Annotations for The End

Lyric: I said yeah, yeah
 I said yeah, yeah
 Come on, come on, come on, I said
Annotation:
This “bridge” section of the song is the narrator on the verge of a breakdown. This is shown clearly when in the outro of the song the narrator starts begging, “Save me”. This could also be seen as the start of them breaking down as they are screaming in the last line. As if they are crying for help.

Lyric: [Interlude]
Annotation:
Demonstrating the album’s clear inspiration from Pink Floyd’s The Wall, this instrumental bridge closely resembles the one at the end of “In the Flesh,” after Pink sings “You’ll just have to claw your way through this disguise."

Lyric: So gather ’round, piggies, and kiss this goodbye
Annotation:
This verse is a reference to William Golding’s  Lord of the Flies. Piggy is a character who never quite fits in with the rest of the cast: he’s overweight, smart, wears glasses, and suffers from asthma (referee to as “ass-mar” in the novel). He’s the voice of reason to the rest of the animalistic boys, until his death. In a way, this line is an invitation to the outcasts, such as Piggy was. Alternatively, it could be a jab at the media, such as the other lines seem to be. Way is telling them to “kiss him goodbye,” either because he’s changing in his style and visuals, or because The Patient is dying.

Lyric: I’d encourage your smiles, I’ll expect you won’t cry
Annotation:
This is both a stab at the general depressing demeanour of a funeral, despite the fact that a lot of people try to celebrate the person’s life. However the second part of this line suggests a rather more disturbing idea. The people who are there aren’t there out of sadness, but more there out of obligation to the Patient. After this line, drums and loud guitar kick in, something that sounds quite similar to  Pink Floyd’s ‘In The Flesh?’, the opening track on their 1979 rock opera  The Wall. This isn’t a coincidence, as that album was  a big influence on this one.

Lyric: You’ve got front row seats to the penitence ball
Annotation:
Penitence means to repent or show remorse for actions.  He’s telling the listener that they’re going to witness his sorrow and regret for what he’s done in life. PROPOSED SUGGESTION: I don’t think he would show his regret for what he’s done, as it’s stated in “Sleep” that there’s “no way that [he’s] sorry for what [he] did.” Taking this suggestion into account, I have come to conclude that it might be poking fun at sorrow and regret, showing he has none.  He does throw the term out there in a joking manner.

Lyric: Another contusion, my funeral jag
Annotation:
A  contusion is a medical term for a bruise whereas  jag describes a sharp object that usually causes pain. Here, the protagonist expresses his wounds (which can also be interpreted as his illness) as something that painfully draws out his inevitable demise.

Lyric: You can’t (If you can hear me, just)
 Take me (Walk away, yeah)
Annotation:
If anybody can hear the patient just come and take him outta there, but right after they hold out “take me” it leads right into their song “Dead!” where the patient dies. Right after he says “take me” he dies, which is why at the start of Dead! you hear the flatline of a heart monitor.

Lyric: Save me (Get me the hell out of here)
 Save me (Too young to die, and, my dear)
Annotation:
An interesting contrast to  “when I grow up I want to be nothing at all,” the Patient is now crying out for someone, probably a doctor, to save him from death, thinking he’s too young to pass away. Two of the greatest influences of  The Black Parade were the albums  The Wall by  Pink Floyd and  The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust… by  David Bowie, two of the greatest rock operas of all-time. “The End.” is comparable to the albums' opening tracks:  “In the Flesh?” from  The Wall and  “Five Years” from  Ziggy Stardust. The outro to “The End.” Is extremely similar to the  outro of “Five Years”: We’ve got (Five years) Stuck on my eyes (Five years) What a surprise, we’ve got (Five years) My brain hurts a lot (Five years) That’s all we’ve got

Lyric: When I grow up, I want to be nothing at all
Annotation:
Children always say “When I grow up, I wanna be a doctor, firefighter, superhero, etc.” The patient knows his disease is terminal, so he just doesn’t care about anything anymore; he’s gonna die anyways.

Lyric: Wipe off that makeup, what’s in is despair
 So throw on the black dress, mix in with the lot
 You might wake up and notice you’re someone you’re not
Annotation:
The singer urges the listener to stop trying to impress others. Gerard realizes the emo culture is what’s “in,” but he doesn’t believe it’s cool to be in despair simply because it’s trendy. Wearing makeup is also a metaphor analogous to hiding your true self. To “wipe off that makeup” is to take a mask off, revealing a more honest representation of oneself. Black dresses are often worn to funerals and  all-black is the “dress code” of the black parade,  as shown by the album cover. Gerard is warning the listener to not just fall into a trend of things. He warns them not to “mix into the lot” and just be themselves.

Lyric: Here’s my resignation, I’ll serve it in drag
Annotation:
The narrator pleads to be disconnected from life.  He is willing to go in embarrassment as long as it means he can leave the pain, both emotional and physical, behind. “Resignation” is an interesting word choice: it sounds as if The Patient would rather throw in the towel himself rather than letting his illness kill him first. This line may serve as a  triple entendre: The Patient is referring to his death or ‘resignation’ from the hospital in “drag,” i.e. in his hospital gown. The alternative is him disregarding death by not taking it seriously and saying he’ll be buried in women’s clothes and makeup. On a personal level, the songwriter may be coming to terms with his gender identity, where the “resignation” represents the end of his old life and the beginning of a new life in which he can fully express his true self. Drag has also been referenced in MCR’s  “You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison”: My cellmate's​ a killer, they make me do push-ups in drag

Lyric: Now, come one, come all to this tragic affair
Annotation:
Given the theatrical feel surrounding the whole album, this line likely portrays the practice of storytelling. During the Middle Ages, storytellers, also called  minstrels, used to travel from town to town and gather a crowd to tell stories in a very similar way. The song opens up with a proper  welcome  to not only the  Black Parade album, but also to the storyline of The Patient, the concept album’s protagonist.

Lyric: If you look in the mirror and don’t like what you see
 You can find out firsthand what it’s like to be me
Annotation:
These lines are an allusion to an internal struggle within The Patient. It is a struggle with self confidence and the feeling of being an outsider. He is showing sympathy and relation to those who aren’t confident in themselves and their bodies. Additionally, this may personally relate to Gerard and his  struggle with gender identiy. Those who struggle with this commonly feel dysphoric when looking into the mirror, as their gender identity doesn’t match their physical appearance.

