linkinpark4eva October 28th, 2005 02:05PM  

This song is about racism. I-E-A-I-A-I-O is a KKK chant. Not sure what it means. You also hear a ‘why?’ afterwards, almost questioning why racism is still in existence and why groups like the KKK are still in effect. I agree with this I hate racism in all forms and don’t understand why one person different because of their cultural backgrounds or the colour of their skin?

skoots7 November 30th, 2005 12:46PM  

This song is talks about different code names for undercover federal missions. Lois Lane was an assassination attempt on Fidel Castro. Pretty much every line is the name of some secret operation.

anonymous February 1st, 2006 04:43PM  

You might want to look into it a little better yourself. The line 'Why? And we light up the sky' refers to the common celebration of setting off fire works during the fourth of July. If you looked at the band's site a while back (I am unsure if it is still there), the line is written 'Why? On the Fourth of July'. But I-E-A-I-A-I-O is a KKK chant and the song does question racsism, it is also speaking the names of secret missions. There are multiple meanings to this song.

anonymous June 11th, 2006 11:53AM  

SOAD even said themselves,some of the songs have meaning to THEM, they are sung so everyone can have their own meaning about THEMSELVES.

anonymous June 18th, 2006 06:34PM  

I heard somewhere that i-e-a-i-a-i-o are the vowels in "idealization"...which they are, so maybe it has to do with idealization. Thought i'd throw that out there.

anonymous October 5th, 2006 02:00PM  

I think that the entire song is all of these things!

Kkk use the chant and are racist, but still celebrate 4th july but "why?" (4th july isn't mentioned but "light up the sky" with fireworks, perhaps, is)

the names are to do with crimes involving racism.

The song is kinda random, which fits in with another persons post.

Soad make the songs abstract so you can put your own meanings to it too. The posibilities are almost endless

anonymous March 5th, 2007 03:03PM  

"As with many System of a Down songs, there are supposed double meanings. For this song, some of the possible meanings are a journalist digging up dirt on a politician (Meeting John at Dale's Jr.), and the western world's obsession with gadgets and trinkets (plutonium wedding rings). I-E-A-I-A-I-O are the vowels inside the word I-D-E-A-L-I-Z-A-T-I-O-N [citation needed]

Also, I-E-A-I-A-I-O is a portion of a mantra or "word of power" described by the English occultist Aleister Crowley, presumably in parody of numerologically significant syllables uttered in magical ritual that have no meaning without understanding the specific numerology tradition used in the ritual (in this case, Hebraic Gemetria, numerology of Hebrew letters). The I-E-A-I-A-I-O is parodical because it somewhat emulates the sounded choral portion of the traditional children's song, "Old MacDonald Had a Farm". It is said that Aleister Crowley would teach his students the incantation as a sacred and mystical mantra, then after they'd chanted it for a few minutes, begin singing "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" to see if they could keep their meditative concentration instead of laughing. [citation needed]

There are other explanations theorizing that the "One flag", "plutonium wedding-rings" and other strange descriptive shapes, and the sharp, loud tribal drumbeat all add to the conclusion that this song is about the fourth of July - "and we light up the sky" is another strong reference, which could mean the traditional fireworks displays. The lyrics "Why, On the fourth of July" appear in the originally recorded version of the song from the Toxicity recording sessions, but not in the Steal This Album version.[citation needed] The "One flag" and "plutonium wedding-rings" could also be describing the effect after a nuclear bombing, with one flag ruling over all others, radiation affecting all things, and of course this could explain the "As we light up the sky" part of the song.[citation needed]"

------ www.wikipedia.org ------

anonymous June 20th, 2007 11:02PM  

Plutonium wedding rings refers to the extremely high divorce rate. plutonium, unless I am mistaken, has one of the smallest half-lifes (which means it decays at an incredibly high speed).

anonymous September 28th, 2007 07:27PM  

I-E-A-I-A-I-O is a very deep song even for SOAD, and I think its probably impossible to get the EXACT right interpretation of the song. SOAD have thier own ideas and interpretations about the song but they would never tell us them because they love seeing people like US trying to figure it all out.

I believe that all of the previous posts are close yet very far away from the true interpretation what about the vocal bridge:
"Mind delusions Acquainted
Bubbles Erotica
Plutonium Wedding Rings
Icicle Streatchings
Bicycle Shoestrings,
One Flag, Flaggy but one
Painting The Paintings Of The Alive"
This seems to me to be about Technology, Porn, Sports and everything american, so the song is sort of about racism but mostly about Amercan Patriotism.

anonymous February 23rd, 2008 06:42AM  

Hello all. I posted this on songmeanings.net but I would like to share my opinion here too [I also edited it a bit, added couple of things]:

On I-E-A-I-A-I-O:
I believe that nobody "got it" just right, although there are multiple "right" interpretations of any of the songs, I think I pinned this one correctly.

Well first of all, the title is a spoof. They are mocking the organisation which is going by the acronym IAEA. It means International Atomic Energy Agency.

As for "meeting John (Doe) at some public location (Dale's Jr.), pointing finger, winking" tells us about secret meetings, perhaps illegal dealerships with the weapons. The part about the cop is telling us about a cop on an undercover job to expose such dealings, but the operation gone awry and corruption still stands tall.

