System of a Down: B.Y.O.B. Meaning

Song Released: 2005

B.Y.O.B. Lyrics

YOU!

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...

1. Fizzwizz7

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   Oct 19th 2008 !⃝

   My interpretation is short and simple. I think that it means don't smoke pot. otherwise you put words together and people assume it means something. XD I love this song anyway
2. anonymous

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   Sep 19th 2008 !⃝

   Even though more present day presidents don't fight in wars there are many presidents who LED wars to VICTORY
3. anonymous

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   Jun 23rd 2008 !⃝

   This song states many things,and most of it is political. "Why do they always send the poor?" refers to the fact that mainly middle class and poor soldiers are sent into combat, while the rich and powerful can afford not to be sent into war. If you look up George Bush's military history,you will find that during the Vietnam War he was stationed IN THE UNITED STATES! That's where the line "Why don't presidents fight the war?" comes in. And "Still you feed us lies from the tablecloth" means that the government is giving us a load of lies that they expect us to believe about various events that have occured over the past few years.
4. anonymous

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   Jun 21st 2008 !⃝

   Who in the world are you people? Some of you seem to have some sense but the rest of you are just drinking the kool-aid!
   
   To the guy who said, "Bush got elected again because hicks, war junkies, rich and the idiots believing the world is better when its westernized voted for him.", Jim Jones, David Koresh, and Marshall Applewhite are looking for new followers. You have clearly bought into the fallacy that Bush orchestrated the war which is a thought that has been purveyed by the far left to diminish Bush and downplay their own role in the authorization of this war. By the way, I myself live in rural America and I am with out a doubt way more educated than you are. Did you know that history proves that Westernization is what drives the world further in technological and artistic advancement? History proves that anytime westernization is halted the result is a reversion or dark age. So, my question to you is "Are you ready to move back down from your lofty "self-actualized" perch on Maslow's hierarchy of needs all the way down to the "physiological needs" tier?"
   
   I am by no means an avid Bush supporter but I will say that all of those pointing the finger at him today were beating the drum when he proposed the war. Barack might be able to exclude himself from that group but then again his blatant disregard for America should be enough to make even the most ardent liberal blush. the problem with what Bush did was that it was pre-emptive. This means that no one will ever really know if he saved the day or not. that is the nature of being proactive. No one appreciates it because they never experienced the potential problems or hardships that were averted by the proactive approach. We all know that Saddam did not have weapons of mass distruction but who is to say that by now he would not have developed them and blown us all to hell?
   
   SOAD said what they meant and it is pretty clear what they meant. Why analyze it? I could see the point if the meaning was cryptic but it clearly is not. They used their platform to state a political view. There is nothing wrong with that. It just is what it is. Those of us that don't agree don't have to listen. Those that do can go vote to try to elect SOAD members to congress or to the white house. That is the beauty of America. Just be careful what you wish for though. The liberal agenda tends to be much more constraining than the conservative agenda. While they promise more freedom this is a well disguised attempt to actually socialize America. Socialism = Communism = no freedom of speech = no SOAD!

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
5. anonymous

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   Jun 14th 2008 !⃝

   It's about telling war to leave everyone alone case and point because war is a bad thing that shouldn't be used.
6. Arcanyne

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   May 31st 2008 !⃝

   Alright so I'm going to give this a go. Why do they always send the poor seems to have a double meaning, the poor financially, and the poor souls who believe that glory shit.
   
   Victorious victorious kneel...for brand new spankin deals...means we win!you may object to what we do afterwards....but submit to the power in order to be included(sort of like you may disagree with the whole blood for oil thing)
   Marching forward hypocritic....going to war for the right reasons...but the things you will do counteract those reasons.
   Hypnotic computers....basically being 100% controlled by the governments will, and listening without question.

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7. anonymous

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   May 12th 2008 !⃝

   I think that jake should stop getting his opinions from reading the opium of other people
8. hsaka

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   Jan 24th 2008 !⃝

   BYOB means bring your own bomb. It's an anti-war song.
9. anonymous

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   Nov 6th 2007 !⃝

   Look, as I saw on another interpretation "SOAD songs are like inkblots" and I agree. yes it has anti war symbolism, yes it talks about the celebrities and stuff, but what about all the weird stuff nobody has uninterpreted yet? "kneeling roses disappearing into moses' dry mouth" I believe this has to do with the idea of the beauty of human lives being consumed by moses (to interpretate that, moses is the great "prophet/leader" of Judaism. I say this to clarify that its saying innocent humans are kneeling to the death in the desert before someone they have beleive in.) to continue. "barbarisms by barbrus with pointed heals, victorious victory kneels brand new spanking deals" yeah, someone else will have to translate that, I have no idea.. as for the rest, yeah it probably has to do with the Iraq war and the idea of celebrity worship, I just thought the other parts should be considered too.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
10. anonymous

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    Oct 26th 2007 !⃝

    PLEASE READ THIS! THIS IS A MUST READ!
    
