Talk:Chop Suey!: Difference between revisions

For an October 2004 deletion debate over this article see Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Chop Suey!

Quote - 'However, many fans argue it is a discussion of Serj's childhood, when he and a friend were in a Chinese takeaway: a mental patient who had been recently released stormed into the building dressed as an angel and shot his friend repeatedly, leading to the lyrics "when angels deserve to die."' WTF?? SOAD songs dont have literal meanings and this sounds like a story someone pulled from their a**hole. If you go through every interview you wont find this information cos it doesnt exist. Ultrasound 19:23, 20 Aug 2005 (UTC)

"the song is actually based on a poem by Father Armeni about the Armenian Genocide (all of the band members are of Armenian heritage), especially in honor of those who were valiant enough to risk their lives in order to bring peace to the world and freedom to their people." -> WTF!?

The grammar of this article needs to be fixed. 84.129.99.227 18:28, 22 Jun 2004 (UTC)

It seems a lot of System of a Down fans "know" what the lyrics mean. But where are they getting this information? As I understand it, Serj usually refuses to comment on the lyrics, and I know he refused to comment on the lyrics of Chop Suey. If these interpretations can't be corroborated, they aren't encyclopedic and should be removed. CyborgTosser 22:23, 12 Jul 2004 (UTC)

This article is really really bad. I don't think this is the place for fans interpretations of lyrics. Plus the grammmer is terrible.

I was going to try to clean the article up a bit, but I found that most of it is a copyvio from a System of a Down fansite. Once the interpretations are removed there's little left to warrant this article existing. If someone can write up a solid interpretation of the song based on verifiable truths, then it may be worth keeping, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. - MattTM 22:34, Aug 25, 2004 (UTC)

I have never heard of the band or song but re I don't think this is the place for fans [sic] interpretations of lyrics. - the internet in general and Wikipedia in particular is full of song listings, lyrics, album covers and almost anything that offers nothing over and above the obvious. Ditto, most articles on books and stories are nothing but plot summaries - sterile and pointless in my opinion. I've tried in vain to find anyone on the internet actually doing things like analysis of lyrics, which seems to me something like scholarship. See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not - Biographies and articles about art works are supposed to be encyclopedia articles. But of course critical analysis of art is welcome, if grounded in direct observations The implication is that the writer can and should write about this, but from a detached perspective. For instance, instead of These are a few suggestions on the meaning of the song 'Chop Suey!'. one might write The meaning of the song has been speculated on. Some popular speculations include... Also the writer should not assume that the reader knows the lyrics already – relevant quotations within the contraints of fair use will help make the article more generally interesting. Notinasnaid 13:19, 29 Aug 2004 (UTC)

This article needs a serious cleanup. It's very poorly written; parts of it are certainly not encyclopedic.

On the whole, however, I think the song is well-known enough to justify a (balanced and encyclopedic) article about it.

Maybe if we removed all but the barest essentials and returned this article to "stub" status, it would evolve better the second time? The article would read something like: "Chop Suey! is a song by System of a Down from their 2001 album, Toxicity. As with many SoaD songs, the band refuses to comment on the lyrics; however, several interpretations of the lyrics exist." I think simply restarting may be the best solution, but I won't myself without the opinions of other users.

Until we can agree on a solution, I cleaned up the grammar and made the article a little less impenetrable (I hope.) - Fermat

Hey! All of you just "be bold" and edit this "without mercy"!--euyyn 00:02, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I'm sorry, my command of historical facts is a bit wobbly. Could someone explain what the "Russo Japanese War" had to do with the Armenian massacre? func(talk) 01:26, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Is there much point saying that the word suicide can be heard in the 'final cuts opening seconds' when the lyrics, at least before any censor gets to mangle them, includes the words "self-rightous suicide". Its in more than the opening seconds...

The article doesn't just note that the word "suicide" can be heard, it reveals that the phrase "We're rolling 'Suicide.'" can be heard, which is a remant of when the song was to be titled, simply, "Suicide." In light of this, I find it a perfectly relevant inclusion in the article. --Dalkaen^T/C 22:18, 18 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Each time Serj says "Grab a brush and put a little makeup," if you are listning very closely, you can hear him say something like "toy with it a little"

Lsten! youll see what i mean.---California 5:01 P.M.

Hm, is there a particular chorus at which he says this? I don't hear that at all. It must be very quiet if it's there at all. --Dalkaen^T/C 09:53, 26 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Can't hear it off CD here - any chance you've got a psychoacoustically compressed version of it and you're hearing things in the artefacting? --Kiand 13:40, 26 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

It is after every time he says "grab a brush and put a little makeup." He starts saying it a little before the sentence is over, so it might be hard to catch. It sounds very echoed, so it almost dosent sound like speaking.

What are you listening to it on? After listening off the CD on a good stereo all I can hear after that sentence is a guitar harmonic from Daron muting the strings. There is an echo after "hide the scars to fade away the shake-up", but that's just another band member repeating the same line in a hoarse whisper. Graphia 01:33, 5 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The Suey in Chop Suey! Is not short for suicide at all, but rather, it is his GIRLFRIEND'S name. Chop Suey! Get it? It is about how he fells the relashonship is going, and he is complaining of how Suey is leaving her keys on the table and putting on makeup after a shakeup. He is referring to her when he says angels deserve to die.

I hope you understand better---California, 8:24 P.M.

• This is probably more appropriate for www.songmeanings.net than Wikipedia; critical analysis of and speculation about lyrics are not the same thing Graphia 00:58, 5 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]