The Black Parade Lyrical Breakdown

The story behind "The Black Parade" is a cancer patient's journey through the afterlife and him reflecting on his life. The characters in "The Black Parade" are The Patient, (Main character) The Patient's lover, and Mother War. (Death)

The End.- This song is what sets the tone for the rest of the album, it's the funeral of The Patient, he encouraging everyone to come to the funeral and he expects them not to cry. Everyone is feeling hopeless and regretful, and The Patient is saying that he has been feeling this way his whole life. He welcomes death, he will throw in the towel just to give it all up.

Dead!- This song sets up the beginning of the story. The Patient has received the news that he is now dead. They found a complication in his heart and now he has two weeks to live. Mother War is waiting for him, she is wondering if he got what he deserved, she knows people weren't nice to him.

This is How I Disappear- The Patient tells his significant other that without her he's nothing, he'll disappear into nothingness. As we near the end of the song we find out that his lover actually doesn't love him and that he is like a ghost to them now. He then shows her just how bad he can really be.

The Sharpest Lives- The Patient is remembering his life and how he went on wild drinking sprees, he would sleep on the couch of a person he doesn't like. His lover is leaving him so he tries to lure her back. When he was drunk he felt that nothing could stop him and that the morning would never come because the sun was too afraid of the nightlife.

Welcome to the Black Parade- (Gerard Way believes that when someone dies they relive their fondest memory.)-

The Patent is dead and in the afterlife, he is reliving the memory when his father took him into the city to see a marching band. He gets the feeling that Mother War is watching him but yet he still feels alone. Mother War lets him know that even though he is dead and gone his memory will carry on. She also wants him to know that all dreams die at some point and so by wallowing in it, the world will die off. You must forget about it and move on but who's to say that your dreams must die off. In the bridge, The Patient is saying how he'll never lose his spirit and that he'll never be ashamed of who he is. He then goes on to explain that he isn't a hero though, he's just an average person.

I Don't Love You- His lover as mentioned in previous songs has dwindling feelings for him and so he just says to let go of me because it's just going to cause them more pain. His only wish is that she would say to him that she doesn't love him like she did yesterday. The two people in the video is a representation of him as the darkness in her light.

House of Wolves- In this song, The Patient is wondering whether he will go to Heaven or Hell. He has done plenty of mischievous things in his life and so he knows he's going to hell and he's pestering Mother War about it asking whether he's going to Heaven or Hell. In verse two he is reciting the popular nursery rhyme "Ring Around the Rosie." "Get the choir boys around you, it's a compliment I swear." is a subtle nod to the fact that Catholic churches are loaded with pedophilia cases.

Cancer- This song is very literal, there is nothing else I need to explain.

Mama- In this song, The Patient knows he is dying and so he writes a letter to his mother, he says that he's dying and going to Hell but that's alright because everyone does, and if you aren't going to Hell then you'll still experience Hell on Earth. He is asking her to stop asking questions about what's going on because he doesn't want to see her cry. Things get heated between them as he says she's going to die too and she can't blame him because he's going to the same place. The argument then turns to the fact that his mother disowned him because of the fact that he was a boy instead of a girl. The line: "The shit that I've done with this fuck of a gun" refers to "Teenagers" The voice of Liza Minnelli is Mother War speaking.

Sleep- (The recording at the beginning of the song is Gerard's recordings of night terrors he had experienced while staying in The Paramour Mansion. This mansion is said to be haunted.)

In this part of the story The Patient feels no remorse, he has no regrets about what he did when he was alive. He is telling people that they shouldn't cry about what he did because he's not sorry about it.

Teenagers- (The song is inspired by when Gerard was a teenager and people were afraid of him for no reason. It is also inspired by when he had a panic attack on the subway because there were too many teenagers on it.)

The Patient is remembering his teenage years and was thinking about how adults were scared of him and how they wanted to mold him to fit society's way of life. He knows adults don't care about them. He shot up the school for payback.

Disenchanted- As The Patient looks back onto his life he realizes that it was all for nothing. Nothing about life is meaningful, we have no real purpose in the grand scheme of things. Sure, life started out fine and it was tragic that he died but what's the difference. High school sucked, no one listened to him, and that was it.

Famous Last Words- (Mikey Way had left the band temporarily during the production of The Black Parade due to a severe panic attack and so this song is dedicated to him and is partly about him.)

The Patient has realized that he would rather not accept death and persevere through life. He asks his lover if she will stay with him, he knows he can't make her stay but he hopes she'll stay. Either way, he's not afraid to go through life alone.

Blood (hidden track)- The Patient has come back to life and while undergoing treatment he signs a sarcastic song about how even though he chose to live life still kinda sucks.