supremacy
Mama says a lot about the character of patient, and why he was such a hateful person.
I’ve always been obsessed with Mama since I’m 12 lol
ive never met a person who doesnt but it is amazing
I love Mama I feel it doesn’t get the love and appreciation it deserves
@@shatteredmoonyt434 No, it says a lot about the character of the Parader because it shows us his backstory as he said in the video. Mama is about the death of the Parader in WW1. The Parader is talking to his own mother.
I may be reaching, but for “Mama” (my fave song btw) I love how after all of the loud music and sirens and chaos and everything, the song ends with a single pluck. No grand finale, no lingering note. Just a single pluck, symbolizing the finality of death. There is no great exit, there is no blaze of glory, you’re just gone. Nothing afterwards to help the listener cope or grieve with the song being over. It’s chillingly accurate.
Famous last words is def the most powerful song to me. I feel it's like a young couple with the shitty world and the characters partner is ready to commit suicide and the character comes to and is afraid to keep on living and will walk the world alone if the partner won't change their mind but is begging and pleading them to keep living with them. I feel the verses very well support this as well.
Orrrrrrrrr hear me out the single pluck signifies him waking up as the parader/death after his own death
Going off of the finality (also reaching), how about this? The abrupt end is his end and it makes him cynical. That cynicism lingers until he meets the patient and in the final track, he prevents that abrupt end by playing him one last grandiose orchestra, which the parader didn't get.
@@terminalcreature1560 to piggyback off what you said. Maybe the reason he is giving the patient the big end is because the single pluck the abrupt end is what turns them into Paraders since the common idea for why spirits stay on earth is because of unfinished business or situations like being killed all of a sudden
Huh, it kinda explains why the parader made such a grand parade for the patient. Also supports the suppossed respect the parader has towards the patient.
He respects him so much that he wanted to give him a grand sendoff that himself wasn't able to have.
the way wendigoon has always talked about his topics never fails to get me. it's not for the subjects alone, but the way he talks about them with tmhis unique compassion never fails to make me tear up.
Trust me, as someone who’s been around those nearing the end of their battle with cancer, “the hardest part of this is leaving you”, is far from cliché. It’s a very simple, yet visceral way of encompassing the true horrors of battling cancer.
Saying "trust me," before tearing down something is cliche
The replier above me is quite silly
@@crunchylettuce5446 yea, they don't call me Giggler for nothing
This is the same with "Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge" it tells the story of a "Bonnie and Clyde" type of couple from the beginning all the way to the cemetery. They are by far the most genius band of that decade.
Amazing album.
I always liked Danger Days most because I think 13 year old me found it wayyy easier to interpret the concept from that album. C'mon, dystopian societies? SCARECROW as a whole ass thing? Fucking, lazer guns?!?! I loved that! Still do.
But after growing up (just a bit, I'm still a teenager), I think I've learnt to appreciate TBP and Three Cheers a bit more.
I like to think of Three Cheers as a psudo story of the patient before The Black Parade. It's strange, but Teenagers seems like a summary of it pretty much. I'm not sure on it but the more I listen to it the more the idea develops in my wack brain
I feel like the first three albums are more connected like three cheers basically picks up from bullets and as someone mentioned in this comment string tbp being the wrap up of three cheers
@@emoticpen404 I'm the guy in the last part of your comment. Hi. I've edited my interpretation of this rendition a little bit and I think Sharpest Lives isthe summary and Teenagers is the Parader's reaction to it.
one thing i think adds to this explanation beautifully is a detail in the wttbp music video: for context, there are, among others, two more characters that are part of the parade (the two girls with black streaks over their eyes), and they are canonically called Fear and Regret. in the video, after the Patient is made a part of the parade and receives a medal, they both kiss him goodbye and simply go away.
if we look at the entire album as a story about making peace with his mistakes in life and with the fact that he's dying, the ending track featuring him letting go of all the fear of death and regret about his life he held is both thematically coherent and a beautiful addition.
Now I REALLY like this interpretation, but I wanted to see how I could fit the B-sides and Blood into the story (they were written as part after all, even if they were removed) and here's what I came up with
1: The End
2: Dead
3: Teenagers
4: Kill All Your Friends - this is the parader making fun of the patients view of his youth and counteracting it with stories of his own youth (you've done this? well I've done worse)
5: The Sharpest Lives
6: Cancer
7: House of Wolves
8: Heaven Help Us - this is the patient realizing that he doesn't want people to remember him as anything but what he was, a terrible person
9: I Don't Love You
10: This is How I Disappear
11: Disenchanted
12: Mama
13: Sleep
14: My Way Home Is Through You - this is the parader after coming to terms with the fact that the patient doesn't want to fight anymore, now realizing that what he (the parader) needs, is for the patient to accept his life and go freely into death
15: Famous Last Words
16: Blood - this is the parader and patient both on the same page taking one last moment to lament all the screwed up stuff that happened in their lives
17: Welcome to the Black Parade
Perfect placement! Hope Wendi sees this. Edit: I would personally put Blood between Cancer and I Don't Love You, showing his attitude carrying on into the disease until he loses everything with I Don't Love You and has to reflect and so on.
Yes I believe Blood isn’t just about the patient, I think the patient and parader are both talking to eachother I see it as the first verse is the patient talking and second verse is the parador, and the 3rd part is both of them singing together or agreeing together
@Gianna G. I thought so too, but the expression of "famous last words" is usually used to contradict what the last words are referring to. I find it tragically ironic that the patient dies saying he's not afraid to keep on living. But also uplifting, even if the patient doesn't want to die (who wants that?), his arc is done the moment he's willing to keep on living and rectify his life.
