The Black Parade is the third studio album by American rock band My Chemical Romance. Released on October 23, 2006 through Reprise Records, it was produced by Rob Cavallo, who has also produced albums for Green Day. The album is the first on which Bob Bryar playsdrums, as Matt Pelissier played drums for Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love. It is arock opera centering on a dying character with cancer known as "The Patient". The album tells the story of his apparent death, experiences in the afterlife, and subsequent reflection on his life.Four singles were released from the album: "Welcome to the Black Parade", "Famous Last Words", "I Don't Love You", and "Teenagers".The Black Parade has received generally favorable reviews, and the band achieved its first Number 1 single in the UK with Welcome to the Black Parade. The album debuted at number two on both the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart and is also certified as platinum by theRIAA, as well as a Platinum certification in the UK and a Gold certificacion in both Argentina and Chile by the CAPIF. The limited edition boxed set also earned My Chemical Romance a Grammy nomination. In the video game Guitar Hero II (Xbox 360 version), the song "Dead!" was added to the game's track list prior to the earlier PS2 version, and the three songs "Teenagers," "Famous Last Words" and "This is How I Disappear" are available for download.
The Black Parade has sold 1,610,000 copies in the US as of October 2010.
The Black Parade is a rock opera centering around the character of "The Patient". It centers around his passage out of life and the memories he has of his life. "The Patient" dies and death comes for him in the form of a parade. This is based upon Gerard Way's belief that death comes for a person in the form of their fondest memory, in this case seeing a parade as a child.
The album also saw the creation of the alter ego band The Black Parade. My Chemical Romance would perform the album live in costume as the Black Parade up until October 7, 2007 Mexico City performance. On stage, the band would don black marching uniforms similar to those worn by The Beatles for the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The live performance was theatrical, with Gerard Way assuming the character of a member of The Black Parade. Way's mannerisms were compared to Bob Geldof in his performance of the lead character in the movie adaption of Pink Floyd's The Wall. His performance was also compared to David Bowie's performance of Ziggy Stardust and Freddie Mercury's stage presence. There are also similarities to Alice Cooper in his "Welcome to My Nightmare" period. The video for Welcome to the Black Parade, directed by Sam Bayer portrays the events of the entire story, starring all its characters, including Mother War, who is primarily involved in the song Mama. Gerard Way has described this video as "The definitive video for the record" and one that "summed up the album."
The album has been described as a classic rock tribute with influences and themes being made from 70's classic rock. Some reviewers such as Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic and Ed Thompson of IGN went so far to say that the band moved from their old emo pop sound to a more classic rock sound. Lead singer Gerard Way has cited the bands Queen and Pink Floyd as major influences on the album. Similarities have been noted between the guitar orchestration in "Welcome to the Black Parade", and the arrangements of Queen. Additionally, Pink Floyd's The Wall and David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars are noted as major influences for the album, which is especially evident when comparing the album's opening track, "The End.", to the first tracks on The Wall, "In the Flesh?",and on Ziggy Stardust, "Five Years". Gerard Way has also stated that one of their biggest influences were The Smashing Pumpkins, often giving them credit for their thematic videos.
