Welcome to the Black Parade

"Welcome to the Black Parade" is the first single from the album, The Black Parade, and the ninth single by the New Jersey-based band, My Chemical Romance. It was released on September 11, 2006 on iTunes and October 9, 2006 on CD. The studio version was available on MySpace on September 2, 2006. It became their first UK number one on October 15, 2006 as well as their first US number one when it topped the Modern Rock charts on October 26th, 2006.

Track Listing

Version One (CD Single, 7-inch vinyl #2):

1. "Welcome to the Black Parade" (Album Version)
2. "Heaven Help Us"

Version Two (7-inch vinyl #1):

1. "Welcome to the Black Parade" (Album Version)
2. "Welcome to the Black Parade" (Live)

Version Three (Australian Single):

1. "Welcome to the Black Parade"
2. "Heaven Help Us"
3. "Welcome to the Black Parade (Live)"

iTunes Version:

1. "Welcome to the Black Parade" (Radio Edit)
2. "My Chemical Romance Welcomes You to the Black Parade" (Interview With The Band)

Overview

My Chemical Romance debuted "Welcome to the Black Parade" live at the pre-show of the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards.

The studio version is now available on their MySpace. The track can also be heard at theblackparade.com. The music video can be seen at mychemicalromance.com. The single was also released on iTunes in its radio edit form (4:37), along with an interview with the band about the upcoming album.

MCR talks about "Welcome To The Black Parade" in the EP track available on iTunes called "My Chemical Romance Welcomes You To The Black Parade". They say it's probably the oldest track on the new album next to "Disenchanted". They say the idea for the song came before their first record came out but it wasn't finished and they forgot about it for a while. They tried to write it again for Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge but they had so many ideas for that album that it got put off. Then, when they started writing for their third album they picked up the song again and started working on it. After the song was recorded the band thought it could be improved before it was finished. The entire process of making "Welcome To The Black Parade" took about 3 years. Gerard Way says the song is a prime example of the risks they took on their third album. The song's message is for everything to get better and for everyone to carry on, as Way explains.

Way says it was the hardest song for the band to create. The song consists of 167 separate tracks mixed together, including marching band drums, multiple snares and a horn section. Way says the song also has a section called the "orphan section," during the bridge when some gang vocals come in. The section was influenced by the vocals from the Broadway musical "Little Orphan Annie." The first code name for this song was "The Five Of Us Are Dying," which Ray Toro hated because he's very superstitious and had to fly on a plane after the song was finished. Toro almost didn't get on the plane.

Charts

The song debuted on the Hot 100 at #71 for the chart week of 9/30/2006, the band's highest debut to date on the Hot 100. In addition it has so far peaked at #1 on the Modern Rock charts, making it the band's only #1 on that chart to date. It also got to number 2 on the UK iTunes Music Stores most played songs, and has reached #8 on the US iTunes Store. It also reached number one on MTV's Interactive Chart On 13/10/06. The single knocked Razorlight's "America" off the number 1 single spot on Sunday 15th October 2006 in the UK after extensive airplay.

Chart	Peak position
U.S. Hot 100	56
Modern Rock Tracks	1
Mainstream Rock Tracks	38
UK Singles Chart	1
Australian ARIA Singles Chart	13

U.S Billboard Hot 100
Week	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Chart position	71	92	86	78	64	56

U.S Modern Rock Tracks
Week	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Chart position	21	11	8	3	3	2	1

UK Singles Chart
Week	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Chart position	23	1	1

Australian ARIA Singles Chart
Week	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Chart position	20	13

The Patient's Story

After learning of his illness, reflecting on his life, and dealing with all the issues of mortality, the Patient's own mortality is quickly coming to an end. Here the Patient is drifting between life and death, and so death is coming for him in the form of his strongest memory. The Patient's fondest memory is of his father taking him to town as a boy to see a parade ("when I was a young boy, my father took me into the city, to see a marching band"). The Patient's father asks him as a boy "Son, when you grow up, would you be the savior of the broken, the beaten, and the damned?", perhaps preparing the Patient for his future illness, and asking him if he will have what it takes to mentally overcome it and be an example for others who follow in his footsteps to be strong. The Patient's father also tells him "someday I'll leave you a phantom, to lead you in the summer, to join the Black Parade." This hints that the Patient's father most likely died before the Patient, and will help him join the Black Parade (in other words be there when he dies to help him in the afterlife). The song also shows that the Patient most likely had a very good relationship with his father, since his fondest memory in life occured when he was with his father. This is the opposite of the relationship he has with his mother, which is further detailed in the song Mama.

The Patient passes into a realm of life and death, and sees the Black Parade. The Black Parade seems to take place in the city that he saw the marching band in his youth, only now the city is barren, and more macabre ("the bodies in the street"). He sees the performers of the Black Parade, only they too are more macabre than those of the parade he saw in his youth, and seem to represent emotions and other parts of his life. The Black Parade tell him of "the disappointed faces of your peers", which have no effect on the Patient, as he states he "could not care at all", showing he will no longer let anyone dictate his actions, and hasn't quite repented yet (as he does in Famous Last Words). He still doubts himself ("I'm just a man, I'm not a hero" in reference to his father's question at the beginning of the song). He is still firm in his doubt of the world ("you can try, you'll never break me"). Finally The Black Parade insures him that his "memory will carry on", and though he may be dead and defeated his "weary widow marches on." Thus trying to encourage him that he isn't as evil as he thinks, and that if he joins them all that he leaves behind in life will be fine.

The song visually represents the entire story (somewhat) in its music video (one flaw however is that "the patient" has hair, when a cancer patient suffering from chemo would be bald + the character in the album art is bald and paler).

Music Video

The video for the single was directed by Samuel Bayer. The music video was released on September 26, 2006 in the UK and Canada, and was released on September 27, 2006 in the US. It features a man (played by Lukas Haas) dressed in a hospital gown, "The Patient" that the album is about, dying, and being taken by death in the form of a Black Parade. On the main float stands Gerard, Mikey, Bob, Ray and Frank playing "Welcome to the Black Parade". The costumes worn by the band members of My Chemical Romance in the music video are similar to the costumes worn by The Beatles on the cover of their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, a main influence for their new album. While the band is playing The Patient wanders throughout the parade looking at all the various characters within it. In the end he is given a medal, the medal could be symbolic of death itself or a life completed. After this, the parade leaves and The Patient is left alone.

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 in Gerard Way Revenge-era makeup, possibly signifying the band has not left their roots with their transformation. There has been a lot of conflict between fans over the video. Some state that the video is similar in style to "Minority" by Green Day, however upon further analysis, the video bears a more striking resemblance to Sigur Ros' "Vaka," which preceded both. Many people also claim that Gerard Way's mannerism are similar to those of Freddie Mercury.The setting of the music video goes from a hospital to a surreal cityscape, barren and destroyed as if from war with wreckage lying on the ground. 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 with the very large poofy dress wearing a gas mask. Liza Minnelli plays the character of Mother War in the second verse of the song "Mama".

Trivia

• One or more of the band found the film Lady in White, starring Lukas Haas, very frightening as children, and subsequently cast him to star in this music video.
• Some may notice that the chord changes of the intro are extremely similar to those of Pachelbel's Canon in D. They are simply shifted up from D major to G major.

• There is a different version of the cover art for the single available in the UK, which depicts the Patient looking at the Black Parade. It does not show the band.

• A section of the lyrics refers to the 1966 Rolling Stones hit Paint It Black.

References

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