System of a Down: B.Y.O.B. Meaning
Song Released: 2005
B.Y.O.B. Lyrics
WHY DO THEY ALWAYS SEND THE POOR?
Barbarians by Barbarans, with pointed heels
Victorious, victorious, kneel,
For brand new spanking deals,
Marching forward hypocritic
and hypnotic computers.
You depend on our protection
Yet you...
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Let me give this a try. I think everyone has a pretty good idea about the songs meaning, not as a whole, but different parts from different people. Anyways, here's what I think:
The beginning is about American propaganda that the government puts out to trick young men into enlisting into the Army. "Brand new spanking deals" refers to how the Army gives benefits and specialties to those who join. All these lies that are fed to the men joining turn them into "hypocritic and hypnotic computers" who believe the Army is great. But once they get there, they realize it isn't fun and games, giving them the revelation to think, "You depend on our protection, yet you feed us lies from the tablecloth". The "You" is the government.
The chorus is pretty basic to understand. "Everybody's going to the party, have a real good time" is the propaganda at work again, trying to describe the war as fun and games. The propaganda is saying, "Come to Iraq! It's great!" I don't think so.
The second verse is a little more complicated. "Kneeling rose disappearing into Moses' dry mouth" might refer to the Iraqi's religion, which the government says is the reason for the war and why it must be stopped. So they take money from the national treasury that was paid by the rest of Americans for other things and use it for war production a.k.a. "Breaking into Fort Know stealing our intentions". Now, I'm sorry to say I have no good interpretaion for the "Hangars sitting dripped in oil, crying, "Freedom!"", but it might refer to the oil in Iraq that is useful to America, and how the war may be about getting that instead. Finally, the soldiers who finally finish their duties and are considered "obsolete" are brought back, and they are still fed the lies of the government, though they no longer believe them.
The part about the Fascist government is sarcasm at work. "Blast off! It's party time! And we don't live in a fascist nation!" is describing how America believes they are saving these countries from fascism, even though we are kind of a fascist government ourselves.
Finally, the "Where the f*&% are you?" and "Why don't Presidents fight the war? Why do they always send the poor?" is saying how if you support the war, why aren't you over there fighting it? Many are hypocritical in saying they support the war and all, yet none of them would actually do it, including the President himself.
I hope this helps, and if you don't agree, I'd like to hear you opinion. Especially on the "Hangars sitting dripped in oil, crying, "Freedom!"" part. -
I am in a major agreement with bigdaddy!!! You all think you're mad because you refer to system of a down as soad. you all argue about the gov. If its so "terrible" then go and play in traffic you morons.Yous arent taking time to appreciate the music.All you care about is sitting on your arses arguing over who is right or who is wrong. DO any of you actually like system of a down or did you just hear the song and think " Oh, I think il go on the net and try to out smart all the other inbred rednecks"?????? I feel sorry for the lot of you. I hope your redneck home gets destroyed. I bet you don't even know the background of system of a down.. They are Armenian and the reason theyre so political is because Serj' granfather was an armenian genicide survivor. Not because they hate Bush or any of that shit. So long gayboys!!!!
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The song is about police brutality and war. The police brain wash us to obey hence the video.
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My favourite line is "dancing in the desert blowing up the sunshine" because they have simply swapped desert with sunshine. If you swap them back you get dancing in the sunshine blowing up the desert.
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SOAD is mistaken in their apparent meaning of this song. They are under the impression that the government under Bush fought this war in Iraq for no real reason. I say no real reason because some of you dipshits are liberal enough to believe Bush just wanted money and oil. Obviously you are mentally retarded because he only made $800k in his full 8 years as President. Because you Democrats can't add, I'll spell it out for you. That is exactly what every president who served 2 terns has made. Oil became more expensive because the 'innocents' you refer to limited what they sold us and then raised prices.
Now in regard for what you say about our troops. Have you ever heard first hand accounts of combat in Vietnam? US Troops could trust no one. Villagers would offer them baskets of food with bombs in them that killed and maimed countless Americans. You say we murdered children, women, and innocent people. On the battlefield, our first priority is the safety of those people, but if they in any way endanger our troops, our priority should change to protecting ourselves. You don't seem to realize that these people would kill us just for being American. Our men and women sacrifice their lives(very few, again since you can't count) to protect you and allow you to bear the title American. If you can't respect them and their love of freedom, we should have thrown you to those you support facists and communist fools. You don't deserve to be called American. Assholes.