The Black Parade debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart, behind Robbie Williams' Rudebox. In the United States, it also debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 behind Hannah Montana. In its first week, the album sold 240,000 copies, far surpassing the 38,000 best-week sales of the band's previous album, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge.The album debuted at number three on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart and was certified platinum after shipping more than 70,000 copies. It debuted atop the charts in New Zealand and was certified platinum there, with shipments of more than 15,000. The Black Parade has also been certified platinum by the RIAA for selling over 1,100,000 copies. It has been certified 2x Platinum in the UK, and has sold just over 600,000 units there to date. As of August 25, 2007, the album has sold 1,169,697 copies in the U.S.The album received positive reviews from Allmusic, New Musical Express, IGN, and Rolling Stone. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalizedrating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 79, based on 24 professional critic reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Dan Martin from NME compared the album to Green Day's American Idiot, positing that "it's a piece of work that will challenge every preconception you ever had about the people who made it."Tim Karan of Alternative Press calledThe Black Parade "MCR's whole raison d'etre rolled up into one mega-decibel calling card". Ed Thompson of IGN stated, "The Black Paradeis a rock and roll gem that celebrates everything that was over the top about the 1970s rock scene." David Fricke of Rolling Stone praised the classic rock feel of the album. Rolling Stone went on to rank The Black Parade #20 in its "Top 50 Albums of 2006" feature.Spin magazine named it the 5th best album of 2006. Entertainment Weekly stated that "On their third studio album, a musical H-bomb of an effort, the Jersey quintet combine the rock-opera pomp of Queen with the darker, dirtier tones of their screamo past: Call it a Bro-hemian Rhapsody. Even without its broad concept — a dying cancer patient seeks revenge and redemption — Parade stands as one of the most cohesive, engaging rock records of 2006." The Black Parade was ranked the third best record of the year, being surpassed only by Gnarls Barkley and TV on the Radio. Wizard Magazine praised the album in their "Best of 2006" issue, declaring it "an instant classic."
The album was not without its share of criticism, and was panned by such publications as The Observer and Aversion. Stated Jamie Hodgson of The Observer, "...it reeks of a band with ideas above its station."Matt Schild of Aversion originally refused to review the album, simply writing the word "lame" in lieu of an actual review. Bowing to editorial pressure, he later posted a review listing specific aspects of the album before denouncing them as "lame". Theon Weber of Stylus praised the album's use of Queen influences, but went on to summarize the album as "...a goofy record of bubblegum punk, with Queen lapping at its edges and enough good tracks to justify the smattering of empty screamfests."
Several special editions of The Black Parade were released. One bears white text on a black background, and the second has black text on a white background. A third version has the normal booklet reversed, showing the picture of the parade drawn and painted by comic artist James Jean. Inside the booklet there are also lyrics, a photo of the band, and characters from the album.
A limited edition of the album was released the same time as the original release. It contains the same track listing as the original release but it is sold in a box wrapped in black velveteen material. It also contains a 64-page book which includes concept art by Gerard Way and making of the album notes by the band.
The version of The Black Parade that was released in Japan contains different content than the other regular editions. It contains 14 tracks, but the 14th track is the song "Heaven Help Us" (which was released with the single version of "Welcome to the Black Parade"), instead of the song "Blood". The Japanese version is also an Enhanced CD and includes the music video of "Welcome to the Black Parade".
On December 11, 2007, The Black Parade was released in 12" vinyl format, a first for the band. Two versions were released, the regular edition and the special edition. Both editions contain two records. The first record of both editions has tracks one to four on the a-side and five to seven the b-side. The second record has tracks eight to ten on the a-side and 11 to 13 on the b-side. The special edition includes the hidden track, "Blood," while the regular edition does not. The special edition comes in a slip-case box with two 15-page books. 2,500 copies were made of the special edition, while 3,000 copies of the regular vinyl edition were made.
My Chemical Romance began The Black Parade World Tour on February 22, 2007 in Manchester, New Hampshire's Verizon Wireless Arena. The tour featured 138 performances world wide, as well as several festival and condensed shows. The tour is the longest and most internationally comprehensive headlining tour that the band has played to date, featuring three legs in North America, two legs in Europe, and one in Asia, Australia, and Latin America. The shows at the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City, Mexico on October 7, 2007 and Maxwell's in Hoboken,New Jersey on October 24, 2007 were filmed for the DVD, The Black Parade Is Dead!, which was released on July 1, 2008.
During the tour there were several cancellations and some members left the tour for personal or medical reasons. On January 11, 2007 Frank Iero left the tour because of an unspecified illness. He was replaced by Drive By guitarist Todd Price. Mikey Way took time off to get married and was replaced by guitar tech, Matt Cortez, from April 18, 2007 until October 4, 2007. Six shows were cancelled from April 29, 2007 to May 4, 2007 after the band and crew contracted food poisoning.Bob Bryar suffered injuries relating to his wrists during the tour which led to the cancellation of the show at the University of Maine on October 27, 2007. Bryar left the tour on November 9, 2007 and was replaced by a friend of the band, Pete, who wished to remain anonymous.Following the November 11, 2007 show in Newcastle, Frank Iero left the tour to return home after learning about a family member's illness. He was replaced by Matt Cortez.
