What do you think Mama means?

My Chemical Romance: Mama Meaning

Album cover for Mama album cover

Mama Lyrics

Mama, we all go to hell
Mama, we all go to hell
I'm writing this letter and wishing you well
Mama, we all go to hell

Oh well now
Mama, we're all gonna die
Mama, we're all gonna die
Stop asking me questions
I'd hate to see you cry
Mama,...

  1. anonymous
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    Feb 5th 2008 !⃝

    Please don't hurt me. I'm kind of thinking this up as I go.
    "Mama we all go to hell.
    Mama we all go to hell.
    I'm writing this letter and wishing you well.
    Mama we all go to hell."
    [he's saying that he wasn't the greatest person in the world and did some bad things. He's writing a farewell letter or a will because he's dying from the cancer.]

    "Mama we're all gonna die.
    Mama we're all gonna die.
    Stop asking me questions, I'd hate to see you cry.
    Mama we're all gonna die."
    [we're all going to die eventually. His mom is asking questions that are very painfully and he doesn't want her to cry over it.]

    "And when we go don't blame us, yeah,
    We let the fire just bathe us, yeah,
    You made us oh so famous
    We'll never let you go.
    And when you go don't return to me my love."
    [like he said in the beginning, he thinks he's going to go to hell. and people believe in hell that you're bathed in eternal flame. I think he's saying that he thinks he deserves to go to hell. I'm not sure about the famous part. He might be saying that he'll never forget his family whatever happens to him.]

    "Mama we're all full of lies.
    Mama we're meant for the flies.
    And right now they're building a coffin your size.
    Mama we're all full of lies."
    [he's saying he's a liar, and that we all are. He thinks he's not worth dirt and if his mother found out the truth would cause her to die of heart break.]

    "Well mother what the war did to my legs and to my tongue,
    You should've raised a baby girl
    I should've been a better son
    If you can coddle the infection they can amputate at once,
    You should've been!
    I could've been a better son."
    [the chemo[sp] therapy has made him physically weak and the whole thing has made him bitter. I wish I had been a better child, but you could have been a better mother.]

    "And when we go don't blame us, yeah,
    We let the fire just bathe us yeah,
    You made us oh so famous,
    We'll never let you go."
    [again,like he said in the begining, he think's he's going to go to hell. and people believe in hell that you're bathed in eternal flame. I think he's saying that he thinks he deserves to go to hell. I'm not sure about the famous part. He might be saying that he'll never forget his family whatever happens to him.]

    "She said "you aint no son of mine"
    For what you've done they're gonna find
    A place for you and just you mind
    Your manners when you go."
    [his mom wishes he was different? I kind of think gerard refers to his past a bit w/ the drinking and stuff. like his mom knows about what he was doing and hated it and hopes he gets what he deserves for the trouble it caused.]

    "And when you go don't return to me my love,
    That's right."
    [his mom telling him that she loves him unconditionally?]

    "Mama we all go to hell,
    Mama we all go to hell,
    It�s really quite pleasant except for the smell,
    Mama we all go to hell."
    [like I said before, he thinks he's going to go to hell because he knows he's done wrong. He's saying that he feels like it's what he deserves, but it smells pretty funky.]

    "Mama, Mama, Mama, ohhhh.
    Mama, Mama, Mama."
    [he's calling out to her]

    Liza: "and if you would call me your sweet heart, I'd maybe then sing you a song"
    [singing as the mother, saying that all she wants him to do is appolgize and she'll be happy.]

    Gerard: "But the shit that I've done with this fuck of a gun,
    You would cry out your eyes all along."
    [he's scared to admit what he's done because it would break her heart.]

    "We�re damned after all.
    Through fortune and flame we fall.
    And if you will say that "I'll show you the way
    To return from the ashes you call." "
    [no matter what, he can't erase what he's done. no matter what he does, he can't undo it.]

    "We all carry on
    when our brothers in arms are gone
    So raise your glass high for tomorrow we die
    And return from the ashes you call"
    [maybe he's talking about watching people abandon him because of what he's done and he wishes he could make it right before he dies.]
    -I love MCR like you love air.

  2. anonymous
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    Jan 17th 2008 !⃝

    Wow, to the girl/guy who said Mama was about Gerard telling his mom he's gay. You're really dumb. One; he's not gay, and two; that's just the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Three cheers to you love

  3. anonymous
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    Nov 24th 2007 !⃝

    It's a remake of an old war song. The original was much happier.