-skcos ntpac -
"Bring Your Own Bombs."
So, I've read a lot of interpretations of this song. You all missed it by a mile. You're all claiming to be "SoaD" fans, but let's not forget that these boys are product of, and are heavily influenced by the Armenian Genocide. I'm going to provide you now, with a short history lesson.
The Armenian Genocide occurred during and just after World War I. ("Everybody’s going to the party have a real good time.") While the UNITED NATIONS and others refused to engage, at all, in the current “War in Iraq.”
During the First World War, the Ottoman military had uprooted Armenians from their homes and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria. ("Marching [us] forward, hypocritic and hypnotic computers."; "Dancing in the desert, blowing up the sunshine.")
The Republic of Turkey - the successor state of the Ottoman Empire - does not accept the word “genocide” as an accurate description of the events. They argue that those who died were simply caught up in the fighting or that the killings of Armenians and other Christians were justified by their individual or collective “treason.” (" 'You depend on our protection,' Yet you feed us lies from the table cloth." This line in particular is split between two parties - The Turkish government and the surviving Armenians)
While I will agree that the line "Why don’t presidents fight the war? Why do they always send the poor?" could be true of any war during any period, After considering the bands being heavily lyrically influenced by the events surrounding the Armenian Genocide, a new light should be shown on this song.
It’s no secret that there is a lot of focus on Americans being ignorant and egotistical in System Of A Down’s music. So it again comes as no surprise that the majority of cocky, ignorant American’s automatically assume this song would be written about modern events that Americans are involved in. -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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Hmm, so far everything I've read here seems to be somewhat close to "true" but one lyric I don't understand is "Kneeling roses disappearing into Moses' dry mouth." I thought for a little while and came up with kneeling soldiers (roses) dieing (disappearing into moses' dry mouth.)Does that seem right?
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Ok first of "hypocritic and hypnotic computers, you depend on our protection yet you feed us lies from the tablecloth" obviously talking about the average soldier brainwashed by the country protecting the country yet that country continues to lie to him/her. "yet you feed us lies from the table cloth" also meaning that they lie as much as the average person eats.
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i am totally confused. the only reason im here, reading through this sea of words is to find out what BYOB is the acronym.Bring Your Own Bombs makes the most sense because the song talks about blowing up stuff, but does anyone actually know what it means?
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Against the War in the Middle East. "Everybody's going to the party, have a real good time" is mocking the way the Government "Advertises" the war, or "Portrays" it. But the song would make more sense if it was released during the vietnam war, considering the poor were mainly drafted, or maybe they are poor, straight out of high school, and go their not really knowing what they are getting into. But as always, in My View, Wars are just extensions of foreign policy. The First casualty is always TRUTH. System songs usually have double-meanings....
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Well firstly, SOAD is friggin amazing. This is an awesome song regardless of its political inspirations. While most of the interpretations here are quite correct in the song's meaning, they do not fully question its validity. We invaded Iraq because of the same problem that allowed 9/11 to transpire; our intelligence agencies are incompetent and leashed by the neurologically incapacitated beurocrats who run this country. Bush was rich long before he invaded Iraq, and all he has to do is write a book and give speeches about screwing up the budget or whatever and he gets millions. I don't understand why everyone thinks there's some oil conspiracy making them money. While not impossible, it is highly unlikely as it would be grounds for impeachment if there was factual evidence anywhere, but there isn't. As far as whether we are right to impose our values and govt structure on the Iraqis, I think it is irrelevant because that country has been screwed up since the British forced the Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish people into one area over 100 years ago. And Bush can't go fight because he'll fall and break his hip. Get back together SOAD, get out of Iraq Obama, and go get drunk with Bush, McCain,
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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THESE LYRICS ARE WRONG! I SWEAR TO YOU THEY ARE... ok well most is right but the begining is wrong.... i cant quite figure it out but its not "my god is of bible blood
With pointed ears"
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