Annotations for Vampires Will Never Hurt You

Lyric: Like cheap whiskey
Annotation:
Gerard Way also struggled heavily with alcoholism during Bullets/Revenge era, so this lyric references how even in a metaphorical song, alcohol is always present. The song is about something pretty dark. I guess, looking back, it’s about the early signs of my alcoholism and how I felt I was wasting my life. It was about feeling generally like a scumbag. (Gerard Way to Tom Bryant, author of “Not the Life It Seems: The True Lives of My Chemical Romance”)

Lyric: And you have no idea what you’re up against
 Because I’ve seen what they look like
Annotation:
Gerard is telling the person that they are unaware of their(vampires) capabilities and he knows since he has seen them, and is now one. He pretty much is a vampire seeing as how little he’s aged anyways.

Lyric: Struck down before our prime
 Before you got off the floor
Annotation:
In popular culture, vampire tend to go after younger targets for their blood, so this line may be referring to that.

Lyric: And someone save my soul tonight, please save my soul
Annotation:
They are begging to be killed before their soul becomes completely corrupted.

Lyric: [Outro]
Annotation:
The outro consists of backmasked whispering. The lyrical register changes here to become far more poetic. These lines in particlarly reflect the underlying themes of the song, realised by Gerard after experiencing 9/11. Claims on the brevity of life, especially the phrase ‘like ghosts in the snow’ are echoed in the band’s later songs like the outro to  The World Is Ugly.

Lyric: Becoming perfect as if they were sterling silver chainsaws
Annotation:
Gerard conceptualises “normal people” within the framework of a gothic narrative. He refers to them as as ‘they’ indicating that they’re not like him, but uses the metaphor of ‘sterling silver chainsaws’ as a way of relating to them though punkish motifs. Before starting My Chemical Romance, Gerard was an intern at Cartoon Network, staring up at a long career ladder. As the first song this band recorded, this is him wrestling with the idea of people aspiring towards a ‘perfect’ lifestyle and instead finding something as infective, self-consuming and desolate as vampirism He creates antithesis between silver, often associated with purity, and chainsaws, brash and violent. By describing ‘fatality’ as both pure and gory he offers a point of connection between a corporate way of life and what the band aspires to. Life, for everyone, is somehow violent and beautiful at the same time. The expressive form of pop-punk is meant to embrace violence and our proximity to death as a form of cleansing (self-perfection) rather than letting it fester in attempting to create a perfect life, which only leads to self-corruption. This rather beautiful reflection of mortality captures the conclusion Gerard comes to having seen 9/11 and realising the violent purity of life, so easily wasted.

Lyric: And as these days watch over time
 And as these days watch over us
Annotation:
The days- as in the physical cycle of days vs nights- are eternal and above time in the same way that vampires are eternal. However, the two are fundamentally opposed (as vampires cannot survive in sunlight, traditionally). The days “watch over” the protagonist and their companion by ensuring no vampires can touch them until night falls.

Lyric: Someone burned the church
Annotation:
The church, one place he was hoping to find safety and a cure, has been burned, adding a sense of hopelessness.

Lyric: And then, as razor-sharp white teeth rip out our necks, I saw you there
Annotation:
In the traditional representation of a vampire, vampires typically have sharp teeth, in which they use to bite off their victims neck to satisfy their bloodlust.

Lyric: [Backwards Whispering]
Annotation:
The whispering is the reversed words in the  outro. And as always, innocent like roller coasters Fatality is like ghosts in snow And you have no idea what you’re up against Because I’ve seen what they look like Becoming perfect as if they were sterling silver chainsaws Going cascading

Lyric: I’ll never let them, I’ll never let them
 I’ll never let them hurt you, not tonight
 I’ll never let them, I can’t forget them
 I’ll never let them hurt you, I promise
Annotation:
Since the love interest in this song is still human, she is not as strong as the vampires and is therefore vulnerable.  He’ll do anything to protect her before he has her kill him.  He’ll even put up with the torture of staying vampire for another night because he can’t leave her defenseless.  He almost went through with the plan, but he forgot about the vampires still lurking. But in a larger sense, in a deeper look, it could mean that the narrator is struggling to be different from everyone else.  He wants to be unique, but can’t escape.  To escape, he’d need to leave, but can’t because he must watch over his companion who is hiding out.

Lyric: And you must keep your soul like a secret in your throat
Annotation:
He doesn’t want the girl to let the other vampires know that she is human, so she has to keep her humanity as a secret.  If they know, they might turn her too, and he doesn’t want her to die too.

Lyric: (Bring us back into the light)
Annotation:
He wants to go back to his regular life as a human, a being that thrives in the light.

Lyric: (And these thoughts of endless night)
Annotation:
“Endless night” refers to an eternal life as part of the undead, as vampires forever live in the darkness. These thoughts aren’t appealing to Gerard- he wants to stay human.

