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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Good song. The Interpretation of this song ( lies ) within your own eyes.
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The suicide bomber interpretation is definitely out of the window in my eyes. I feel that this whole song is about Jesus and how the artist thinks the bible was invented while being untrue. My interpretations are as follows:
A) The verses that portrays a person leaving keys and putting on make-up because they 'wanted to' explains the artist's idea of why religion was created. Meerly because someone wanted to.
B) "I don't think you trust in my self-righteous suicide" and "I cry when angels are suppose to die" is explaining his disbelief in the whole idea of religion and confusion on why Jesus had to die respectively.
C) commend my spirit, why have you forsaken me?, is just some added words from the scriptures that depict what Jesus said on his final day.
overall, I think it's just a song about not believing in religion, specifically Christianity and Catholicism. The suicide bomber, hell no. This song was made before 9/11. Although it could still be plausible, I doubt those were his motives behind this song. -
This song is called Chop Suey because it was originally going to be called Suicide (hence the beginning saying, "we're rolling suicide"), but they did not want to call it that, so instead, they chopped (got rid of) suey (suicide). It's a play on words.
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There are a lot of good interpretations of this song - the three top rated ones (as at the time of writing) being: (1)Someone going through a hard time/depression, ending up with suicide; (2)a suicide bomber trying to explain himself; and (3)Jesus on the cross.
I will second the 'suicide bomber' theory. My reasoning for that being the title of the song.
As you may or may not know, Chop Suey is a Chinese style dish actually created in America (USA), meaning, it is something we see as foreign but that we have indeed created ourselves. I think this is how we (the west) look at suicide bombings/terrorism, as a foreign fenomenon whos origin we have nothing to do with, when infact, we are the ones responsible for its creation.
The suicide bomber in the song knows that what he is about to do is wrong, that the victims will be innocent ones, and that God does not approve of it. But he has no choise. -
I think that the song is called chop suey like the japanease food cuz the song has a lot of meanings and the lyrics... So, first meaning: The beggining is about a person with a problem they tell him to wake up cuz he is beaten up then grab a brush and put a little make up to hide the wounds hide the scars to fade away the shake up (the fight) and why you left the keys up (in his home maybe building cuz there is UP) on the table and not on the key holder. Then its you want it to thats because he wanted to do that and he deserved that they beaten him up. Then why dont take a trust in my selfrighteus suicide is that he wants to suicide for all of that problems and then father for the dear hands... is that he is asking god for some peace and for the dear hands its directly taken from the bible is one of the seven words jesus yelled on the cross before he died, so that means that he is searching for little peace from god and then when angels deserve to die it means that he thinks that he is an angel himself and he deserves to die now. So, the second meaning: This song could be about the christianity and humanity too and for their country Armania and for the genocide, most of their songs is for the armenian genocide and i respect these guys for loving their country. The lyrics about the humanity are in the whole song except the refrain where there are a meanings of christianity like i said the word that jesus said and that he cries when angels deserve to die and thats because i loves the angels and christianity and that kind other lyrics are about the humanity full of problems and the refrains are for the christianity like god why have you forsaken me that means that god forsaken the christianity that he didnt sankcionated the people for what kind of world is our planet now. So the third meaning is about selfbombing suicide when he wakes up he grabs and brush and puts a little make up that he was crying in the night then he hides the scars then he leaves the keys on the table coz he knows that he will dont come back home and the other is that god forsaken him and he prays to god and that kind of things. And the fourth (last) meaning is about drug addiction, so if you get this song like the drug addiction meaning you will see this satanistic and that the members of the band are drug addicts (in my opinion they arent, they are the best band.) GOTTA LOVE SYSTEM.
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hello,
i'm from turkey, and i just wanted to tell you guys an interesting fact, chop suey used to be incredibly popular in turkey, and probably gets listened to still today even it's a very old song now. I remember being in primary school and this song was heard a lot. even years after it was first released, like up to 2007 it was on everybody's mp3 players, or burned CDs.
from 2001 to 2006 it got the system of a down became more and more popular, however than some photos from a slayer & SoaD concert surfaced with a sign that said "dogs and turks cannot enter", after which significant number of people stopped listening to system of a down etc, the band later claimed that it was some armenian fans that did this and it was not sanctioned by the band. after this clarification, turkish fans were once again happy, until one of their songs came up with an anti-turkish video, and again many fans were unhappy, people were telling each other to not to listen to "these guys" anymore etc, later an interview with serj by a turkish rock magazine was printed, where he said that they never shot a video and that video was fan made etc; but after many happenings, it's still unclear to many fans, SoaD is no longer prominent as their hit song is too old now, and none of their later songs became hits in the last years. even today when we hear chop suey somewhere, 2 out of 5 people would say "i used to like these guys but they turns out, they hate turks", 2 out of 5 would say "i don't think they do", and 1 out of 5 would say, "i'd listen anyway".
music is music ;) -
The band's ethnicity is armenian and the armenian mountains is the birth place of the 2nd creation where noah's ark is said to have settled on Mount ararat. Also the armenians were converted to Christianity by saint George about 300 a.d. So the band's point of view of Christ would obviously be unique.
