- ♪ My father took me ♪ - I like that.
- I can hear the Queen influences on this one.
- ♪ (rock intro) ♪
- (FBE) So today, we're gonna have you read some lyrics
from top songs all by one current artist
and have you tell us the meaning and what you think,
then you'll get to listen to the songs you read
and tell us your thoughts. - Good.
- Oh, I love this. Okay, great.
- Okay, let's do it. I'm curious.
- I love, love analyzing lyrics.
- I like that. You've introduced me
to some great new artists.
- "Well, I'll choose the life I've taken, never mind
the friends I'm making."
- "And the beauty that I'm faking let me live
my life like this."
It all rhymes.
- Almost sounds like some kind of wise guru talking.
(laughs)
- They're not being really themselves, but this is the way
they wanna be to be able to survive and live the way
they want to live, so yeah. Fake it 'til you make it, I guess.
- "Never mind the friends I'm making."
I guess may be a reference to a lot of the artificial friends
you make when you're successful.
- "What will it take to show you that it's not the life it seems?
I'm not okay."
- "I've told you time and time again,
you sing the words but don't know what it means."
Obviously, talking to someone that is probably not getting them.
- Some people look at him and think "Oh, you should be happy.
You got fame. You got money." But inside you may not be happy.
- "To be a joke, and look, another line without a hook.
I held you close as we both shook."
- "For the first time, take a good hard look."
Now that's the way Smokey used to write, now.
You know, rhymes.
- The hook is what you remember. That's what they put in a song,
so "another line without a hook," so it's just something there.
It's not even of any importance.
- "I held you close as we both shook."
Is that sexual?
- You're thinking of me as a joke? I'm serious what's in my heart here.
For the last time, why don't you take a look at me
and see who I am? That's my interpretation.
- So, they were close and now they're not
and he's telling her take a last look,
'cause this is probably it. It's over.
- "When I was a young boy, my father took me
into the city to see a marching band."
- "He said 'Son, when you grow up, would you be the savior
of the broken, the beaten, and the damned?'"
That's beautiful.
- That's a father taking his son in tow, and trying to
expose him to the world and educate him
and maybe inspire him.
- Are you gonna be a leader in the world?
Are you gonna represent those that need representation,
that need a voice?
- I'm just wondering if he lived a life of privilege
and maybe his father's just telling him--
or just basically telling him that, like Jesus being the savior,
you know we have to take care of the poor.
- "Son, when you grow up would you be the savior?"
Meaning that he missed the boat. That he was not the savior.
- "We'll carry on. We'll carry on.
And thought you're dead and gone, believe me.
Your memory will carry on."
- It's about someone losing someone very close,
a son perhaps. That lyric comes very close to home.
- This has to be a person that has made an effect
on their life, a positive one, because you're not gonna remember
someone you don't care about.
- It's just the reassurance that whatever your mission was
to make a difference in the world, that in your name,
we will continue the fight.
- "Your memory will carry on," so they're going to keep
the tradition of what the father or the grandfather was doing.
- That's pretty sad. So that's about losing someone
and I would get kind of emotional when I talk about it,
'cause being my age, I've lost a lot of people in my life
that I really love.
- "'Oh let me tell you 'bout the sad man.'
Shut up and let me see your jazz hands."
- "Remember when you were a mad man.
Thought you was Batman. And hit the party with a gas can?
Kiss me, you animal!" Okay.
Those are interesting lyrics.
- That's the best kind of lyric. When you can picture
the lyric in your mind.
- "Shut up and let me see your jazz hands."
Well, sometimes that means just perform when you're not
really feeling it.
- When he says "Remember when you were a mad man."
maybe he's talking about how this musician's life
used to be, how intense his life was.
- A gas can. I'm not sure about that.
I don't know if that's someone that is sniffing something
to get high. I don't know about the
"kiss me." I guess they're all excited
about it, I don't know. (laughs)
Maybe it's a turn on.
- "You run the company. [bleep] like a Kennedy."
- "I think we'd rather be burning your information.
Let's blow an artery. Eat plastic surgery.
Keep your apology. Give us more detonation."
(laughs) Oh man, what is going through
this guy's head?
- "[bleep] like a Kennedy." is you're powerful.
You can take advantage of people because you have power.
- "Let's blow an artery." Yeah, I can get that.
Hey, let's live with gusto. Get as many plastic surgeries
as we want to.
- Someone here's living over the top or beyond
what they can handle, mentally or physically.
