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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God damn you are ALLLLL fucking idiots... The song is about heroin you fucking KIDSSSSS!!
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From the Armeniapedia (http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=System_Of_A_Down ):
Their first big hit was the controversial "Chop Suey!", released in the late summer of 2001. The title comes from a poem of Father Armeni, who wrote about Armenia after the genocide of 1915. He asked God why have you forsaken me in your eyes. Father Armeni also said that in Armenia a self righteous suicide has taken place. -
The key in this song is where the lyrics go:
"Father into your hands, I commend my spirit
Father into your hands
Why have you forsaken me
In your eyes forsaken me
In your thoughts forsaken me
In your heart forsaken, me oh
Trust in my self righteous suicide"
Everything else revolves around this. What is this?
These are the words Jesus said on the cross before dying for our sins - He was righteous yet died for US (the sinners), the jewish priests were people of law and did not want to accept Jesus as the Messiah for many reasons (mainly pride). In this song "When angels deserve to die" - System of a down are referring to Jesus Himself as He didn't deserve to die but the jews put him up on the cross and killed Him anyway. Although they couldn't find a reasonable charge, they did it to keep their status as "Holy high priests; unchallenged".
"I, cry, when angels deserve to die" - System of a down are known to be also politicially focussed and hate the idea of innocent citizens dying for power and greed of the government; the death of Jesus is another example of this.
"Wake up
Grab a brush and put a little (makeup)"
This is repeated a whole bunch of times in the song and I believe it's to show how the jews would try and fulfill the law every single day, doing "good works" instead of loving God as they were meant to. -
I agree with all the posted interpretations of this song, meanings belonging to any song are ambiguous. Personally, I believe that the verses are strictly speaking of everyday life where everything you do becomes meaningless. Having no purpose or extraordinary things in your life can be very depressing and the only way to ease this loneliness and depression is to turn to other methods such as suicide. People in general are angels, there suicidal act is done because no-one can hear them. The verse: 'father, father, father, father, father into your hands I commend my spirit,why have you forsaken me' ... refers to one's last plea for forgiveness and cry for being abandoned by God, the creator of life. And because he has not eased their pain, they have chosen to die alone.
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The song is about Jesus dying on the cross. It is another perspective than from the biblical one. In the song's perspective, Jesus thought that what was happening to Him on the cross was not fair: "I cry, when angels deserve to die." Jesus thought that He lived a good life, and why should He be in pain? Its the angels that deserve to die! The song suggests hidden stories in the story of Christ; hence the title: Chop-suey!
"Self-righteous suicide" refers to the death on the cross. Remember, this song is a different point of view. Jesus' death was most definitely NOT self-righteous, or a suicide, but the song suggests that it was. Hiding the scars and putting on makeup, is Jesus apparently covering up the sins in his life. And of course, "Fall into your hands, I commend my Spirit. Why have you forsaken me?" Were some of Jesus' last words.
I don't agree with the song's message, but there was a lot of controversy over the meaning of it. I just thought I'd clear that up. -
Talk about a manic rant.
I think that the song is the bands observance of humankind. Which for the most part puts on a false face, aka hypocrisy. The part where he's singing Jesus words as he hung on the cross sounds like a cynical mockery of the cross, and he appears to be putting words in Jesus mouth. When he says "angels deserve to die" implies that Jesus says it should be Satan and the fallen angels paying for the curse that they brought upon creation, instead of Jesus dying to correct the wrong. If I'm correct then the singer is trying to humanize Jesus, and have Jesus second guessing God the Father, and his plan for redemption for mankind in His(Jesus)substitutionary death. -
I think this song is actually talking about Jesuses death on the cross, even though they aren't christian. It says "self-righteous-suicide" he came to earth knowing he would die, and also, in the bible Jesus said "father, why have you forsaken me?" matching the songs lyrics directly.
Also angels deserve to die, meaning he took everyones sin and all that are below god (including angels) deserve death but are saved by grace. This is just my view on this song, soad might not be a christian band, and I am not telling you to convert, but soad can still sing about Jesus if they feel like it. :] -
The song's meaning is that it has no meaning. All the band members were under the influence of mushrooms and acid when writing this song.
