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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anonymous Dec 16th 2010, 23:43 report
I'm not sure if this is true but my friend once told me this song is about i believe the Vietnam was when the drafted soldier from there homes being "you feed us lies from the tablecloth." and the "brand new spanking deals" is because they were encouraging people to spend money to pay for the war. that's what i was told
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Awesomedude Jul 31st 2010, 15:29 report
Political people don't do anything about their country and will be stupid and send the poor. easy song meaning
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anonymous Jun 8th 2010, 18:02 report
The meaning of B.Y.O.B is: bring your own booze or bottle
jajaja -
jump.up May 27th 2010, 11:41 report
The part why do they always send the poor isn't true the army don't just send the poor, if your in the army that is your job and you are well payed with all kinds of benefits for your health and your family, the war in Iraq is necessary and completely justified. look at it like this, if someone drove their car through your living room on purpose, would you sit there and tell them its OK? no you would probably want to kick the shit out of them. at least I would and if you wouldn't want to then I don't know who you are or where you came from. I like the song I just don't agree with the lyrics. we can't just sit back and keep letting Iran/Iraq/Kuwait/ or whatever country we are battling keep attacking us, I wouldn't and I would hope that you wouldn't either if you are American.
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systemofadown May 15th 2010, 09:44 report
There are a fuck of a lot of ways they could mean just from the song name.Bring your own bombs or bring your own beer.they talk about drugs and war a lot so either one of them could be it.And the part about sending the poor to war.I did some research and serj lost his best old friend in iraq and he was pretty p.odso he just gave a huge middle finger to society.as for that jake mo fo,fuck him.soad rocks
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pingponghobo May 14th 2010, 11:36 report
Also, i forgot to add this in my last interpretation. But alot of people that I know in real life are saying that BYOB means "Bring your on beer" from the lines "blast off, its party time." But in fact, BYOB stands for Battle your own battles, and since it is sung from the point of view of someone fighting the war (in a way, its just not from the prespective of the presidents) Battle your own battles means they are talknig to the presidents telling that they should just end it them selves, not to send civilians out. When was the last time you saw or heard of Bush or Obama killing a terrorist physically. NOT by ordering someone, but actually pull the trigger to kill them. NEVER. presidents dont fight for themselves. And thats the point of this song. To make people realize this.
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pingponghobo May 14th 2010, 11:29 report
okay, everyone here is overthinking this. SOAD is trying to make a point about the war. Trying to make people think. so if their songs need huge interpretations. no one will get the point. "Why do they always send trhe poor?" and "Why don't presidents fight the war?" are both lines saying presidents are the people who start the war, then they send the poor people to fight it for them. "They depend on our protection, yet you feed us lies from the teblecloth." is saying, the people who start the war (presidents) are depending on civilians to fight the war for them yet they continue to lie to us (tablecloth=media) making us think the war is going fine, and THEY (president) are winning, but in fact, its the civilians.
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anonymous Apr 17th 2010, 17:12 report
Let me give this a try. I think everyone has a pretty good idea about the songs meaning, not as a whole, but different parts from different people. Anyways, here's what I think:
The beginning is about American propaganda that the government puts out to trick young men into enlisting into the Army. "Brand new spanking deals" refers to how the Army gives benefits and specialties to those who join. All these lies that are fed to the men joining turn them into "hypocritic and hypnotic computers" who believe the Army is great. But once they get there, they realize it isn't fun and games, giving them the revelation to think, "You depend on our protection, yet you feed us lies from the tablecloth". The "You" is the government.
The chorus is pretty basic to understand. "Everybody's going to the party, have a real good time" is the propaganda at work again, trying to describe the war as fun and games. The propaganda is saying, "Come to Iraq! It's great!" I don't think so.
The second verse is a little more complicated. "Kneeling rose disappearing into Moses' dry mouth" might refer to the Iraqi's religion, which the government says is the reason for the war and why it must be stopped. So they take money from the national treasury that was paid by the rest of Americans for other things and use it for war production a.k.a. "Breaking into Fort Know stealing our intentions". Now, I'm sorry to say I have no good interpretaion for the "Hangars sitting dripped in oil, crying, "Freedom!"", but it might refer to the oil in Iraq that is useful to America, and how the war may be about getting that instead. Finally, the soldiers who finally finish their duties and are considered "obsolete" are brought back, and they are still fed the lies of the government, though they no longer believe them.
The part about the Fascist government is sarcasm at work. "Blast off! It's party time! And we don't live in a fascist nation!" is describing how America believes they are saving these countries from fascism, even though we are kind of a fascist government ourselves.
Finally, the "Where the f*&% are you?" and "Why don't Presidents fight the war? Why do they always send the poor?" is saying how if you support the war, why aren't you over there fighting it? Many are hypocritical in saying they support the war and all, yet none of them would actually do it, including the President himself.
