i'm seeing a grim fandango scenario, nice theme. awesome song!

I think it's about The Patient going to war himself. He talks to mother War about every soldier he served with, and him, going to Hell for killing people, maybe innocents and civilians in friendly fire i.e. "The shit that I've done with this fuck of a gun"

Mother War tries to tell him that it isn't his fault for what has happened, but The Patien remains unconvinced and dreads facing where eh will end up. Mother War weeps for him, and hopes that somehow he sees that his life was worth living, even the worst times

God, I adore this song so much. It's creepy, but I love it. Liza Minelli's voice is haunting and beautiful.

this song is truly one of their best, and gogol bordello sound a bit similar, listen to Start Wearing Purple and you'll understand.
Gogol Bordello is an awsome band, and they're Romanian!!

ok since this album is based on one character which I dont know his name so i will call him the patient. OK the album is based on the patient so I guess mama is about him talking to his mom.idk thats just my interpertation.

hm... i sometimes doubt that this is a concept album. what about blood? what about house of wolves? what about this song? actually, the whole patient stuff fits to some songs but not at all the entire album

Another amazing song
My belief on it, not knowing if this is right or not, but this is based on one of the other characters of the album. How he is (possibly) sent off to war. He's saying that they are all going to go to hell for all the death they had done and for all of the death they had witnessed.

Maybe the line 'Well mother what the war did to my legs and to my tongue. You shoulda raised a baby girl. I shoulda been a better son' means that the mother should have given birth to a baby girl because women never went to war - or well, they did as nurses an such, but they never went off to fight. Maybe he's saying to his mother that she should have had a girl because all this war, all this fighting is tearing this 'mother war' apart. Imagine if your son had to amputate his legs, of cause it would break anyones heart. This would explain the crying at the end.
Again, i'm not sure, this is just my two cents.

When he says "You shoulda raised a baby girl
I shoulda been a better son!" it sounds very much like Pink Floyd, in fact the whole song sounds kinda like Pink Floyds "Mother" song

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This song is about going to war and he's writing a letter to his moma, (lol) in the trenches.
If you listen at the beginning you can hear the bombs.
This is so my favourite i can't stop listening to it.
"Well mother what the war did to my legs and to my tongue,
You shoulda raised a baby girl
I shoulda been a better son"
That is the best part.
:)
xo.

This song sounds like Green Day's "Misery" in the beginning.

yea it does sort of sound like misery, but both are pretty much rip off's of Whiskey Bar- The Doors

Alabama Song that is

Alabama Song that is

love the song...so creepy and weird - perfect
as always we have more than one meaning to the song. it obviously has reference to young men that went off to war, what that did 'to their legs adn to their tongue' and their minds. they see hell on earth adn know there is no hope for peace in teh afterlife, not after the crimes they have commited in war.
i've heard stuff about the patient's father being in a war but i'm unsure. patient may have been in a war, and is comparing that experience to this one in teh land of the dead.
he blames himself and his mother for his life adn where he is now.

this reminds me of the vietnam and iraq war. mama is the american people sending their soldiers off to save another country. but when the horror storys of what thier soldiers had to do to survive start comming home they turn thier backs on the soldiers .( i know its a streach, maybe im thinkin too much)!

sorry thats supposed to be( stretch).

