THINKING about how if fake your death was never released, burn bright would’ve been my chemical romance’s final song for years. the song that ends with:
for this interpretation, the city lights is a representation of the audience (like torches). when put into the context of this earlier verse:
we see a cycle of give and take between the band and audience with the fire, ie their passion. passion sustains itself at either source, seeing as the band “steals” it at the end, meaning it isnt theirs. to align two-way passion — or artistry or mission (purifying flame), whatever the fire is — with identity then to go:
“YOU MADE ME WHO I AM / BE AFRAID OF WHAT I AM” is insane in two opposing ways. 1. for the band and audience to be conjoined monsters, or 2. for the band to be the audience’s monster. im approaching both these ideas on the basis that both groups are endlessly flawed but not evil.
for the audience and band to be monsters made of the same materials aligns with their shared fire. we are feared by the world for our shared, cyclical otherness. at the same time, for the audience’s fire to have burned the band in ways alluded to in the song (drug addiction, martyrdom, mental health issues, loss of self, reliance on darkness to create art) — also referenced in foundations “fate had left its scars on his face / with all the damage they had done” — creates an uncomfortable warning call: this experience has hurt me. be afraid of this life.
these interpretations can be combined — we are together in this dependent relationship (audience emotional dependence, band self-destruction) only saved by love for music (the fire). we need each other because others dont want us (“youll never get to heaven / with a life like yours”). be afraid of our community of social degeneracy.
despite starting the band themselves (“we lit the fire”), they were still molded by their experiences (“cause it makes me who i am / you made me who i am”). horrifying loss of free will is combatted (“ill never fade away”) by the final, total reclamation of passion (“if i steal the fire”). by turning the torches off (“from your city nights”). they broke the cycle. this is a goodbye. they’ve said goodbye so many times.
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