I really like this placement but I would put blood as a separate ending to famous last words as apposed to before welcome to the black parade where the parader joins the patient in hell and is being tormented by all of the messed up stuff they had done
I personally might place My Way Home is Through You after Famous Last Words only because Famous Last Words is them still arguing about whether the patient should live or accept his death, then the parader realizes he can't do anything and accepts the patients request after famous last words, then throws him a parade
Teenagers was a song Gerard wrote when he was sitting across from a group of teens on the subway and he thought they were going to beat him up 😂
Idc if this is a joke it’s cannon
@@Thefuzzion115 no I’m pretty sure this is a fact
@@Thefuzzion115 no this actually happened
He said this with his own mouth? Joe rogan's cousin?
He says it's an irrational fear, but as a teenager myself, it is far from irrational
This is really cool, man. I'd like to see this as an actual musical.
You always have the best comments lol ty
it was rumored of a musical being in production, not much since then.
Seeing them in concert during The Black Parade phase was like an actual musical. Starting with The End, with Gerard coming out pushed on a gurney in a patient's robe singing the song and tearing it off revealing the parade outfit and going into flames and changing out of the parade outfit when they finish The Black Parade and ome back on stage dressed different to perform "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge"
@@shakezula666 A friend of mine inquired about the licensing rights to work on a musical based on TBP maybe 4 or 5 years ago
i feel like a musical would destroy the mystery and charm of it
When I was 7 my mom died, December 20, 2007. After a couple days when brother and I were going back to school he turned on Mtv like our mom had always done, and that morning the first song that played was Welcome to the Black Parade. I was so scared of the video at the time, and was sure it was a horror movie trailer. 6 years later I started listening to MCR and rediscovered the song. Part of me believes the song played at that time as a way for my mom to tell us everything would be okay. It's now been 15 years and I miss her so fucking much.
What a beautiful story. I’m sure your mum is looking down from the heavens, eternally proud of the people you and your brother have become. Keep pushing for her, she’s always with you
I know your comment is 6 months old at this point, but I had to share:
This was about 4 years ago. I was at work when I got a phone call. I was informed that my dad had died in his sleep (without warning... nothing specifically wrong with him other than just being generally unhealthy).
Anywho, I sprinted out of work, got into my truck, and started the 10 minute drive to my parents house. I wasn't focused on anything other than the road and getting there as fast as possible.
Then, just out of the blue, my awareness was shifted to the song on the radio... almost as if someone was in the passenger seat and turned the volume up. The song was "Knockin on Heavens Door."
Looking back, I sometimes wonder... was it his way of comforting me before I reached the house to see his body? Or was it coincidence that THAT song was playing, instead of "mmmBop" or "Living in a Material World?"
I doubt it was coincidence and after reading your story, it further solidifies my belief that our loved ones CAN reach out to us from beyond the grave. I'm sorry for your loss, brother. It never gets any easier, we just learn to cope better. I hope you have a long, fulfilling life as I'm sure your mother would've wanted for you
That, has to be, bar none, the single greatest interpretation of this album ever. full stop. Its clear that this album touched you in that certain way only art can. For what it's worth, I'm certain that you'll be welcomed with open arms into The Black Parade.
He sets up his own ideas for how the album works and then just doesn't follow them.
I like Wendigoon, but no. If the band wanted the album to be this way, then they just would have ordered it that way. I doubt they wanted enjoying their album correctly to be homework.
@@nibiru2x410 I don't see the first half of your point please do elaborate a but here.
Secondly, while most artists and most albums want a simple listening experience, MCR has a history of overarching themes and storyline in their other records for those willing to pay enough attention, so I wouldn't say it's fair to claim MCR didn't do so intentionally in the case of The Black Parade.
@@nibiru2x410 Why do you sound mad lmao
If you think about it, it makes total sense for them to order their songs the way they did. Casual listeners like you can enjoy the them as individual songs, whereas deeper listeners can put it together as a fun little puzzle and enjoy as a more theatrical piece. I mean, Wendigoon pretty much says that himself at the end, so idk why you're disagreeing with him lol
The “WAKE UP” on Sleep got me all kinds of fucked up
SAAAAMME
Every time that meme comes up, where someone fits "WAKE UP" into some text as if directed at you to wake you up from a coma or something, it always fucked with me. Ever since first seeing that, those two simple words always kinda fuck with me
Me too!! I absolutely love that song and I never heard it.
I heard the screaming in the background, but literally never realized the true meaning of it until this video. Holy shit the goosebumps when Sleep and the actual meaning of Famous Last Words became clear.
grab a brush and put a little makeup
I was in awe when I realized the paraders "wake up" scream at the end of Sleep. I've listened to this song so often and just didn't realize. Now I can't unhear it. And I personally think it's answered by a "leave me alone" from the patient. NOW IT ALL MAKES SENSE.
What lol
This man single handedly got me into MCR and the whole rock scene in general, I love wendigoon for this.
Ignore me, I'm just going to write the story order of the songs so I can cry later while listening:
1. The End
2. Dead!
3. Teenagers
4. The Sharpest Lives
5. Cancer
6. House of Wolves
7. I Don't Love You
8. This Is How I Disappear
9. Disenchanted
10. Mama
11. Sleep
12. Famous Last Words
13. Welcome To The Balck Parade
Thank you
Doing God's work
The story order of the songs is just the order there in on the album
@@ummagumma2954 No lol
Thank you v much
Wendigoon is literally the greatest comfort of my “way too long” nights. The fact that he is an MCR fan just solidifies my appreciation. Can’t wait to see you hit 1,000,000 subs
I have amazing news
He's done it
ay bro guess what/
@@SinCoTan that escalated quickly
@@senhorokami yep
MCR may have not sonically an "Emo" band, but you cannot deny the impact they had on Emo culture
Maybe not in this album much, but the first two sound absolutely like emo, especially the first one, that sounds like Rites of Spring
They are the quintessential emo band...... Literally the poster child for the genre.