ALRIGHT this song is basically about war. if you notice in the beggining of the song there is gunshots. now..
thie first verse, mama we all go to hell. im guessing this is a story of a boy writing to his mother about war, what it truly is... we al lgo to hell because we are murderes, and honestly when your in war the image of heaven begins to fade (In all Quiet on the WEstren Front for example, the man begins to lost the meaning, value, and goodness of life) or goint to hell for the murders.
the second verse is an extention of the writing, perhaps the next letter. Don't ask me question mom, about this war, you relaly dont want to hear how terible it is (also shown in al quiet) We are all going to die is a sort of theme reflected throghout the play, im thinking die in war specifically from evidance mentioned later.
Third verse: when he talks about blame us, dont blame us when we go, this can be related to what many people due at funerals, push the blame of death on the dead, such as "Why did you have to go?, IT wasn't your time! You left me hear!" ect. we'll let the fire bathe us is im guessing, a sort of weapon, bobms even guns can be fitted with fire.. youve made us all so famous, iim guessing war heros, to the family these boys that fight are famous, they work hard for our conuntry (this is seen today).. we'l never let you go, i suppose is a promise that even through death the soldiers love thier families, and when you dont return to me my love, i think, is exemplifying thier death.
alright fourth verse.. in this all full of lies im guessing jsut the initial lie of what your fighting for about whats actually going on in the war.. a coffin your size once again relates to death, death from war..
verse five: now i think the first line, about the legs can be taken titerally. toung im thinking sanity, what he says or does or expresses. you should have raised a baby girll... hmm. well my first thought was that, though a generalization, the soldier wishes he was a girl, not really expected to go off to war.. i should have been a better son is the regret that he took so many thing sfor granted and now with death so near it can be taken away, he should have been nicer, shown how much he appreciated his mother.. the infection and moutation i take litteraly and an example of the pain of war.
verse seven: she said you aint no son of mine.. the mother sounds disgusted with the soldiers actions, killing, for what youve done there, is of corse, the war. Yuoi'll find a place for you..well im guessing this means that, afteer war a soldier has trouble operating with normal society (PTSD) and so must make a place for himself.. and just mind your manners whne you go (LOVE THAT LINE) ok well i think this line expresses the, the painstaking effort soldiers go through to kepp things normal, to not break out and go insane, soldiers must mind thie manners even after the trama of war.
verse eight: this to me represents the expectancy of a soldier not coming home, it i sright to sacrifice yourself in war..
verse nine: this sems sort of mocking.. hell is quite plesent except for the smell, it almost mocks what hell is, that they have been there and eventually one is numb to it.
Liza: and if you would call me your sweetheart, i'd maybe then sing you a song. (maybe represents lovers, and how they ask for what seems like the most unimportant things for an unimportant reward compared to the life and death situation of fighting.)
Gerard: but the shit that I've done with this spark of a gun, (how can you sing me something so innocent after all the things ive done, killed?)
You will cry us to rise up alive. (you want them alive again, but im not thinking the shell of a man after war, but the young full one before it)

We’re dead after all.
Through fortune and fame we fall.
And if you can say that I’ll show you the way
And straight from the ashes you crawl.
I think this verse menas no mater what death comes, and i know death so well i can help you to it almost (???) straight from the ashes of (??? ) life, death?
We all carry on (perhaps relates to other lyrics, no matter how much violancce we still go on)
Like our brothers in arms we fall, (taken two ways, our actual biological brothers, and brothers of war)
So raise your guns high for tomorrow we die, (the sadly natural way death is expected in war)
And return from the ashes you're from. (return home? return to chaos? not sure..)

good breakdown silvercry. but, borthers in arms does not mean biological brothers. it is somethig deeper than most of you civilians will ever understand. the last verse is saying, although our friends have died, we live for today, so enjoy it, for death may come tomorrow. But it will come eventually, it is inevitable. In Enemy at vthe Gates they say something like this when they are at that party underground.

