System of a Down: Chop Suey Meaning
Song Released: 2001
Chop Suey Lyrics
We're Rolling Suicide
Wake up(wake up)
Grab a brush and put a little makeup
Hide the scars to fade away the shakeup
Why’d you leave the keys upon the table?
Here you go create another fable
You wanted to
Grab a brush...
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The line about creating another fable pertains to the protagonist shutting off his Gamecube while in the process of saving a Zelda file. He must recreate the file, losing all progress up to that point, and while grappling with the staggering ramifications of this figures, "F this. I'll just play Mega Man instead. It's more difficult, yes, but also infinitely more rewarding". Ergo, the "self-righteous suicide" referred to henceforth.
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these interpretations of of jesus dying on the cross are very good. and the members of saod my even see it that way as well if u were to tlk to them. however,i remember my friend showing me something posted by serj. my freinds also said he saw an interview with serj. in these he tells his meaning of the song. it is about how the manner in which you die determines a persons last thoughts of you.you may have lived a wonderful life and did nothing wrong.but say you have a moment of weakness and do something wrong and get killd doing so,they may not remember you as beig a great person. all bc u died doing something wrong many may remember you as a bad person no matter the good things you did before.
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Picture a little boy hiding underneath a table cloth on the kitchen table. Seeing his father yelling at the boys mother... "Why'd you leave the keys up on the table... You wanted to!" Screaming at her for everything that she's done wrong in his eyes... The boys hiding, he's scared, too scared to move. "Hide the scars that fade away the shake up" cover every mark that shows you're abuse. Ashamed.
Fade away:
Now imagine this boy is invisible in his own home, his father's too wrapped up in being the abusive fuck that he is... His mother, a walking talking zombie of abuse and neglect. So down deep in her depression, she takes her own life. "I cry when angels deserve to die"
She takes her own life, tired of the abuse, she leaves her son with this abusive fuck. She was so wrapped up in her own misery, she didn't see what it was doing to her poor son.
Now "Father, father, why have you foresaken me?" This is that little boy as his mother's funeral with his grandparents, his father of course is too much of a bastard for what he caused and doesn't show. The boy is screaming silently at the sky, then glimpsing at his mother laying in her permanent bed, then again the boy looks at the sky screaming in silence. Angry, he feels he was forgotten by his mother, his father, and God...
I cry... -
The song has nothing to do about chop suey.....the name of the song was supposed to be 'suicide' but they had to make it radio friendly.....so I don't know why people are using chop suey in their interpretations of the song
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I think it is he was forced to do a suicide bombing. He was tortured before he accepted to do it. He left his keys on the table because he is never coming back. The quote Jesus said was what he said before he left hoping God would understand why he had to do this. They called this chop suey because when he detonated the bomb the people he would kill would look like chop suey.
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This song is about the crucifixion of Jesus. The whole part when he's saying "father why have you forsaken me in your heart forsaken me in yours eyes forsaken me" is the last words that Jesus said before he died.
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Fuckin easy. It is talking about Christ. They are expressing their views on christ, that it was a "self-righteous suicide." that he was not the savior.The "keys" it speaks of is the keys he left to the kingdom, which created another "fable" for us to believe. The "wake up" part, is Christ resurrecting. "father into your hands" "why have you forsaken me" GOD left him there to die on the cross, forsaking him. "scars" in his hands from nails. basically they are saying that they don't believe Christ to be the savior, just an angel who claimed to be the truth, committing suicide.
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It means that a girl is abused by her boyfriend or husband for any and everything and she tries to hide it by fixing herself up to make the scars go away. Then she cries out to the Lord because she wants to know why He won't help her in this problem. So she has suicidal thoughts.
-D. Man -
Well.. I'm not exactly sure.. but I think it could be about a person that's getting abused.. That would explain the make up & scars part:
"Grab a brush and put a little (makeup)
Grab a brush and put a little
Hide the scars to fade away the (shakeup)
Hide the scars to fade away the "
Maybe the only way out the person being abused can see is death.