  4. peteinmypants
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    Nov 24th 2007 !⃝

    Mama is one of the hardest songs to interpret with many theories. Here are a few.
    -It is most assumed as a tribute to mother war.
    -Mother War: Can be considered a villain in The Black Parade. She's an agent of fear, a constant reminder that you can die when you least expect it and that you're never safe. She's called "Mother" because, in a sick way, she protects you by making you afraid to step out of your house and take any risks. Sort of the way conservative movements are often strong in wartime. Everyone lives in this state of fear and they find comfort in returning to conservative values. Mama is sticking it to Mother War and saying that we're all going to die anyway, who cares what we do? (imnotokay.net)
    -Mother war is kind of like a soldier in the black parade. She is one of the ones that takes peoples lives and could be interpreted as taking someone's life in a possibly more gentle way for the scared.
    -She wears a gas mask, for many reasons maybe:
    One could be that the truth lies beneath the mask (mama, we're all full of lies.)
    Maybe her face is a cause of death, which is why no one in the song likes her.
    -Also as a soldier, she could be the evil in the parade, taking people before they are supposed to be taken.
    -Others might say she takes people in a war, to be the reassurance they need, which is why she has the gas mask to protect her from war weaponry such as napalm.

    "The Patient" is writing a final letter to his estranged mother. "The Patient" is very angry in this song, and writes many startling things to his mother in the letter such as, "Mama, we all go to hell", "Mama, we're all gonna die", and "Mama, we're meant for the flies, and right now they're building a coffin your size". It's apparent their relationship is sour, especially when compared to the one he had with his father. It seems that the cause of their negative relationship was a war ("what the war did to my legs and to my tongue") all men, including "The Patient", were drafted into it ("You should have raised a baby girl"). He acknowledges that he "could have been a better son". The war obviously changed him and she noticed ("You ain't no son of mine"). His mother responds to him, telling him that if he would express his love for her more often she would forgive him ("And if you would call me your sweetheart, I'd maybe then sing you a song"). However "The Patient" feels that if she knew of the kinds of things he did during the war, she would never consider loving him again ("But the shit that I've done with this fuck of a gun, You would cry out your eyes all along").

    It's about war... but it doesn't have to be a fighting-war, it might be a mental war... It's also about feeling hopeless and scared... Like when you are a little kid you feel the whole "we're all going to hell" thing when you realize that everyone is going to die. And you're was like "Mom, we're all gonna die..." Those parts seems to like a little cry out for help or something. Like you'd cry out: "Mommy I'm scared, I don't wanna die, hug me!" And now... let's just say that the character gave up. He felt that life is hopeless so he gave up. The mother don't like it, she wants her son to live and all that but he might be thinking about suicide or something... Hence the letter and the "And when we go don't blame us" and the "I should have been a better son." Sounds a bit suicidal... Or maybe he feels that if life is so hopeless he'll help people to be free... which means killing them... So he does his little massacre but is stopped before killing himself. His mother finds out:

    "You ain't no son of mine
    For what you've done they're gonna find
    A place for you
    And just you mind your manners when you go.
    And when you go, don't return to me, my love."

    And it also seems like the guy in question is a bit crazy... You get the feeling that he gets out of an asylum and goes to kill his mom, and tells her:
    "Mama, we all go to hell.
    It's really quite pleasant
    Except for the smell,
    Mama, we all go to hell."

    And she tries to calm him down and kinda offers to sing a song for him but he stands there with the gun from the massacre maybe and kinda tells her that there is no use. Everyone is damned and you can't do anything about it... And in listening to the end you just get the feeling that he shoots himself and the mother cries over him...
    Also, if you look at The End, it's summoning people to join the Black Parade, to help it in taking lives, which is what this war could be. The End is like an ad in war time drafting people and Mama is like a war... It connects. Mama could be anything but impressed in her son killing people.

  5. anonymous
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    Oct 22nd 2007 !⃝

    This song reminds me of when I would tell my mom I was going to hell because I thought I was a bad person. I thought this because bad things always happened to me and I would complain and make my mom worried sad and I thought it made me bad.

  6. anonymous
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    Oct 1st 2007 !⃝

