DRUGS_DO_ME 2006-04-26 17:31:25    

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I have yet read the word.... crucifixion... or have I?.... well I feel this song is about the crucifixion of jesus christ... The whole Angels (refering to him being the son of god) deserve to die... (his death)... Than the self righteous suicide..... as in he knew he was meant to die he was born to die for humanity.. Self rightously dying.... and the father why have you for saken me.... Those are his own words you can find them in the bible...... "supposedly"

anonymous 2006-04-27 01:16:22    

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I think most everyone is parcially right. I believe the song is working on two different levels. On one level, the most basic level, the song may be dealing with our own selfrighteous suicides, be it through drugs or any other destructive addiction. Then if you look deeper you can see where there are obvious references to scripture and the lyrics directly quoting Jesus at the climax of the song. What SOAD is trying to convay I am not sure. Mabey they are saying Christianity is a lie, but then why do they "cry when angels deserve to die"?
Just my 2 cents

Jake_D_diabetic 2006-05-02 23:03:38    

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I thought this song had two meanings. First was about how Jesus died for our sins and we still make stories (fables) and hide ourselves from past pain (grab a brush and put a little makeup, hide the scars to fade away the shakeup). In the chorus Jesus is saying how people didn't trust in his self righteous suicide to save them. Of coarse Jesus wouldn't call it a self righteous because that would be basically saying he's full of himself and he's smug. Jesus cries because people didn't take this big act serious and they didn't learn a thing. The second meaning may be how no matter how you die if you lived a noble life a good after life should come to you. I'm guessing on of the band member's brother commited suicide from what I've read. So they think that he should not be punished because Jesus commited a self righteous suicide of his own.

anonymous 2006-06-13 21:35:57    

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I can't say anything for sure but here is my theory:
A girl is raped(Wake up! Grab a brush and put on a little makeup, us the blush to fade away the shakeup), and as she is looking bvack on this event in her life she begins to start to question as to wether or not god is real(I don't think you trust in my self righteous suicide)(Fater why have you forsaken me?)This in tern leaads her to see the unfairness in life including why these self righteous people lead such good lives when they don't deserve it and whe is shafted all the time. (I cry when angels deserve to die)
Thats my take on this song. I hope it helps.

anonymous 2006-06-20 15:19:27    

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Clearly, suicide killers on Israel/Palestinian conflict. Israeli civilians are the angels who deserve to die, and the "martyr" knows nobody out of the conflict would trust on what he is doing... His self-righteous suicide, in order to destroy the enemies of his nation. If Israel Government kills Palestinian civilians, ¿why cannot he die, and kill, for revenge? He commends his soul to God as he commits suicide. It's clear to me.

anonymous 2006-06-30 15:37:48    

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I agree, but also this song might interpreate something that wasnt intended, like it could be talking about the famous actress Marilyn Monroe, and what she went through, and then ending in her tragic suicide

starchildXL 2006-06-30 15:46:36    

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or this song could just like its name "chop suey" which is a chinese dish (invented in the US) with just a bunch of crap thrown together

anonymous 2006-07-08 16:53:14    

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I learned in my catholic school that jesus' last words before he died were "Father into your hands I commend my spirit" & "Why have you forsaken me"
those are lyrics in the song by the way.
and the self-righteous suicide part was that jesus was self-righteously dying for us (suicide)
i told my teacher this and she agrees
this is what I interpret from the song and it seems pretty obvious

anonymous 2006-07-16 01:39:48    

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something no one's mentioned is that "I cry when angels deserve to die" could be referring to lucifer originally being the highest angel and turning away form God to become his arch enemy thus deserving of death. Certainly something to cry about. Theres no doubt the song directly quotes the bible, so it would make sense for the rest to be about Jesus' death on the cross. I definitely agree wiht people who said its left to our interpretation though cause that's what system of a down do

anonymous 2006-08-18 15:54:47    

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I agree with the people who see it as a religious standpoint about the crucifiction and stuff. I did think of the meaning of whyd you leave the keys up on the table. Maybe he's saying those are the keys to heaven and when jesus died for our sins he left the keys to heaven right there on the table for us....Just depends on who wants to use them or who ignores them.

anonymous 2006-08-29 12:47:15    

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Its about how the jews were acting after the crucifixtion- listen.

"wake up grab a brush and put a little makeup hide the scars and fade away the shakeup"- the jews hiding what they did. When jessus died the bible says that their temple was destroyed and rebuilt in 3 days, like jesus manifested before his death. Hiding the scars of the temple ruins and fading away the shakeup of knowing that they did kill a man of god. Which makes sense becuase jewish people today don't believe jesus existed. The reason is because of the people who crucified jesus who realized what they did, and decided that if noone bore witness to it it didn't happen. So they hide the scars fade away the shakeup.
"why'd you leave the keys upon the table" is referring to letting it leak out. Letting the story of jesus leak out to christians and catholics etc. So because they left the keys upon the table people know about it and it does ezist, but jewish people today still deny it trying to hide what they did.