I don't know.. but it kinda makes sense if you think about it. -
I think he says "why do you leave the keys upon the table" because if you're going to commit suicide you're not going back to your house forever.... just a thought.
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This song is about domestic abuse. That is the only interpretation that fits for all of the lines. The lyrics in parentheses are the victim speaking in her own mind (she can't talk out loud to the abuser for fear of reprisal). The tone of voice that is angry is the abuser abusing her verbally in the morning (after a beating the night before). Line by line, here goes:
CHOP SUEY
[Name of the song means "a mess of whatever is left over" or "a bit of shit" as in the asian american dish. Also connotations from "chop" of violence and "suey" sounds like "sui" part of the word suicide. Together violence and suicide. Violence as a result of self-destruction/martyrdom. The abuser believes he is a martyr sacrificing his soul, by abusing, for the self-riteous purpose of setting his victim straight about what she did wrong. Like a personal crusade to set her straight. Like all crusades -- kill the infidel so that we can "save" him/her. Or perhaps more simply, he believes he abuses because he is tired/overworked/underappreciated for the "self-sacrifices" he is making for the victim. Of course, none of that is true -- he abuses because he has a need to abuse to feel powerful. I think in the 70s there was some cartoon where the "hero" a cartoon/fake hero cries out "chop suey!" when he does a karate chop. This also suggests faux power -- the kind one gets by beating up people half your size who "love" you so aren't expecting you to hit them and/or don't kill you even if they are expecting it.]
"Wake up"
[abuser demanding the victim wake up]
"(wake up)"
[victim hearing the abuser and saying to herself wake up, also -- internally echoing his command almost like "here we go again"]
"Grab a brush and put a little makeup"
[abuser commanding victim to do as he says - make herself presentable with hair and makeup]
"Hide the scars to fade away the shake up"
[abuser demanding that the make-up cover up the injuries from the "shake up" -- i.e. The abuse]
"(Hide the scars to fade away the shake )"
[victim echoing his words in her mind, still not fully awake, in a daze/survival mode, simply following orders -- she's done this many times before]
"Why'd you leave the keys up on the table?"
[abuser, not satisfied that she's already following 2 of his orders, to brush her hair and cover scars with makeup, demands to know why she did something -- inconsequential -- that he has told her previously is important; or just not what *he* would have done.]
"Here you go create another fable"
[abuser saying this to victim, anticipating that victim's response -- not given -- will be a lie even before she says anything. Abusers never believe the victim's reasons because that would make the abuser/accuser wrong for having doubted the victim in the first place. And abusers can't stand being wrong.]
"(You wanted to)"
[the victim's Higher Self or God or Guardian Angel answering on her behalf -- the real answer is because she wanted to, nothing more, nothing less. As her own person she has a right to do as she chooses. She was given free will by God, just like every other human being was give. The abuser, of course has fogotten that she is a human being.]
"I don't think you trust, in, my, self-righteous suicide"
[ this is actually what the abuser would say if he was telling the truth in an obvious way. In other words, this is what "God" would say to the victim if He wanted her to understand why this was happening to her. The abuser believes that he is the victim (as they always do)of his victim. In order to abuse someone you have to believe that they are wrong and you are right. In order to justify the magnitude of harm that domestic abuse is, beating the one you supposedly love you have to convince both yourself AND the victim that it is the victim's fault for being beaten. In this case, he abused her because she doesn't trust In his self-sacrifice (self-riteous suicide, as God would call it) -- whatever he claims that is. The most common reason given by abusers for perpetuating abuse is that the victim doesn't "help" the abuser or doesn't help enough. He claims she is "killing him" or "letting him die". The abuser claims to be trying to get the victim to "listen" or "believe in" him -- if she only did that more or better, or didn't make things "hard" for him, like leaving keys on the table, he wouldn't be "dying" or "suffering" so much (yeah right). Also abusers believe they are "killing themselves" to make the victim happy or to give the victim and/or the family material goods. Or believe they are sacrificing their lives in some extremely important way, perhaps for humanity -- the abuser almost always has false ideas of grandeur/the importance of his sacrifice cannot be underestimated. After all, if the abuser is suffering so much that he has to hurt people he cares about to complete his mission, then he must REALLY be doing something riteous. Believe me this is exactly how an abuser thinks.]
