Welcome to the Black Parade – Huh?

I wanted to deconstruct this song by My Chemical Romance because it was overplayed all weekend.  I was listening to the radio while working on my house and was thus forced to listen to it many, many times while putting in flooring.  Not fun times.  

The song seems very “military”.  First the whole marching band thing, then the martial music and the whole “We’ll carry on!” chorus.  I was beginning to wondering if the Bush administration had written this as a subliminal “stay the course” messages or something. 

That seemed a little far fetched, so I did some research.  Turns out this song is supposed to be about a cancer patient.  What the fuck?  I’m going to post some of the words below.  Take a look and tell me where the hell cancer patient fits in there.  I’ll put my initial take in as well.

When I was
a young boy,
my Father took me into the city
to see a marching band.

(Pretty straight forward)

He said “Son when
you grow up
will you be
the savior of the broken,
the beaten, and the damned?”

(Free downtrodden people, like say…hmm…Iraqis?)

He said “Will you
defeat them,
your demons
and all the non-believers,
the plans that they have made?

(Fucking Al Qaeda)

Because one day
I’ll leave you
a phantom
to lead you in the summer,
to join the black parade.”

(OK, Black Parade as death, I get it)

Sometimes I get the feeling
she’s watching over me.
And other times I feel like I should go.

(Be all that you can be kid)

When through it all,
the rise and fall,
the bodies’ in the streets,
and when you’re gone we want you all to know.

(hmm, governments rising and falling, bodies in the street, chance of death…sounds like…Baghdad?)

We’ll Carry on,
We’ll Carry on,
and though you said you don’t believe me
Your memory will carry on,
we’ll carry on,
and thought my heart I can’t contain it,
the anthem wont explain it.

(Because though you may die, the Corp will endure)

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,
lets shout it loud and clear.
Do you fight it to the end?, we hear the call

(The world is bad and filled with angry people so lets go kick some ass!)

to carry on.
We’ll carry on,
and though your 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…

(There’s a whole lot of weary widows out there right now.)

I don’t want to do the whole song (too long) but keep in mind that the music is very up tempo and martial themed.  It sounds like a call to arms to the point where I was wondering if it was a real or satirical tribute to Iraq.  The band says it isn’t though, and it’s their song, so what the hell do I know?

So my two questions are: where the fuck is the cancer patient? and why do these bands write songs where the only way to understand their “vision” is to watch the video?  For God’s sake MTV doesn’t play videos anymore and I cant download YouTube at work. 

Updated:  When I first pulled the lyrics, it indicated that they repeated the first 4 verses before launching into the up tempo part of the song.  More careful listening reveals this to be inaccurate.