All songs written and composed by My Chemical Romance.
| The Black Parade | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | ||||||||
| 1. | "The End." | ||||||||
| 2. | "Dead!" | ||||||||
| 3. | "This Is How I Disappear" | ||||||||
| 4. | "The Sharpest Lives" | ||||||||
| 5. | "Welcome to the Black Parade" | ||||||||
| 6. | "I Don't Love You" | ||||||||
| 7. | "House of Wolves" | ||||||||
| 8. | "Cancer" | ||||||||
| 9. | "Mama (featuring Liza Minnelli)" | ||||||||
| 10. | "Sleep" | ||||||||
| 11. | "Teenagers" | ||||||||
| 12. | "Disenchanted" | ||||||||
| 13. | "Famous Last Words" | ||||||||
| 14. | "Blood" (hidden track, starts at 1:30) | ||||||||
"Welcome to the Black Parade" (also going by the shortened title The Black Parade and originally titled "The Five of Us are Dying") is the first single and fifth track from My Chemical Romance's third studio album, The Black Parade. It was released on September 11, 2006 oniTunes and October 9, 2006 on CD. It is the band's eighth single. The studio version was available on MySpace on September 2, 2006. The song became the group's first number one in the UK on October 15, 2006, staying there for two weeks, and later rose to number one on theModern Rock charts on October 26, 2006, where it would stay for seven weeks. It is the band's most enduring success and their highest-charting single to date on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #9. The song ranked at #17 on Rolling Stone's "The 100 Best Songs of 2006".The song was made downloadable for Rock Band and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. ITV used the song in a video montage in its finalFormula One broadcast at the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, after losing the rights to broadcast F1 in 2009 and beyond to the BBC. The video featured several prominent F1 drivers (such as Nico Rosberg, Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello, David Coulthard and Sebastian Vettel) as well as ITV presenters (and retired commentator Murray Walker) lipsynching to the song.
The working title of the song was named after an episode of The Twilight Zone.
The video for the single was directed by Samuel Bayer, known for his work with Nirvana and Green Day. The music video was released on September 26, 2006 in the UK and Canada, and was released on September 27, 2006 in the U.S. It was heavily played on MTV. It features The Patient(the centre character of the album, played by Lukas Haas) dressed in a hospital gown, and being taken by death in the form of a Black Parade. On the main float stands My Chemical Romance playing "Welcome to the Black Parade". Behind the float are dozens of masked figures.
All the costumes were designed by Academy Award Winning Costume Designer, Colleen Atwood(famous also for her frequent collaborations with Director Tim Burton).
The cover art for the single is a scene from the video, with the man in the bottom center being the Patient. He is flanked by two women named "Fear" and "Regret" in Gerard Way's Revenge-era makeup. The setting of the music video goes from a hospital to a surreal cityscape, with ash-covered wreckage, black snow and destroyed buildings. The video features 4 of the main characters. "The Patient", "Fear", "Regret", and "Mother War". "Fear" and "Regret" are the two women that stand beside "The Patient" on the cover for the single. "Mother War" is the woman in the Victorian-era gown and gas mask. Liza Minnelli plays the character of "Mother War" in the song "Mama". The video tells a basic version of the story behind The Black Parade quite closely. Gerard Way has said that it is "the definitive video for the record" which "summed up the album". The video introduced a new image of MCR and the Black Parade imagery spawned a wide cult following.
Parody
On the January 6, 2007 episode of MADtv, the song was parodied as "The Black Tirade", centering on Michael Richards's dying career after spouting racial slurs at the Laugh Factory, as well as how Internet video sites like YouTube are becoming more popular than television. Michael McDonald played Michael Richards and the video parody featured African-American people smashing Seinfeld DVDs and the (fake) band members of My Chemical Romance (Gerard Way played by MADtv cast member Frank Caeti) looking at the infamous picture of Britney Spears exiting a limo sans underwear on a laptop computer.
