10 Most Underrated My Chemical Romance Songs
9. Desolation Row - Watchmen
From day one, MCR was never a band to fill out almost half of their set with covers. They already had some stellar songs in their arsenal, so there was no real need to dip into the well of classic rock to keep the audience happy at their shows. If you were to venture into that territory though, it's a pretty bold step to reinterpret someone like Bob Dylan.
Before we even start this, MCR's version of Desolation Row is not in the same ballpark as Dylan's original, but it's not really trying to be either. Recreated as part of the soundtrack to the film Watchmen, this feels more like what the film was calling for, bringing old school Americana tropes and flipping them on their head. Whereas Dylan's original version felt like the sad result of a man at the end of his rope, this feels like the coming apocalypse, with Gerard absolutely wailing on the chorus.
Combined with the massive gang shouts that pop in on the chorus, and this starts to feel less like a punk club and more like a violent bar scene in a movie, where beer bottles are getting smashed and all hell's about to break loose. Compared to the more convoluted stories in their other material, this is probably the closest thing that we've gotten to My Chemical Romance writing a Dropkick Murphys track.