Ah ah
I'll wait here, you're crazy
Those vicious streets are filled with strays
You should have never gone to Hollywood

They find you to time you
Say you're the best they've ever seen
You should have never trusted Hollywood

I wrote you and told you
You were the biggest fish out here
You should have never gone to Hollywood

They take you and make you
They look at you in disgusting ways
You should have never trusted Hollywood

(Ah ah)

I was standing on the wall feeling ten feet tall
All you maggots smoking fags on Santa Monica Boulevard

This is my front page. This is my new rage
All you bitches put your hands in the air and wave them like you just don't care

(Ah ah)

All you maggots smoking fags out there on Sunset Boulevard
All you bitches put your hands in the air and wave them like you just don't care

(Ah ah)

Phony people come to pay
Look at all of them, back to stay
Phony people come to pray

(The lines in the letter said)
Look at all of them, back to stay
(We had gone to reckon send)
Phony people come to pray

(Ah ah)
All you maggots smoking fags on Santa Monica Boulevard

(Ah ah)
All you maggots smoking fags out there on Sunset Boulevard

(Ah ah)
All you maggots smoking fags out there on Hollywood Boulevard

(Ah ah)
You should have never trusted Hollywood
You should have never gone to Hollywood

(Ah ah)
All you bitches put your hands in the air and wave them like you just don't care

You should have never trusted Hollywood


Lyrics submitted by namelessboarder, edited by Songsterr77, I'm_Who_I'm_-_

Lost in Hollywood Lyrics as written by Daron V. Malakian Serj Tankian

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

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Lost In Hollywood song meanings
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  • +11
    My Interpretation

    Easy enough song to understand imo. It's about a person who went off to Hollywood to make it big, but like most people who try, this person doesn't get what they want either.

    "I'll wait here, you're crazy."

    The narrator is staying at home in whatever other town they live in. He's telling his friend that going to Hollywood is a crazy idea.

    "Those vicious streets are filled with strays. You should have never gone to Hollywood. "

    Describing the streets as "vicious" shows how much of a dog-eat-dog place it is. If you don't make it then it's very unforgiving and you have to join the aimless "strays" wandering the streets hoping to make a break but not going anywhere.

    "They find you to time you, Say you're the best they've ever seen."

    Initially the friend gets some kind of help. They're told they will be a star so they sign their lives away for nothing to an agent or producer who just wants a fast buck and will drop them like a hot potato the moment they stop being profitable.

    "I wrote you and told you, You were the biggest fish out here. You should have never gone to Hollywood."

    The narrator keeps in contact with his friend, standing by his earlier advice on staying at home. While the person who went to Hollywood might have some talent at what they do and they were the best in their hometown, against the titans in Hollywood they don't look as good, they're not the "biggest fish" anymore.

    "They take you and make you, They look at you in disgusting ways."

    In almost any industry, the top stars (especially women) are sexualised far beyond what any normal person ever is. Even for the people who do make it big, they're still being exploited for titillation. Looking in disgusting ways could also reference how they look at this person and just see how much money can be made off them and nothing else matters or it might imply that the person has failed and had to resort to stripping or even prostitution to pay the bills (which is far from unheard of in Hollywood).

    "I was standing on the wall feeling ten feet tall. All you maggots smoking fags on Santa Monica Boulevard."

    This is stepping out from the original story and talking about Malakian's childhood. As kids, when he and his friends jumped up on a particular high wall they could see Hollywood's seedy underbelly in the form of pimps, hookers, drug dealers etc. A lot of them were the people who had wanted to be movie stars or musicians and now they're standing on corners smoking cigarettes ("fags") all day.

    "Phony people come to pay. Look at all of them, back to stay. Phony people come to pray."

    He's just saying that Hollywood is like the holy land for phony people. They can't resist it, they keep coming "back to stay" despite the fact that they suffer there ("pay").

    93cianon August 15, 2012   Link
  • +6
    General Comment

    This song is probably one of my favourites of their new material. Daron Malakian shows his great singing voice on this song, showing that hes more than just the crazy guitar guy that screams at random intervals of a song. This song is about how Hollywood can corrupt a person.

    "They find you, two time you Say you’re the best they’ve ever seen You should have never trusted Hollywood"

    Basically saying that people in Hollywood use you, and corrupt your mind, and make you think of yourself as the best. Thus making you a money hungry whore.

    aiwubfon May 08, 2005   Link
  • +3
    General Comment

    I second dannymp3. They're at the top, yet they're not afraid to let us all know the truth about fame and what others will think of them criticizing it. Because I can't choose one specific favorite off "Mezmerize", I'll say this is ONE of my favorites off the album.