    First of all, System of a Down is, as you all know descendants of genocide victims and they apparently talk a lot about war and propaganda a lot, but we must keep in mind that they are still an American rock band, Therefore they often scream of random nonsense for little or no reason. Don't get me wrong, I have always been a huge fan of SOAD and I have every album, but this is still a song by the same makers of songs about the content of hardcore pornography (violent pornography), about how similar a pogo stick is to the lead singer's penis (bounce), and, how can we forget, angels who fall from grace and "deserve to die" (chop suey). Just because they talk about serious problems doesn't mean that it all makes sense. "Moses’ dry mouth", "kneeling roses", "…from the table cloth": I do not think they intended this to mean anything. In fact, in an interview in which he was asked what it meant by "I'm just sitting in my car waiting for my girl." in the first single after BYOB, Hypnotized (a song that talks of riots and compares American kids to those of the kids at Tiananmen square who took part in mass-assassination), the writer of the song simply replied "I was just in my car waiting for my girlfriend when I was writing this song and I couldn't think of lyrics, so I just wrote it down." So that's a perfect example of how serious they are in making these songs.
    
    Second of all, what I interpret "Why do they always send the poor?" is how many foreigners who don't have an education or money but they want to get into college join the army for the money. This may not be entirely fair but it's not the governments fault. War, in my opinion is completely wrong, but it's creating jobs and they aren't forcing them to join the army they sign up themselves. Ok, now where the real problem is when Mexicans sign up to join the army and in the process, they end up fighting for a country who doesn't even want them there. So put yourself in their shoes, you finally have become naturalized by the government after years of trying to escape poverty only to be offered construction worker jobs for little money in the "land of opportunity". and now, the only way to get enough money to get a college education to get a job that isn't borderline servitude is to go join an army of a country that is trying to keep the rest of your Mexican family from coming here and "stealing our jobs", which is they aren't really even doing. I’m sure that's not what it was meant by system of a down but that's what it means to me every time I hear that song.
    
    Ok I have time for one short insight of the lead singer of system of a down. Serj Tankian, who has an amazing new solo album out right now called "elect the dead" BTW, is co-founder of a political or anti-political, however you want to put it, with another incredible musician named Tom Morrelo (The Lead Guitarist Of Audioslave). Tom Morello is often involved in foreign policy-related protests and was even arrested a few times. He stands up for people who are just trying to get into America to get a reasonable income to support their dying family. I personally believe that Tom has had a little effect on some of system's songs.
    
    Thanks for reading this.
    Any Comments? Any Questions? email me at: meleemaster_777@yahoo.com

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
11. anonymous

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    Oct 20th 2007 !⃝

    B.y.o.B means bring your own bombs because the lead singer wants people to think he is from Iraq and that's why they named it B.Y.O.B
    
    by.hoggman

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
12. anonymous

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    Aug 27th 2007 !⃝

    Oh yes, Bush is great. If you think that bush is a great president, I pity you. He got elected for a second term due to ignorance of the majority of the american people. Just look at things such as Hurricane Katrina, where it took so long to actually get anything done. His public speaking is horrendous, and it pains me to actually watch him speak. In my opinion, political parties should be removed, so that citizens can vote on the issues, not the party. I guarantee that majority of the citizens that are pro-democratic, would vote for a republican candidate if he ran under "Republican" and vice-versa.
13. TheyHideTheTruth

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    Aug 25th 2007 !⃝

    I'm treating myself as the author of this song, so that I see it even better than I did before.
    
    There are four views that the author expresses in this delightful melody called "BYOB."
    One: The author is serious
    One and a half: The author is angry at the past
    Two: The author is sarcastic, and a smart mouth.
    Three:The author is humorous
    Four: The author is manic
    Four point one: The author has a drunk sense of humor, and possibly had been drinking when writing the song.
    
    Political news is always stirring and upsetting because nobody wants to panic but they have to when the president speaks.
    
