Audacy's Run That Back series is a deep dive into some of music’s most popular or underrated projects. Whether it’s been 5 years or 50, there’s never a wrong time to ‘run that back.’
After bringing a darker feel to the pop punk and emo scene that was popularized in the nineties with their first two releases, My Chemical Romance brought fans into an entirely new world of their own making with the release of their third record, The Black Parade, in 2006. In essence, the album is a punk rock opera centered on a character dying of cancer, "The Patient," who tells the story of his death, the afterlife, and reflections on his life.
Following up their fan favorites I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, released in 2002, and the New Jersey band’s major-label debut, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge released in 2004, would be no easy task. So the band made up of Gerard and Mikey Way, Frank Iero, and Ray Toro, brought on drummer Bob Bryar for their next chapter -- as well as producer Rob Cavallo, known for his work with the Goo Goo Dolls and Green Day -- and dropped The Black Parade to critical acclaim on October 20, 2006, via Reprise Records.
Singer Gerard Way spoke with Travis Mills on Apple Music 1 to celebrate the 15th anniversary, sharing what he hopes a new generation of fans will take away from discovering the album over a decade later. "My biggest takeaway is that... the longer the album was out, it kind of just gained more and more importance," says Way. "I noticed over the years, people start looking back at that period in music and that era, and 'Black Parade' always comes up... Just even the world that's in the record, seeing that emerge through people's art, through people's writing and there's this entire universe. It's been amazing to see that album regarded the way it is today."
The success of the beloved New Jersey band’s previous releases were eclipsed by their 2006 concept album, which was certified triple platinum in both the United States and the U.K.
"I knew what I wanted the first record to sound like. Basically, the idea was to keep progressing more and more as the album kept going," says Gerard. "But I feel like this really big kind of bombastic theatricality in the music as well, started to emerge sometime after 'Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge.' These were all wishlist stuff like, 'Oh, we'd be lucky to make the second record. We'd be lucky to make a third,' but at least the first three, I had an idea of where I thought we could go, what the potential was. Just like a love of all things theatrical and this movie 'Stand Under the Paradise' was a big inspiration. We had wanted to make kind of an important record about death. There wasn't a lot of bands or music, at least in mainstream or popular cultures, that were kind of talking about these things."
My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade tracklisting:
The End.
Dead!
This Is How I Disappear
The Sharpest Lives
Welcome to the Black Parade
I Don't Love You
House of Wolves
Cancer
Mama (featuring Liza Minnelli)
Sleep
Teenagers
Disenchanted
Famous Last Words"
Blood (Hidden track)
A total of four singles were released from the 14 track album: "Welcome to the Black Parade," "Famous Last Words," "I Don't Love You," and "Teenagers" -- although every single song deserves a listen and read through the lyrics. Fans were graced with even more on the deluxe edition, which included the additional tracks "My Way Home is Through You," "Kill All Your Friends," and "Heaven Help Us."
"I really like 'Famous Last Words,' but I think my favorite is 'Mama.' Oh no, it's 'Sleep.' That's what my favorite always is," Gerard admits. "'Mama's really up there, but 'Sleep.' 'Sleep' is my favorite. It's my favorite alongside 'Mama' to play from the album. I just have a completely nuclear guitar sound... I like the subject and it's a really just great one to play live. You could really lose yourself in it and feel it. 'Sleep' and 'Mama' tend to be the two of them are my favorites off the top."
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MCR followed up The Black Parade in 2010 with Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, and in 2013 dropped a number of one-off singles recorded in 2009, under the collective title Conventional Weapons. After the release of the final single, MCR announced they would be breaking up. In arch 2014, a greatest hits album titled May Death Never Stop You surfaced, and in 2016, on its 10th anniversary, the band offered up a reissue called The Black Parade/Living with Ghosts featuring a number of live demos, bonus tracks, and rough mixes.
"I feel like originally the album is kind of warning or more of a, at times it really did feel like a display of organs that you kind of reach deep and you just kind of pull out all your organs and you just lay them on a table for everybody to look at them and stare at them," he says. "Then what would be the message? I mean, more than anything, just stay alive, live your life, be kind, don't be so hard on yourself."
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Keep your eyes and ears peeled, MCR fans -- there could be another future for The Black Parade. "There was talks very early about some kind of animated musical," Gerard says. "Then there was talks a decade or so later about a musical. I was like, 'To be honest with you, I think it's too soon...' I was like, 'I don't think the record has lived long enough.' I think something like a musical could be very exciting, but it felt a little too young at the time to do something like a musical, but I'm open to it, sure. The Black Parade itself, just from all the art and the videos and the inside photographs, it really is this kind of massive world. I think within that you could do a number of things. I think there's lots of possibilities because the world ended up being so rich, visually and musically. I think anything is really possible in terms of that."
Listen to more of your favorite music on Audacy's '80s Underground, New Wave Mix Tape, '90s and Chill, and ALT Roots exclusive stations -- plus check out our talent-hosted Megan Holiday's My So Called '90s Playlist and Scott Lowe on the Go's Post Modern Music Box!
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