Kinda like how nirvana wasn't really grunge but inspired the entire grunge movement. I know some people consider them grunge but Kurt Cobain hated that they were viewed like that
@@motcUS those bands are all from the origins of emo, when it was more hardcore, but emo changed when it became mainstream in the 2000s so mcr is emo
MCR is to Emo music what Motorhead is to Metal.
MCR is NOT an Emo band but they had a massive influence in the genre, just like Motorhead throughout their career denied being a Metal band AT ALL, but still had a massive influence in the genre.
the setup for the thirteenth track being The Black Parade was GLORIOUS. i’d been compiling a journal page about this concept and had made a list of the tracks in order as you went and i say for a bit like “ wait what’s the last one??” and i got chills when the key played it was so good
Holy crap dude, I've never really given MCR a chance but the way you described the overarching story gave me goosebumps. Came across your channel in my recommended feed and have been binging since, may the algorithm be in your favor.
Thank you so much! The album has always meant a lot to me so if I can get that across, it’s worth it.
@@Wendigoonyeah you got it your welcome by th3 way that was my akt account yeah
Ok, but hear me out.
I like to think that the whole point of the Parader and the Parade is to usher a soul into “The Good Place”. To piggy back off of everyone else’s theories, the Parader is given this job as sort of a punishment for the bad life he lived beforehand. If he can salvage a soul to “The Good Place”, then he can rest peacefully too.
Since he’s never been able to do that and it’s going on 75 years, he’s become quite cynical about the living. Hence his sarcastic tone until The Patient starts on his own redemption story.
The Parader starts becoming impatient, thinking this kid may be his ticket out of this job. But in this journey he finds that life is worth living after all, and he attempts to get The Patient to fight for his life instead; an opportunity never given to the Parader.
At this point, The Patient is tired of living and found more meaning and purpose in death than he ever did living. At the end of Famous Last Words, the Patient makes an agreement with the Parader: as a show of gratitude for helping him find redemption in death, he agrees to take over The Parader’s job; as he now finds fulfillment in helping lost souls find redemption in their last moments. After all, the Parader finds redemption through the Patient’s story too.
The Parader passes on peacefully, The Patient takes over the parade.
That’s why Gerard’s hair is black at the final leg of the Black Parade tour with: The Black Parade is Dead! The Patient is the new Parader.
This! I like this along with the videos theory. Because the Parader has a song of his own after the patients songs. He keeps popping up in the patients life because he has a job to do, and feels maybe this will be the last soul he has to guide in order to finally be at peace. Which is why he does become impatient.
Then everything the video says is spot on.
Then in famous last words, the parader might be saying the patient should keep living, “with words I thought I’d never say” he wants the patient to live and doesn’t want to take him to die. Which would be a selfless thing for him to do, but patient has taught him something about living. Which then might be the one redeemable thing the parader needed to be able to pass on, finally be at peace and never having to usher another soul into the afterlife ever again.
I would like to picture that Blood is an end credit scene where the Parader is off in “heaven” or wherever he ends up, having a drink and telling stories of his time when he was alive, maybe before he died, still his same cynical sassy self. He’s the “kind of human wreckage that you love.”
Didn’t give this a ton of thought, but I got exacted after watching this video and seeing this comment.
I had the same thought since the first time i heeard the album, that at the end the patient gives the parader release by taking his place as a psychopomp to help others on their journey
holy shit
I also like to think that in “Welcome to the black parade” the “father” mentioned is both the paraders real father AND god
I still can't decide which of them sings "Blood!". This theory made it even more difficult.
After watching this video a couple times, I am positive that Gerard Way needs to see this. That man is a creative genius in his own right and even if this is not his “intended” storyline I’m incredibly confident he would enjoy it. It’s such a gut wrenching yet beautiful tale. Unbelievably well thought out, great job my dude. GET THIS TO MCR IMMEDIATELY
I've checked the comments a few times, hoping to find Gerard. I think he would love this video.
Tweet it to him and all band members
It was his intended storyline, it was about a guy dying of cancer and basically being forced to welcome death (the black parade). They had an interview about it.
@@Sabbyyy_19 source?
@@DMAN_GAMR “my chemical romance welcomes you to the black parade” and the Gerard/Mikey way interview with Kevin Smith
An addition to Mama (3 years later). Practically the whole album is written in 4/4 time. Very common for rock /pop punk/emo. Mama switches to 3/4 at the very end of the song, 3/4 is famous for being the time signature that you would waltz in. The waltz was originally a dance about freedom and expression. Perhaps this was what he thought was his freedom and well... it wasn't
This was one of my favorite albums as a kid but after my mom died of cancer the entire thing hit completely differently. Im glad someone was able explain the album better.
Same here. I lost my mom of breast cancer late last year and listening to this hurts a lot...
Same with my step-dad... UA-cam mix started playing Cancer the other day while I was driving with my gf and I just broke out into tears.... Just from the music at the start.
I lost a friend the other day, so this video really hit different for me as well.
My condolences Jay. I hope you can grieve in peace
When I was in my early teens and my mum still had a few years left in her, I remember having The Black Parade tracklist open on windows media player. She came to sit with me, saw "Cancer", asked what that song was, and I hit play. It didn't take long for her to start sobbing, and all I could really do was hug her and try to comfort her. That memory still fucks me up to this day. I miss her. I'm glad I'm not the only one with those kind of ties to the song.
i’ve been an mcr fan for like 7 years, and this just made me appreciate the black parade in a way that i never had before, this video is so perfect
@Federal Bureau of Investigation lol you don’t have to be a fan of a band ever since they formed
@Federal Bureau of Investigation dude😐 do not gatekeep a broken up band
samee
I could sort of see how “Teenagers” could fit into the paraders perspective. It’s being told from him that teenagers scare him because of their obsession with death. Yes he mocks those dying, but why mocking those who aren’t afraid and are risking death? It scares him.
it's also kind of a "kids these days" song where people just ASSUME teenagers as a whole are just worse than they are because of what gets talked about most in news and gossip
I did agree with this theory, as I felt that wendigoons interpretation conflicted too much with the song by itself.
