My Chemical Romance became one of the biggest rock bands in the world with the success of their 2006 album The Black Parade. And as singer Gerard Way revealed to Q magazine, one of the key influences for The Black Parade was Pink Floyd’s 1979 album The Wall.
In the Q interview, Way said that the band had always intended to make a grand statement with The Black Parade.
“That was the big goal,” he said.
“Let’s be honest – did the world need just another rock album? It’s almost redundant to even make those anymore. It was like, are we gonna give them another punk album, another post-hardcore record, just another rock record? And the answer was, no – we’re gonna give them THE rock record!”
Way had previously stated that The Wall was an inspiration along with another legendary ’70s concept album, David Bowie’s The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.
He told Q: “I hadn’t even thought it about it until very recently, but it’s almost as if we’re trying to spearhead some kind of neo-classic rock movement. Bringing the pageantry and the theatre back.
"Paying tribute to those old songs – not ripping them off, but a total tribute. We wanted to capture that glory, that over-the-top-ness and that essence of classic rock in the ’70s.”
He talked about The Wall as a very heavy album in terms of its lyrical content.
“It’s coming from a place from a guy in a rock band playing giant shows in arenas, and there’s groupies around, sex and drugs. And yet to a fifteen year old kid with his parents on vacation – that being me – I mentally identified with the alienation in that record.
“You know, I’m not a rock star at that age. How the fuck did I get it? But I did get it.”
The Wall was famously inspired by an experience that Floyd bassist Roger Waters had during a stadium show when a fan got on stage and Waters spat in his face.
On this subject, Way said: “I won’t lie. A lot of the feelings on The Black Parade come from a similar place to The Wall.
“There’s a degree of contempt in some of the lyrics on this record, and a degree of resignation. This record is like The Wall in that it’s about alienation – alienation of a band, and then the claiming of one’s destiny.
“This record is largely about destiny, but when I ask the question – “Will you be the saviour of the broken, the beaten and the damned?” – it’s not for me. I’m not some kind of messiah figure, as has been misinterpreted. It’s simply enough to ask the question – of myself, of you, everybody in our audience – ‘What are you gonna be?’
“And it’s almost like the record takes you on this journey and tries to teach you stuff, because if you listen to the lyrics in The End, I say, ‘When I grow up I want to be nothing at all.’ This record is very thought out.”
Way described the mood within the band while making The Black Parade.
“We knew the expectation: ‘Oh, let’s watch these guys fall on their face’. Or: ‘Let’s watch them make another punk record where they’re pandering for credibility.’ I don’t think anybody expected what they heard in track one – let alone tracks two, three, four or five!
“We knew we had all this crazy stuff, so making the record, as hard as it was, we thought, ‘This is gonna come out one day pretty soon and the expectations are just gonna be obliterated!’”
He admitted that it was a gamble for the band to make a concept album.
"It’s a huge risk! But here’s the thing – it depends on your outlook. It depends on having faith in the world. We had faith in ourselves, ultimately, but faith in yourself only goes for far, because then there’s that little trigger in your head going, ‘Oh, they’re not gonna understand.’ But if you remove that doubt, you go, ‘No, they’re gonna get it and they’re gonna fucking love it!’”
He concluded by saying how he hoped that The Black Parade would be viewed as a timeless album.
“I picture the record as an infant,” he said, “and we gave that kid every advantage we could so he could live a long life.
“The last one [the band’s 2004 album Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge] was a sign of the times, and all of a sudden emo came out of that – and God knows why, but I get it.
“But with this particular baby – and I always picture a little fucking kid with a mop of black hair – we gave him every advantage. It’s like we played him Mozart when he was in the fucking womb!
"We sent this kid to the best school and we’re gonna make sure he stays off drugs!”
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