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"Cancer" is the eighth track from My Chemical Romance's 2006 album, The Black Parade. Many fans consider this a solemn song because it has a very peaceful melody compared to a song like "Famous Last Words."
Background[]
The Black Parade takes listeners on a journey through the death of a man dubbed “The Patient.” This track reveals the driving force behind the protagonist’s death — cancer. It expresses his agony, just asking to be told the truth.
In an interview with NME, Gerard Way spoke about the tragic, bleak tone of the song.
“Speaking about the track ’Cancer’ in a statement, Way said that he wanted to write “the darkest song ever.”
“It’s not a poetic track,” he said. “It’s very direct, very brutal, but that’s the way disease is. Obviously cancer is being used as a metaphor.
“But I also wanted the song to be directly about the disease, because it’s something that the patient has gone through and it’s a very powerful thing. For me it was almost like an attempt to write the darkest song ever, and I think we achieved that."
Lyrics[]
Turn away
If you could get me a drink
Of water cause my lips are chapped and faded
Call my aunt Marie
Help her gather all my things
And bury me in all my favorite colors
My sisters and my brothers, still
I will not kiss you
Cause the hardest part of this is leaving you
Now turn away
Cause I'm awful just to see
Cause all my hairs abandoned all my body
Oh, my agony
Know that I will never marry
Baby, I'm just soggy from the chemo
But counting down the days to go
It just ain't living
And I just hope you know
That if you say (if you say)
Good-bye today (good-bye today)
I'd ask you to be true (I'd ask you to be true)
Cause the hardest part of this is leaving you
Cause the hardest part of this is leaving you
Trivia[]
- Lead guitarist Ray Toro played bass on the studio track instead of Mikey Way.
- A live version of this track appears on the CD single of “I Don’t Love You.”