The first single from their 2001 album Toxicity, “Chop Suey!” would go on to become their first Top 10 single on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay - despite the track’s line about “self-righteous suicide” earning it a spot on a list of post-9/11 inappropriate titles.

Rubin goes on to point out that the line “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit / Father, into your hands / Why have you forsaken me? / In your eyes forsaken me” - arguably the most quoted lyric from System of a Down’s discography, perhaps second to the super-scary “Wake Up!” from the same track - came from that book. First phrase he sees, that’s what’s in the song and it’s a highpoint in the song. I said, “Open it to any page tell me the first phrase you see.” He opened it. So I said, “Okay, pick a book off the wall.” He picked a book randomly off the wall. In an interview,2 Daron Malakian explained, The song is about how we are regarded differently depending on how we pass. We’re sitting in the library in my old house and he said, “I don’t have words for this,” and we were finishing and it’s like, okay.

Saod up chop suey lyrics