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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Its an antiwar song no doubt. The line that I found the most interesting is why do they always send the poor. Everyone knows why, and SOAD is opening close-minded upper class republicans eyes. We know that The Army is one way to pay for collage. All the poor people are are brilliant but can't afford to learn don't have any other options but the army to pay for collage. But most of them die because in our Economy, it's survival of the richest.
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The poor do fight the war but there are middle class figures there too as my dad was one of them - he joined because he wanted too. Then my sister joined the armed forces because she had no money in New York - she did enjoy the work, but hated Iraq. So point being, she agrees with the song its pretty well on the money...it also does a decent job to avoid pointing fingers and making concentrated point rather it does hint at possibilities of what the lyrics could mean.
If you have a lot of money are you going to join the military? probably not, if your poor and its a business that pays but you also sign your life away - are you going to take that risk - believe it or not - its worth it to some of us. We all know this, all of us...and system of a down is stating this in their song - using the military ads a reference to pulling in people like MY SISTER in. Whom by the way loves SOAD... -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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First of all I would like to System often points out injustice. This song is about how presidents send our troops to war with no fucking idea how we are going to finish the job and get home. My cousin was in Iraq, and he told us point blank that we will never get out of there. We will have a base there forever. System Of A Down is right. Bush keeps on saying that we will pull out soon but he keeps sending more troops. Lies from the tablecloth.
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Just wanted to make a comment for the guy who said that the War on Iraq is good because we are LIBERATING the Iraqis... Dude, if Bush is soooo concerned about liberating people, then why the hell is he not liberating the Sudanese in Darfur from GENOCIDE??? It's just incredible how naive some people are...
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Firstly, jake.harvey can piss off. Don't post here unless you actually LIKE System like we do. Secondly, idiots like AspartaneAddict should be banned from society. 'My god is of spiteful blood, with morbid eels'? Where the hell did he get that from??? Stale, however, makes a lot of sense. We need more people like that in the world. There is a very odd paradox surrounding this song, and that is that most of the propaganda crap the song speaks out against blinds people to the fact that the song speaks out against it. Awkward.
The song is, as a few people have said, Daron Malakian's metaphor describing war - specifically, the war in Iraq, if you can call Yank forces bombing the bejesus out of innocent people much of a war - as a 'party', and this idea of his was sparked off when he saw an ad for a job in the army, which basically (I assume) showed all the positive aspects of life in the armed forces, while not mentioning the risks of death, gangrene, and having your legs shot off. War is not, as many people have been fooled into thinking by various bits of propaganda, glorious. At all. Ever. Get that into your thick, thick skull, Mister President. Bombs are bad for your health, guns DO kill people, and sending poor chaps to blow the turd out of various Iraqi oil tycoons and innocent civilians only proves one thing. That you are a moronic fascist hillbilly with no moral stamina whatsoever. Sorry, am I sounding to complicated for anyone? I'll put it another way. In the six years since Bush got into power, my father and I have made a list of everything Bush has done for the world. The sheet is still blank. We also thought of doing a list of every selfish thing Bush did, but we realised there wasn't that much ink in the world, and if you try typing that much into your computer it will melt. Bush hates communism. Yes, that is a bad thing. Shut up, fascist! Bush is a hick. Also a very bad thing. Hey, don't shoot the messanger, hillbilly! Bush has an IQ of 91, which is roughly equivalent to that of a newborn puppy. Also unhealthy. No, animal fans, a newborn puppy IS very stupid. Bush likes war. Anyone who likes war should be shot through the lungs. Look, you stupid patriot, war is NOT GLORIOUS!!!!!
Oh dear, I appear to have gone a tad off topic and into one of my anti-war, anti-Bush rant things. Not too far off topic then. Bush, if you are reading this, go throw yourself, oh, I don't know, under a train. -
Someone got the lyrics embarassingly wrong, so I'm gonna make amends.
Why do they always send the poor
Barbarisms by Barbaras
With pointed heels
Victorious victories kneel
For brand new spankin' deals
Marching forward hypocritic and
Hypnotic computers
You depend on our protection
Yet you feed us lies from the tablecloth
Everybody's going to the party have a real good time
Dancing in the desert blowing up the sunshine
Kneeling roses disappearing into
Moses' dry mouth
Breaking into Fort Knox stealing
Our intentions
Hangers sitting dripped in oil
Crying freedom
Handed to obsoletion
Still you feed us lies from the tablecloth
Everybody's going to the party have a real good time
Dancing in the desert blowing up the sunshine
Everybody's going to the party have a real good time
Dancing in the desert blowing up the sunshine
Blast off
It's party time
And we don't live in a fascist nation
Blast off
It's party time
And where the fuck are you?
Where the fuck are you?
Where the fuck are you?
Why don't presidents fight the war?
Why do they always send the poor?
Why don't presidents fight the war?
Why do they always send the poor?
Why do they always send the poor?
Why do they always send the poor?
Why do they always send the poor?
