The aberration

Obviously, this story has been primarily influenced by Danger Days, not just the concept and music videos but very much by the individual songs on the album. That’s as it should be.

Perhaps less obvious, but still not terribly surprising, it has been influenced by other My Chemical Romance music, most noticeably The Black Parade, but not limited to it. It is very much an MCR soundtrack.

(Also, at one point Ray plays some Spanish guitar, which is probably weird but worked in the context of the scene, and I suspect in the scene with Ray’s nieces what they are playing is “Wild Thing”.)

What did end up kind of surprising me is that as we got to the wedding scene it was inextricably linked to the Finn Brothers “Won’t Give In”.

It’s always been a song that has had a strong effect on me, but it kept coming to mind, and the song changed for me during that time, and it all kind of goes along with what music is and what it does for us, so I am going to try and speak to that today.

“Please to be kind and I'll try to explain; I'll probably get it all wrong”

I know the first time I heard the song, my thought was of those times when you are with the people you love, and it feels so good, you want that moment to never end.

“Everyone I love is here, all at once.”

That’s why it seemed odd that it was coming up for that particular scene, because so many people are missing. Some are just somewhere else, and they’ll turn up again before the end, but most of them are dead.

So I was thinking about that, and about how really, when do you actually have everyone you love together? It’s good that even having a few can feel amazing, because that’s usually the best we get. And it occurred to me that when they wrote it, their mother had died.

For the purposes of the scene, it’s acknowledged that people are missing, but there is love among the people that are left—a lot of love— and it ends up being enough. And also, a big part of what leads up to that scene is that you do not lose the love when you lose people, and that the group of people you love keeps growing.  So the song became about just carrying everyone in your heart. Everyone I love is here.

The song took on two more meanings before I was done though, because I could also totally imagine their mother, or anyone trying not to die, trying to hang on to life on earth because of the people who will still be there.

“It means that I won't give in, won't give in, won't give in
'cause everyone I love is here
Say it once, just say it, and disappear.”

But I don’t accept that those relationships end, and maybe that is how the last thought came. Maybe it could mean someone coming back from the other side, just to look in.

“Once in a while I return to the fold; With people I call my own
Even if time is just a flicker of light; And we all have to die alone
What does it mean when you belong to someone
When you're born with a name, when you carry it on?”

(I think I better just get it out of the way and mention that friend that I have known since I was six died suddenly a few days ago. The song was already there, the thoughts were already there, but now I keep thinking about Greg.)

Anyway, so yes, death has emotions associated with it, and there is a lot to that, and I have been dealing with that in page after page of writing. This post is not so much about that, though, as about how music makes all of those things work.

Remember when I was writing about how “Kids in the Street” reminded me so much of Josh?. The words were not us, but the emotions were. (And also, he’s been very present lately, and yes, I know what I need to do and I am going to do it.)

Getting back to “Won’t Give In”, yes, there are lines in the song that do not specifically work for each scenario, but the song contains emotions for all of those situations, and I am sure for others. It could also totally be about a black sheep who is often absent, but not because of a lack of love.

That is the amazing thing about music. I believe part of it is that with songs we allow music to do some of the heavy lifting, where you do not spell out each specific detail, leaving the song general enough to apply to multiple situations without losing its power.

In addition, and this is so important, it’s worth remembering how emotionally similar we are. No matter how unique we are when we get into specifics, there are broader things that we share, like love and loss. Music makes it easier to remember our commonalities, and that gets more and more important all the time.