Oh, I love this track!

When I was a young boy
My father took me into the city
To see a marching band

He said son when you grow up
Would you be the savior of the broken
The beaten and the damned?

He said will you defeat them
Your demons and all the non-believers
The plans that they have made?

Because one day I'll leave you
A phantom to lead you in the summer
To join the black parade

I’m not a My Chemical Romance fan. I’d heard of them but probably couldn’t have named any of their songs until recently. The first few times I heard “Welcome to the Black Parade” come on the radio though, I found myself stopping whatever I was doing, kind of cocking my head to the side, and listening intently.

It’s the intro…I’ve been a bridesmaid enough times to recognize Pachelbel's “Canon in D” when I hear it. Come to find out, after doing a little research, the chord changes are shifted up from D major to G major and thus we get a sample of how Canon in G might sound. But then the song goes into a Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody” sort of feel, which yes, I jumped on the revival bandwagon that the movie “Wayne’s World” brought about for that song. From there I suppose it moves into a more typical MCR sound and I could take it or leave it.

But more than the sound, those lyrics intrigued me. I think it has a bit of a Christ vibe about it, albeit a little bit less hopeful and little bit more morbid. In my quest for meaning I found that the man in the song, called the patient, is dying in a hospital. His most treasured memory was of his father taking him to a parade. Gerard Way, lead vocals for MCR, said he believes that when you die, death comes to you in any form you want it to. So as the patient is dying, remembering his father and the parade, death comes to him as a black parade.

I’ve found out, through all of my “extensive” study on this song, that the album (The Black Parade) is actually a rock opera. Now…I dig this concept. That may be due, in part, to growing up absolutely loving musicals…from the first one I ever saw, “Guys and Dolls” to the first one I was ever in, “West Side Story.” Or, it could just be my desire for all things to be connected, cohesive, and flowing.

Nichole Nordeman, a very talented song writer and pianist and one of my favorite musicians, has chronicled her music in concept albums, something that I dig as well. Each one doesn’t tell a coherent story but is more of a compilation of a certain theme…trials, self-discovery, growth…with each one building from the last in succession.

I’m not talking about anything new here. The Who were very successful in the rock opera arena, The Beatles in concept albums, and Pink Floyd in both. Of course there are tons more, I’m only speaking of ones I am familiar with. There is a draw there for me though that’s for sure and they are concepts I can appreciate.

So anyway, I now have this album and I probably won’t listen to it as many times as dollars I paid for it, but I wanted to check it out. It hits a little close to home being that the universal theme is impending death and I just lost my grandmother recently. I wonder what her most treasured memory was of...in what form death came to her...but that’s another post for another day. A day when I can come to some semblance of clarity...

Currently listening to: Hits - Joni Mitchell & Misses - Joni Mitchell

// posted by The Emergent Teacher @ 9:30 PM 0 Comments