Deer Dance

Album: Toxicity (2001)
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Songfacts®:

  • Growing up in Los Angeles, System Of A Down was familiar with police brutality and riots. In this song, they call out the cops who use force to quash protesters:

    Pushing little children
    With their fully automatics
    They like to push the weak around


    The theme of governments using every means at their disposal to silence those who speak out against them is a common one for System Of A Down.
  • The lyrics, "Beyond the Staples Center you can see America" refer to The Staples Center in Los Angeles, which was the site of two disturbances in 2000. The first was a riot that took place on June 19, 2000, after the Lakers won the championship. The next one was on August 14, 2000, when System's brothers in arms, Rage Against The Machine, held a free concert across from the venue, where the Democratic National Convention was being held. After the show, police roughed up the crowd, firing rubber bullets to disperse them.
  • In some cultures, there are "deer dances" where dancers will perform dressed as deer. In this song, the "deer dance" could be seen as the peaceful protests that are met with force, like a hunter taking aim at a trophy buck.
  • SOAD guitarist Daron Malakian and lead singer Serj Tankian wrote this song, which was released on their second album, Toxicity. They also co-produced it with Rick Rubin.

    The album was released on September 4, 2001, and went straight to #1 in America. A week later the terrorist attacks jolted America and the lead single, "Chop Suey," was pulled from many radio station playlists, but the music stayed relevant and the album went on to sell over 3 million copies in America.

Comments: 22

  • Wood Is from A Treethis song is about deer's dancing in the woods but they have a big secret, the deers are secretly armed with fully automatics
  • Jalolovell from Ut"Why is everything so political?" "We can't afford to be neutral on a moving train- love it. No, sukalongdong. There were fallacies in your statement.
  • Shut Up BootlickersSOAD is anti-police. Just listen to Mr. Jack if Prison Song and Deer Dance weren't obvious enough for you. The police escalated every George Floyd protest, no matter what any lameass bootlicker says.
  • I Am An No Mousegood job S.O.A.D Love your song so enjoyful to listen to
  • Bumblebeelegendary song and i think it portrays 2020 in a nutshell with all of the BLM and stuff
  • AnonymouseAre you guys stupid talking about SOAD are liberals there just talking about how the government could be cruel and corrupt at times
  • AnonymousSoad is speaking about the s--t that went and goes down in their homeland.
  • Are You Sure About That Mr. Sukalongdong2020 has proven your statement wrong multiple times. re: tard.
  • Sukalongdong from The MoonThis song contradicts itself because the government always allow peaceful protests. The only time Riot police come out is when....that's right when protests become violent! Riot police are there to stop the pieces of s--ts that try to loot and damage property, so all these pieces of s--ts get what they deserve when it comes to getting shot with rubber bullets and getting their asses whooped.
  • Jesus from Duarte, CaI'll make this real simple. This song is about RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE. When they played across the street from the STAPLE center on the day they had the Democratic convention center in 2000. I should know I was shot by some PIGS with there fully automatic.
  • Suite-pee from Columbus, OhI suppose i can accept the word liberal,if you mean liberal as being not bound by authoritarianism. I think I would go with politically outspoken before anything else when describing System.even though i don't completely agree with Kane, that's one of the more intelligent statements on here, and there's not many.Blake, you're from Ohio.WTF is wrong with you besides being an idiot?Pains me to say that to a brother from Ohio but dude,this country has never been free.Not dignifying Cardio with a response,well,maybe this;deer dance instead of what ever they were going to play?Then how the f*ck do you know that wasn't their set to begin with.Hey bro,its called coincidence.look it up.I feel like the biggest asshole.get it?Scott got it.Not my joke but the song. Simply put it's about police brutality against peaceful protest.What is really annoying is no one on here mentions Howard Zinn.He is even paraphrased by Serj,"we cant afford to be neutral on a moving train."Zinns memoirs is called, "You can't be neutral on a moving train;" which also became the title of the documentary of his lifes work.Read A Peoples History of the United States. Alex, Avery amuses me too but not near as much as your atrocious grammar.Displeasement?Think you're looking for the word displeasure because it is actually a word.Brilliant observation Nick! you know a line in the song.I bet I flip over to the Prison song page and you're on there telling everyone it's a song about prison.F*cking retard.Hey Joe, shouldn't you be on the f*cking Ted Nugent page or some sh*t?WTF are you talking about?You are definitely in the wrong place dude.I have seen some dumb ass sh*t on this site and you just catapulted to the top of the list.F*cking moron.I think i have probably gone through every possible f*cking synonym for dumb ass on this page alone.Well done people.I really do feel like the biggest asshole.You true fans know but for you tards, that's what's called paraphrasing.I got to flip over to the Prison Song page now and dog the f*ck out of Nick some more. Later people.= s--t! Die. Like a mother f*cker!
  • Joe from El Paso, TxThere's a movie called "Blood Diamond", a good yet sad movie about how children in Africa where taken away from their parents and forced to fight and kill inocent people, including their own families with guns (their parents where forced to mine for diamonds and those who rufused to it all where killed or had limbs cut off). So it really fits "pushing little children with their fully automatics."
  • Mick from Los Angeles, CaPushing little children with the fully automatics- enough said
  • Cj from Vermont, VtI find it amusing that just about of System Of A Down song fact pages has a argument about the U.S. Government or something of the sort, politics, etc.
  • Alex from Jeffersonville, InAvery, your ill-informed babbling amuses me, System has always voiced their displeasement with the United States government.
    And excuse me for thinking that president Bush is not a great one.
    Anyway, people have stopped listening to them for a while because they are on a hiatus. Meaning they are currently not recording or touring as a band.So I see the possibility of people not listening to them, there's nothing new to listen to. NOT because the band is against our idiot of a president.
    Jeez, idiots always make everything so confusing and ignorrant.
  • Stan from Chicago, IlThis song is about police brutality, specifically in relation to peaceful assembly(the first right guaranteed to citizens of the united states in the bill of rights). One of the few songs that can easily interpreted it is very clear about this.