Kneeling roses disappearing into
Moses' dry mouth
Breaking into Fort Knox stealing
Our intentions
Hangers sitting dripped in oil
Crying freedom
Handed to obsoletion,
Still you feed us lies from the tablecloth
Everybody's going to the party have a real good time
Dancing in the desert blowing up the sunshine
Everybody's going to the party have a real good time
Dancing in the desert blowing up the sun
Where the fuck are you?
Where the fuck are you?
Why don't presidents fight the war?
Why do they always send the poor?
Why don't presidents fight the war?
Why do they always send the poor?
Why do they always send the poor?
Why do they always send the poor?
They always send the poor
They always send the poor
And jake.harvey is wrong. STUPID PATRIOT! AspartaneAddict is a pillock. Also, the guy who said 'just for the record, B.Y.O.B. does NOT stand for bring your own bombs, or booze, or anything! it stands for Be Your Own Boss. Think about it, if SOAD is so anti-government and that they hate the way the government does things this title fits much more perfectly than anything else. Bring Your Own Bombs is the most ridiculous acronym I could think of for this song, the only way it even slightly relates to this song is the word bomb. and seeing as how BYOB is an actual acronym I've heard before as being Be Your Own Boss, it makes perfect sense' is very wrong. It's definitely Bring your own bombs.
Stale couldn't be more right. -
um, I know its sort of late, and this might be a really dumb question but what is Barbarisms by Barbaras? I tried looking it up and such... and I didn't really find anything that clarified it. I guess my google-ing skills arent very good. So could someone help me out?
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A quick(ish interpretation. Note: I live in britain, where the economy is going nuts, so I'm probably wrong in parts.
Barbarisms by barbaras with pointed heels
--
Referrs to either how sex is, well, everywhere, or how sexism is going mad, or even how women are trying too hard to get equal rights, not realising they already have more than men(possibly very wrong. I am the only person who seems to have realised this though).
Victorious victories kneel for brand new spanking deals
--
The economy's gone nuts, people will do anything for cash such as kneeling before a fool, people will buy anything. Something like that.
Marching forward hypocritic and hypnotic computers
--
The media is brainwashing us, lying to us, and getting away with it. WHY DOES NO ONE DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!!!
You depend on our protection yet you feed us lies from the tablecloth
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Bush only got into power cos we put him there. He only stays cos we keep him there. He should know this, yet he continues to lie, cheat, declare war and be stupid.
Everybody's going to the party have a real good time
Dancing in the desert blowing up the sunshine
--
Thousands of people have gone to war in Iraq. Some sarcasm in this verse methinks.
Kneeling roses disappearing into moses' dry mouth
Breaking into fort knox stealing our intentions
--
Give me some time, I haven't got this bit yet.
Hangers sitting dripped in oil crying 'FREEDOM!'
--
People are executed for trying to stand up for freedom. Incidentally, there is no such thing as a free country. These 'hangers' are NOT standing up for their country, otherwise they wouldnt be executed. They are trying to be free from oppression and the moronic 'democracy' they live in. If it were a democracy, Bush wouldnt be in power. Democracy is literally 'Ruled by the people'
Handed to obsoletion
--
Rendered useless. What is, I don't know.
Blast off its party time and we don't live in a fascist nation
--
Soldiers are usually patriotic, hence cannot call their nations 'fascist' even though they are.
Where the f**k are you!
--
'Bush declared this war, why isn't he fighting it alongside us' may be an unpatriotic response from a soldier, but it sure as hell is appropriate.
'Why don't presidents fight the war, why do they always send the poor' is self-explanatory.
Incidentally, it was predicted that in the 2000 US presidential elections around 100 million americans wouldnt vote simlpy cos there wasnt really any noticable difference between Bush and Gore (see 'testify' vid by Rage against the machine). Oh, and Bush's IQ, if anyone is interested, is 91. The average is 110. To be gifted it has to be 130+. -
One central problem for me as I am not a native speaker is the following:
Does the line "Why don't presidents fight the war?" mean
a) Why don't presidents fight IN the war?
or
b) Why don't presidents fight against war? -
To the guy that thinks byob stands for be your own boss... Wow. Byob normally stands for bring your own beer which is put on things like party invitations to tell the guests to bring there own alcohol. Therefore, bring your own bombs makes sense because it ties in with war being shown as a "party".
I don't know why I took the time to explain that... I need to find something to do. -
"just listen to the news, and how many times the us bombs innocent areas and kills hundreds of innocent people ! Imagine if that happened hear daily !!!! "can you say nuclear weapons??!!"
and we all know that the news never lies and always gives the full story, don't we, stale?
On to my interpretation...
I do believe that this is indeed about the whole iraqi freedom operation. Soad is indeed against it, as are others. However, I must say that "zomg itz aul bushs fawlt!!1!!111" is untrue. Unfortunately, the masses are being controlled by the media.
"why don't the presidents fight the war?" :
viewpoint that believes bush does nothing; clearly false, but, unfortunately, many are given this opinion by the media
"why do they always send the poor?" :
tries to make the listener believe that the poor are "forced" to fight in the war. Joining the army is optional; the propaganda for it just attracts people.
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