Now, I don't really know, what should all these comicbook related verses mean (Lois Lane, Peter [Parker]), I think it symbolises the organisation playing "heroes" with their nuclear research...

Okay, on to the last part of the song:
Bubbles erotica - a way of telling that these people might get aroused by the mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion... (quite sick)
Plutionium wedding rings - Well, no need to elaborate connection with atomic bombs on this one I guess.

The flag part might have some connection with the logo of the IAEA.

And the grand finale, of course - As we light up the sky on the fourth of July.

Giant fireworks on the fourth of July, symbolising the supremacy of nuclear weapons which light up the sky showing the great power and "pride" of America.

That's what I got out of this powerful and mystic song. Cheers.

anonymous September 1st, 2008 08:40AM  

The words: 'as we light up the sky' could have thousands of meanings it could as well be related to firing artillery cannons as fireworks on the 4th of July...

anonymous October 14th, 2008 01:59PM  

Ok, I searched this
http://www.google.com/search?q=peter+secret+mission

'Peter secret mission' and one of the things that popped up was - Secret Cuban Documents on History of Africa Involvement Soooo.... There's the whole cuban and racist thing

anonymous October 21st, 2008 11:18PM  

I agree with a comment left above, the title of the song are the vowels of idealization in order. what I think the are trying to get at is why are we so concerned about what race color or nationality is ideal

anonymous January 20th, 2009 06:45PM  

there may be another theme in the song. it consists of a combination of the lyrics: plutonium wedding rings, which could be a reference to atomic bombs, the lyric about lighting up the sky which refers to the fourth of july, an american holiday, and the lyrics containing the code names for secret operations. these lyrics as a whole could reference to a terrorist attack on america involving an atomic bomb. this is just my own theory.

anonymous January 27th, 2009 12:31AM  

I kind of put the KKK chants, the secret missions and the fourth of july together, and i wondered if maybe they said "and we light up the sky" meaning "how do we derserve to celebrate the USA with what our country has done in its history". It really made sense to me that way.

CommonInsanity February 9th, 2009 09:37PM  

eh... it i see so many meanings to this song I-E-A-I-A-I-O. WHY!!! and we light up the sky ^this is a kkk chant and it also is Idealization vowels. why is there racism still yet we light up the sky on the forth of july and try to inspire pride. OR this is the kkk chant and it also is idealization vowels. WHY! and we light up the sky could possibly refer to the kkk burning the cross.... hell idk im not as great as SOAD

anonymous February 18th, 2009 01:33PM  

IEAIAIO KKK chant and the vowels in the word idealiztion, Why (is there still racism) as we light up the sky. forth of july. The beginning is some seceret mission stuff so the song is mainly about racism.

anonymous April 1st, 2009 08:22PM  

This could have something to do with the Civil War, seeing as that was when the artillery "boom"(no pun intended)happened, and many people were still very supportive of slavery, and the KKK, which quite a few people have mentioned, was founded around the end of the Civil War. That era was also known for the people being idealistic and utopian, so that would explain the vowel theory. The Civil War also ended in the late 19th century, and this was when entertainment took a huge upswing, and Lois Lane may be but one specific example to symbolize this. Jimmy Carter was born around the same time comics first appeared. this may be completely wrong, but it makes pretty good sense to me, and if you find anything wrong with it, let me know.

EpicLolzEmerDawg June 12th, 2009 10:57PM  

I-E-A-I-A-I-O are the vowels inside the word I-D-E-A-L-I-Z-A-T-I-O-N, as well as I-L-L-E-G-A-L-I-Z-A-T-I-O-N, L-I-B-E-R-A-L-I-Z-A-T-I-O-N, and I-N-T-E-R-N-A-L-I-Z-A-T-I-O-N.
Also, I-E-A-I-A-I-O is a portion of a mantra or "word of power" described by the English occultist Aleister Crowley, presumably in parody of numerologically significant syllables uttered in magical ritual that have no meaning without understanding the specific numerology tradition used in the ritual (in this case, Hebraic Gemetria, numerology of Hebrew letters). The I-E-A-I-A-I-O is parodical because it somewhat emulates the sounded choral portion of the traditional children's song, "Old MacDonald Had a Farm". It is said that Aleister Crowley would teach his students the incantation as a sacred and mystical mantra, then after they'd chanted it for a few minutes, begin singing "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" to see if they could keep their meditative concentration instead of laughing.
There are other explanations theorizing that the "One flag", "plutonium wedding-rings" and other strange descriptive shapes, and the sharp, loud tribal drumbeat all add to the conclusion that this song is about the fourth of July - "and we light up the sky" is another strong reference, which could mean the traditional fireworks displays. The lyrics "Why, On the fourth of July" appear in the originally recorded version of the song from the Toxicity recording sessions, but not in the Steal This Album version. The "One flag" and "plutonium wedding-rings" could also be describing the effect after a nuclear bombing, with one flag ruling over all others, radiation affecting all things, and of course this could explain the "As we light up the sky" part of the song.

anonymous July 15th, 2009 08:41AM  

I think everyone should just listen to it and take it how they want, most people listen to music ,for the music not for subliminal codes or so teenagers with no girlfriend or friends can play it over and over in slomo fuck that enjoy the song take it how you want it man SOAD legends