Monday, October 8, 2018

"Helena (So Long and Goodnight)" by My Chemical Romance

This weekend has been rough and I haven't really had a chance to write because I have family in town. I almost feel like phoning it in but...it's My Chemical Romance. And My Chemical Romance got me through some of my darkest days. I think I've said that before. I forgot how much I love their old stuff (i.e., the first three albums). I haven't really listened to their more recent music but I enjoyed Gerard Way's solo album. But, then again, I love Gerard Way so that was going to happen anyway.

MCR has a few songs from their first album that are vampire-esque and maybe I'll go back to them later in the month. "Helena" was probably the first song I heard by My Chemical Romance, but it was really the video that got me. Honestly, it was Gerard Way. I saw his long black hair, hazel green eyes, pallid skin and thought, "My God! He's magnificent!" I still think he's rather attractive. I should write a Netflix original - "To All the Goth Boys I've Loved Before."


Besides that, MCR had that aesthetic/sound I was yearning for as a teenage girl. Hopelessly romantic but desperately dark at the same time. Maybe those are the same things. Yep, you can probably see where I'm gonna go with the lyrics interpretation.

Can you hear me?
Are you near me?
Can we pretend to leave and then
We'll meet again
When both our cars collide

Gerard Way wrote "Helena" as a tribute to his and Mikey's late grandmother. After she died, he became very depressed and started drinking a lot. He had a lot a guilt about not being around for her when she was alive. The song is an open apology for everything he didn't do for a woman that was so special to him. "Helena" was also the first single from MCR's second album, "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge." I consider "Three Cheers" as the halfway point of MCR's progression to a full concept album. The first album, "I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love," was pretty much a normal album with songs that weren't really related. "Three Cheers" hinted at a love story, the "Demolition Lovers," which was a re-imagining of the tragic tale of Bonnie & Clyde, but some songs didn't exactly fit into the narrative. Finally, "The Black Parade" was a full concept album, with all songs being sung from the perspective of "The Patient," a dying man examining his life before he succumbs to terminal cancer.

Now, for my interpretation of "Helena," it's a song that always reminded me of the Beautiful Sad Girl movie trope. In male-written indie films, there's always two kinds of girls that the narrator runs into - the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, the perfect girl that reminds the protagonist that he needs to experience life and take risks. And then, there's the Beautiful Sad Girl (and variants, the Fragile Flower or the Broken Bird) - the depressed girl who is so beautiful that it makes the protagonist feel like he must be really something special if he makes her smile. Both of these girls only exist so that the protagonist can reach self-actualization. Then, he can finally move on and leave her to her Fate. For the Beautiful Sad Girl, she almost always kills herself. Like Lux Lisbon in "The Virgin Suicides" - for one brief, shining moment, she thinks she's overcome the darkness when she falls in love with the most handsome boy in school, Trip Fontaine. Then he fucks her and leaves her alone on the football field, which is just the beginning of the end for poor Lux (and her sisters). I really like her name though - if I had a daughter, that's one of the names I would like to name her (unfortunately, The Husband thinks it's weird and if he knew the origin story, there's no way in Hell he'd allow it). Anyway, the first time I heard "Helena," that's who I thought she was. The singer's True Love, who took her life too soon, for unknown reasons. And he's sad because he cannot join her now but maybe in the next life.


Sorry for the ranting. I just got started and everything just flowed. It didn't even take that long to write, if I'm being honest. In retrospect, "Helena" isn't really a Halloween song, per say, but it is about death and the video is sufficiently dark and creepy that I think you'll allow it.

"Helena" Video

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