Songfacts®:

• Way's vocals are treated on this track to a liquid vibrato effect similar to John Lennon's vocals on "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds." The song also features chiming guitars, layered vocals, and spacey effects. "This shows off the more artsy side of the band," guitarist Ray Toro told Spin Magazine. "The Beatles are a huge influence and with the backup harmonies and effect on Gerard's vocals, it's our best stab at doing a song like ["Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds"]. It takes a psychedelic journey."
• Toro explained to Spin the song title's unconventional, forward-slash-heavy punctuation refers to the police force that's out to get the Killjoys. "In the world of the Killjoys, S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W is almost like a defense force so that's the reason for the slashes," he said.
• The scarecrow in this psychedelic pop tune is a metaphor for nuclear annihilation. The record's mood of apocalyptic defiance was inspired by a quote front man Gerard Way heard on a Duran Duran classic albums documentary: "We want to be the band that's dancing when the bomb goes off."
• Way said of the song's psychedelic influences to Billboard magazine: "'S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W" was a really amazing moment. It was, again, the band doing songs for the sake of making great music. We really wanted to explore the psychedelic nature of this album. We had started to think of it as this thrashy, Magical Mystery Tour kind of this album. It didn't have a story or a concept, but it had this high concept that it had all this color. 'S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W' was the art piece, and where the album really started to flourish."