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I, too, initially thought it was about religion; however, I agree with some of the above posts in that it is based on what Father Armeni said about the 1915 massacre. I read that Father Armeni was quoting Jesus when he said, "Father, why have you forsaken me? Into your hands I commend my spirit". Armeni said the land was left like a chop suey and the whole thing was a self righteous suicide. Very interesting, no?
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Well for the whole make up thing and the beginning it could have to do with suicide bombing because maybe the people committing the things paint their faces to hide their identity from people but God knows it was them....Like with Army camo etc.
Just a though
The Keys might refer to to God as well cause God and Jesus give us the Keys to the Kingdom of God and saying why did you leave them on the table saying why didn't you take the opportunity and come with me..It could be like he is Jesus in that line -
I have To agree with saod interpreter I've often thought the same thing he said, in fact he pulled the words right out of my mouth so if you are looking for a clear meaning behind the song and the expressions in this songs this would be your answer.
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In my opinion this song is about something completely different than what everyone here is talking about. It's about all the fake christians....people putting on an act to hide who they really are and how they really lead their lives...putting on make up. Jesus died for our sins and by us accepting Him as our savior we are agreeing to live our lives as he wants us to...so when we don't that makes His death/suicide self-rightious because he did it for no reason other than thinking he was doing something that would better man and the way we live our lives. And looking around the world today, Jesus's way obviously is not the way we are living. I cry...when angels deserve to die....it's very sad that Jesus (an angel) did give his life for us to live our lives the way we do.
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I think that this is about someone who wakes up every day, has to hide the scars of "the shakeup" and leaves the keys on the table as a sign of not coming back, and now you can make another excuse about my marks or where I've gone "here you go create another fable" I believe this person then commits suicide o.o
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I think this song has several (some ignorant) meanings, thoughts, and ideas all combined.
First, I believe that this is talking about the death of Jesus Christ.
Father into your hands, I commend my spirit,
Father, into your hands,
Why have you forsaken me,
In your eyes forsaken me,
In your thoughts forsaken me,
In your heart forsaken, me oh!
Luke 23:46
Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.
Commit
to give in trust or charge; consign.
Commend
to entrust; give in charge; deliver with confidence:
Father (God) did not forsake Jesus though, so….not sure about that.
Trust in my self righteous suicide
I cry when angels deserve to die
In my self righteous suicide
I cry when angels deserve to die...
Self-righteous
confident of one's own righteousness, esp. when smugly moralistic and intolerant of the opinions and behavior of others.
Jesus is righteous
However,
Jesus did not commit suicide. I think calling it a “self righteous suicide†is mockery of Jesus’ self sacrifice to save every sinner that deserves to burn in hell.
Angels do not die. Angels are not humans, nor do humans become angels when they die. Angels also do not take part in anything involving humans that would provoke any kind of thought that angels would or should deserve to die.
http://www.gotquestions.org/become-angels.html
This may also be in some reference to the Armenian Genocide and Father Armeni’s poem.
I have search and searched for this “poem†and have found it nowhere. Every search on google that comes up, links to a discussion of SOAD lyrics. WHERE IS THIS PEOM???
Couldn’t even find anything here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide
Im not sure about the other lyrics to the song. I’ve read other interpretations that could be, but I have no idea. I very well believe that some of these lyrics do have reference to the death of Jesus Christ.
I think that what happened with the Armenian Genocide was awful.
Most of the people of here probably don’t even know anything about it and are just repeating crap about “the poemâ€
If you have never read about the genocide, you should inform yourself and check out this site.
http://www.theforgotten.org/
I think SOAD wanting to stand up for what happened in their country is great and all, but that happened 100 years ago. History does repeat itself, but if you’re into history, read about the beginning of time…not 100 years ago.
Instead of complaining about the government that allows SOAD to make millions of dollars, they should go back to where they came from and sing about what really matters….what will happen AFTER you die, not how people died.
Okay, sorry, that went off the subject, but either way, it needed to be said! -
I think it's about domestic abuse. In the beginning, the husband's telling the wife to do this and that (put on makeup, etc) and then he's telling her to trust him and what he says and that she shouldn't question him, when he's doing so much for the family (his "self righteous suicide")
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