Discover

:''This article is about the System of a Down song. For the acronym referring to alcohol, see BYOB.''
"'B.Y.O.B.'" ('Bring Your Own Bombs') is the debut single for System of a Down's fourth album ''Mezmerize''. It is a play on the phrase "Bring Your Own Booze" or "Bring Your Own Beer". It is a politically charged song and was written to protest the Iraq War. The track was the band's only Top 30 hit off of Mezmerize, and overall, is the band's sole Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. The lyrics were written by Casey Chaos and Daron Malakian while working on a side project called Scars On Broadway.
The line (written by Casey Chaos of Amen/Scum/Damned Damned Damned) ''"Why do they always send the poor?"'' echoes a similar line in Black Sabbath's 1970 anti-Vietnam War song "War Pigs" on the album ''Paranoid'', as well as Public Enemy's 1988 song "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos". Similar insight has been posed by filmmaker Michael Moore in his documentary ''Fahrenheit 9/11'' about a significant number of soldiers serving in the Iraq War hailing from poor backgrounds.

Contents

Video

Track listing

B.Y.O.B. (Single)

B.Y.O.B. (Enhanced Single)

B.Y.O.B. (Australian Import)

Trivia

External links

Video

The music video shows an army of drone soldiers marching through the streets, wearing masks that show 'DIE' and 'GOD' like a television screen, with the members of System of a Down playing in the middle. During the chorus, the band is shown playing inside a night club. Midway through the video, Daron is shown screaming the words "Blast off! It's party time! And we don't live in a fascist nation! Blast off! It's party time! And where the fuck are you?!", when the soldiers attack the night club and force everyone to put on the drone masks that the soldiers have been wearing, except they depict various television shows and cartoons. At the end of the video, the members of System of a Down are wearing the drone masks, which seem to be playing static.
This video was directed by Jake Nava.

Track listing

★ All lyrics written by Daron Malakian/Serj Tankian, all music written by Daron Malakian, except where noted.

★ The live tracks were recorded at the Big Day Out 2005 festival.

B.Y.O.B. (Single)

#"B.Y.O.B." (Clean Version)
#"B.Y.O.B."

B.Y.O.B. (Enhanced Single)

#"B.Y.O.B."
#"Forest" (Live) (Lyrics: S. Tankian, Music: D. Malakian)
#"Prison Song" (Live) (Lyrics: S. Tankian/D. Malakian, Music: D. Malakian)
#"Sugar" (Live) (Lyrics: S. Tankian, Music: S. Odadjian/D. Malakian)

B.Y.O.B. (Australian Import)

#"B.Y.O.B."
#"Cigaro"

Trivia

★ This song was originally written by Casey Chaos and Daron Malakian when they formed their side band called Scars on Broadway. They recorded an album's worth of songs but was never released. Daron then went on to record this same song with System of a Down.

★ The song was performed on May 7, 2005 on ''Saturday Night Live'', 10 days before the release of the album ''Mezmerize''. During this performance, towards the end of the song ("Why do they always send the poor?" [guitar slide downward]) when the guitar "slides" downwards, guitarist Daron Malakian screamed, "Fuck yeah!". This was missed by the censors, and it became a controversial matter for a few days thereafter. However, the rest of the song was able to be censored on time without any trouble.

★ The song is performed slightly differently live; guitarist Daron Malakian plays a reggae-styled riff during the "Everybody's going to the party" bit of the song instead of the normal riff on the CD recording. Apparently playing the original riff while singing is very difficult.

★ Won "Best Hard Rock Performance" in the 2006 Grammy Awards.

★ Was voted #76 on Total Guitar's 100 Greatest Riffs.

External links

★ Listen to ''B.Y.O.B.'' at the band's official website

★ ''B.Y.O.B.'' lyrics at the band's official website