    There is general reference to the riot police and their tactics (rubber bullets, batons) and also their existence meant to create fear in people. It is meant to make people afraid of being physically hurt and thus intimidates them in to keeping their mouths shut.

    The chorus is about cops pushing kids around. Usually protests are populated by students and youth, so the police brutality is extraordinarily disgusting because the victims are children.

    This stanza is incredible:
    "War staring you in the face, dressed in black
    With a helmet, fierce
    Trained and appropriate for the malcontents
    For the disproportioned malcontents."
    -The larger protests in Democracies are anti-war protests. It is one of the main advantages of a democratic system is the people won't let the government go to war without good reason(theoretically). So a protest against whatever new war the rich would like to embark on will have riot police. So "war is staring you in the face, dressed in black". It is literally the riot police that are the reprentation of war, they are the advocates of war. They are the anti-thesis to a peaceful anti-war protest. The riot cops bring violence, they quelch the protest and therefore are a physical manifestation of war dressed in black with a helmet. Trained for the malcontents. Oh but wait they're not just malcontents, anybody can be malcontents, they are "disproportionate" malcontents. So SOAD is saying there are so many of them, these are not just any group of people bitching, this is a large group of people that are not happy with the status quo. Those people are predominately students.

    So how does this "democracy" continue on?
    Well it shuts down the protest with violence, push the kids around with your guns to make sure they're afraid of getting killed. Then turn around and say "well looks like our citizens don't have any issues with another war" then bam, we will fight the heathens. Great lyrics, if only their other songs were this easy to understand.
  • Avery from Bucksport, MeWell duh! this song is about the government making us do stuff we dont want to do and them controlling our lives and systems displeasure of the government because serj said somthig bad about our president and the war in Iraq thats why people have stoped listening to them for a while!
  • Scott from New York, Nyfirst things first... I LOVE THIS SONG!!! now that thats out of the way it is about police brutality when people attempt to protest as they usually have the right to do. the government doesn't want to protested though so they send the police to end the protesting because the government doesn't want change, it wants o be right.
  • Jake from Naperville, IlThis song clearly states system's displeasure with the american gov't. It is a very metal song, one of their most metal i can think of. Gr8 song
  • Kane from Vancouver, WaSystem of a Down is THE MOST LIBERAL band I can think of without them being hippies!LOL. This song rocks!!!
  • Cardio Toxin from El Paso, TxWhen the band played a free show in support of the toxicity album in the LA area, the guards were pushing the fans and the band started off the concert with deer dance instead of whatever they were going to play.
  • Blake from Hamilton, OhThis song is ok. It obviously means something of the government trying to control our lives. Then again, it could be saying that this country is no longer FREE.
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