Numb: Linkin Park’s unique song. “This song came out just 1 week before the band started recording their albums in the studio: The track was created quickly and almost effortlessly on the melody at the entrance.”
When you take the booklet of Meteora (2003) album, you realize once again that this song is an incredible natural work while reading the little detail about Numb. Linkin Park’s first two albums, which influenced the world in the early 2000s, and even the third most critically meaningless album, owed the secret of their success to the feeling created by this naturalness.
Most music lovers who listened to them could feel the natural sensuality in their lyrics and the performances of the two vocalists of the band. In addition to this intensity of emotion, the group became almost modern icons for that period when the works, where the technical infrastructures were high, with the benefit of being 6 people who are all about technology.
Numb is one of Linkin Park’s undisputed most successful works: The work, which played a major role in maintaining the stability of the group after the masterpieces of Hybrid Theory (2000), was one of the most remarkable songs of the group and “MTV era” as one of the most special parts of Meteora. The fact that it was the oldest video that reached 1 billion views on YouTube at the time, keeping records on the charts for weeks by breaking records at that time, easily proves the effect that the song has created – between generations.
Mike Shinoda, the group’s brain, said the following about the track being Meteora’s latest song: “I think it’s a good way to end this album because this track summarizes the recording: Numb is like a typical Linkin Park song, but it’s just that mood in Meteora.”
That mood had an incredible impact, especially in the generation that was in development in the early 2000s. He almost became the translator of the feelings of a huge generation (and even generations). Even at the entrance of the song, there is that reproach:
“I’m tired of being what you want me to be
Feeling so faithless, lost under the surface
I don’t know what you’re expecting of me
Put under the pressure of walking in your shoes”
The song tells that parents have extremely high expectations and psychologically strain their children, and that children are no longer able to bear this. In fact, there was no explanation by the group that “this is the real meaning of the song”, so the track may also express a more general feeling. However, it can be said that this theory is most likely true, especially when the girl (Briana Evigan) in that unforgettable music video is also in question.
Speaking of the clip, let’s also point out that Joe Hahn, the DJ of the band, directed. In addition, the place where the clip was performed was the famous St. in Prague. Vitus Cathedral and the bridge there are the historical Prague Charles Bridge.
The track, which was released as a single in 2003, attracted the attention of Jay-Z, one of the biggest rappers ever, after a year when it ravaged the world, and this legend sent an e-mail to the group stating that they wanted to work with them. Meanwhile, a small note: Mike Shinoda, before establishing Linkin Park, made experimental studies by combining the works of Jay-Z, who he was a big fan at the age of 18-19, with the songs of the most valuable rock bands of the time such as The Smashing Pumpkins and Nine Inch Nails. For this reason, after years of seeing the mail from Jay-Z, he said yes to the project.
You know the end of the story very well: the release of the Collision Course EP in 2004, the release of that extraordinary Numb / Encore mash-up as a single, the legendary clip shown 50 times a day on MTV and Dream Tv, taking the Grammy award home, even making a duet with the god Paul McCartney at that award ceremony.
Finally, once we have praised the song enough, let’s remember once again: July 20, 2017. On this date, a beautiful man, who is 41 years old and who has a very loving wife with 6 children, closed his eyes to life. Indeed, we still cannot believe it; because it is unbelievable: Chester Bennington, although he has suffered terrible injuries in the past, we have always known him with his smiling face and positive attitude. Also, as we have already studied in detail, this man was one of the most successful vocals we have ever heard!
If we need to open the wounds a little bit: Bennington, between the ages of 7-13, who was sexually abused by a man, then struggled with serious depression and drug and alcohol addiction in his later years. The artist, who found the medicine he was looking for in music, was able to turn his pain into screams and share these feelings with millions of people. In fact, when we talk about those natural feelings at the beginning of the music of Linkin Park, we can state the “reality” of this situation as one of the reasons for that feeling. You can also look at only the vocal parts of Numb to remember more deeply.
Like most Linkin Park lyrics at the beginning of their careers, the feelings experienced in this song were natural and real. Just like Bennington, so were the feelings of Shinoda and the rest of the group. For this reason, we were able to share those feelings with the songs and even identify them with our experiences in our own lives. Therefore, we loved them very, very much. Rest in peace, beautiful man, “And I know I may end up failing, too. But I know you were just like me. With someone disappointed in you, your cry will always be in our ears and hearts.
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