"I, cry, when angels deserve to die!"
[again, this is the abuser speaking if he was telling the truth. It "hurts the abuser so much" to have to hurt his victim. The victim is the angel -- often she believes that the abuser really is suffering and that if she could only do better and he would not suffer so much. She buys into the abuser's reasons for beating her so that she can reconcile the cognitive dissonance of the person "loving her" AND "hurting her." She is an angel of mercy -- forgiving him over and over again, trying to make his life better by following his every instruction and responding to every demand. Often the victim of her own nurturing. The abuser in his rage actually does believe she deserves everything he has coming to her -- and at it's worse, he believes she deserves to die; once again for not believing in him or for putting the keys on the table -- annoying him, etc.]
"Father (father)
Into your hands, I commend my spirit
Into your hands, why have you forsaken me?
In your eyes, forsaken me
In your thoughts, forsaken me
In your heart, forsaken me"
[This whole verse -- the bridge -- actually could be spoken by either the abuser or the victim; or by both at the same time but for different reasons]
[Spoken by the abuser, this could be about a fundamental extremist who really believes he is the one who has been wronged by his "unhelpful" wife who doesn't believe in his cause. Or the abuser could be having a moment of guilt in which he realizes that his soul has been forsaken by God the Father because he has sinned so badly. Either of these intentions could be stated for the benefit of the victim rather than to God (a form of manipulation) -- to make the victim believe he has remorse in the case of confessing to his loss of soul, or to make the victim feel guilty for having "caused" him to beat her, to make a point about how "hard" his life is (Christ-like proportions of suffering) and he's implying through guilt tripping that it's really important that she behave even better in the future or he'll really suffer, and of course have to beat her again even worse.]
[If this verse is spoken by the victim, it is her plea to God to help her -- wondering what she ever did to deserve such pain at the hands of someone who supposedly loves her]
[If both the abuser and the victim are saying this simultaneously in their own separate realities, it is a comment for all mankind about how we are all forsaken on some level, whether victim or perpetrator -- the victim for being betrayed by a loved one, for being in pain; perpetrator for having lost his soul already -- the greatest pain of all] -
"I cry when angels deserve to die"
lets break it down angels-good people "clean" people perfect people
"why cry when angels deserve to die"
why cry when goody goodys deserve to die and don't care when say drug heads die it is still a human's life. -
I cracked the code... Why'd you leave the keys on the table would directly mean that how can Jesus(Keys and Our Saviour) be the son of a simple woman(Mary) and A Carpenter(hence the word table is used).
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I totally agree on the top rated interpretation... Its correct but the part "when angels deserve to die" is actually what Jesus would think or say if he was a normal human a.k.a. layman... This is true as God did not send angels to take him off the cross when he was dying, because it was a destiny that had to be fulfilled by the Son of Man...He had to die... What does this have anything in common with the words I was trying to explain? The angels had to die because they couldn't or weren't allowed to help Jesus...
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This song is about an abused woman. It starts with her putting on makeup to hide the scars. Then she leaves the keys on the table as a sign of struggle. Then she creates a fable to hide her shame.
That is why the second verse has the backup lyrics you wanted to behind it. This is the fable that she creates. She puts on makeup because she wanted to, hides the scars because she wanted to.
I don't think you trust in my self righteous suicide is her refusing to speak out about what is happening to her. So she would rather die than tell people. Then she calls out to god not understanding that God does not forsake us, but sometimes he disciplines us to get us ready for the next (and real) world.
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