When i hear this song I can't help thinking about jesus and lucifer. Jesus, most perfect and blameless sent as the word of god n to bear our sins and lucifer, most beautiful angel and most clever of all angels cast out of heaven for refusing god when he said to serve n bow to humans. One is life n one is death. It is said when lucifer was cast out became Satan, an angel who died or ceased to be an angel and, before Christ came, held the keys to the underworld but when Christ died on the cross n rose to heaven Satan was bound and chained to earth forever(but also granted immortallity) and the keys to heaven and hell were given to jesus Christ our savior who did what his father asked of him unlike lucifer. Interesting though that like it or not Satan dwells beneath us in hell(bowing) n serves us everyday by testing us. Also in order to talk to god we must do so through jesus at the same time lucifer can no longer communicate with god. The key is trust and the cross is the key. I don't know if the band is Muslim but I must say although suicide bombing, dying for god, is a Muslim theme. Muhammed said to follow jesus that jesus was the word of god and jesus said walk in life not in death. Faith is trust.Faith is the key.dont leave faith on the table. -
"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?"
This is just talking about abuse, it says put on more makeup to fade away scars that he shook up. It also says, "Why'd you leave the keys up on the table" I think that he is mad at said person for putting them there and that is why she needs make up. "Here you go create another fable" This is saying that she needs to tell a lie to make people think she is not being abused. -
Wow lots of outlandish interpretations out there that rely on lots of speculation.
What I do know is that. That regardless of what the band says. Starting from "Father" down is basically the final death of Jesus and what his thoughts might have been based solely on how most Christians interepret its meaning. Most Christian doctrine teaches that God the Father turned his eyes away from Jesus as he was the a sacrifice for all of our sins and could not look upon him. And thus God the father turned away. The part of commending his spirit and being forsaken is direct from the bible.
The band obviously believes it was a self righteous suicide instead of what Christians believe was the will of God. The reference to angels deserve to die is most likely a reference to the devil and the other fallen angles. The bible states a third of the angels were cast out of heaven.
I think the first part of the song is about how most people only give lip service to the gospel and don't really trust in the Jesus. So its Jesus talking about them not trusting in his suicide for them....as they go through life in such a mundane unhappy way. -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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One theory is that the song could be construed as domestic abuse. The brush and makeup part could be to hide the bruises of domestic battery out of fear and embarrassment. Then the part about leaving the keys on the table could be symbolism for giving up on your life as your keys are means to accessing everything you own. And then the line about 'creating another fable' refers to people fabricating stories to hide the truth to keep face. The 'you wanted to' part suggests the abuse is their fault as seen through the eyes of a violent partner as 'they provoked them'. The self righteous suicide part could mean the abused partner actually believes it is their fault after years of abuse. The lyrics about 'why have you forsaken me?' refers to the person's confusion at why they are in an abusive relationship when they are a 'good' person themselves. The 'when angels deserve to die' lyrics highlights the true innocence of these people.
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I thought that the song was about an abuse victim, forced to hide their true selves. The victim cries out to God, asking why he has done this to them, and asking for forgiveness for committing suicide, as it seems justifiable. I also think this could be a microcosm of Armenia, a country that is a victim of abuse, with many people taking their own lives.
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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 will refer to the words of Daron Malakian who once said that the song is about how others interprate the death of a person according to the kind of it for example if he abuses drugs and "he deserves it" and so it goes "I cry when angels deserve to die".
Of course, the other lyrics are actually like any other lyrics by SOAD: making little sense because they deal with multiple things at a time and lack cohesion. Probably the verses in the beginning are refering to the ordinary lifes of people while behind them a secret is held uncovered (apparently deppression since the person wants people to understand why he wants to end his life).
The part with the words of Jesus is actually not only a way to show the dramatic situation of the person but also to show religious people that even the Son of God that they praise suffered and just wanted to end this (through death). That way he seeks the approval of them to end his own life without being marked as a sinner or quitter.
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