Chop Suey! by System of a Down – a stew of vegetables, soy sauce, meat and spices. It was invented by Chinese chefs who worked on the construction of railroads in the United States in the nineteenth century. This is an American dish and is not popular outside of the United States. Moreover, many residents of other countries learned about him only thanks to the song of the same name by the band System of a Down.
Chop Suey song story
In the working version, the composition was called Suicide (“Suicide”). In some versions of the Toxicity album, the phrase “We’re rolling ‘Suicide'” is even heard. They say that the song had to be renamed because of the urgent recommendations of the bosses of the record company. Allegedly, it seemed to them that a song with that name would be difficult to promote on the radio. However, the members of System of a Down have repeatedly denied this version.
The choice of the unusual name was explained by Shavo Odadjian:
The song is called Chop Suey because that’s really who we are musically. I think it’s about drug addiction, but we took something really serious and played a bit of a trick on it.
MTV.com, 2001
It can also be assumed that the clear consonance of “chop suey” and “suicide” played an important role in the choice of the new title of the song.
Meaning of Chop Suey
Daron Malakian explained the main idea of Chop Suey! in an interview with New Musical Express:
The song is about how differently we are treated depending on how we die. Everyone deserves to die. Like, if I was destined to die from an overdose, they could say that I deserved it because I abused dangerous drugs. Hence the line “I cry when angels deserve to die.” Excerpts “Father! Into Your hands I commend my spirit” and “Why did You leave me?” are references to the death of Jesus on the cross, since, according to the Gospels, this was one of the seven sayings of Jesus before his death.
NME.com
As usual, the fans are trying their own way to explain what the song Chop Suey – System of a Down is about. According to one of the many versions, the text refers to the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire.
Release and achievements
In August 2001, the composition was released as the first single from the Toxicity album. It peaked at number seventeen on the UK Singles Chart and rose to the top of the Billboard rock charts.
Chop Suey! was the first System of a Down song to be nominated for a Grammy. Blender magazine included it in their list of “The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born”.
Video Chop Suey – System of a Down
The video for the song Chop Suey, directed by Marcos Siega, was filmed in the parking lot of a cheap motel in Los Angeles. Before filming, the group invited fans on their website to take part in the work on the video, and on the specified day, almost one and a half thousand people turned up.
We filmed it about two blocks from where I grew up,” Odadjian said. “Everyone imagines Hollywood as a glamorous place with palm trees and movie stars, but when we were growing up, all we saw was poverty, prostitutes and shit. It’s a vicious city – a toxic city, which is what we called our record.
MTV.com, 2001
Let’s watch the online clip of Chop Suey.
Interesting Facts
- The song’s lyrics don’t mention chop sui, but the video does have footage of Serj Tankian eating the dish.
- The video uses SnorriCam technology, by which a camera is attached to the actor, which creates the effect of a background moving around him.
- After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, radio stations were reluctant to air the song, although after the tragic events it attracted additional public attention.
- A cover version of the song was recorded by Avril Lavigne, but SOAD fans took it “with hostility”.
Chop Suey Lyrics
Wake up
(wake up)
Grab a brush and put a little make-up
Hide the scars to fade away the shake-up
(Hide the scars to fade away the…)
Why’d you leave the keys upon the table?
Here you go create another fable
You wanted to
Grab a brush and put a little makeup
You wanted to
Hide the scars to fade away the shake-up
You wanted to
Why’d you leave the keys upon the table?
You wanted to
I don’t think you trust
In my self-righteous suicide
I cry when angels deserve to die
Father, Father, Father, Father
Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit
Father, into your hands
Why have you forsaken me?
In your eyes forsaken me
In your thoughts forsaken me
In your heart forsaken me, oh
Chop Suey Lyrics Alternative
wake up
(Wake up)
Take a brush and lightly apply makeup
Cover your scars to hide what happened
(Cover the scars to hide…)
Why would you leave your keys on the table?
And now you invent new lies
You wanted
Take a brush and lightly apply makeup
You wanted
Cover the scars to hide what happened
You wanted
Then you leave the keys on the table?
You wanted…
I think you don’t believe
Into my hypocritical suicide
I cry when angels deserve to die
Father, Father, Father, Father,
Father! Into Your hands I commit my spirit
Father! Into your hands…
Why did you leave me
Left me in your eyes
Left me in your thoughts
Left me in your heart
Download Chop Suey
On Blimey you can not download the song Chop Suey for free! in mp3, but you can listen to System of a Down tracks online and watch clips of the famous rock band.