    I think that this song is about a man who’s gone to war, talking to his mother. He’s writing to her, “I’m writing this letter and wishing you well”, but he knows that she can’t accept what he’s doing, she’s asking him so many questions and he can’t answer them because he doesn’t want to hurt her “stop asking me questions / I’d hate to see you cry”. The chorus “and when we go don’t blame us yeah”, could be a message to their fans, don’t blame them when they stop making records, but it could also be saying to his mother, when we die out there, don’t blame us, it’s not our fault, it’s something we’ve got to do, but we’ll never forget you, don’t stop loving me. “we’ll never let you go / And when you go don’t return to me my love” He knows that what they’ve done is wrong “mama we’re all full of lies / Mama we’re meant for the flies”, he knows that he’s betraying her and he says this in the next line “and right now they’re building a coffin your size”. He’s admitting to her that he’s a different person now, that the war, the fighting, the killing has changed him “well mother what the war did to my legs and to my tongue”, first the physical – legs – and then he admits what he did in the previous verse “mama we’re all full of lies” “to my tongue”, he’s saying he can’t be trusted, this war has made him a liar. He’s sorry for this, he wishes she had had a girl, not a son, so she wouldn’t be disappointed in this way, he wishes he “should have been a better son”. When he says that “if you could coddle the infection they can amputate at once”, he could mean that if she could understand him, if she could coddle the wound that she gave him when she rejected him “you ain’t no son of mine” that he could die happy, or maybe sort out his life, amputate the part of him that is causing them all such grief. He starts to blame her, but then stops, and rephrases it, accepting that it is his fault. “you should have been, I could have been a better son”. She blames him for failing her “you failed” and tells him to leave, and the aside she gives is almost ironic, he kind of snipes at the typical portrayal of mothers “just you mind your manners when you go”.
    In the line “it’s really quite pleasant except for the smell”, he’s saying that he’s already there, he’s in hell, perhaps because of the rejection of his mother and the lack of support she gives him.
    The next bit
    And if you could call me your sweet heart, I’d maybe then sing you a song / but there’s shit that I’ve done with this gun you would cry out your eyes all out) really confused me, but I think it might mean that he’s wondering if he’ll ever find love in the future after all the “shit that I’ve done”.
    Okay, I probably got that all wrong, but at least I tried. Great song.

  7. anonymous
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    Sep 11th 2007 !⃝

    I think that it's sorta an apolgy and telling his mom that's how it goes.

    Okay.
    He goes off to war[because he was drafted]"you should've raised a baby girl" his mom doesn't want him to go and he goes anyway and then he writes a letter "i'm writing this letter and wishing you well"Saying I'm sorry but I don't think I'm going to live,So have a good life.And to stop asking him if he is going to live or not because he doesn't want to hear her cry.And he'll she her in another life "when you go return to me my love"Then the dead have decided that it's time for her to die "They're biulding a coffen your size."And they reunite and he is saying that I'm sorry I was a horrible son when we were we were living"I should have been a better son."Because he is in hell and she is going to heven.

  8. anonymous
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    Sep 8th 2007 !⃝

    I kinda think the song could be about mother war and the five songs and the patient going off to war but at the same time it seems like he is telling his mom that he wants to kill himself cause it is believed if you kill yourself you go to hell
    i think he went to war and saw such horrible tragedies and then was diagnosed with cancer and it was all too much for him
    "a lifelong wait for a hospital stay"from disenchanted
    thats what I think
    alot of MCR songs are kinda abstract and are left up to personal interpretation

  9. twinkle_toes
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    Jul 14th 2007 !⃝

    Really I don't think the patient has had a perfect relationship w/ his mom and he sends her a letter telling her that he has cancer and he wishes that he was a better son to her.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  10. anonymous
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    Jul 11th 2007 !⃝

    I think that the five sons that that one anonymous guy told about are representative of the 5 members of the band.

  11. peteinmypants
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    Jul 2nd 2007 !⃝

    I think what this song is saying is basically "our mother made us famous, but at what cost?" Or at least something along the lines of that.

  12. anonymous
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    Jul 2nd 2007 !⃝

    Clearly this song is fictional and is just part of the storyline of the patient.

  13. anonymous
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    Apr 16th 2007 !⃝

    I think the song is about a mother's son going to war, yeah. And she doesn't want him to go to war and she's like "ok, bye then" cos it says "and just you mind your manners when you go" that's something a mother would say but not about you dying almost as if she wants her son to die cos he's going off to war against her wishes. But yeah at the end when he's dying he's crying for his mother and that. Yeah and he's like "i'm going to die anyways except it" and like maybe he thinks the war is going to kill him and his mother anyways whether he fights or not "they're building a coffin your size"

  14. anonymous
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    Apr 12th 2007 !⃝

    Oh.my.god.That idiot who said that the song was about Gerard telling his mother he was gay is extremely wrong.Gerard has had girlfriends since he was 17 or 18(only to end when he broke up with his girlfriend).Also,the patient HAS died because My Chemical Romance believe that when you die,your fondest memory comes to retrieve you(in this case,its a parade)and tell you that you are now dead.The REALLY long entry near the start is ABSOLUTELY right :)

  15. anonymous
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    Apr 12th 2007 !⃝

    The dude that said the patient hadn't died is wrong because Gerard believes that when you die, your fondest memory comes to retrieve you (in this case, a parade) and the parade is telling him that he died!




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