My Chemical Romance: You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison Meaning
You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison Lyrics
In the center of a restaurant
They say come with your arms raised high
Well they're never gonna get me
I'm like a bullet through a flock of doves
To wage
This war against your faith in me
Your life will never...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:Personally, I don't think that this song has anything to do with prison, rape, or homosexuality.
I think if you really know about Gerard's past with drugs and drinking and keep that in mind while reading the lyrics, you can sort of see the meaning. Gerard compared the effect that drugs had on him as something that kept him imprisoned.
In the first verse, Gerard talks about a gunfight. I think this was him describing the beginning of his addiction. He thinks that it could never get him, as in it won't defeat him because he thinks he's so tough. Then he says, "To wage this war against your faith in me" I think this could be referring to the way that his friends and band mates tried to help him, but he refused and start doing drugs and heavily drinking.
The chorus is basically him debating his addiction. Knowing that it is killing his career, but it also makes him feel better. And the quote "Too much, too late, or just not enough of this pain in my heart for your dying wish, I'll kiss your lips again." The dying wish is the useless demand from his friends for him to stop, but he thinks that he strong and that it won't kill him, so he'll be able to 'kiss your lips again.'
The second verse, I believe, everybody takes too literary. People cheating and losing are fellow friends that seem to have it together, but really are also drinkers and drug-abusers. His cellmate in this case is where Bert comes in. He was basically going through the same thing at the time. Then he questions his sanity with "Am I losing myself?" When he says that he misses his mom, it could be him getting fed up with being on the road and he misses his family. When he says, "Will they give me the chair or lethal injection?" That could be him suggesting, maybe realizing, that his addiction is killing his career as well as him.
On the bridge, he sings, "What they ask of you will make you want to say so long." He means that he found out that the demands of being a musician overwhelmed him and made him suicidal.
The screaming about the hotel puzzled me, but I believe that the hotel represents his accomplishment as a musician because when you really made it you get to stay at hotels while touring instead of sleeping in vans. So setting the hotel on fire is him killing his career.
"I won't go down by myself, but I'll go down with my friends" is his realizing that by doing what he was doing, he's also killing his band, his friends, so when he goes go, others will also fall.
PS- He is NOT going out with Bert. He has a girlfriend. And stop talking about being gay as if it's so bad. If he, or anyone in the band, is, indeed, gay, why should you care? If you like My Chemical Romance, you shouldn't care about their personal lives. Their music is what matters. -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:*eye roll* Here we go again...
Three things you must know before I start
1. Gerard is not gay.
2. He wrote the lyrics. He is the only member of MCR who writes lyrics. Don't ask me why, I don't know.
3. Gerard has never been to prison. He's never done a lot of things he sings about, such as rise from the dead, shoot a guy, etc.
This song was inspired by a night Gerard and Bert spent together while they were both at the peak of their drug/drinking problems (so probably some time between spring '03 and summer '04) They trashed a hotel room, destryoed the mini bar, and got so drunk they didn't remember their names. Gerard later sobered up and took some time to relect back on that night, and thought up some great and rather creepy analogies. No, they never had sex, and I'm pretty sure Bert is not gay. It's one large and grotesque analosy. -
3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:Who cares if Gerard Way is gay or not? Why does everyone make such a big deal about it? Frank: Iero kisses Gerard because he says it helps with Gerard's depression. Anyway, both of them are still hot as hell!
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stop fucking complaining Gerard is probably bisexual and yes he was in some form of relationship with Bert who gives a shit they probably aren't gay maybe they're bi and the song seems to be about criminals or drugs or something can we all just shut up now
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I thought this song was part of the story of the whole album. When the man makes a pact with the devil saying that if he kills 1000 souls of evil men, he'll be reunited with his love. I thought in this song,he was collecting the souls of rapists and murdered.
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My feeling is it's a recap of bullets. The first verse is him explaining the gunfight, explaining his feelings, and realising he was going to die. The chorus is him talking about dying and being afraid of going to prison at the same time. The second verse explains his thoughts of what would happen if he went to prison. The bridge talks about the character wishing he were dead because making the choice to step out and get tortured in prison or killed in the fight is alot harder, and the screaming in the solo is probably just a crime the demolition couple comitted. The final chorus explains the guy getting out, and choosing to go down with his girlfriend and the gang.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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Well, first off, like many others are saying, none of the band members are completly gay. They all have girlfriends/wives (last I checked). Another thing, Gerard writes MOST of the lyrics. During a live concert, Gerard openly says, "this song... got us arrested in France... because... its about going to prison... and getting f*cked in the a$$" Im not saying oh he got raped but I think Mikey actually came up with the idea for the song and wrote some lyrics of it. There was an interview I found over the summer saying so but Im not sure where I found it
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This song is about Prison and how guys(and girls in women prison) get raped at men prisons. Gerard Way said so himself in many interviews.
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Ok. If you were an big MCR fan that you would know that the record was supposed to be based around and man who dies in a gunfight and he goes to hell and the devil says, if you can kill the souls of a thousand men, you can see your wife. I know this may seem like a little weird, but Gerard said at a concert that this song is about the man going to jail and getting fucked in the ass. No lie.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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Gerard is NOT GAY!!He is now married to LynZ Way and has a beautiful daughter called Bandit.He did it ONCE with Frank but that doesn't mean he's gay.As Frank once said"Homophobia is Gay".
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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So I'm guessing Gerard's not gay?
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Oddly, after reading The True History of The Kelly Gang, I believe this song relates to the story of the Kelly Gang. The first lyric 'In the middle of a gunfight, in the center of a restaurant', sounds familiar to the end of the Kellys in the Glenrowan Inn. And throughout the Kelly Gang the idea of cross-dressing is a theme which suggests to the lyric 'they made us do push-ups in drag'.
Also, Ned Kelly, the protagonist in the True History of the Kelly Gang, was hung suggesting the lyric 'Or swing from a rope if you dare'.
Finally! The lyric 'I'll go down with my friends' also goes back to the idea of the Kelly Gang all ending up dying.
THIS IS JUST MY IDEA! -
I think that this song is about a character and his love in a restaurant and there is a gunfight. Then when, him and his love get shot, his wife goes to heaven and he goes to hell and the devil says that if he kills a thousand men, that he can see her again. (because even Gerard Way had said that in an interview, that they had died and she went to heaven and he had to kill a thousand men in order to see her again.) So he get's caught trying to kill all these men, and gets taken to prison with his friends.
During this, he gets raped, (remember this is just my guess) and now he's worrying how they're going to kill him, (Will they give me the chair, Or lethal injection, or swing from a rope if you dare; Ah, nobody knows...all the trouble I've seen!)so him and his friends plan to run away and set the prison on fire, ("Do you have the keys to the hotel?! Cause' I'm gonna string this motherfucker on fire! (FIRE!!)") and he's not afraid, because anything that happens to him, will happen to his friends as well. (And well I, I won't go down by myself, But I'll go down with my friends.) -
Although probably not having to do with the song at all- at a live concert Gerard says, "This song is about being very very bad. And going to jail, and getting f***ed in the a**.
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