"I Don't Love You" is the third UK, Philippines, Malaysian and Australian single and sixth track from My Chemical Romance's third studio album, The Black Parade. It is the tenth overall single from the band. It was released April 2, 2007, to the United Kingdom, following "Welcome to the Black Parade" and "Famous Last Words", both of which were successful hits for the band. The band opted to release "Teenagers" as the third single in the U.S. instead of "I Don't Love You". The band released the single in Canada, on MuchMusic on March 19. The song nabbed a positive 4/5 star review from music site Pitchfork Media, who claimed: "..it's the band's first proper power ballad and, well, they should definitely think about writing dozens more." The single was released in Australia on May 16.History
While the band was touring, they began to record using the bus's recording unit. "I Don't Love You" was one of the only songs to be used on the second-to-last album from the tour bus jam sessions. Ray Toro and Gerard Way can be seen playing an early version of the song from the tour bus sessions on the 2006 DVD Life on the Murder Scene at about 1:57:13 on the first disc.
Music video
The music video was directed by Marc Webb who also directed three previous My Chemical Romance music videos, from their Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge album. Webb was chosen instead of Sam Bayer who directed "Welcome to the Black Parade" and "Famous Last Words" from their third studio album The Black Parade. The music video is about two lovers in a strange abstract world, and the video seems to tell the story of how their love quickly withers away until one leaves the other alone. Towards the end of the video, one of the band's amplifiers explodes along with two of the guitars. On March 7, 2007, the band exclusively premiered the video on their YouTube channel, and on their MySpace. The video is in a color format, most likely to simulate more contrast between the two lovers. The music video also shows Gerard with his newly-dyed black hair, which he has sported since late December. There were also reports by one observers of Gerard wearing a wedding band (as can be seen in the video), which Gerard was asked about in an interview with 97X, where he mentioned that he had 'found someone very special' . The video appeared on Kerrang! TV in the UK on March 9, 2007, and on Channel 4 in the UK on March 8, 2007. The clip also shows the band members falling but not landing, in the order of Mikey Way, Ray Toro, Bob Bryar, Frank Iero, Gerard Way. The video was made available on March 19, 2007 for purchase on the UK iTunes store. The video was released in New Zealand on March 13, 2007.
Teenagers" is the fourth single and the eleventh track from My Chemical Romance's third studio album, The Black Parade. It is the thirdU.S. single from the album, but it is the fourth single released in the UK, the Philippines, Australia and Canada. This song is the band's eleventh overall single. It was made available for download for the Xbox 360's Guitar Hero II game on August 15, 2007, along with "Famous Last Words", and "This Is How I Disappear", adding to their song shipped with the game, "Dead!". It was also made available for download with full guitar, drum, bass, and vocals charts for Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.
Gerard Way is quoted as saying that he wrote the song after finding himself in a New York subway car full of high schoolers: "That was the first time I felt old...I was nervous and I was a target. I felt like I had become a parent figure or part of the problem."
About the relationship between the song and concerns about gun violence, Way said:
| “ | That song almost didn't fit on the record but it's a topic that's so important to our culture. It's about a really big problem in America where kids are killing kids. The only thing I learned in high school is that people are very violent and territorial. | ” |
This song was #25 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007.This song was also #80 on MTV Asia's list of Top 100 Hits of 2007.The single is certified Platinum by the RIAA.
The video version of the song seems to have some added audio. During and onwards the lyrics "They say all teenagers scare the living shit out of me", there are piano notes playing in the background in the style of western music (during live performances, the piano plays along to the music even more so). The album version of the song does not have this piano playing until the coda. Early in the video, it shows teenagers breaking in.
