System of a Down: Sugar Meaning

Song Released: 1998

Sugar Lyrics

The kombucha mushroom people,
Sitting around all day,
Who can believe you,
Who can believe you,
Let your mother pray, (sugar)

(sugar)
I’m not there all the time you know
Some people, some people, some people,
Call it insane, yeah they...

1. anonymous

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   Jan 26th 2007 !⃝

   I think it is about how the government trys to candy coat things and make people think everything is not a bad as it is
2. anonymous

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   Jan 26th 2007 !⃝

   Sugar in essence can't be totally interpreted as being totally about government. The sort of euphoric experience the music in the song presents lends itself to drug addiction but not neccessarily abuse issues. My own interpretation is that many prescription drugs-when grounded down-look a lot like Sugar; I know many people who take perscription medication for ADHD, Depression, and any other signs of free thinking the government slaps a 'medical problem' label on-and these kids, hyped on the 'wrong drugs' have suicidal and sometimes homocidal thoughts, thus explaining the bridge at the end of the song being sung like a depressed person, then quickly like a person strung out on cocaine to make the contrast of presciption drugs to that of illegal ones.
   
   As for the 'Mushroom people' lyric I have nothing on that other than the possiblilty that SOAD loves shroom.
3. anonymous

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   Dec 22nd 2006 !⃝

   This song is about the news... The government is feeding the news false information, and most people believe the news without even thinking. The Kombucha Mushroom people are the news casters. System is trying to start a revolt and say that we shouldnt believe everything that the news says everytime it comes on... man people are so stupid.
4. anonymous

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   Nov 29th 2006 !⃝

   This song is about the mushroom people!! it is about how drugs screw up your mind and make you think things are happening.

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

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   Sep 16th 2006 !⃝

   In the video it does say aspartame kills. I also looked it up on google and found that aspartame is found in most diet soda and it also has been related to causing brain tumors and diabetes. When they say the kombucha mushroom people sitting around all day I think they mean that people know there is a problem with aspartame but no one is doing anything about it....If my sources were correct it got banned in china but we still use it in a lot of stuff. I like the line about playing russian roulette everyday with a bullet called life....When you play russian roulette you have a 1 in 6 chance of dying....If the bullet is life then you only have a 1 in 6 chance of having life....Im guessing that is when you have aspartame you are risking your life to brain tumors or w/e. They also think it is linked to homicidal tendencies...Which is probably where kicking his girlfriend and at the end when he says he's killed everyone.
6. anonymous

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   Aug 4th 2006 !⃝

   The kombucha mushroom people are an austrailian band.

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

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   Jun 15th 2006 !⃝

   the song might be about problems, and how we try to solve them. but in the end of it, its worthless anyways.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
8. firelfy2004601

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   May 21st 2006 !⃝

   I think it means that you can add any kind of sugar in tea rather if its brown white are any kind.Daron said it on a enterview on fuse daaa! :)

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

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   Apr 12th 2006 !⃝

   isn't this another inkblot? like Aerials, Ddevil and A-E-A-E-I-A-O?

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

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    Mar 17th 2006 !⃝

    I think this song is simply about the accumilation of problems, and how we are affected when they go untreated.
11. mustangxblondie

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    Jan 26th 2006 !⃝

    Guys...just for the record...
    it's Aspartame..
    
    not Aspartine or whatever you said.
12. anonymous

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    Jan 26th 2006 !⃝

    I always thought it was about shrooms....
13. anonymous

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    Jan 7th 2006 !⃝

    If this song is about anything, this song is about drug use, as its lyrics feature a number of major drug references. Startign with the title, 'Sugar' is a common nickname for methamphetamines (crystal meth), even recognised by (for example) Utah's Attorney General (http://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/Meth/methterminology.htm). One of the undesirable side-effects of prolonged use of crystal meth (sugar) is amphetmine psychosis. The lyrics of the song suggest a range of psychotic behavior (for example, the lines "My girl, you know, she lashes out at me sometimes/ And I just kick her", "I got a gun the other day from Sako/ It's cute, small, fits right in my pocket/ Yeah, right in my pocket, (sugar)" (note though that the 'gun' may also be interpreted as the 'sugar' which will fire the bullet called life), "I sit, in my desolate room, no lights, no music/ Just anger!/ I've killed everyone", etc.), and its denial (for example "and then she's O.K., she's O.K.". Mixed in with these are the delusional hallucinations associated with amphetamine psychosis (for example "People are always chasing me down/ Trying to push my face to the ground/ Where all they really want to do/ Is suck out my mother f**king brains/ my brains (sugar)", "You know that every time I try to go/ Where I really want to be/ It's already where I am/ 'cause I'm already there", and even the chorus line "The kombucha mushroom people/ Sitting around all day/ Who can believe you/ Who can believe you/ Let your mother pray" - is the person using the sugar deluded into seeing 'mushroom people'?).
    
    Another undesirable side-effect fo prolonged methamphetamine use is death ("I play Russian roulette everyday/ a man's sport /with a bullet called life /yeah called life,(sugar)". Clearly, the song equates 'sugar' with playing 'russian roulette' (a game where players take turns at putting a gun loaded with a single round up to their head and pulling the trigger).
    
    As for the rest of the song, according to Wikipedia, "Kombucha is the Western name for a fermentation of sweetened tea using lactobacilli and yeast cultures." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kombucha). Now we can either - like I said earlier - interpret this as the singer deluded into fantasies of witnessing people made up of Kombucha mould sitting around doing nothing, or alternatively a reference to consuming narcotics mixed with kombucha tea and then (either stoned or depressed - a symptom of prolonged amphetamine use is depression) sitting around all day doing nothing (i.e. The singer is the kombucha mushroom person).
    
    The song could be interpreted as a narrative of a person in a delusional state recounting how they were at first cautious about the 'sugar' ("Well I'm not there all the time you know/ Some people, some people, some people/ call it insane, yeah they call it insane"), moving on to the psychotic fantasies and delusions, the person being locked in an assylum or jail ("I'm away forever") - perhaps receiving treatment ("but I'm feeling better") - after they have committed violent acts while lashing out at these hallucinations, and perhaps committing suicide ("In the end it all goes away") at the end.
    
    "Let your mother pray" for them.
14. ramone

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    Dec 9th 2005 !⃝

    this time linkinpark4eva was finally completely correct

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
15. linkinpark4eva

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    Dec 9th 2005 !⃝

    Who ever was talking about the government has hit the nail on the head. The 'kombucha mushroom people' refers to the government sitting on their lazy asses doing sweet nothing. While the rest of the world is really hyper (on sugar), they just sit there, talking about what they will eventually do, but never doing it.

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