https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/mychemicalromance/dead.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H48kOqqaWv0

Link 1: Lyrics

Link 2: The Song

Death. It’s a barrier. We can only speculate whats on the other side. What we can review though is the effect of the concept of death in language and in cultures. In a young person’s conversation, jokes involving suicide or threatening murder is standard in the most lighthearted way. “There is the window” would be a humorous response to someone annoyingly clicking a pen on the 10th floor of a building. In a similar matter the song Dead! by My Chemical Romance is a sarcastic last statement by a man dying in the hospital.

Dead! is the second song in the album The Black Parade, which is about a man who has cancer going through the end of his life. After a first listen to Dead, it sounds like a man cursing someone and telling them he wishes they were dead, especially with lines like “Did you get what you deserve? The ending of your life”. However, I see a sarcasm to it. This is because he calls the person he is talking to “babe”. This could also be hateful and meant to be demeaning, but I believe it to be an endearment because of the lines “Oh, take me from the hospital bed. Wouldn’t it be grand? It ain’t exactly what you planned. And wouldn’t it be great if we were dead?”. The patient is asking for “babe” to stay with him even after he is dead and gone. In this way Dead! shows how death is seen as an end, and it also shows how the cancer patient views it: with bitterness and regret.