However listening to the rest of the album, I believe teenagers was 100% being sung by the patient. In disenchanted (which was 100% being sung by the patient), the patient explained that his anger was caused by bullying and seeing his heroes sellout, which seems like a reference to teenagers
@@highdifficulty4184 I think teenagers could be sung by both, but personally I think it was death during his initial meeting with the patient. I imagine that it's what death usually tells the people he's guiding into the afterlife. Kinda going through the motions, only for death to learn more about the patient later in the album. Mainly I think its death cause of the line "maybe they'll leave you alone but not me" and the tone of the song being sung by a scapegoat. Perhaps death is just trying to convince the patient to just listen to him and go along with it so death can move onto the next one. Kinda like "Everyone hates you anyways, might as well leave on your own terms"
Oh that makes sense too
I had to watch this twice and I cried like a baby both times. Gerard is one of the best storytellers of this generation. This album is just beautiful in every way
Just listened to the playlist in your order and have to add one more wrinkle. Sharpest Lives is not just the Parader reacting to the prior song. It's part of his story. The language of the song is actually very period phrasing when you listen to it, and he is telling his lover to leave so she won't be killed. "So you can leave here like the sane, abandon me". It's a very literal scene if you listen carefully, a flashback. And in that, it's a parallel to the Patient doing the same to his lover in "I Don't Love You".
Reading "Disappear" in this light, The Parader is singing to the girl he sent away. "And if you could talk to me, Tell me if it's so, That all the good girls go to heaven.
Well, heaven knows." then later, "Can you hear me cry out to you? Words I thought I'd choke on figure out. I'm really not so with you anymore. I'm just a ghost, So I can't hurt you anymore, So I can't hurt you anymore." He's lamenting that he doesn't even know if he saved her by sending her away, he condemned himself to being alone, now being alone forever. His rant about how far he can fall and telling her to let go - Perhaps in a sense she is what has him stuck between. Her love for him and his for her is his redeeming point.
The more I listen in order, the more I agree. The callback in "Disenchanted" to "Teenagers is another supporting piece about his 'angry days' - "I spent my high school career / Spit on and shoved to agree / So I could watch all my heroes / Sell a car on TV / Bring out the old guillotine / We'll show 'em what we all mean".
I hope you don't mind my building on your theory, I believe you're very right.
These are brilliant additions, thanks for sharing!
Can you write the order for me? The videos really long and I don't want to rewatch it to write it down
This album impacted me so heavily as a child and to have the story laid out for me now gave me chills. I cried at multiple points in this video because A) i am a baby and B) your explanations made so much sense and were so chilling (i.e. the Parader screaming during Sleep). You’ve grown from a thousand subs to over 2.5 million, so I know the chance of you seeing this now is low. But I’m proud of you, we’re all proud of you, and thank you.
oh my gosh, same.
i’m glad i’m not the only one
The whole general theme of this album hits especially hard when you think about how Gerard used to be an alcoholic and struggled with some addictions
thats what sharpest lives is about outside the story of the album
Damn man I can’t believe I am just watching this. This theory is so solid and makes so much more sense than any other theory I’ve seen. So succinct and the act structure really does match up.
Really makes a lot of the songs hit a lot harder. i know each song on its own was amazing and the album as a whole as well, but this makes the album so much more interesting to listen to.
i discovered this album in 2014, literally weeks before i was rushed to the hospital with ovarian cancer for emergency surgery. the damage done to my psyche from an album about accepting a cancerous death- as a suicidal kid who will soon get cancer- was UNIMAGINABLE. i was 14. my bf at the time was as scared as the antagonist in #7. i still love this album more than anything for what it got me through.
Glad to see you’re still here with us :) I wish you plenty of health going into the future ❤️
And you’re still here🥰🥰 love that
❤️
Amazing story
Did you live?
Just gave the album a listen with this context in mind.
Teenagers is a song about how death is scared of teenagers, because they aren’t scared of him. He starts out by talking about the struggles young adults have, and sounds giddy while doing so because they’re things that bring them closer to death.
I’d even go as far as saying the line “what you’ve got under your shirt will make them pay for the things that they did” is death goading the cancer patient into “making them pay for the things that they did” and the album is about karma, and deaths manipulation of the cancer patient until he takes them too.
This is a good hypothesis
Nice take, but my punk head will stick with the one on the christian capitalistic patriarchy* who wants to make everyone puppets for them to play with and, torture and call names the ones that don’t fit or/and stand against, the “teenagers”, but knowing the power they have together they’re scared. The “what you got under your shirt” makes me think about the s3lf h4rm that many go trought, leaving scars (and rage) hidden by shirts, that *THEY have to pay for, being the reason of it, and “they could care less as long as someone will bleed” is very clear from this point of view.
I made another comment, but I grew to disagree with it so much that I deleted it and made a whole new one.
I think that death actually *loves* teenagers because they aren't scared of him. The line in the song is *"They* say 'Teenagers scare the living shit out of me'". The parader is saying that someone *else,* not himself, is scared of teenagers. I'm going to assume he means adults.
The parader is telling the teenagers to "darken your clothes or strike a violent pose" because "maybe they'll leave you alone." The parader knows that teenagers can scare away adults, but they can't scare away death itself--they can't scare away *him.*
And, if the adults are scared away, those same teenagers are probably more likely to get into trouble and danger.
