The song Gerard Way called “the greatest ever written”
At the start of the 2000s, rock and roll was in yet another state of change. Although the sounds of nu-metal and post-grunge were lingering from the decade before, the sounds of pop-punk were still growing strong with bands like Green Day and the burgeoning sounds of garage acts like The Strokes bringing rock back to basics. While the rest of the rock scene was about to squeak by resting on their laurels, Gerard Way had something more grandiose in mind when putting together My Chemical Romance.
Inspired to form the band after the horrific attacks on 9/11, Way put together a band that was looking to make songs that were far grittier than the pop-punk that they heard on the radio. Taking influence from metal, hard rock, and punk music, the band’s debut album, I Brought You My Bullets, was enough to make some noise in their local scene, only to go nuclear when making their follow-up Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge.
Although the band had an identity of what they wanted to sound like, it wasn’t until they worked with longtime Green Day producer Rob Cavallo that they hit their masterpiece, The Black Parade. Always a fan of concept albums, Way wanted to create an album that told the story of a dying cancer patient, following the man through the various stages of grief before he finally succumbs to his ailments at the end.
While the sounds of punk were still firmly rooted in the group’s sound, one major inspiration that they inherited was a love for the rock band Queen. As opposed to the sloppy playing of most pop-punk acts, Ray Toro would create symphonies with his guitar reminiscent of Brian May, all while Way put his vocals to the test, channelling Freddie Mercury.
Despite his love for Queen’s aesthetic, Way thought that one song in particular made them want to create something new. For all of the drastic sonic avenues that Queen took their listeners down throughout their career, none hit as hard as when they started to work on material for their epic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
When talking about the song, Way recalled to Rolling Stone: “Bohemian Rhapsody’ is arguably the greatest song ever written. I’m sure people told them it was too long or had too many movements. But then it came out and just took hold of the world. When you’re in a band, and you find something that breaks every rule, it gives you creative hope. And Queen were always trying something new; none of their hit songs were paint-by-numbers”.
Although Way may have been a mere fan of Queen in the beginning, ‘Welcome to the Black Parade’ may as well be the modern equivalent of Mercury’s masterpiece. Taking place over different musical sections and containing various tempo switches and mood changes, every part of the song is a hook that keeps the listener on their toes from beginning to end, containing all of the drama of a three-act play in just five minutes.
Even though Way knew the hard work that went into making albums like The Black Parade, he never lost that spark that Queen gave him, explaining, “Queen fell in and out of being cool, maybe because they were so sincere. Rock music is all about being phoney sometimes. And they weren’t. They were obviously so psyched to be doing what they were doing”.
