Geoff's Miscellany

A few weeks ago Chester Bennington, the front-man for the genre bending group, Linkin Park died, apparently having committed suicide.

When I was in high school I really loved every song but one on their first two albums Hybrid Theory and Meteora. And in those days of music pirating software like Kazaa and Morpheus, I was able to discover older versions of hits like In The End with significantly superior lyrics that may not have been as interesting to a mass market audience.

The weird thing about Linkin Park is that they were a staple in weight rooms and gaming dens alike. But admitting you liked them in public was like admitting you liked Wrestling, Nickleback, or Dragon Ball Z. But everybody knew that millions of people liked these things, but somehow it was weird to like them in public…even if you knew that all the jacked guys in school listened to them, too.

I did watch wrestling and I know an unusual number of ex-addicts (usually alcohol) who found Dragon Ball Z’s main character Goku to be archetypally important for overcoming their problems. So, yeah, I like Dragon Ball Z, too. And frankly, Linkin Park had enough awesome songs with sci-fi themed music videos to be a legitimately awesome band. Though, you probably only liked them if you programmed computers, played video games, or lifted weights in high school.

Here’s my favorite Linkin Park and Dragon Ball Z music video:

If you want to be less of a goober and weirdo, here’s the version of that song with alternate (superior lyrics). It deals with the struggles of seeking to be an independent thinker:

Lyrics:

It starts with one And multiplies ’til you can taste the sun And burned by the sky you try to take it from But if it falls, there’s no place to run Crumbling down, it’s so unreal They’re dealing you in to determine your end And sending you back again, the places you’ve been And bending your will ’til it breaks you within And still they fill their eyes With the twilight through the skylight And the highlights on a frame of steel See the brightness of your likeness As I write this on a pad with the way I feel Hear the screaming in my dreaming As it’s seeming that you’ve played your part Like you’re heartless, take apart this in the darkness But I know that

Chorus : I tried so hard And got so far But in the end It doesn’t even matter I had to fall To lose it all But in the end It doesn’t even matter

I’ve looked down the line And what’s there is not what ought to be Held back by the battles they fought for me Calling me to be part of their property And now I see that I get no chance I get no break, fakes and snakes Quickly lead to mistakes And as the tightrope within slowly starts to thin I can only hope that they close their eyes To the twilight through the skylight And the highlights on a frame of steel See the brightness of your likeness As I write this on a pad to the way I feel Hear the screaming in my dreaming As it’s seeming that you’ve played your part Like you’re heartless, take apart this in the darkness But I know that

Chorus : I tried so hard And got so far But in the end It doesn’t even matter I had to fall To lose it all But in the end It doesn’t even matter

I’ve put my trust in you Pushed as far as I can go For all this There’s only one thing you should know I’ve put my trust in you Pushed as far as I can go For all this There’s only one thing you should know I’ve put my trust in you Pushed as far as I can go For all this There’s only one thing you should know

Chorus : I tried so hard And got so far But in the end It doesn’t even matter I had to fall To lose it all But in the end It doesn’t even matter