Blud teenagers is about teen violence💀
@@LoserLoiue2009 you are commenting on a video literally meant to look into a possible deeper meaning of the album 💀
Timestamps and also the order
0:00 Introduction
3:23 The End
6:24 Dead
7:47 Teenagers
9:02 The Sharpest Lives
10:12 Cancer
11:27 House of Wolves
13:24 I Don't Love you
14:59 This is How I Disappear
17:25 Disenchanted
19:11 Mama
23:50 Sleep
25:25 Famous Last Words
28:10 Welcome to the Black Parade
33:47 The Bonus Tracks (Blood and Kill All Your Friends)
👑
Link to the playlist for spotify. open.spotify.com/playlist/639wpohaiVcgbigbR17Sek?si=dd36d9b7dbf14551
*Best Person Award goes to...* lol
Thanks, man
Genuinely thank you
To reinforce the idea that he was from WW1, it appears that on the parade float are red poppies which are famously mentioned in the poem Flanders Field
When my long distance girlfriend died from COVID-19 a short time ago, I remembered how she was a fan of "Welcome to the Black Parade". Now I fully understand why. And I understand why she told me love is weak, but it's the best we can do in this life.
I know this phrase means nothing. But I am sorry for your loss.
I hope you've been doing okay lately 🖤
@@inlovewithanapparition Thank you. I decided to Fight Entropy. "Paint it black and take it back!" Ness would expect no less from me. "Defiant to the end, we hear the call!" I'll carry on!
@@fryode hell yeah my boy
I am deeply sorry for you mate. This is too brutal hope you are beign strong for you and your dear ones
Holy fuck when you revealed what Mama was about, my jaw dropped. I never knew how to fit Mama and Sleep into the story of a teenager's death, but now it makes so much sense. holy shit
Mama is thematically based on the late 30s/early 40s around wwii, the air raid sirens are from that time period. This is solidified by the fact that the song is inspired by the musical Cabernet. Which takes place in the Weimar Republic just before the start of wwii. The lead actress in the movie adaptation is Liza Minnelli, who is featured in the tract. Love the vid!
Omg I love that musical
I like the movie too, but it's Cabaret bro.
bitch it's cabaret not Cabernet
@@josephlozano7792 thank youuuu I was bout say the same shit lmfao
We know air raid sirens are historically inaccurate in ww1, blow me. Dying in an unending artillery strike in the middle of No Man's Land with hundreds of others is better for the musical narrative and a lot more fucked up for The Parader's backstory
As someone with a lot of love for MCR, I am so ashamed of myself for not watching this video sooner, holy shit. You unfolding this album's story was a great experience, and has made my love for The Black Parade go up a billion times more.
Just listened to the album in this order while having a massive depressive episode because my grandmother has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Absolutely amazing. Bravo Wendi. Bravo.
sending prayers to ur grandma and u 🖤🖤 u will get through this, i know it
@@heyjude6680 thank you Jude, good wishes to you ❤
Hey man just discovered the vid, and wanted to check in on you. You doing well nowadays?
I could be way off, but I think the parader is the patient's father. He died at war when his son was very young and doesn't realize that the patient is his son until famous last words. "I know there's nothing I could say to change that part" is him essentially apologizing to his son for having to grow up without his father.
In the bridge of Welcome to the Black Parade, "I'm just man, I'm not a hero. I'm just a boy who had to sing this song" is a back and forth between the father saying that he didn't ask to be a hero, he was just doing his duty as a man and a soldier and the son who is saying that all he wanted was to just be a boy and live his life, but he spent his life trying to live up to the hero everyone made his father out to be. This could explain the reason why he acted out as a youth in Teenagers and had such a lackluster attitude about life throughout the story.
Listened to it again and changed my mind a little bit about the timeline. I think I don't love you is the patient talking about his dad leaving without saying he loves him and then dying, not coming home, and the patient having to deal with that during his childhood. The next song, This is how I disappear, is the parader realizing this guy he's pretty much been shitting on for the first half of the album is actually his son. The part where he says "now you want to see how for down I can sink. Let me go. Fuck." Is the dad pleading to his son to stop hating him.
@@TDQdrummer But how would "Mama" (and a soldier dying in WWI) fit into that storyline? 🤔
Or does the story overall NOT take place around 2000?
@@claudis.4015 You are being too literal. It's not a history book it's a story.
@@claudis.4015 I haven't listened to the album as a whole for awhile -- why do you think the patient is dying around 2000?
@@TDQdrummer Interesting ideas! This sounds very plausible to me and I'm going to try to keep it in mind when listening to The Black Parade next time I listen to it through.
as a big MCR fan and also a big wendigoon fan, finding out this video existed was a great experience, and i now need to actually listen to all these tracks in the correct order lol
a credit to how good the lyrics are that i had not realised all of these were part of the same album and interpreted them compeltlely differently
As an Elder Emo [nearly 30 myself] this was the first album I ever bought for myself as a preteen. I didn't grow up in the best situation and this album helped me through difficult times. I always viewed it as someone going through the stages of grief due to mental illness landing on acceptance and perseverance.. but it was really cool to hear your analysis. I had never thought of it this way and admittedly I'm sure my own situation applied to my understanding, yet your conclusion is way more poetic. I had been putting off this video for a while, scared to have someone ruin my perception of something I cherish so much from those days. I don't know why I was scared because you always shed light to all little things worth mentioning in most all of your videos i've seen thus far while doing so with unbias, fairness, and enthusiasm. While I usually enjoy your videos of things I'm most unfamiliar with... this one delighted me as well. I remember seeing one of your records in a video was MCR and being like "no way!!" excitedly. Thank You for doing this video.