The video has several references to the film version of Pink Floyd's The Wall (Gerard Way is even seen wearing a patch that looks to be the 'Hammer Cross' emblem from the film on his sleeve, an emblem featured prominently in the "In the Flesh?" and "In the Flesh" sequences of the film, which this video most strongly resembles, but this has been disproven, as it is only a large 'T' similar to the ones seen on the cheerleader's uniforms). Some fans claim that the beginning of the video is reminiscent Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues.
MediaThe video is extremely similar to Red Flag, by Billy Talent, in the way the cheerleaders have gas masks on (the last scene from Billy Talent has teenagers wearing similar masks) and the way the sheer number of teenagers break free and get physically close to the band. The video is also strongly reminiscent of the video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by grunge rock band Nirvana from their CD Nevermind. The use of a high school setting, the use of cheerleaders, as well as ending with the assembled students storming stage scene, have become synonymous with the 1991 Samuel Bayer hit video.
The music video was posted by the band via their YouTube channel on May 30 and was one of the most watched videos on YouTube obtaining over 64,000,000 views. Sometime around November 1, 2007, the video passed the Famous Last Words video as the third most played video on the site. This version of the video cut out the word "shit". The MTV version differs from the YouTube version; notably the teenagers breaking in was cut out, as well as the words "gun," "shit," and "murder". The video has debuted on Total Request Live.
This video made its world premiere in New Zealand. New Zealand was the first country in which The Black Parade reached number one. Multiple pirated versions of the video surfaced on the internet days before the American debut.
The official video for Famous Last Words was directed by Samuel Bayer and was filmed before the band had even named the song. The music video shows the Black Parade float that My Chemical Romance were performing on in "Welcome to the Black Parade" burning, while looking like it has been through a substantial amount of wear and tear. The rest of the background is scattered with burning props from the video of "Welcome to the Black Parade", and fire is seen all around. All of the followers of The Black Parade have abandoned the band, and the band seems to be in a desperate state. Gerard Way looks particularly rough, and he appears to look like he is dying or is very ill because of the make-up he is wearing, especially around his eyes. This make-up is similar to that worn by "The Patient" in the "Welcome to the Black Parade" video, albeit without the hospital gown. He also adopts a wide eyed, insane-looking facial expression. In some parts of the video, he can be seen wearing a skull-designed mask. The band's 'condition' gets worse as the song goes on until the band revert to thrashing around in the dirt while performing. Although this video was a fairly basic concept compared to past videos, it is regarded by fans as by far the darkest video the band has created. In an interview for the music video, Gerard Way says that it was written at "the darkest period in this band's career."A shortened edit of the song is used in the video with one bridge and two chorus repeats removed. The instrumentals at the end of the song are continued in the video with a sustained guitar chord accompanying the last few vocal lines, whereas, in the album version, they were faded out by engineer Chris Lord-Alge until only lead singer Gerard Way's voice, as well as a harmony of other band members can be heard along with a backing of soft organ chords. At the end of the video, the float from the "Welcome to the Black Parade" video is seen burning. The band drops their instruments and runaway from the fire.
In the shooting, band member Bob Bryar sustained 2nd and 3rd degree burns on the back of his calves while shooting the video, yet persisted in staying till the recording was finished. (This later resulted in gangrene.) Other injuries include Gerard tearing muscle in his lower leg and foot (caused by Frank Iero tackling him when he was in a power slide-like kneeling position), which left him in a hospital for several days. Gerard recalls that during the filming they were all "mortified" from the engulfing flames surrounding the set. After the stay in the hospital, the doctors refused to let them perform in San Diego as the band originally planned.
The video premiered in the United States on Total Request Live on January 11, 2007. On January 24, 2007, the video reached the #1 spot onTRL, and spent nine days at the top of the countdown, before becoming the band's first video to retire on the countdown, on March 26, 2007. The U.S. version of the video is mostly the same as the version first seen in the UK, the only difference being that it completely cuts out Bryar's incident with the heat at the end of the video. This version has started to air on British television, or at least on the music channel Scuzz TV, and Kerrang! TV. The video has also been viewed more than 50 million times on YouTube. As of January 19, it is the fourth most-viewed clip in the "music" section (behind such videos as "Girlfriend", by Avril Lavigne and the band's video for "Teenagers"), and the 7th most-viewed clip on the entire site.
