MCR meme - day 3

[rosiespark]

Day 3- Favorite song off of The Black Parade

So having waxed lyrical about Revenge yesterday, today it's TBP's turn. The Black Parade was the first MCR album I ever listened to, followed within a couple of weeks by Revenge and by Bullets shortly after that, all in the first few months of 2008. Perfect reverse order. And while I adore Bullets and can happily lose myself in its fantasy world of revenge, bullets and blood, TBP grabs me by the throat and says "THIS is it. THIS is what it's like". It's about being broken but defiant, acknowledging that life is fucked-up and then fucking CARRYING ON with courage and with wit and (black) humour. There's an honesty to it that bowls me over. So no, I don't find it depressing in the least and yes, I've never had the slightest difficulty in seeing TBP's positive message.

Heh, I'm using these "favourite song off of" posts to talk about the albums rather than attempting the impossible task of choosing a favourite track. And I think I'll treat the whole meme as an excuse to talk about MCR. Just the thing to get me posting again after so long. :)

Grandiose. Playful. Theatrical. Over the top. Musically, all things I love about TBP, and I do agree with the Queen comparisons. And Brian May himself said the nicest things about Gerard after performing with MCR recently at Reading. In particular: "Gerard as a front man is magnificent, of course - his honesty and vulnerability - along with the right kind of instinct for being a hero - connects instantly with the audience, reminding me quite a bit of a certain other great front man I worked with for many years." Awwww.

Favourites are probably The Sharpest Lives, Welcome to the Black Parade, House of Wolves, Mama and Sleep. But like with Bullets, the whole album works so perfectly as a coherent whole that I’ll rarely, if ever, just listen to individual tracks.

Love love LOVE the first line of The End. Used to be this journal's title: "So come one, come all to this tragic affair". It's an invitation to life! And then "You've got front row seats to the penitents' ball; When I grow up, I want to be NOTHING AT ALL". ::shivers::

Just the fact of having Dead! as a song title is a stroke of genius. With a cheery exclamation mark, no less! And "Have you heard the news that you're dead? No-one ever had much nice to say, I think they never liked you anyway". They sound so happy about it!

I always think the lyrics of The Sharpest Lives must be autobiographical, the first verses in particular... And I LOVE this bit:
"There's a place in the dark where the animals go
You can take off your skin in the cannibal glow
Juliet loves the beat and the lust it commands
Drop the dagger and lather the blood on your hands, Romeo"

Welcome to the Black Parade is the album's heart. The anthem of the broken, the beaten and the damned:
"Do or die, you'll never make me, because the world will never take my heart
Go and try, you'll never break me; we want it all, we want to play this part
I won't explain or say I'm sorry; I'm not unashamed, I'm gonna show my scar
Give a cheer for all the broken."

I love the drums in the intro to House of Wolves. And the lyrics. Too many lines to quote.

Mama is crazy and beautiful. I can remember sitting in my car in traffic soon after I got the album (no cd player so no music in my old car) and singing Mama to myself and being ecstatic when I could remember all the lyrics.

Sleep:
"Don't you breathe for me, undeserving of your sympathy
'Cos there ain't no way that I'm sorry for what I did"

Teenagers I like, but Disenchanted I never really got. I'm sorry I don't like it more because it's apparently one of Mikey's favourites.

Oh, and Blood makes me giggle. EVERY TIME. And sing along, of course.

One more thing I love about this album is how clearly Gerard's voice can be heard. I suppose it's a mixing choice during production, but it's one of the things I don't much like about Danger Days is that his vocal aren't clear. I want to hear Gerard singing, dammit!

And last thing I'm going to say: I am SOOOOO glad that Gerard has finally admitted that dissing his previous work is the way he lets go so he can move on to the next thing. I mean, I get that they wore themselves out touring with TBP and that they hated the negative reaction it got from some quarters, but I was sad when they seemed to not want to have anything to do with it any more. Because it will ALWAYS have a special place in my heart.
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Comments

[yekith.livejournal.com]

I don't even know what to add to all of this! I love how you made it about the album as a whole and talked about everything you like about it and it means to you.

In my case, TBP is my least favorite album. Musically, it's fucking great. I just never felt it much, personally. It's not my album. Lyrically, it definitely has a lot of great lines, like you pointed out. Although I wasn't so into the very direct lyrics, like WTTBP or FLW. Like I said in the meme, my favorite is The Sharpest Lives and I fucking loooove the lyrics you quoted. The album never depressed me either (except for Cancer). To me, the positive message they wanted to convey was always clear. What was kind of depressing, and then just got kind of ridiculous to me was the patient thing live. Well, even the uniforms got me tired rather soon...but they apparently felt the same so it's all good. xD

[yekith.livejournal.com]

what it means to you*

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

Heh, I can't possibly keep this up, fun as it is. The loooong posts everyday, I mean.

I just never felt it much, personally

That's how I feel (or don't feel!) about Danger Days.

TBP is Dead! was in 2007 and I only discovered them in 2008, so I don't think I'd ever seen the patient thing till I got the dvd of the Mexico City show. Yep, early 2008 when they were just about to go into hibernation, and then there was the whole thing of whether they'd ever get back together again and make any more music. So I really wish I felt differently about Danger Days - it's their first album since I became a fan and I'd really like to have fallen in love with it!

PS Frankie's pink gun is a source of endless amusement.

[yekith.livejournal.com]

Well, kind of the same with me and TBP! It wasn't the first album I heard (that was both Bullets and Three Cheers, the same day), but it was the first one released since I became a fan. Well, the first thing released was LOTMS (I became a fan around mid 2005 and that came out in March 2006) but album...TBP. So I went through all the wait and expectation and mystery...but then couldn't feel much for the album. I'd spent more than a year listening and watching their previous stuff and TBP was not what I expected. Maybe in some other moment or under a different situation I wouldn't have been expecting anything. Like, this time, after the long wait and especially after they re-recorded the album, I wasn't expecting anything in particular. So I wasn't disappointed. Surprised though. Still, Danger Days is number 3 in my ranking, but I feel more for it than I did for TBP. I think I needed some color too!

I LOVE Frankie with a pink gun. I'm bummed that the photographer uploaded more pics of that session and there's none from that part where they were posing with those ridiculous guns! xD

[morebliss.livejournal.com]

I always think the lyrics of The Sharpest Lives must be autobiographical

I'm pretty sure Gerard said in an interview/article that he wrote it after a night out with Bert. &tragic assholes;

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

That's really interesting. I didn't know, I was just going by what it felt like.