This is my favorite song off the album. Seeing as "The End" is actually the first track, I'm thinking that maybe this rock opera is in reverse. Possibly.
Blood- a random song about blood donors
Famous Last Words-"walking this world alone" as in having lost a loved one is maybe a metaphor for leaving a lover?
Disenchanted- [Anyone else have the demo *made at least a year before the album's release on theimmortalityproject.com *also called "Shut Up and Play"** maybe a pre-emtpive look at how he's going to die?
Teenagers- the guy had a bad childhood, maybe
Sleep- Haven't listened much to this one, but it might be about the guy going off to war and realising how horrible it really is, then
MAMA!!!- Perhaps the guy cut off the connections to his mother, and so this is the first she's heard from him [writing to her in the war] telling her how "we're all going to hell", and how he wishes he could change the past. Needless to say, she would not be happy to hear that after all these years, her son writes back to her to tell her what an awful place the world is.
I actually laughed out loud the first time I heard the line "it's really quite pleasant except for the smell."
He's had a leg amputated, and felt that he came so close to death.
Cancer- Now that the guy's back from the war, he's got cancer, which really tears things up between his family [it's the most heart-wrenching song!] so he's maybe living with his aunt because he doesn't want to hurt his mother any more 'call my aunt marie...'
House of Wolves- He's got the cancer, but it hasn't affected him [physically] so much yet, so he's livin' it up
I Don't Love You- Now he's sick and he's cutting off all connections with friends and family so it won't be as hard for them when he goes. He's possibly trying to reject a lover, so he'll already have been dead to her when he dies.
Welcome To The Black Parade- Now he's regressing. Remembering his father's words about standing up for "the beaten and the damned" and instead he's gone off to war. So now he's trying to recall a happy memory; going to a parade with his father.
The Sharpest Lives- this one's a little abstract. Maybe towards the end his reality is a little blurred and going on about "the cannibal show" *I like the line ..."and lather the blood on your hands- Romeo"
This Is How I Dissapear- He's finally mourning for the loss of his family and friends, and finding himself completley alone and almost dead.
Dead- He's dead, and everyone's trying to cover the loss by saying "I never really liked him anyway", maybe because of going off to war, and their hearing about how much he upset his mother
The End- The closing curtain, and he's seeing how much people really loved him, looking down on his funeral.


Well, that's my two cents. Thanks for reading if you got this far.

Thomp, I completely agree with you.

Its not to his birth mother, but to Mother War.

that makes complete sense actually halloween. Though maybe famous last words is actually the dieing moment then his life flashes before his eyes until it comes back full circle to the begining?

Raine697, i couldn't have said it better myself

From what i gather, this song is from a soldier, perhaps Russian. I picture him drinking in a tent bar within the encampment writing this letter and sending it back to his mama.
Mama we're going to hell for the people we've killed as soldiers
And when we go to hell don't blame us, you guys hyped up the war and everything and sent us all there.
Mama we're all full of lies. How the media back then and even now makes the war so glamourous and everything, but they're full of lies because they had to kill people
He is also getting his leg amputated from fighting.
He's saying she should have raised a baby girl so she wouldn't have had to go to war.
She (his mama) said she wasn't her son because he went to fight and when he told her what he did, she knows about the post traumatic shock and all those mental disorders.
If if you could call me your sweetheart i'd maybe then sing you a song, basically is his mama wanting to see him as a boy again, not a man.
We're damned after all..i see his whole squad singing with him because tomorrow they're going into battle and more than likely will die. But they'll carry on in spirit.

MAMA BRINGS THE HOUSE DOWN!!! Oh my God, I was totally not expecting this! It's hands down, one of the best songs on the record.

And everyone's saying how it reminded them of war and Gernany, and WWII, and stuff, but I never even thought of that. I imaged a guy in the south who lived a really bad life, and killed people. He died, and he was writing a letter to his mother. the ending reminded me of Russian and other European music styles. The whole war aspect is pretty cool, though.

this is the most amazing song in the world.
its so different, it totally represents MCR.
all those "haters" think their just another emo band,
but all they hear is their singles, which definately arent their greatest songs. But then again if they heard this song they'd probably think we're all insane, because they wouldn't take the time to fall in love with it. because admit it, it took a few times before you fell in love with it, no? it's just too big to take in all at once. This is one of those classics that hundreds of other bands will try to recreate, but they'll never be able to because there will only be one. MCR, you make me proud. =)