#7 My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
Released: October 24, 2006
Musicians:
Bob Bryar - drums, percussion
Frank Iero - guitars, backing vocals
Ray Toro - guitars, backing vocals; bass guitar on “Cancer”
Gerard Way - lead and backing vocals
Mikey Way - bass guitar
Jamie Muhoberac - keyboard, synthesizer, B3 organ, Wurlitzer, piano
Liza Minnelli - guest vocals on “Mama”
Rob Cavallo - piano
I think about this album a lot. My girlfriend at the time got me into this band. With only Bullets and Three Cheers out I was quite reluctant at first. But eventually I realized the music was much more than the typical rock band at the times. The band didn’t particularly like being pigeon holed into the “emo” and ironically became the defacto face of emo culture.
I managed to get a leak of this album a few weeks before it was released. (Thank you Limwire.). My girlfriend, being the devotee she was, would not listen to it early.
From the start…that opening brought me right to one of my favorite albums of all time. This was The Wall for a new age. I could talk for hours about each track. And why bother? This album is famous enough. Y’all know how well made this album is. The production. The writing. The concept. It’s all phenomenal.
This show makes me think of the potential of theater. Its concept and execution are rooted deeply in theater. Gerard Way even confirmed it. Liza Minelli is on the album for fucks sake. (“Fuck’s sake?” Is it “fucks” a unit of measurement for the sake? Like a fucks worth of sake? Or is it possessive? The sake of fuck? Who knows. I digress.)
I’d be lying if I said every show I write is written to evoke the same joy I got from the first listen through of Black Parade. That visceral blood pumping excitement. My musical Vincent is written on a bed of emo/alt rock arrangements with progressive rock synths and strings layered on top. The original finale of Vincent was a huge callback to Famous Last Words in many many ways. So much so I decided to drop it for fear of evoking too much of Black Parade.
On April 21,2024 we’ll be releasing the concept album for my other musical, The Death of the Living Club. This one lives between pop/punk and video game music. Like Gerard, I have a deep love of horror movies and comic books. Every song is an ode to a different video and horror film. The opening radio montage is a callback to Stevie Wayne, the radio DJ from The Fog.
Music and lyrics by Bob Bryar, Frank Iero, Ray Toro, Gerard Way, & Mikey Way.
Track listing:
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
Sleep
Teenagers
Disenchanted
Famous Last Words
This album was recorded in studio in Brooklyn with some of the most talented people I know. We went out of our way to create something that absolutely didn’t exist. It works on its own. You don’t need the show. Original just meant to be a cast album…it turned into a true blue concept album. Something that I feel proud to say stemmed from years of listening to The Black Parade, Tommy, The Wall…
What’s interesting is I thought it would be something i’d be working on for a run of show. To get my name out there. To make some money.
What ended up happening is I worked my ass off because I needed the music to be heard. I just wanted to share it. And to me that’s what creates these kinds of pieces.
The follow up to Black Parade was Danger Days. I like it a lot…but you can tell it was created because the label demanded it. It felt overproduced…and it felt less like “I need to share this music” and more “I need to make an album.”
This was a bit of a rant. I want to blog more. I’ll try again. But….yeah…check out the album out on 4/21 on all streaming platforms.