    Ms Self Destructon May 15, 2005   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    Daron is just singing about how fucked up the area he grew up in is, how corrupt it is, and how many lives it ruins.

    Solidon May 13, 2005   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    In the mid-1980s, Daron Malakian was a shy youngster living in an apartment near the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and Vine Street, and his parents spent much of their time trying to shield his eyes from the seedy parade of Hollywood's sidewalks.

    "From the playground of my school," Malakian recalled, "we would see prostitutes and transvestites, guys holding hands, the homeless people, all these things my parents really didn't want me to see."

    That playground was at the Rose and Alex Philibos Armenian School, the same campus where two other future members of the metal band System of a Down went to class. There, all of the boys were immersed in the traditions of their shared Armenian heritage, but when they rode their bikes home they passed through that chaotic asphalt theater of Hollywood.

    "It was only as I got older that I realized that not everybody grows up like that," Malakian said.

    His home life, meanwhile, was a study in artistic expression; he is the only child of Vartan Malakian, a highly regarded painter who was also a key choreographer in the 1970s dance community of his native Iraq, and Zepur Malakian, a sculptor born in Iran. By 2005, Hollywood was less scruffy, but those old memories lingered in the mind of Malakian's mind. By then, he had become famous to metal fans as the guitarist and songwriter in System, the deeply eccentric L.A. band whose sound veers from fever-dream mutter to wailing thunder, often in the same song. "I wanted to write a song," he said, "about the way Hollywood was." The result was the moody "Lost in Hollywood," which he calls "the System song I'm most proud of."

    I'll wait here, you're crazy Those vicious streets are filled with strays You should have never gone to Hollywood They find you, two-time you Say you're the best they've ever seen You should have never trusted Hollywood.

    The lyrics are "about the broken dreams, all the people that come here and don't make it," he said, and it's a collage of images regarding the music industry, the vapid people who come to L.A. to exploit others and the beautiful dreamers who are promised fame but end up "out on a street corner, alone, smoking cigarettes."

    As a kids, Malakian and his friends would scale a cement wall that took them to a low rooftop with wood planks and a view looking south on a corner of Santa Monica Boulevard. Years later, the shy boy wrote with jagged emotions about that view from the past.

    I was standing on the wall Feeling ten feet tall All you maggots smoking fags on Santa Monica Boulevard This is my front page This is my new age

    Rob1990on August 01, 2008   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Wow... SOAD, what can I say... they say what others don't with great vocals... glad someone high up there, with a voice thats being heard is saying the right things.

    dmp3on May 14, 2005   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    This is definately my favorite song from their new album. This is the slowest SOAD song I've ever heard, and it's spectacular.

    The way Daron sings this sounds like it's coming from a personal experience, or an experience from a friend or relative, about them basically getting "Lost in Hollywood"

    SOADmongeron May 18, 2005   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    I think it's just SOAD criticizing the destructive, superficial nature of Hollywood Celebrities. They've written other songs criticizing Hollywood and celebrities, like Stealing Society. I think the story in the song is about a man who used to work for the industry in Hollywood and is now lamenting the world he created.

    Ganondoxon December 12, 2012   Link
  • +1
    My Interpretation

    This song is about Jesus...

    This may sound crazy, but if you replace the word Hollywood by "earth" or "mankind", you realize it's may be god speaking to his son, telling him not to go on earth.

    "They find you, To time you, Say your the best they've ever seen, You should have never trusted Hollywood.

    They take you, And make you, They look at you in disgusting ways, You should never trusted Hollywood."

    They will idolize you, only to let you down in the end, judge you, torture you, and kill you. You should had never trusted mankind, they are lost and crazy.

    For me, the second part of the song, where Daron says "I was standing on the wall, Feeling ten feet tall" represent the moment Jesus was crucified. Church picture him calm and serene in his last moments, but he was probably mad at us, and insulting the crowd as he was induring terrible pain.

    " All you maggots smoking fags on Santa Monica Boulevard, This is my front page, This is my new age, All you bitches put your hands in the air and wave them like you just don't care.

    Phoney people come to pray, Look at all of them beg to stay, Phoney people come to pray. "

    I brang you peace and you gave me suffering and hate. As a revenge, my dead will trigger a false religion that will kill thousands of your people over the years.

    His way of saying "F$%k you" to all of us.

    Haywire400on May 24, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    what a great song. it is a perfect finish to the album as VodkaLix said. i think that daron is a great singer. this is to mezmerize as roulette was to steal this album.

    aereogrammeon May 09, 2005   Link

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