Welcome to the Black Parade Lyrics
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"
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?"
[Verse 1]
Sometimes, I get the feeling she's watching over me
And other times, I feel like I should go
And through it all, the rise and fall, the bodies in the streets
And when you're gone, we want you all to know
[Chorus]
We'll carry on, we'll carry on
And though you're dead and gone, believe me
Your memory will carry on, we'll carry on
And in my heart, I can't contain it
The anthem won't explain it
A world that sends you reeling from decimated dreams
Your misery and hate will kill us all
So paint it black and take it back, and let's shout it loud and clear
Defiant to the end, we hear the call
[Chorus]
To carry on, we'll carry on
And though you're dead and gone, believe me
Your memory will carry on, we'll carry on
And though you're broken and defeated
Your weary widow marches
[Bridge]
On and on, we carry through the fears (Oh, ha, ha)
Disappointed faces of your peers (Oh, ha, ha)
Take a look at me, 'cause I could not care at all
[Breakdown]
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 wanna play this part
I won't explain or say I'm sorry
I'm unashamed, I'm gonna show my scar
And give a cheer for all the broken
Listen here, because it's who we are
Just a man, I'm not a hero
Just a boy who had to sing this song
Just a man, I'm not a hero
I don't care
We'll carry on, we'll carry on
And though you're dead and gone, believe me
Your memory will carry on, you'll carry on
And though you're broken and defeated
Your weary widow marches on
[Outro]
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 wanna play this part (We'll carry on)
Do or die, you'll never make me (We'll carry on)
Because the world will never take my heart (We'll carry on)
Go and try, you'll never break me (We'll carry)
We want it all, we wanna play this part (We'll carry on)
About
This song is on My Chemical Romance’s third studio album, entitled The Black Parade. The song, as well as the rest of the album, follows The Patient, a man who is dying, through death and beyond.
MCR frontman Gerard Way said in an interview:
I’d like to think that when you die death comes for you however you want, and I feel that it’s your strongest memory—either from childhood or adulthood. […]
For this particular character […] called ‘The Patient,’ his strongest memory is of being a child and his father is taking him to this parade.
So when death comes to him, it comes in the form of a Black Parade.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
MCR frontman Gerard Way has expressed a belief that when someone dies, they are greeted with their fondest memory. The protagonist of TBP’s fondest memory was a parade his father took him to, so he sees this after his death.
In an interview, Gerard stated that “Welcome to the Black Parade” was his favorite song on the album.
[“Welcome to the Black Parade”] personifies the whole record. It’s basically the one song that sounds up the song for the record and all the risks we took jammed into one mini-epic. And it still retains everything that made us special.
Guitarist Ray Toro described the song as the band’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
[“Welcome to the Black Parade”] is probably the most epic song on the record. I love how it came together. It’s a song that we had been writing since the start of the band, but it started out in a very different form. […]
It didn’t make our first indie record because we just didn’t have the time to finish it. We brought it back for Revenge, and it was another situation where it just wasn’t feeling right. So it didn’t make that record. […]
Gerard felt that the lyrics weren’t saying anything to him, and neither was the chorus. So we changed a few things. What’s really cool when you write music is sometimes all you have to do is change a chord progression and that completely changes the face of the song.
So we basically just changed one note in the chorus and it let Gerard go somewhere else that he wouldn’t have gone, and that’s where the hook of the song came from.
- 1.The End.
- 2.Dead!
- 5.Welcome to the Black Parade
- 8.Cancer
- 9.Mama
- 10.Sleep
- 11.Teenagers
- 12.Disenchanted
- 14.Blood
- 18.Mama (Live Demo)