Meaning
In an interview with The New York Times, singer Gerard Way was quoted as saying, "At first I thought [the patient died], but the more I think about it, the more I think he's not dead. Maybe this is all in his head. Maybe he can fight. Now I think he has a choice to live."[The song's meaning is generally open to interpretation, as said before, because its lyrics never really tell one way or the other whether the patient dies. Ray Toro (the lead guitarist) said this is his favorite song on the album because it leaves you with a little hope.
OverviewThe song was recently used for a commercial HBO's upcoming season and was featured in a downloadable track pack for the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II, along with "Teenagers" and "This Is How I Disappear". The music videos for "Welcome to the Black Parade" and "Famous Last Words" were filmed back to back. Both were filmed in Downey, California. Originally, MCR dubbed the second video as a "secret" that they couldn't reveal yet. It was later announced that the "secret" second video from the new My Chemical Romance albumThe Black Parade would be "Famous Last Words", directed by Samuel Bayer, the same director that worked on "Welcome to the Black Parade". When the video was being filmed, the band still hadn't decided on the song title. This is the video that caused vocalist Gerard Way and drummer Bob Bryar to sustain severe injuries. Bryar received a 3rd degree burn to the leg which subsequently turned into a staph infection, and Way tore all of the ligaments in his foot when Frank Iero decided to repeat the rawness of the old underground days, and tackled him to the ground. The aftermath of these injuries forced the band to cancel a handful of their 2006 dates.
The video for "Teenagers" can be seen and heard on the television in one scene of the television series Bionic Woman, in the episode "Do Not Disturb". This song is also featured in an episode of "Dog The Bounty Hunter", the 2008 film "Never Back Down", and an episode of "LA Ink", in which tattoo artist Kat Von D tattoos Frank Iero. The main riff of the single was featured in the seventh episode of Dirty Sexy Money' "The Wedding". It is also included on the Saints Row 2 soundtrack.
Reception
My Chemical Romance surprised many critics by the musical style of "Teenagers". It incorporates elements of pop rock, hard rock and 12 bar blues. This earned them mostly positive reviews from critics. A reviewer from NME Magazine wrote, "Some bands go out of their way to do a song with a sound they're never bound to do, then release it as a single. They usually fail. My Chemical Romance tried a substantially different sound for this song, and it paid off. The message is simple, the chorus is catchy and Ray Toro's solo joins the chorus and bridge together so smoothly." The song managed to grab 5 stars in both NME and AbsolutePunk.net as well as 4/5 from IMDb. This song was also featured as downloadable content on Guitar Hero II for the XBOX 360.
"Famous Last Words" is the second single and thirteenth track from My Chemical Romance's third studio album, The Black Parade. It was released on January 22, 2007. It is also the band's ninth overall single. The music video premiered on December 12, 2006 on MTV2 and on December 13, 2006 on the Much Music program, and on MuchOnDemand in Canada. The video was officially premiered in the United Stateson the January 11 episode of Total Request Live, and debuted on the countdown the following Tuesday at #5, the band's highest TRL debut for a video. It went onto become their third #1 video on the countdown (following "Helena" and "The Ghost of You"). On March 26, 2007 the video retired at #5 on TRL. On March 12, 2007, they performed this song on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It was made available for download for the Xbox 360's Guitar Hero II game on August 15, 2007, along with "Teenagers", and "This Is How I Disappear", adding to their song shipped with the game, "Dead!".
In the United Kingdom and other territories, the single was released as a two-part square shaped vinyl picture disc. Part one came in a gatefold stickered clear sleeve, with a space to 'slot' part two into.