I hope this helps, and if you don't agree, I'd like to hear you opinion. Especially on the "Hangars sitting dripped in oil, crying, "Freedom!"" part. -
JakeL1995 Apr 11th 2010, 05:45 report
I am in a major agreement with bigdaddy!!! You all think you're mad because you refer to system of a down as soad. you all argue about the gov. If its so "terrible" then go and play in traffic you morons.Yous arent taking time to appreciate the music.All you care about is sitting on your arses arguing over who is right or who is wrong. DO any of you actually like system of a down or did you just hear the song and think " Oh, I think il go on the net and try to out smart all the other inbred rednecks"?????? I feel sorry for the lot of you. I hope your redneck home gets destroyed. I bet you don't even know the background of system of a down.. They are Armenian and the reason theyre so political is because Serj' granfather was an armenian genicide survivor. Not because they hate Bush or any of that shit. So long gayboys!!!!
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anonymous Oct 22nd 2009, 21:32 report
The song is about police brutality and war. The police brain wash us to obey hence the video.
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anonymous Oct 13th 2009, 08:51 report
My favourite line is "dancing in the desert blowing up the sunshine" because they have simply swapped desert with sunshine. If you swap them back you get dancing in the sunshine blowing up the desert.
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anonymous Aug 10th 2009, 20:47 report
SOAD is mistaken in their apparent meaning of this song. They are under the impression that the government under Bush fought this war in Iraq for no real reason. I say no real reason because some of you dipshits are liberal enough to believe Bush just wanted money and oil. Obviously you are mentally retarded because he only made $800k in his full 8 years as President. Because you Democrats can't add, I'll spell it out for you. That is exactly what every president who served 2 terns has made. Oil became more expensive because the 'innocents' you refer to limited what they sold us and then raised prices.
Now in regard for what you say about our troops. Have you ever heard first hand accounts of combat in Vietnam? US Troops could trust no one. Villagers would offer them baskets of food with bombs in them that killed and maimed countless Americans. You say we murdered children, women, and innocent people. On the battlefield, our first priority is the safety of those people, but if they in any way endanger our troops, our priority should change to protecting ourselves. You don't seem to realize that these people would kill us just for being American. Our men and women sacrifice their lives(very few, again since you can't count) to protect you and allow you to bear the title American. If you can't respect them and their love of freedom, we should have thrown you to those you support facists and communist fools. You don't deserve to be called American. Assholes.
-skcos ntpac -
anonymous Aug 8th 2009, 14:42 report
"Bring Your Own Bombs."
So, I've read a lot of interpretations of this song. You all missed it by a mile. You're all claiming to be "SoaD" fans, but let's not forget that these boys are product of, and are heavily influenced by the Armenian Genocide. I'm going to provide you now, with a short history lesson.
The Armenian Genocide occurred during and just after World War I. ("Everybody’s going to the party have a real good time.") While the UNITED NATIONS and others refused to engage, at all, in the current “War in Iraq.”
During the First World War, the Ottoman military had uprooted Armenians from their homes and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria. ("Marching [us] forward, hypocritic and hypnotic computers."; "Dancing in the desert, blowing up the sunshine.")
The Republic of Turkey - the successor state of the Ottoman Empire - does not accept the word “genocide” as an accurate description of the events. They argue that those who died were simply caught up in the fighting or that the killings of Armenians and other Christians were justified by their individual or collective “treason.” (" 'You depend on our protection,' Yet you feed us lies from the table cloth." This line in particular is split between two parties - The Turkish government and the surviving Armenians)
While I will agree that the line "Why don’t presidents fight the war? Why do they always send the poor?" could be true of any war during any period, After considering the bands being heavily lyrically influenced by the events surrounding the Armenian Genocide, a new light should be shown on this song.
It’s no secret that there is a lot of focus on Americans being ignorant and egotistical in System Of A Down’s music. So it again comes as no surprise that the majority of cocky, ignorant American’s automatically assume this song would be written about modern events that Americans are involved in. -
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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Nornan12 May 27th 2009, 11:06 report
Hmm, so far everything I've read here seems to be somewhat close to "true" but one lyric I don't understand is "Kneeling roses disappearing into Moses' dry mouth." I thought for a little while and came up with kneeling soldiers (roses) dieing (disappearing into moses' dry mouth.)Does that seem right?
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reprisesoad May 11th 2009, 22:03 report
Ok first of "hypocritic and hypnotic computers, you depend on our protection yet you feed us lies from the tablecloth" obviously talking about the average soldier brainwashed by the country protecting the country yet that country continues to lie to him/her. "yet you feed us lies from the table cloth" also meaning that they lie as much as the average person eats.
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anonymous Apr 14th 2009, 20:00 report
i am totally confused. the only reason im here, reading through this sea of words is to find out what BYOB is the acronym.Bring Your Own Bombs makes the most sense because the song talks about blowing up stuff, but does anyone actually know what it means?
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Songs about War
Songs with Political Overtones
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