(maybe!) (i reserve the right to be a lazy asshole if my social life awakes, but y'all don't have much reason to worry about that!)
Phew, I thought I had missed 3 songs I hadn't looked at this in so long. I liked the interlude into What I've Done as well, although it's pretty pointless on shuffle.
We continue where we left off. With a handsome new writer. The next song is "What I've Done", the lead single off Minutes to Midnight and the sixth track on the album. The song was first played on the radio on April 1, 2007, one day before the song was officially released digitally, and made avaliable for streaming on Myspace, while the video could be purchased on iTunes. At the time of it's release, it was the bands highest debut on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, entering at #7, only to be beaten two years later by "New Divide", which entered at #6. The CD single was released on April 30, 2007. The liner notes for the song on the Minutes to Midnight CD read: What I've Done originated from a demo titled "Bang Three", which was released on LPU 11. "Bang Three" holds a slightly different piano progression at the beginning. The demo is entirely instrumental and very similar to the final version of the song, however does not have the guitar solo that appears on the final version of the track. In it's place is a breakdown with guitar chords changed from the rest of the song. In the liner notes of LPU 11, Mike Shinoda said: Before the release of the song, Mike Shinoda said in an interview with Kerrang!: The song opens with an addicting piano line, soon accompanied by drums, before exploding with a classic Brad Delson guitar riff. Being the lead single, it was a bit of a surprise for the fans to hear a song sung almost entirely by Chester, with no rap verses from Mike Shinoda. Bennington opens the song with "In this farewell, there's no blood, there's no alibi", which was explained in an interview to apply not only to personal struggles of an individual, but the state of the band at the time aswell. The song can be easily interpreted as being about sin - ''let mercy come, and wash away what I've done", however the official video shed a whole new light on the song. The video featured the band performing in a desert, and used a lot of stock footage director Joe Hahn had collected. The video also deals with irony, examplified in showing footage of people overeating while others are starving. Various clips of important events and figures in history appear through the video - such as showing the collapsing of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and footage of Adolf Hitler, Ku Klux Klan... Footage of wars and protests around the world also appears, so perhaps the easiest way to interpret the video could be about all the mistakes we, collectively as the human race, have made. Despite the dark mood of the video, the band joked a lot on set, as seen in the making of the video. I'll drop it below for your viewing pleasures. Another version of the video exists, the Australian version. The video is more plot-driven and the band does not appear in it. It tells the story of a young woman (played by Emma Mullings), who works at a government-run pharmaceutical company learning of a plan to develop a deadly new virus for "social control". With the help of a crowd wearing all black hoodies with the Linkin Park logo on the back, she smuggles out several blood samples to expose the conspiracy. At the end of the video, a news report reveals the government denied all responsibility - typical. The video was only avaliable on Linkin Park's Australian website, however it is now avaliable on the almighty YouTube. The most important remix of the song was done by Mike Shinoda himself, and it appears on "Bleed It Out" single and several editions of Minutes to Midnight, titled "What I've Done (Distorted Remix)" and the Undergoud X: Demos CD, titled "What I've Done (M. Shinoda Remix)". The remix is very glitchy, lo-fi, and has heavily edited vocals from Chester Bennington's vocal take of the original. You can listen to it here. When performed live, the track is so good that it even got nominated for a Grammy award! The live version of "What I've Done", captured for Linkin Park's DVD Road to Revolution: Live at Milton Keynes (which I embedded above), was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 52nd Grammy Awards, but it lost to ''War Machine'' by AC/DC. Well, at least Nickelback didn't win. In the earliest live performances of the song, the piano loop at the beginning of the song wasn't played live, but was playbacked (is that how you say it, hah?). Mike Shinoda eventually took double responsibility and now plays keyboard a the beginning, and later on joins Brad Delson on guitar. The song was first played live on March 14, 2007, for the bands edition of Sessions@AOL series. The first public performance followed on April 28, 2007, in Berlin. The song opened many shows in 2008, along with an extended intro, however sometimes it was played during encores. When performed in the middle of a show, it will usually have an extended piano intro. For the 2014 Carnivores Tour with 30 Seconds To Mars, Brad Delson had extended his guitar solo during the song, just to - y'know - prove what a modern guitar god he is. Relax, I kid the Delson. I like the Delson. A special performance of the song happened on January 11, 2014, during the MFR concert to benefit the Philippines, when the band brought out Mike Einziger from Incubus, who did an entirely different solo. I will now leave you with that performance below. I will try to get a new post up every two, at worst three days. Hopefully the thread gets back on track. btw. I reserve the right for unfunny jokes and lame puns. M'kay?
I don't care if many people label this as a made-for-radio single. It still stands as one of their best songs IMO (not Top 10 best, but you get the point), because it represents the shift in their career: washing away what they used to be, and ushering in a new era into the unknown. There's something about its melody that keeps me listening to it nonstop. The video is still their absolute best one ever. The political imagery mixed in with a raw desert performance never looked so stylistic.
This song probably gets some unfair treatment by the likes of me just because it became so mainstream. But it's really not that bad. I enjoy it quite a bit when I can get over the fact that it was the Transformers song.
The only Song i really relate to TF is New Divide, well maybe its made for it But What I ve Done is a nice song , not bad. Love the "new" live performances with the #ModernGuitarGodSolo. It makes the song more , well "not-mainstream" to me Never know that the song was first played on my 12th birthday damn it , i first listened to the band 2 years later. I really like how What Ive Done stands before Bleed It Out in many Live Shows, its cool.
I agree. The track is very melodic, and it feels like a song with a pop structure meant for the radio, yet a really well written song. Something the band rarely achieves.
Considering how the song was essentially written at the last possible second, I'm constantly impressed at just how polished What I've Done is. The entire performance feels raw and vulnerable while still maintaining crystal clear presentation. I love Chester's aggressive yet somber vocals (something I feel Minutes To Midnight captured perfectly) and the lyrics are pretty timeless, although I do remember when the song was first released, people called it "emo" because of the "there's no blood, there's no alibi" line which I find beyond hilarious. Although the guitar solo in the bridge is pretty underwhelming, the build-up back to the final chorus is absolutely amazing. I do agree that Brad's new live guitar solo has sparked new life in the song on stage, however I long for the day that the 2008 extended AMBO intro returns. That was chilling.
I like the live version of WID a lot more,because of what Michelle calls "Modernguitargodsolo".....The Rock in Rio performane this year was the best,the solo had a nice flow,so to speak