The official video for Famous Last Words was directed by Samuel Bayer and was filmed before the band had even named the song. The music video shows the Black Parade float that My Chemical Romance were performing on in "Welcome to the Black Parade" burning, while looking like it has been through a substantial amount of wear and tear. The rest of the background is scattered with burning props from the video of "Welcome to the Black Parade", and fire is seen all around. All of the followers of The Black Parade have abandoned the band, and the band seems to be in a desperate state. Gerard Way looks particularly rough, and he appears to look like he is dying or is very ill because of the make-up he is wearing, especially around his eyes. This make-up is similar to that worn by "The Patient" in the "Welcome to the Black Parade" video, albeit without the hospital gown. He also adopts a wide eyed, insane-looking facial expression. In some parts of the video, he can be seen wearing a skull-designed mask. The band's 'condition' gets worse as the song goes on until the band revert to thrashing around in the dirt while performing. Although this video was a fairly basic concept compared to past videos, it is regarded by fans as by far the darkest video the band has created. In an interview for the music video, Gerard Way says that it was written at "the darkest period in this band's career."A shortened edit of the song is used in the video with one bridge and two chorus repeats removed. The instrumentals at the end of the song are continued in the video with a sustained guitar chord accompanying the last few vocal lines, whereas, in the album version, they were faded out by engineer Chris Lord-Alge until only lead singer Gerard Way's voice, as well as a harmony of other band members can be heard along with a backing of soft organ chords. At the end of the video, the float from the "Welcome to the Black Parade" video is seen burning. The band drops their instruments and runaway from the fire.
In the shooting, band member Bob Bryar sustained 2nd and 3rd degree burns on the back of his calves while shooting the video, yet persisted in staying till the recording was finished. (This later resulted in gangrene.) Other injuries include Gerard tearing muscle in his lower leg and foot (caused by Frank Iero tackling him when he was in a power slide-like kneeling position), which left him in a hospital for several days. Gerard recalls that during the filming they were all "mortified" from the engulfing flames surrounding the set. After the stay in the hospital, the doctors refused to let them perform in San Diego as the band originally planned.
The video premiered in the United States on Total Request Live on January 11, 2007. On January 24, 2007, the video reached the #1 spot onTRL, and spent nine days at the top of the countdown, before becoming the band's first video to retire on the countdown, on March 26, 2007. The U.S. version of the video is mostly the same as the version first seen in the UK, the only difference being that it completely cuts out Bryar's incident with the heat at the end of the video. This version has started to air on British television, or at least on the music channel Scuzz TV, and Kerrang! TV. The video has also been viewed more than 50 million times on YouTube. As of January 19, it is the fourth most-viewed clip in the "music" section (behind such videos as "Girlfriend", by Avril Lavigne and the band's video for "Teenagers"), and the 7th most-viewed clip on the entire site.
Meaning
In an interview with The New York Times, singer Gerard Way was quoted as saying, "At first I thought [the patient died], but the more I think about it, the more I think he's not dead. Maybe this is all in his head. Maybe he can fight. Now I think he has a choice to live."The song's meaning is generally open to interpretation, as said before, because its lyrics never really tell one way or the other whether the patient dies. Ray Toro (the lead guitarist) said this is his favorite song on the album because it leaves you with a little hope.
Overview
The song was recently used for a commercial HBO's upcoming season and was featured in a downloadable track pack for the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II, along with "Teenagers" and "This Is How I Disappear". The music videos for "Welcome to the Black Parade" and "Famous Last Words" were filmed back to back. Both were filmed in Downey, California. Originally, MCR dubbed the second video as a "secret" that they couldn't reveal yet. It was later announced that the "secret" second video from the new My Chemical Romance albumThe Black Parade would be "Famous Last Words", directed by Samuel Bayer, the same director that worked on "Welcome to the Black Parade". When the video was being filmed, the band still hadn't decided on the song title. This is the video that caused vocalist Gerard Way and drummer Bob Bryar to sustain severe injuries. Bryar received a 3rd degree burn to the leg which subsequently turned into a staph infection, and Way tore all of the ligaments in his foot when Frank Iero decided to repeat the rawness of the old underground days, and tackled him to the ground. The aftermath of these injuries forced the band to cancel a handful of their 2006 dates.
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