And that's real.

anonymous 2006-11-08 22:27:20    

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I like the one interpretation about the husband abusing his wife. "grab a brush and put on a little makeup" "hide the scars to fade away the shakeup" yep she is covering the scars after her husband has beaten her. The suicide thing is probably her wanting to commit suicide because she is tired of getting beaten by her husband.

drumster466 2006-11-10 22:51:35    

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Hey everybody I agree with everyone who is relating this to the bible..The one question I have though is what are they getting at that is related to the bible when they say" why'd you leave the keys up on the table?!" that's my only question..Someone help its buggin me!! Lol

anonymous 2006-11-13 15:54:22    

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This is song is about jesus and a lot of it is right out of the bible its jesus' self rightous suicide saved us and since he took our sins he had scars to hide the angels dying is about when jesus thought that god was going to send angels down from heaven to save him on the cross then there is father y have you forsaken me in your heart mind eys etc that is also out of the bible where is come to the keys on the table its probably a referance to jesus making Peter the gate keeper to heaven and giveing him the keys to heavan but Peter died after jesus so jesus left the keys on the table so to speak. Plus if you take into the fact the band was formed at a christan school then it all comes together

anonymous 2006-12-04 09:31:41    

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From what I gathered, this song is only from one person's point of view. This person (possibly male, possibly female) is a devout Christian who tries to do as much as possible to please his/her God, but he/she doesn't get any reward or recognition and they get annoyed and go out drinking, before coming home and beating and raping his/her spouse. Then they feel really guilty and still feel they really can't please his God, so he/she loses faith and contemplates suicide. If that makes sense?

It's just I saw a lot of people talking about the victim of the domestic violence contemplating suicide but I thought it was the other way round.

awsomo 2006-12-14 18:23:24    

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I think that this song is about Jesus on the cross as well as Terrorism and Suiside Bombings. The quotes from the bible "Into your hands I commend my Spirit" and " Father Why have you forsaken me" show Jesus' unsureness about going thorugh with his death but him coming to the conclussion that he must give his life up. It is a "self righteus suiside" for him becuase he could have chosen to save himself. I think that the song compares this truelly self righteus suiside to the fake self righteuse suiseds that the suiside bombers claim to be doing. They claim that their actions are in a good cause because they suffer "cry" while other people are better off "angels" so they belive they they deserve to die. The beginnings meaning I believe also relates to this "waking up" is Jesus resurrecting and putting on makeup and hiding scars is his covering the sins on humanity. At the same time before it gets into the whole bible passages I believe it questions their authenticity with the "fables" line which basically is saying that with all the corruption of the early roman catholic church that all these stories of Jesus that they are about to say might not even be true.

anonymous 2006-12-15 12:33:18    

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I agree with the religous side and I think it also may have to do with someone being beaten by their father/boyfriend whatever I think the first opening verse "Wake up!..." I think that is the boyfriend/father shouting at the person being beaten, because serj shouts it, like he's telling the person what to do "Grab a bush and put on a little makeup!" and the keys part "Why you leave the keys upon the table!?" is the father/boyfriend making an excuse to hit the person like, what did you do that for? idiot and hitting them...the "suey cide" thing maybe true I don't know and teh "mix of things missing in the bible, like the dish chop suey" may also be true I don't know about that one...

Strawberryteardrops 2006-12-28 20:17:13    

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The 1st time I heard this song, it was obvious that they were quoting Jesus' last words. But I heard ALL of the band members say in an interview that they leave it up to the listener to form their own interpretation of each song.

anonymous 2006-12-31 21:36:07    

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I have read a lot of interpretations on this song, and many off them are deep and logical, but I have yet to find a single explanation that covers every aspect of the lyrics. I tried to take the song very directly and make conclusions on what I heard. Here goes nothing.

The beginning of this song talks about a person who is trying to cover up their problems so that everyone else thinks that they are totally fine. We know that the person is going through hard times because they talk about how he wants to hide "scars" to fade away the "shake up" (fight). We see that the person is trying to hide it on the outside (grab a brush and put on a little make-up, hide the scars...)but, of course, the problems, whatever they may happen to be, won't go away. Now, the speaker states that others don't understand his self-righteous suiside. Of course they wouldn't understand, they just see his outside, not his cold, troubled inside.

Now for the "father" stanza. Apparently this is a quote from Jesus before he died for us on the cross, but I don't think that this stanza actually refers to Jesus. First off, I m positive that the speaker is talking to God, not his dad, because if he is going to die, why and how could he command his spirit to his dad, it just doesn't make any sense. Anyway, I think that the the speaker is angry at God for bringing him so much misfortune, hence the "Why have you forsaken me..." bit. Think about it. Living day in and day out having to hide a secret from the rest of the world that keeps bitting him in the rear end. Sounds like a pretty sad life if you ask me. I think that he is handing over his spirit to God now in hopes that God can bring him a sort of peace.

For the "Why'd you leave the keys up on the table" line, I think that this symbolizes that the speaker (although I don't know if he is the one who actually quoted this)has given up on his life. You see, keys give you access to your home, to that vast majority of you. Leaving them somewhere kind of hints that he doesn't care enough to keep track of his own lifeline, that he has left them for someone to find. Lastly, the "I cry when angels deserve to die" line symbolizes his death, how sad others will be when a "perfect, happy, carefree" guy kills himself

anonymous 2007-01-02 10:33:57    

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I agree with soad interpreter! I was at church one time and I was listening, but the priest said Jesus' last words were, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit, which is quite similar to the lyrics : "father I commend my spirit" etc. The line about the angels dying are about jesus himself being an angel! the line: Father, why have you forsaken me, has a reason too, with Jesus knowing he had to do his fathers will, but he wanted to know why someone like himself had to be punished for the sins of others!