Annotations for Vampire Money

Lyric: Well, are you ready, Ray?
 Yeah!
Annotation:
The intro is likely a reference/homage to the intro of “Ballroom Blitz”, the 1973 hit single by the British glam rock band Sweet.

Lyric: The kids don’t care if you’re alright, honey
Annotation:
Could be talking about how people (“kids”) often don’t care about pop stars as people, and see them only as their personas and music. Even when they become addicted to drugs (“pills”) and their life spirals out of control, that’s just schadenfreude (“sure is funny”) for the gossip magazines, it’s not a real person’s life on the line. This also could be a call back to their song,  I’m Not Okay (I Promise). Gerard way sings the lyrics “I’m not okay” repetitively which someone replying with no one cares/the kids don’t care

Lyric: The kids don’t care if you’re alright, honey
Annotation:
Could be talking about how people (“kids”) often don’t care about pop stars as people, and see them only as their personas and music. Even when they become addicted to drugs (“pills”) and their life spirals out of control, that’s just schadenfreude (“sure is funny”) for the gossip magazines, it’s not a real person’s life on the line. This also could be a call back to their song,  I’m Not Okay (I Promise). Gerard way sings the lyrics “I’m not okay” repetitively which someone replying with no one cares/the kids don’t care

Lyric: Oh, you look like somebody I used to know
Annotation:
He’s referring to how the vampires in twilight were based off of him.  I think he’s referring to the fact that he no longer looks like he used to and that the ‘somebody he used to know’ is him in the past

Lyric: The kids don’t care if you’re alright, honey
 Pills don’t help, but it sure is funny
Annotation:
Could be talking about how people (“kids”) often don’t care about pop stars as people, and see them only as their personas and music. Even when they become addicted to drugs (“pills”) and their life spirals out of control, that’s just schadenfreude (“sure is funny”) for the gossip magazines, it’s not a real person’s life on the line.

Lyric: (Come on!) Pick a fight at an airport bar
Annotation:
The line “Pick a fight at an airport bar” could be a reference to a punk rock band from the 1970s “The Sex Pistols” The band, hungover, boarded a plane at London Heathrow Airport early on January 4th, and later that day, the Evening News was reporting that the band had “vomited and spat their way” to the flight.

Lyric: (Come on!) Pick a fight at an airport bar
Annotation:
The line “Pick a fight at an airport bar” could be a reference to a punk rock band from the 1970s “The Sex Pistols” The band, hungover, boarded a plane at London Heathrow Airport early on January 4th, and later that day, the Evening News was reporting that the band had “vomited and spat their way” to the flight.

Lyric: (Come on!) Pick a fight at an airport bar
Annotation:
The line “Pick a fight at an airport bar” could be a reference to a punk rock band from the 1970s “The Sex Pistols” The band, hungover, boarded a plane at London Heathrow Airport early on January 4th, and later that day, the Evening News was reporting that the band had “vomited and spat their way” to the flight.

Lyric: And get a parking violation on La Brea ’til it’s done
Annotation:
La Brea Ave. is a major road in Los Angeles known for it’s history and Spanish culture. “La Brea” translates to “the tar pits”, and the area surrounding the street has been in the past known for finding rare minerals and fossils.

Lyric: We got the bomb
Annotation:
This line is also used in  Boy Division from  Conventional Weapons. This album was recorded before  Danger Days, and these songs were meant to be part of  Danger Days, but the band ultimately scrapped them and started fresh, only releasing them in 2012, just before they broke up.

Lyric: [Guitar Solo]
Annotation:
Go Frank!

Lyric: Fuckin’ ready!
Annotation:
In the clean version all fucks are taken out of the song, and are either replaced or completely removed. This causes the clean version to have a hilarious “ReAdy” without anything behind it

Lyric: Everybody party ’til the gasman comes
Annotation:
This could be a reference to one or both songs called “The Gasman Cometh,” which could go two very different ways depending on whether they’re referencing to the 1961 Flanders & Swann song or the 1979 Crass song.

Lyric: Well, I think I’m alright!
Annotation:
In the song intro, Gerard asks each of the band’s members how they’re doing, but nobody asks Gerard how he’s doing.  (He still takes the time to announce, “I think I’m alright,” even though nobody asked.) Sometimes, during live shows, the other band’s members will stay silent during the intro (ignoring Gerard’s questions), further drilling home the point that nobody in the band seems to care about how Gerard is doing.

Lyric: Oh what? Sorry, I couldn’t hear ya; the music is way too loud
 Gonna have to turn it down a little, sorry!
Annotation:
The song “Goodnite, Doctor Death” (which comes on right before this song) is Doctor D’s sign off, the way he’s saying “alright see you guys later”, presumably to go to sleep. Party Poison saying this maybe means that he was afraid that the loud music might wake up Doctor Death.

Lyric: (Come on!) When you wanna be a movie star
 (Come on!) Play the game and take the band real far
Annotation:
This is most likely referring to the bands attitude towards creating a song for the Twilight Saga. They feel pressured to be in a big name movie and “take the band real far”.

Lyric: [Intro: Gerard Way, Ray Toro, Frank Iero, Mikey Way]
Annotation:
The intro is a reference to the  intro of  “Ballroom Blitz” by  Sweet, which starts in a similar manner: Are you ready Steve? (Uh huh) Andy? (Yeah) Mick? (Okay) Alright fellas, let’s go! This was confirmed by Gerard Way in a 2011  interview with  Village Voice.

