Tag: special edition

Posted 55 years ago by

As a band, it felt like the name The Black Parade summed up the band almost better than My Chemical Romance. It represented everything that made us up: the irony, the black humor, the celebratory nature of out music yet the darkness at the same time. The cohesiveness and the defiance, the camaraderie. It would become our alter ego for this album. We needed to become a new band in order to face what life had thrown us, the hardships and the turmoil, the fear. We would tear off our skin and expose the bones. We would become a band known as The Black Parade. Not a shell but a declaration:

‘YOU CANNOT DESTROY US.’

‘I AM NOT AFRAID TO LIVE.’

‘WE WILL CARRY ON.’

Gerard Way, Black Parade Special Edition
Posted 55 years ago by

Some days were harder than others…sometimes we would just smoke a ton of cigarettes and just stare at each other. Sometimes we would hit on something and magic would happen.

One of these moments was a song called ‘Mama’. I remember we played an arena in Chicago and this line ‘Mama, we all go to hell’ just hit me, along with a melody. Ray and I worked out a small guitar part to go along with a melody and we tried it right away at sound check. I think we all knew as soon as we played it that it was some kind of new direction for us, one that was more theatrical than anything we had done…to us it was even more ‘cabaret’ than ‘You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison.’

It was pure. It was raw. It was unashamed.

So we dug up her bones and started to work on her.

Gerard Way, The Black Parade Special Edition booklet
Posted 55 years ago by

We walked around like zombies, not creating, not showering, not living. Some never left their rooms. I left my pyjama pants on for a week once, constantly fighting back the urge to just walk into the swimming pool and stand at the bottom until I couldn’t breathe. I would yell ‘I’m just gonna walk into that fucking swimming pool on day!’ We were all losing it. We had decided that we didn’t want to videotape any of the writing process and at this point we were glad we didn’t tape anything.

Gerard Way, The Black Parade Special Edition
Posted 55 years ago by

We hopped in a rental car and started driving. It was late at night when we pulled up to these menacing iron gates, which held a sign that said:

The paramour private residence no honking

Bob hit a buzzer, exchanged some words with an intercom, and the gates slowly opened. I always thought this was for the desired effect of making it as creepy as possible when you went in, and it worked. We stepped out of the car, grabbed our bags, and were let into our new home. The Paramour. It even sounds creepy, doesn’t it? It was.

As soon as you stepped in, you got a ‘Shining’ vibe. Right away it felt like this place was going to consume you and eventually it would. There were so many hallways that seemed to lead somewhere very dark, stairways that let to places that were very cold. The whole place was cold. The whole place seemed haunted. We figured this would work for us.

We all drew numbers to see who got which room and it almost seemed like the house chose which one we got, because each room seemed to fit each guy. Except Mikey. His room was terrifying to be in and I couldn’t exactly tell you why…it just had a bad vibe to it.

Gerard Way, The Black Parade Special edition