    BYOB is a term used by most non-politically absorbed people meaning that they have to bring their own beer or alcohol to a party where the hosts do not provide for their invites. (certainly not guests)
    
    The author is pissed about what's on the news with what Barbara Bush was talking about.
    Why do they always send the poor? -I have wondered that myself when I was watching the news that one day. Why does the government make it so that the poor people who come from dysfunctional families can only feel accomplished if they pack up the bag, join the military, and then bring home the moolah that way?-Probably population control. Does the Govt want to see us riding around on bicycles bumping into each other like some parts of asia? no. There's too many bad jokes they've already made about asia...like there's starving people in china.
    
    Barbarisms-horrible things
    By Barbaras-the word to describe the people that are just like Barbara Bush as if she has an army that does barbaric things.
    "With pointed heels"-to go so far as to say...they even wear high heels for the occasion.
    The author uses imagery of hangers, meaning the noose, sitting there waiting for some holy man to come and drip it in oil before they hang someone to make it a holy thing, done in God's name, while the person on the waiting list to be hanged is thinking...The noose needs a permanent vacation.
    Handed to obsoletion: Being killed in the name of God, which is not right.
    Still you feed us lies from the tablecloth.-like...just relax and enjoy all this bad news and this speech that's supposed to save the nation..while you're eating dinner! The word tablecloth was used because it has three syllables, and the author lacked a better word for describing the place where the lies come from..looked at her tablecloth, and thought...what a perfect word instead of da da da.
    
    Now, the author has the question in her mind...what am I supposed to do now, have a party now that you told me all this bad news?
    So, she gets all manic and twisted and sarcastic and says
    Everybody's going to the party, have a real good time.
    Like, hey, everybody's doing it, so why don't I just jump on the bandwagon with them?
    Dancing in the desert, blowing up the sunshine...
    yeah. That's what they're doing over there (sarcasm)..
    they're having a party and they're all in the mood to dance, and so then...while we're at it, let's just blow up the sun too like the cowboys that we are. Yee haw. (sarcasm)
    Kneeling, Roses disappearing into moses' dry mouth-while people are praying to allah, their souls disappear into the desert sands.
    Breaking into Fort Knox, stealing our intentions-taking a valued treasure from an old place.
    
    Blast off- Woohoo, it's time to launch the next space shuttle because I'm so excited about this party! (sarcasm)
    It's party time-time to be ignorant about world issues
    And we don't live in a fascist nation-saying like yeah, right. The world is still kinda fascist.
    Where the fuck are you?-the presidents and wives of presidents unless they were assassinated in the past, have always seemed to be elsewhere during important events that took place.
    Then she wonders again..Why don't the president's just go and fight the war, and quit being lazy, like the way it was in the past where even the king would fight if he had to protect his castle.
    Then, after writing the whole song, she found the appropriate title for the song...well, she thought..at party's they get the same ignorant as the people in the government, so lets all get drunk and not worry about THE PEOPLE DYING EVERY FUCKING DAY BY GETTING BLOWN UP.
    So, Come over to my house and you can BYOB.
14. anonymous

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    Jul 31st 2007 !⃝

    Jake.harvey I really have to disagree with you about the sending the poor part. I mean aren't you required to sign up for draft at the age of 18? I'm still younger than 18 so I don't know much but usually people enlist for draft to get an education because they can't afford one. So the people sent in to fight the war are the poor most of the time.
    
    Remember I'm still less than 18 so I'm sure about this.
15. anonymous

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    Jun 10th 2007 !⃝

    jake.harvey has the most ludicrous interpretation that I've ever heard.. yet I'm sure some people have read and taken in the account of his words because he managed to use a couple of big words appropriately...
    
    but he obviously knows jack shit about how the draft works...it's not based on just an age, its based on a birth date... They draw august 7th, and that's your birthday, you go...they don't just pick a random age group and send them off to war...according to what he said, my father and 6 of my uncles would have not been drafted. and as for y do they send the poor? because the poor can't buy their way out of it like the rich can. I personally would never fight for this country. I'll never fight for a country that pays it's soldiers more than it pays it's teachers. it's really fucking sad when people are paid more money to kill in other countries when we can't even manage our own country.
    
    When the U.S. Has national health care, when the poor are fed and the homeless are sheltered THEN and ONLY then would I have any stake in this country. but until our fucking government can look after it's own, how the fuck can we tell another country how to govern it's own people. until then, maybe it's the vituperative comments of a band like SOAD to speak for those who have no voice..
    
    i, think you're a fucking idiot, and you have no dam clue about how this country works. I hate this country, with a passion. but I know how shit works, and apparently since you speak on the draft and have no fucking clue how it works, you should have no voice...so shut it the fuck up...

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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