Lyric: How ’bout you, Frank?
 Oh, I’m there, baby!
Annotation:
Frank was allegedly drunk, as the members often are, during this recording. It is claimed that he had no recollection of saying this. During live shows, Frank mixes things up and answers differently, depending on the show.

Lyric: Gimme, gimme some of that vampire money, come on!
Annotation:
Possibly a stretch but could be a reference to how My Chemical Romance were asked to make a song for Twilight which would’ve probably earned them a lot of money, but instead they made this song mocking the movies. This song is their way of laughing at the offer and in this line Gerard could be asking for the money that the Twilight-song would’ve earned them, but in a mocking way because he doesn’t care for them. “Vampire money” because Twilight is a vampire movie. The line could also have a double meaning.

Lyric: Sing it like the kids that are mean to you!
Annotation:
A reference to the opening lyric of the Misfits song, “Mommy Can I Go Out And Kill Tonight.” The Misfits were a big influence on MCR, and the sound of this song imitates the sound of many Misfits songs, pointing to some correlation.

Lyric: Three, two, one, we came to fuck
Annotation:
Vampire Money was written in response to the band’s views of the culture surrounding themes like vampires and horror in general being overly processed into mindless and easily digestible ways to make money. Gerard, in an interview, stated that he saw these movies as “selling sex to children”. The way he drops lines like this one, blatantly encouraging themes like sex, drugs, and delinquency, is probably meant to exaggerate and make light of the messages he thinks this media is trying to send. It is also a play on words; vampires traditionally came to “suck” blood, but as he views modern pop-culture vampires as being over-sexualized, he replaced that with “fuck”.

Lyric: Sing it like the kids that are mean to you!
Annotation:
This line may allude to the opening lyrics of the  Misfits song  “Mommy Can I Go Out And Kill Tonight”. Singled out the kids who are mean to meGet straight A’s but they still make fun I don’t give a, I’ll laugh last The Misfits were a big influence on MCR, and the sound of this song imitates the sound of many Misfits songs, pointing to some correlation. This line also has a retroactively meta facet to it. During the height of MCR’s initial popularity (2004-2009), their dark aesthetic and dramatic music videos caused them to be lumped in with emo subculture. Though their music contains many elements of pop punk and post-hardcore genres, MCR is often considered  the stereotypical emo band and used as a punchline. Gerard himself hated the “emo” label, calling it “ a pile of shit.” In many ways,  Danger Days can be viewed as a reaction to the emo label, with the songs featuring brighter musical arrangements, more hopeful lyrics, and the album’s artwork and general aesthetic being  literally brighter and more colorful than their earlier albums. As a result of their association with the emo label, fans of the band were often derided and mocked. In May 2008, many British tabloids  blamed MCR for the suicide of Hannah Bond, a teenage fan, and claimed them to be a “suicide cult.” MCR’s response discouraged self-harm and  urged struggling fans to seek out positive avenues to channel their feelings. In the minds of many, the  cultural backlash against emo gave MCR a bad reputation that followed them for years. In the years between MCR’s 2013 break up and 2019 reunion, many former detractors have since reassessed their material and found a new appreciation for it. This, combined with  the late 10s-early 20s emo resurgence (“Jet black, so cool!”), has caused many of “the kids that are mean to you” to become fans of the band they once mocked.

Lyric: (Come on!) Play it right and drive a Volvo car
Annotation:
In the  Twilight movies, Edward drives a silver Volvo. Note that in the lyric booklet that came with the CD that there was a blank space where “Volvo” would be. This is likely to avoid trademark conflict.

Lyric: Glimmer like Bolan in the morning sun
Annotation:
Marc Bolan was a singer-songwriter best known as  the frontman of  T. Rex, a British band at the forefront of glam rock. The genre was developed in the UK during the 1970s, drawing inspiration from throwaway pop culture. It was visually defined by flamboyant glittery costumes, platform shoes, and makeup, often playing with androgyny and non-traditional gender roles. This line mirrors the  David Bowie reference in verse one, comparing the sparkling skin of the vampires in the  Twilight franchise to the glittering stage costumes of Marc Bolan who was recognised for wearing top hats and feather boas, and painting glitter onto his cheekbones. In a  2014 Reddit AMA, Gerard Way referenced T. Rex as being among his “inspirations and style influences” that were pushing gender boundaries.

Lyric: Hair back, collar up, jet black, so cool!
Annotation:
A description of a stereotypical vampire, specifically Dracula. ‘So cool!’ is an exaggeration of how kids perceive these looks and attitudes that are presented though media such as Twilight.

Lyric: Sparkle like Bowie in the morning sun
Annotation:
In  The Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer, vampires “sparkle” when they come in contact with sunlight. As well as the stone-cold and marble-like qualities of their skin, this is frequently highlighted thought the movies and books: “[Edward’s skin] literally sparkled, like thousands of tiny diamonds were embedded in the surface.”  Gerard Way compares the sparkling skin of the vampires to acclaimed British musician  David Bowie, famed for his innovative and often sparkling visual presentation. The flamboyant and androgynous character of his alter ego, Ziggy Stardust, during the 1970s glam rock era is notable example.  A similar comparison is made  in verse two, referencing the glittering stage costumes of T. Rex frontman  Marc Bolan. In a 2014 Reddit AMA, Gerard referenced both Bowie and T. Rex as being among his “inspirations and style influences” that were pushing gender boundaries.