This album just holds the most special place in my heart. In 2006, I visited their website every single day to see if they posted something new. I remember when they posted a sneak preview of every song on the album. About 10 seconds each, and gosh I listened to those snippets over and over again until the album came out. I bought their special edition package of the album that came with a whole booklet describing their process behind making the album. I actually had to save up my lunch money at the time because I was 13 and didn't have a job haha. But the second I got it, I popped that CD in my boombox and played the entire thing while reading that booklet front to back.
It's a moment in time I'll never forget. Listening to the greatest album ever made.
Damn, I would have loved that. I feel like if death is really pictured in the receivers fondest memories, it's gonna go just like this amazing album did for me. I'm gonna be honest too, I see a bit of the patient in myself...
Teenagers might be able to also be taken as the Parader expressing a lack of sympathy for humans, living and newly dead, which it perceives to be a horde of psychotic naive children. The other interpretation STILL applies, though, almost as justification for its disdain for the Patient.
as much as i love the album as a listening experience, someone really needs to make an animated short movie for the album because i feel like adding visuals to the already graphic lyrics will give a bigger gut punch
I've been brainstorming
MCR was a side project for Gerard Way. He always wanted to make comics and he did. He was successful enough that they made a live action series based on his comic, The Umbrella Academy.
So it's not even a stretch to think that TBP has a story behind it, it makes a TON of sense.
Rolling Stone’s new Top 500 Albums of all time FINALLY includes Black Parade at #361.
Finally
The Wall is 192 . . . soooo
@@Cyborg_Lenin nice
@@Cyborg_Lenin no one asked
@@omg-kb8oc same for you.
More albums need to be written like this. This is just pure genius
Check out King Diamond, the Voodoo album is a personal favorite of mine.
There are. The progressive band Marillion has a few concept albums. It was pretty much what they've been known for. Their album Brave is my favorite. Check it out
Car seat headrests twin fantasy is a great concept album that talks teenage love and heart break. Really suggest listening.
"In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" by neutral milk hotel.
Deltron 3030 is incredible if you like hip hop
I like to think that the Lost Soldier showing up as Parader also adds to the WW1 theming because older armies used to have marching bands.
The army even today has marching bands. They’re pretty big on music, oddly enough
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
00:00 🎶 The album "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance is a concept album that tells a grandiose story using rock music and opera elements.
03:32 🎭 The album follows a three-act structure, with the first act establishing the characters and conflict, the second act exploring the patient's emotional journey, and the third act providing resolution.
10:11 😢 The album delves into the emotional turmoil of a dying cancer patient, who faces the consequences of his past actions and abandonment by his lover.
16:15 🤘 Death, portrayed as "the parader," initially appears indifferent and mocking but begins to show signs of empathy and concern as the patient's condition deteriorates.
20:53 🎵 The album's music and lyrics are skillfully crafted to enhance the storytelling, with instruments, choruses, and themes reflecting the characters' emotions and experiences.
23:39 🤔 "Mama" provides the parader's backstory, revealing he was a soldier in World War I who died alone, adding depth to his character and explaining his attitude towards death.
26:30 ⚖️ The album's closing track, "Famous Last Words," features a dualistic argument between the patient and the parader, offering a sense of resolution and suggesting two possible outcomes for the patient's afterlife.
27:09 🎵 The patient's journey in "The Black Parade" album is a reflection of personal growth and redemption, with the patient evolving from hate to acceptance.
28:25 🥁 The parader's appearance as a parade leader is inspired by the patient's childhood vision of his father, symbolizing goodness and justice.
29:48 🎤 In the final moments, the parade sings the patient's song, signifying respect and equality between the patient and the parader.
30:28 🎖️ The parader grants respect to the patient as he departs into the afterlife, offering closure to the story of "The Black Parade" album.
31:03 🎶 Each song on the album can stand alone, making "The Black Parade" appealing both as a story and a collection of individual songs.
32:13 📖 Discovering the deeper story behind the album adds a layer of meaning and power to the music, emphasizing the importance of personal interpretation.
33:39 🙏 The video creator expresses gratitude to Gerard Way and others involved in creating "The Black Parade," acknowledging its impact on his storytelling journey.
After hundreds of plays of this album I never realized the screaming in the background of Sleep. Awesome video.
Thank you!
goddamn. same thing for me
@@Wendigoonyoàr guelcome
Holy fuck when you explained why The Parader WAS the parader i fucking cried. He saw the one thing that brought him happiness, the memory of being at a parade with his father before his father died.
I also think the reason why the patient was so off putting of people and pushing them away because of him losing his father, he couldn’t get close to people. He faced trauma from that and it destroyed him but he changed and that made him realize he made his father proud.
when did the patient's father come into this? he's never mentioned in the story?
@@protonjones54 at welcome to the black parade
@@alexei9122 that's the PARADER'S father being mentioned
@@protonjones54 wait i thought the parader was singing about the patient's memories
29:45 they're singing his (the patient) song
@@alexei9122 my guy, wendigoon explains this in the video
You have an elegant and concise way of telling stories that is both profound and easy to understand. It's no surprise to me how fast and organically your channel is spreading. My dream as an artist was always to make an album like The Black Parade. With your analysis of the album in mind I think I at least know where I've failed in my previous attempts.
You are the only reactor/reviewer I've watched that understood that Blood actually had meaning that fit into the story. As someone with a chronic disease myself, the number of vials that have been sent off for testing is nearing an obscene level. When the patient says "gallons of the stuff --- it will never be enough" that hits the nail on the head, and sometimes the only way you can get through that needle prick is to smirk and be snarky about it. Great video for an even greater album. Thank you for your thoughts!
