The My Chemical Romance song inspired by Neil Gaiman
Although they are often maligned by some segments of society, My Chemical Romance are one of the world’s most influential bands, with their status fully deserved.
The band’s story is a familiar one, having first broken through in the early 2000s off the back of the third wave of emo. Unlike many of their peers, My Chemical Romance quickly cast off the purely “emo” tag and embarked on a journey of artistic discovery that saw them create the critically acclaimed rock opera The Black Parade in 2006.
Drawing on the likes of Queen, Pink Floyd and The Beatles, the New Jersey band fused their unquestionably emo origins with a new and expansive sound that was more artistically viable than almost anything that any other band from the third wave of emo managed to achieve.
Guitarist Ray Toro explained at the time: “The intention was to make something that was classic, something timeless”, and it is safe to say that for many people, the band achieved their goal. The record became one of the highlights of the era. Despite what people might think of the group, the artistic heights they reached on the album were utterly refreshing, particularly when you note the state of music at the time, with indie sleaze and overly-affected emo ubiquitous at both ends of the largely forgettable spectrum.
The band then released Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys in 2010, another expansive concept album telling a fantastical story. The narrative follows a group of rebels, the Killjoys, in a post-apocalyptic California in 2019, who fight back against an evil corporation. This was the last record before the band broke up, but it was a brilliant way to bow out.
To continue the story of the Killjoys, My Chemical Romance’s frontman and creative mastermind Gerard Way published a comic in 2013 that continued the story after the album. Interestingly, running concurrently with My Chemical Romance’s first chapter was Way’s flourishing career as a writer. Dark Horse Comics released his initial editions of The Umbrella Academy in 2007, and naturally, as he developed as an author, so did the band’s work. Notably, the comics were then adapted by Netflix into a successful series of the same name in 2019.
Even before he released his comic, it was clear to everyone that Gerard Way had one of the most vivid imaginations in music, with him taking inspiration from a range of places ranging from the horror genre to teenage violence. This density imbued the group’s music with a real edge and set the imaginations of many fans alight.
One of the most exciting topics Way has written a song about came in the form of The Sandman, the legendary comic by Neil Gaiman. Added to this intrigue is that the song in question is ‘Sister To Sleep’, which has a cult status among fans of My Chemical Romance, as it’s an earlier cut from the days of 2004’s Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge that they’ve only played live twice in their history. The only recording of it that exists is a bootleg from a 2003 New York show, which has meant that it is one of the most revered moments in the band’s history.
Speaking to WSOU in 2003, Way revealed that ‘Sister To Sleep‘ was based on The Sandman. “It’s about sleep deprivation, being in an institute for that,” he explained, “And not being able to sleep. And then people trying to make you sleep, but if you go to sleep, you’re going to die – and you know it, so you’re trying not to.”
