As the success of sophomore album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge continued, My Chemical Romance released “Helena” as its second single in the spring of 2005. It was a breakout hit for the band and was eventually certified gold, and it remains a staple of the band’s live shows.
Although Three Cheers is, for the most part, a concept album, “Helena” is one of the tracks that doesn’t follow the album’s story of two lovers in the afterlife.
“I don’t know if it fits,” frontman Gerard Way said in an interview. “But I know that’s how we had to make the record. And it’s one of those things you just hope works in the end. And actually, the record works so much more on a personal level not only for us but also for the people who listen to it.”
The Real-Life “Helena”
“Helena,” one of the last songs written for the album, was a reaction to the death of the grandmother of band members Gerard and Mikey Way, Elena Lee Rush, whose loved ones called her Helen. She had helped foster the brothers’ creativity, in particular through teaching Gerard to paint and sing, and went to some of the early shows. Due to the band’s busy touring and recording schedule, the brothers hadn’t seen her for some time before her death, something they felt guilty about.
“It’s about why I wasn’t around for this woman who was so special to me, why I wasn’t there for the last year of her life,” Gerard once told Kerrang! Magazine. “Self-hate is always a big part of the lyrics.”
The first verse compares life and death to a lit match destroying everything around it.
Burning on, just like a match you strike to incinerate
The lives of everyone you know.
Gerard’s feelings of guilt, as well as the more intense feelings of self-loathing, come through in the chorus, as he sings about missing out on time with her and says his goodbyes.
What’s the worst that I can say?
Things are better if I stay
So long and goodnight
So long and goodnight.
The song’s bridge addresses Helena directly and hints at seeing her again in the afterlife.
Can you hear me?
Are you near me?
Can we pretend to leave, and then
We’ll meet again when both our cars collide?
The song’s themes are also explored through its video, which takes place at the funeral of a young woman. Gerard said the experience of filming it was like “reliving” his grandmother’s actual funeral.
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