- Just living life high on the hog, really, just living it up
and he's like "Keep your apology." They're really not sorry
that's the way they're living.
- Lyrics are poetry and I may not get the way this is presented,
but obviously I did get something from the lyrics.
It definitely makes its point.
- (FBE) Any idea whose lyrics you've been reading?
- I have no idea.
- Not a clue.
- Maybe somebody like Jay-Z?
- (FBE) So, these were lyrics to songs from
My Chemical Romance's repertoire.
- What? Never heard of them.
- That's the name of them, My Chemical Romance.
Uh, well, okay.
- (FBE) So, My Chemical Romance's genre has been classified
as alternative rock or punk rock.
- Right.
- (FBE) Some have controversially categorized the band
as emo, but lead vocalist Gerard Way hates that term
calling it garbage. He says the band
is heavily influenced by Queen, Iron Maiden, The Smiths,
and many more. - Wow.
Well, I think they have some great lyrics.
- I'd have to hear the actual-- when I hear the music.
When you're throwing Queen out there, you better be good.
- Okay, and I love Queen. The lyrics were always
very direct and interesting.
- (FBE) Let's go ahead and play you the songs you read.
- Yeah, I'm really curious now.
- ♪ Well I'll choose the life I've taken ♪
♪ Never mind the friends I'm making ♪
♪ and the beauty ♪ - Definitely rock.
- ♪ Live my life like this ♪ - (laughs)
Pretty wild.
- Yeah, it's a little punkish, the rock, for me.
- It's not the kind of music you want to get up and dance to.
I'm not used to mosh pits.
- I could see them out throwing their hair around
and bopping their heads, you know, up and down.
- Their lyrics get-- if they have a meaning,
they get lost in all the rancor and the ruckus
of the music.
- Comparing the lyrics of some of--
that we just reviewed, if it's presented in that
type of music, I would never pick up on it,
never hear it.
- ♪ What will it take to show you that it's not the life it seems? ♪
♪ I've told you time and time again ♪
♪ You sing the words ♪ - That's not as crazy.
- ♪ What it means to be a joke and look ♪
♪ Another line without a hook I held you close as we both shook ♪
♪ For the last time take a good hard look ♪
- I can understand those lyrics much better.
- They're definitely not for me. And it wasn't written for me.
- I bet some of these could actually be a much better song
if you put them down to just a basic folk guitar,
just a single artist kind of thing.
They may wanna try that sometime.
- ♪ When I was a young boy ♪
♪ My father took me into... ♪ - I like that.
- ♪ ...The city to see a marching band ♪
- I can hear the Queen influences on this one.
- You can turn that up a little bit.
Unless they're gonna change up real quick and go into that
ratatat thing in about two seconds.
- ♪ And the damned ♪
♪ We'll carry on ♪
♪ We'll carry on ♪ - The beginning had such potential.
- Now, they had a good thing going, you know, you can pick it up
a little bit, but you don't have to go from zero to sixty
in eight seconds.
- I still like it.
- I love the beginning. That lyrical, sort of melancholy.
- Of all them that you just played, I like this one
and I can hear it's more the rock and roll
that I have listened to.
- This song actually is not as heavy into it
and I get a chance hear the lyrics.
- ♪ Oh let me tell you 'bout the sad man ♪
♪ Shut up and let me see your jazz hands ♪
- Yeah, more head banging.
- I kinda like this one.
- Very good workout song. (laughs)
- ♪ You run the company (na na na na) ♪
- (singing along) Na, na, na.
- This is interesting. - ♪ Burning your information ♪
- Not something I'd ever listen to.
- Yeah, it's not so bad. I'm tapping my foot.
You can't see it, but I'm tapping my foot right now.
- I like that "na na na" hook. I like that
(singing) na, na, na, na. I like that.
I like that one.
- If there's poetry or if there's a meaning
in the lyrics, that should take precedence
and not rush through them really quickly.
- It's just too monotonous. I don't like being screamed at
in person, so I don't want to be screamed at
when I'm trying to relax and listen to music.
- Pretty interesting and I could hear
the influences like you talked about some of the other
groups of the past. Yeah, are they doing really well?
- (FBE) Yeah. - Good.
I could see why.
- Thanks for watching this episode on the React Channel.
- Don't miss out. Subscribe!
- Bye guys and carry on.
- Hey guys, I'm Katie, a React Channel producer.
Thank you so much for your comments for My Chemical Romance.
Now let me know down in the comments what the elders should
listen to next. Thanks guys, bye!