Lyric: Will it fill our hearts with thoughts of endless nighttime sky?
Annotation:
If we were to enter the endless, black abyss that is death, would we really be satisfied?

Lyric: Can you take this spike?
Annotation:
The man (quite possibly Way) wants to die more than anything because he can not stand what he is about to become.

Lyric: And if they come and get me, what if you put the spike in my heart?
Annotation:
The protagonist is asking whomever he is speaking to (most likely someone he loves and trusts) to kill him if things go badly, in order to protect her. The vampires will never hurt her because he won’t let them – whether it is other vampires he is trying to protect her from, or himself, is unknown.

Lyric: And if they get me, and the sun goes down
 And if they get me, take this spike and
 You put the spike in my heart
Annotation:
The narrator would rather die than live life as a vampire. Even if he  does become a vampire, he would want someone to kill him. According to vampire legends, the only way to kill a bloodsucker is by stabbing them in the heart with a wooden stake. He is scared that if he develops a thirst for blood, he might hurt his lover, which is the last thing he would ever want to do. In addition, he would be forced into immortality and would have to watch the people he loves die unless he turns them as well.

Lyric: We’re hanging out with corpses and driving in this hearse
Annotation:
He’s acting like he has already passed away, because he feels like the chances of him living are slim. He shows this by illustrating an eerie image of death: him chilling out with a bunch of dead bodies, in a  funeral car.

Lyric: And someone buy me roses
Annotation:
Flowers are a common sight at most funerals. They are often bought by the family of the person who has died as one last tribute. Gerard wants people to honor him and prepare for when he dies. Additionally, the line could mean he wants someone to care about him and make him feel better. Gerard is aware of the fact that his life is ending. Despite all the awful things happening to him, there is still a small amount of hope that his situation will get better, but sadly it won’t. This line is later referenced in the band’s song  “Blood”: They encourage your complete cooperation, send you roses when they think you need to smile

Lyric: Fatality is like ghosts in snow
Annotation:
Fatality relates to hopelessness and helplessness- it’s a dark thing.  The eerie thing abut it is it that you may not be able to see it with your eyes, but it’s there, and it can haunt. This is just like ghosts, who have the capability to haunt things, even things like innocent snow. You may not be able to see ghosts in the snow due to their translucent air against the blank white setting, but you can sure as hell sense that they’re there.

Lyric: And as always, innocent like roller coasters
Annotation:
Life is often compared with a roller coaster, because both have many ups and downs. Life’s almost innocent, because sometimes there’s no way of knowing why things happen. In fact, even life itself may not know what’s going to happen next.

Lyric: And now the nightclub sets the stage for this, they come in pairs
Annotation:
The nightclub is referring to popular society, and the set stage refers to the way that society can exploit people, and gobble on about petty things as a form of public entertainment. The club encourages the “vampires,” or mainstream members of society, to do their thing, because they are just as corrupted.

Lyric: Can you take this spike?
 Will it wash away the jet black now?
Annotation:
If the spike goes into his heart, will the  darkness of his pain and misery vanish? This is what he’s wondering, and he’s a bit scared to find out the answer.

Lyric: And if they get me and the sun goes down into the ground
Annotation:
In the legends,  light is toxic to vampires. If  the sun goes down, there isn’t a definite source of light, and they have a better chance of getting Gerard and the others.

Lyric: ”We’ll shoot back holy water
Annotation:
Traditionally, if vampires enter a church or come into contact with holy water they burn and die.

Lyric: Can you take this spike?
 Will it wash away this jet black feeling?
Annotation:
Will death wash away the venom, death and hatred inside of him?

Lyric: Can you take this spike?
 Will it fill our hearts with thoughts of endless nighttime sky?
Annotation:
Will being staked in the heart will kill him? He hopes that it will. He’s begging the person to do it because he would rather die than be a vampire.

Lyric: Someone get me to the doctor, someone get me to a church
 Where they can pump this venom gaping hole
Annotation:
Traditionally, if vampires enter a church or  come into contact with holy water, they burn. This would essentially ‘pump the venom’ out of his vampire body. Interestingly, on their next album is a song called  “Thank You For The Venom.”

Lyric: And if the sun comes up, will it tear the skin right off our bones?
Annotation:
In traditional vampire stories, vampires can’t survive in sunlight because it  burns their skin. Gerard wonders if his skin will burn when he goes into the sun next- he’s questioning if he might be becoming a vampire.

Lyric: And if they get me, take this spike to my heart and
Annotation:
In traditional vampire stories,  vampires can be killed with a wooden stake through the heart. Gerard is encouraging his lover to stab him if he becomes a vampire. Otherwise, he might kill them.

