Annotations for Thank You for the Venom

Lyric: A pretty face, but you do so carry on
 And on, and on
Annotation:
It seems like the nun talking to the demolition lover will not stop trying to convert him, so he’s basically given up, saying, “You’re going to act like you can ‘fix me’ because your life is perfect, so I’m not even going to try to argue.” Talking with heavily religious people such as nuns or preachers can sometimes feel like talking to a broken record, as they only speak to you about their religion or try to change your mind. Considering this could also be about how fame has affected Way and how critics have made him feel, this line could also be referencing how people saw Gerard and the band as very surface-level things. Sometimes only seeing them as a “pretty face,” something to be looked at and admired and not real people writing music about real things they’re going through.

Lyric: (Rah!)
Annotation:
let me hear your best dawg impression ar arar ar  ar arar

Lyric: [Guitar Solo]
Annotation:
This is such a sick guitar solo

Lyric: I’m just the way that the doctor made me
 On, and on, and on, and on
Annotation:
If looking at the story plot of the album, the protagonist makes a deal with the Devil to kill 1,000 evil men in order to reunite with his dead wife. So I believe the doctor in this line is the Devil. The Devil practically made the protagonist kill the evil men.

Lyric: You’ll never make me leave
 I wear this on my sleeve
 Give me a reason to believe
Annotation:
He wants a better cause to live his life. He feels that it has become meaningless and has no purpose to it. In this song, he’s talking to people who are trying to help him, but don’t actually understand him, such as doctors or religious figures. When he says “you want to follow something” he sounds frustrated. He’s telling them that their method of “help” isn’t helping him and his issues need to be attacked at the root, not just numbed with pills.

Lyric: Love it or leave it, you can’t understand
Annotation:
It seems so easy for people with “perfect lives” to be religious. Love it or leave it is a term for people who blindly follow a religion or are atheists. He’s telling the “nun” or this person, they haven’t been through what he has and will never understand why he has such a hard time believing in a god.

Lyric: [Pre-Chorus: Gerard Way]
Annotation:
This time around, the lyrics say: “You’ll never make leave, I wear this on my sleeve, you wanna follow something? Give me a better cause to lead! Just give me what I need: give me a reason to believe!” This time around, he’s asking (a bit more desperately) for the “hopeless hearts that make me ill,” or the things that are killing him. He’s also saying that he’s not going to represent something that doesn’t matter, so he’s demanding for “a better cause to lead.” These things are things that are probably stressing him out and killing him slowly, but it’s a bit of an addiction. “So give me all your poison, and give me all your pills…” He knows it’s killing him, he became “addictive” to the metaphorical pills.

Lyric: Black is the kiss, the touch of a serpent son
 It ain’t the mark or the scar that makes you one
 And one, and one, and one
Annotation:
If you haven’t been beaten into changing who you are, the devil will change you eventually.

Lyric: Preach all you want, but who’s gonna save me?
 I keep a gun on the book you gave me
 Hallelujah, lock and load
Annotation:
Religion will not turn his life around. He has such little respect for religion, that he keeps a gun in his bible.

Lyric: What’s life like bleeding on the floor, the floor, the floor?
Annotation:
The woman he was talking to at the beginning of the song has been attacked. This also a self-aware reference the band being associated with teenage self-harm and suicide, when they do in fact promote the very opposite.

Lyric: I wouldn’t front the scene if you paid me
Annotation:
The band never wanted to be the poster boys for rock music, but after a certain point they had no choice — they were thrust into the limelight and plastered onto magazine covers. Gerard confessed in an  interview with Gary Hampton: That line was kind of a direct commentary on the climate of music right now and how we aren’t a part of that scene. I don’t want this band to be like the poster child for that scene and I wouldn’t front it, I don’t want, you know. I think the scene is great for what it is but I think it’s being exploited, it’s way past exploited. It’s probably into its stages of death pretty soon. If these bands don’t evolve soon they’re all going to just fade away. That’s the problem with scene stuff, it’s not like grunge. Nothing is gonna be like that, I don’t think. Not for a long time, I mean this is just like another fad, you know?

Lyric: Sister, I’m not much a poet, but a criminal
 And you never had a chance
Annotation:
“Sister, I’m not much a poet” is a direct reference to Sister, I’m A Poet, by Morrissey. Gerard may be talking to a nun, who is trying to convert him into a Catholic man, but he’s a real sinner, so she doesn’t have a chance.

Lyric: You’re running after something that you’ll never kill
 If this is what you want, then fire at will
Annotation:
The preaching and medicine that they are putting on to the narrator will not work, but if they wish to try anyways, he welcomes it with a somewhat sarcastic tone.

Lyric: So give me all your poison
 And give me all your pills
 And give me all your hopeless hearts
 And make me ill
Annotation:
The narrator is telling the world that his problems can not be fixed by means of religion, or even psychiatric help. In fact, he is saying that it just makes him sick because it’s a pathetic attempt.

Lyric: Love is the red, the rose on your coffin door
Annotation:
This line can have many interpretations- so we’ll take a look at it broken down. “Love” can be referring to the two  demolition lovers in the  storyline of the concept album, where the two are separated and the man must kill 1,000 people before they can reunite.  “Red” is a prominent theme of the album, and can be seen anywhere from the album cover to the band’s clothing. “Rose” is part of the  “Helena”  music video, where she’s buried with a bouquet of them.  Gerard Way can also be seen posing with the flowers in multiple photoshoots. “Coffin” could mean a few things, but the most notable one also comes from the   “Helena”  music video where the funeral takes place centered around the coffin until it’s placed in the hearse to finish off the song.

