Today, March 23rd, 2014 (Manila time), marks the first year anniversary of My Chemical Romance’s breakup. They disbanded simply because they felt it was time to call it quits. For a long time, they’ve believed that, as with everything else in this mortal world we live in, being in a band is not a permanent gig. The band’s split really hit me hard, as they have been a huge part of my high school years. MCR’s biggest influence on me, aside from their music, is this line from an interview for their Life on the Murder Scene DVD:
…it’s okay to be messed up because there are five guys who are just as messed up as you and we’ve overcome that in order to do what we do.
For me, it means that it doesn’t matter if you’re awkward or you’re not as cool or attractive as as the “cool kids” around you. Just keep on doing what you love to do and don’t let the douchebags dictate what you should or should not do, what you should like or dislike, who you should or should not be. The guys from MCR were bullied in high school like most of us because of their incredibly nerdy personalities — obsession for comic books and comic book characters, horror movies, and Dungeons and Dragons plus tons of other geek stuff.
I can’t say I could totally relate with some of the dark, trying times they’ve been through in their lives (i.e seeing the 9/11 terrorist attacks first-hand), but MCR’s music has helped get through emotional times.
To celebrate/mourn this day, I’ve come up with a list of my five favorite MCR songs:
5. Skylines and Turnstiles (from I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, 2002)
This is the first MCR song to ever exist. Gerard Way wrote this after seeing the two planes hit the World Trade Center as he was riding a ferry on the Hudson River going to work. The song is about Way’s feelings after 9/11.
4. I’m Not Okay (I Promise) (from Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, 2004)
This is basically the theme song of my high school years, and pretty much of all other unpopular, whiny teenagers. I may (or may not have) moved on from this phase in my life but this song still means a lot.
3. The Kids From Yesterday (from Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, 2010)
This is about reminiscing all the awesome memories and heartaches that we have. I also love the “summer vibe” to this song. I don’t know why, but that’s the kind of vibe this song gives me.
2. Disenchanted (from The Black Parade, 2006)
As Gerard put it in The Black Parade is Dead! DVD, “this song is all about dreams“. Disenchanted is my feel-good song whenever negative emotions hound me because the song is basically a supernova, bursting, exploding and releasing emotions. Gotta love the general emo-ness.
1. Helena (from Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, 2004)
This song is about Gerard and Mikey‘s late grandmother, Elena Lee Rush (yes, that’s the kind of fan I am — I know their grandmother’s name). I love Helena for the same reason I love most MCR songs — the emotional outburst.
MCR is no longer together, but they will live on in the hearts and minds of every Killjoy out there because, as Gerard so eloquently puts it on his Twitter post:
My Chemical Romance is done. But it can never die.
It is alive in me, in the guys, and it is alive inside all of you.
I always knew that, and I think you did too.
Because it is not a band-
it is an idea.
So long, and goodnight.
=o=o=o=o=o=Update (March 23rd, 2014; 2:24 P.M.)=o=o=o=o=o=
My Chemical Romance is set to do one final act as a band more than a year after breaking up: release a greatest hits album called May Death Never Stop You on March 25th. The first track off the album, called Fake Your Death, is the last MCR song to be written.
patrickkennan.com 