Cancer
Producers
Cancer Lyrics
Turn away
If you could, get me a drink
Of water 'cause my lips are chapped and faded
Call my Aunt Marie
Help her gather all my things
And bury me in all my favorite colors
[Chorus]
My sisters and my brothers, still
I will not kiss you
'Cause the hardest part of this is leaving you
[Verse 2]
Now turn away
'Cause I'm awful just to see
'Cause all my hair's abandoned all my body
Oh, my agony
Know that I will never marry
Baby, I'm just soggy from the chemo
[Chorus]
But counting down the days to go
It just ain't living
And I just hope you know
About
The Black Parade takes listeners on a journey through the death of a man dubbed “The Patient.” This track reveals the driving force behind the protagonist’s death — cancer. It expresses his agony as he asks to be told the truth.
In an interview, frontman Gerard Way said that, while the song is literally about cancer in one sense, it is being used as a metaphor at the same time.
A little-known fact about the song is that lead guitarist Ray Toro played bass on the studio track instead of Mikey Way.
A live version of this track appears on the CD single of “I Don’t Love You.”
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
In an interview with NME Gerard Way spoke about the tragic, bleak tone of the song.
Speaking about the track ’Cancer’ in a statement, Way said that he wanted to write “the darkest song ever.”
It’s not a poetic track. It’s very direct, very brutal, but that’s the way disease is. Obviously, cancer is being used as a metaphor.
But I also wanted the song to be directly about the disease because it’s something that the patient has gone through and it’s a very powerful thing. For me, it was almost like an attempt to write the darkest song ever, and I think we achieved that.
In an interview, Frank Iero said that “Cancer” was his favorite song on the record.
[“Cancer” is] one of the most stripped down songs. I think it’s a song where we really listened to each other—and listened to what the song wanted to be, and what it needed to be. […]
It’s really just vocally and piano driven, which is something that we’ve never done before and never gotten a chance to try. […]
Other than vocals and piano everything just really supports that and it’s just a very intense song. […] A very sad story. It’s hard not to listen to that song.
- 1.The End.
- 2.Dead!
- 8.Cancer
- 9.Mama
- 10.Sleep
- 11.Teenagers
- 12.Disenchanted
- 14.Blood
- 17.Heaven Help Us