I'm just over here balling my eyes out. My cousin died at 18 from cancer. It was a 3 year battle. I remember hearing Black Parade and just being overwhelmed wit so much emotion.
I remember the black parade so vividly. Around 4-5 years ago my grandpa was on his death bed and it was about 12 at night and as I was just sitting in the lobby in the quiet dead of night, I popped in my headphones and listened to the song, it was weirdly comforting.
I'll always be a black metal type of guy but I'll never forget my roots. And My Chem Romance happened when I was around 10 or 11. Definitely inspired my music and definitely made a strong impression on me.
recently i've been binging your videos. I've been really really lonely and even though I know we don't really know each other, your presence has brought me a lot of comfort and company that I greatly appreciate. I rarely find videos that I'm actually interested in and I'm sincerely relieved I found your channel, as the way you commentate has always come across as genuine and intrigued.
I'm trying really hard not to trauma dump while relaying my gratitude, so I'll just chalk it to I've been under an egregious amount of pain lately. My boyfriend is a huge fan of yours and introduced me to your content, I thought it was really sweet the way he's picked up some of your speech patterns. That being said, he's been super busy trying to support us and I miss him a lot, I love him so much and I can really see why he loves your channel.
Again, I know we don't really know each other, but thank you for keeping me company.
I’ve listened to this album for years and just wanted to say thank you so much for giving me another perspective of the overarching story! I had also never heard the “wake up” in sleep and it gave me goosebumps!
This honestly took my absolute adoration for this album and multiplied it by like 1000. I always knew there was a story there but I never could figure it out. Thank god for this video
“music isn’t as involved with stories”
*cries in dream theater*
Alright there are exceptions lol
@@Wendigoon holy shit you actually check these, love ur vids :)
Al Jka much thanks my man! I try to read every comment and reply to some
@@Wendigoon bet it helps with feedback haha. Tbf when watching your content it really feels like you’re enjoying what ur doing, keep it up!
There are a good few albums that tell a story, they're called concept albums, my personal fave is 7th son of a 7th son by the mighty Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd's the wall is another extremely well known one.
Here after securing tickets to next years tour. Can't wait!!
SAAAME 😎
this is .. an absolute piece of genius analysis. im completely blown away. i already love the album as it is, and you just magnified that love even more. im making a playlist of this in your order, and will probably listen to this album that way for a long time. i never thought of it as a story with 2 characters, it will be a really fresh take for me when i will listen to the album again with your presented story in mind. i'll also be reading the lyrics as i go
things that really gave me literal whole body goosebumps:
- the entire mama explanation, i never realized the instrumentals (sirens) and the son-and-mother exchange until you mentioned it
- famous last words as a conversation... im convinced that it truly was written as one
- welcome to the black parade as the ending... i am again convinced that this should really be the last song, especially with the final lyrics saying "we'll carry on". putting this at the beginning or the middle will lose its very powerful "everyone-singing-at-once" feeling
this video will now be my point of reference for genius when it comes to album analysis. i think i can never shake your reinterpretation of the story out of my head from now on. thank you for this and i hope mcr fans will pick this up!
Wow, this is an incredible analysis of the story dynamics. I knew the concept of the album but did not catch the different perspectives, I just thought this was the patient on a path through the different stages of grief over his own death and those he left behind. But this was pretty sick.
I never felt like teenagers fit on this album, however. Gerard once talked about in an interview their feelings about teenagers on a train and how they freaked Gerard out, and caused a lot of anxiety and that inspired the song.
Why am I in tears after this analysis. Lmao. It is such a heatbreaking and moving piece. I'm so excited to see MCR in concert soon after all these years.
There is such a cathartic release in understanding some of their albums through the lense of my own experiences as I progress in life.
Excellent job breaking this down. ♡
I love how you used the word cathartic release!! its exactly how I would describe seeing them in concert last week
@@grahamcrackers7205 OH boy was it! I saw them a few weeks back finally and stand by those words as well! They were phenomenal and my inner young self is so happy.
It was such an amazing show! Its been a rough year for me, and as someone who didn't really listen to MCR until a few years ago, while I was there in the audience I finally understood what it was like to be so moved by their music and their lyrics. I cried twice (WttBP and Cancer) 🥺
I came here looking for a good background video and left nearly in tears. What an awesome story interpretation, another Wendi classic
The second you mentioned the thing about “death” songs starting with the heavy or rock music and the “patients” songs with softer sounds all the puzzle pieces clicked together and holy crap u didn’t half do a great job of explaining it !
Listening to your interpretation made me think about this album and story in a new way, I think you hit the nail on the head with this one. You thought this out pretty well clearly. Your version of it was almost as if I was experiencing the album for the first time all over again!
Some ideas which I came up with while listening: The contrasting characters: The Parader and The Patient. In my perspective you gave them a sort of relationship and some common characteristics. And that The Parader feels something towards the Patient.. That makes me think that The Parader is the father of the Patient. The Parader feels different about The Patient the further we go along because he learns that The Patient is actually his son.
As for blood I sometimes visualize it as when The Patient is in the hospital getting tests done but before dying.
Oh God the smile on my face right now! I can’t say that I’m 100% convinced of this particular story thread but I absolutely loved it. I’ve spent the last 12 years wondering why the hell some of these songs were on the album and now I have a wonderfully satisfying explanation! Excellent job!
I watched this last night and after listening to the album again, I just want to say THANK YOU! And i agree with your theory. It all just clicked into place.
As someone who considers TBP one of the most masterfully done albums of all time, I can honestly say you brought a level of depth to the story that (because of the out of order nature) i never would have considered previously. Obviously i got the gist of the story, but there were parts you brought light to that just... *chefs kiss* i didn't think this album could be improved on but your deep dive has absolutely brought it to the next level.
