Listening Guide

A Place For My Head as recorded by Linkin Park (2000)

Producer: Don Gilmore
Studio: NRG Recordings, North Hollywood, CA
Label: Warner Bros.
Tempo: 132 beats per minute
There was a demo released of this song called Esaul in 1999 before the band changed it up for
the release of the Hybrid Theory album in 2000. From listening to that version of the song, you
can see the differences that were made later on, when they had a better place to record in and had
changed most of the lyrics.
The lyrics to this song match how the instruments are because it is singing about someone
stepping all over you and acting like you always owe them something. It talks about how itll
catch up to them and theyll understand when they dont have anyone left because of how
theyve started to treat everyone. The tune of the song gives you that negative feeling like what
he might have been feeling. Especially with all of the heavier guitar sounds that we hear.
This song would be placed in chapter 20 in the book under nu metal because although the song
came out in 2000, it was written before that and has the sound described in the book. It says that
nu metal includes rhythms from funk and hip-hop; screamed, shouted, or rap vocals; and bands
use turntables and synthesizers along with more traditional rock instruments (Charlton 318).
There were many things that were also going around at the time that this song came out. One of
the things that Mike has said in an interview was that when they were deciding on artwork for
the album, it was around the time when Banskys art was first coming out. Nobody knew of him
yet but since Mike was an artist himself they were inspired by that and wanted something that
looked like that (Complex, 2015).
When the Hybrid Theory album came out, it was in the end of the year 2000 and in 2001 it was
the highest selling album of the year. Everybody knew it and was singing along. I loved it
whenever I heard it. I even remember going camping once and hearing the people blasting it
further down the forest by their campfire. Every song on the album was fantastic and not much
like what anyone had really heard before.
The songs form is AABA because how it is set up is verse, verse, bridge, verse like a lot of other
songs do in todays music. It has little changes on each prechorus before the chorus comes in as
explained below. These are things such as the guitar changing one note to make things more
intense. The verses in the song also uses stop times nicely.

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MERGEFORMATINET
This song starts out with and intro thats 14 seconds of only clean guitar which has a very slight
echo to it playing the same 16 note set for four measures. The last three notes of the fourth
measure are a bit louder to start to introduce what is next to come in the song.
At 14 seconds in, the guitar continues with the same 16 note set for four measures again but this
time, bass, drums, and the turntable are brought in. The drums hit twice and then play the
symbols quickly for about 1 measures and stops in order to clearly hear the turntable which is
where it first comes in. That is played for four measures with the bass added playing
continuously also in the background.
As the lyrics start with the first verse 28 seconds in, the guitar becomes distorted and instead of
playing it the same as at the first, the 8th note that was played before is just left blank and not
played (Kirjaimusic, 2013). The bass and the drums are the same for four measures.
For the chorus the same riff for the guitar is played but this time with power chords (Kirjaimusic,
2013). The guitar, drums, and bass are played for two measures.
At 1:04 when the second verse starts, for the guitar, it is the same as the first verse. There are no
drums and bass however for the first half of the measure and its just the guitar and Mike
Shinoda singing but then the rest of the 4 measures are the same.
Then at 1:18 there is a pre chorus part for four measures where there are two power chords on
the guitar-one normal and one distorted strummed once for each bar and then the last note just
used is strummed multiple times (Kirjaimusic, 2013). The drums and bass continue as before.
After the next chorus which is the same, there is a part for four measures at 1:48 where just a
faint sound of the turntable and vocals are heard along with the drum part that Rob Bourdon
plays. This doesnt sound like drums because it doesnt make noise out loud but what he hits to

play it actually goes through the sampler and thats what makes noises (A Hybrid Odyssey,
2012).
At 2:01 there is a quick stop time where Chester yells go away and then for four more
measures as Chester Bennington is screaming his lyrics, the guitar, bass, and drums continue.
The chorus is then brought up again.
For the outro at 2:30 played for eight measures, there is two ways the guitar is played. The first
15 notes are palm muted while the last note played isnt and that riff is repeated four times. After
thats played, its played the same way again but none of it is palm muted (Kirjaimusic, 2013).
While the guitar plays, the drums and bass are with it also. The turntable comes in at the end of
the fourth measure. The drums have two beats to end the song and then the turntable is all you
can hear for about four seconds to take out the song.

Brett, T. "Linkin Park - Esaul." N.p., 13 Aug. 2007. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=8fxzQYjkZGs>.
Charlton, K. Rock music styles: A history. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill, 1998. Print.
Complex. "Linkin Park on Recording 'Hybrid Theory' the Most Successful Debut Album of the
Century." N.p., 24 Oct. 2015. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=co2KVGs85w0>.
Garfield. "A PLACE FOR MY HEAD Drum Tab - Linkin Park | E-Chords." N.p., Web.
<http://www.e-chords.com/drums/linkin-park/a-place-for-my-head>.
"Hybrid Theory album art." Photograph. Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2016.
Kirjai Music. "Linkin Park - A Place For My Head (Guitar Tutorial /w Tabs) By Kirjai." N.p.,
8 July 2013. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15ii3SrIIwA>.
"Linkin Park - A Hybrid Odyssey Full Video (Hybrid Theory Times)." YouTube. N.p.,
16 Aug. 2012. Web. 9 Mar. 2016.
Linkin Park. "Linkin Park - A Place For My Head." N.p., 27 Mar. 2015. Web.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t2WkCudwfY>.