I have listened to this album so many times that i can envision every aspect of every song vividly in my imagination. Famous Last Words in particular got me through some pretty dark times. The choral ending has always given me chills but now even more so.
I cannot thank you enough for this video.
It also brings more context to Gerard's struggles during this time, having to embody both the Patient and Parader during the tour period. He's mentioned the dark places the album brought him along with other things he was dealing with at the time, and i cannot imagine the kind of effect it had on him to essentially be method acting this spiritual battle night after night.
There is so much i could say but it wouldnt come close to encompassing my feelings about this album. So THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for reigniting my passion.
I think my only different opinion is that Teenages IS from the parader's perspective, as is talking about how the actions of the patient as a teenager are super shocking and "scare the shit out of me". He taunts him, despite the patient not being able to hear him yet, saying "maybe they'll leave you alone, but not me". Adults might ignore them for dressing in black and being crazy, but death doesn't give a shit. I love your interpretation of thr album and totally agree with everything else! Definitely adding it all to my personal headcanon of the album
Honestly the best interpretation of this album that I've ever seen. This makes so much sense and ties everything together. A concept album that clearly follows the three act story structure and has character arcs?? My weakness, honestly.
I also almost made myself cry when you were explaining the Black Parade and how that song ends it and I thought of the line, "I'm just a man. I'm not a hero. I'm just a boy who had to sing this song." Gave it a whole new meaning. It just gave me chills, I transcended to another plane of existence I dunno.
You mentioned how this album was inspired by Freddie Mercury, but did you also notice how heavily inspired by Pink Floyd's The Wall it was? Especially in The End you can hear In The Flesh so clearly. I dunno, that's my own trivia that I always found neat.
I've been binging your videos for a couple days now, and man the quality or research and thought you put into every video.. Amazing. Absolutely incredible.
And hey, if you're into analyzing rock opera concept albums, American Idiot is a work of art (and I freaking love Green Day but that's besides the point)
Something to add to the final song in the timeline: In Welcome to the Black Parade, I think the Patient helped the Parader realize that both life and death have meaning, that it's not just a meaningless fucking joke leading up to a punchline (where you die pointlessly, violently and alone.) That people remember you, and your story lives on. Now that they've both realized this, the Parader gets to move on into the after life with him, since they figured it out together. I can imagine it now. The Parader picking the Patient up and carrying him to the afterlife, lots of happy tears and hugging and goodbyes when they finally get to the gates. The Patient asks the Parader to hold his hand and walk with him. The Parader tells him that he can't, he's stuck in purgatory, but he'll go up to the edge with him. As they approach it, side by side, hand in hand, the Parader braces himself to hit the invisible wall blocking him from ever heading towards the light. It's happened every time he tried before, why would it be any different now? But to his surprise, his foot passes through, then the rest oc him. Finally, after a century of mocking the dying carelessly shoving them off to the afterlife no matter how they feel about it, he's done. He's learned his lesson, he can finally rest.
Honestly, I might make OCs based on your interpretation, I really love it! If I had the spoons, I'd make a whole series of animatics following the story, but I'm not sure if I'd be able to stick with it. If that ever happens I'll be sure to credit you for putting the pieces together and inspiring me! I know this video is hella old but it's definitely getting the creative juices flowing!
Honestly, reading that kinda made me tear up a lil lol
"So how did you meet?"
"Oh I died 90 years after him and ended his eternal torture."
So I just gave the album another listen using your recommendation for the listening order and this just flows so well especially with this newer perspective of the parader and the patient. Amazing
the depth at which this album goes and the story behind it, is almost like a rock version of kendrick lamars to pimp a butterfly. both are beautifully written and produced stories with music.
Thank you so much for making this video! I've been a long time fan of My Chemical Romance since I was a teenager, and I've been saying to anyone who will listen that The Black Parade has such an intricate concept and story behind it--it's all about a deeply twisted, mentally scarred, and depressed Great War/WWI veteran called The Patient coming to terms with his own mortality, among other things, and it's very poignant and moving, I'm so glad people are giving it a second chance and not writing it off as "whiny emo shit" like they did when it was first released in 2006.
I need a fan musical based on the story of this album interpreted this way.
Yes
I'm thinking of interesting choreo for the songs at the moment. Then I gotta somehow come up with and hour of writing, mix in The Five of Us are Dying as a prelude to make the album come full circle along with adding in My Way Home is Through you, Heaven help us and everything. This is gonna be a project I look forward to for spring break
As a long time fan of this album, this video ishonestly one of my favourites and there were so many parts that straight up gave me chills, but the part at 18ish minutes in when you say 'so it doesn't seem like there is a lot left to do, but throw him a parade', followed by the g note absolutely made my jaw drop. I cannot explain it. This is the best video on the internet. Change my mind.
The praise you gave for Disenchanted made me SO HAPPY. It’s been my favorite MCR song since I first heard it. It’s soooo underrated. I even wanna get a tattoo inspired by it
im a simple man, if somebody calls the black parade the best album of all time i will subscribe
I always viewed it as an anthology and every song is a different person story about how they died but the narrator attempted suicide in the first song and after meeting everyone in the Parade he had a change of heart and in famous last words he is survives and has a new perspective on life
that's a nice way to think if it. It makes Dead! even better because it's essentially all the paraders mocking the patient, and also makes The End a song about someone who might not really be depressed and rather looking for attention "come one come all to this tragic affair" it's all kinda mellow dramatic; one way is a patient in the hospital for a sickness dejected and tired of dealing with everyone coming to visit, the other is a failed suicide who makes it all about them and isnt being ironic with the lyrics, until the parade comes, interrupts the song and starts mocking them because they actually might die
This makes soooo much sense! I’ve always tried to figure out the story and timeline, so thank you!