In the End
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"In the End" is a song by Linkin Park. It is the eighth track from their debut album Hybrid Theory (2000).
It was released as a single in 2001. It was originally written as a poem by the lead vocalist, Chester Bennington, with Chris Petersen, and was later established as a sufficient song for the album. The original demo version of this song was labeled "Untitled" (which may or may not have been an actual title) and contained various different rap verses by Shinoda.
"In the End" is their highest charting single in most countries. It is widely regarded as their most famous song, and the one which best describes their musical style (a melodic interplay between Chester Bennington's singing and Mike Shinoda's rapping).
This song is mainly based on one person's failure. It is considered symbolic of an ending relationship. Reanimation (2002) features a hip hop-style remix of this song, titled "Enth E Nd".
Track listing
The single CD was released as a "Part 1" Single and a "Part 2" Single. They differed in tracks and cover color: the "Part 1" cover is yellow and the "Part 2" cover is red. The "Part 1" cover is shown on the right. A DVD version of "In the End" was also released which includes an audio version of "In the End", promo video of "Crawling" and four 30 seconds interviews.
Part 1 track listing
- "In the End"
- "Papercut" (Live at Docklands Arena, London)
- "Points of Authority" (Live at Docklands Arena, London)
Part 1 bonus
- "In the End" (CD-ROM music video)
Part 2 track listing
- "In the End"
- "A Place for My Head" (Live at Docklands Arena, London)
- "Step Up" [1999 Demo]
Music video
The music video takes place in a fantasy setting and uses massive CGI animation. The band performs atop a giant statue, which has a 'winged soldier' on top of it, which is similar looking to the 'winged soldier' on the cover artwork of Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory album. The tower itself is in the shape of a woman, and appears to be the left-out portion of the cover of Hybrid Theory EP.
The portions where Mike Shinoda raps first take place in a wasteland with thorny vines sprouting out of the ground, surrounding him and shattering into dust (first verse) and then grass and plants sprouting up around him (second verse). During the time Mike raps his verses, Chester stands atop a platform with gargoyles on the edges. This platform is in front of a door in the shape of a trapezium. Near the end of the video, the skies turn dark and it begins to rain, and the band performs in the downpour until the end of the song, where the rain stops and the camera pans away from the tower, showing the wasteland where Shinoda had rapped in is now a lush Greenland. During the rain the statues on the tower begin to move.
The rest of the band (Delson, Farrell, Hahn & Bourdon) appear only during Chester's chorus and during the outro when the camera focus is near to the tower.
Some fansites of Linkin Park have claimed that Dave Farrell injured his foot during the making of the video when he jumped off one of the platforms, but still continued filming until the end. This fact has never been officially confirmed by the band or their record label.
The video was co-directed by Nathan "Karma" Cox and LP's turntablist Joe Hahn (who have also directed the videos for "Pts.Of.Athrty", "Papercut" and "What I've Done"). The production design was by Patrick Tatopoulos who helped design and oversee the production of the non-CGI set. It won the "Best Rock Video" at the 2002 MTV Awards.
A strange-looking whale can be seen flying around the large statue during most of the video, specifically at the end of the video. The whale in the video was Joe Hahn's idea. He has been quoted as saying "It's not like I pulled it out of my ass; it made sense to me." about it. The reasoning behind its inclusion is still unknown. Many fans of the Legend of Zelda video games have noted similarities between the whale in the video and the 'Wind Fish' character from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. However, there is no evidence to support the design of Linkin Park's whale was a tribute to the game, and appears to be coincidental.
Although there is a keyboard loop in this song, the video does not show Mike, who is a pianist in the group, or anyone else playing a keyboard in any scene of the video. However, Joe Hahn is shown using a MIDI pad to emulate the piano loop at the end.
The Making of the Video
On Linkin Park's Frat Party at the Pankake Festival DVD one of the special features is 'The Making of In the End'. It begins with footage of a bat hanging off the windscreen wipers of the band's tour bus, with band members, specifically Joe Hahn making reference to the bats from the In the End video.
Brad describes his custom headphones as his jack into the Matrix and why he needs to wear them on stage.
In this 'Making of', footage is shown of Chester miming to a sped up version of the track, and effect used so that when the film is slowed down, the track sounds normal as does the singer, but with an added dramatic effect.
Also shown is Mike Shinoda jokingly claiming that Angelina Jolie was doing his make-up, but "her agent would kill us if we showed her", and footage of "Crawling" being performed by Bryson Jones and the 'Sweethearts of the Rodeo All-Star Band', full audio of which is also available on the DVD.
Footage from this 'Making of' was used in the video for Points Of Authority, included in the same DVD.
Covers and parodies
- On the 2004 EP Collision Course there is a "mash up" of "In the End" and Jay-Z's Izzo (H.O.V.A.).
- The song was parodied by Christian parody group ApologetiX as, their version labeled as "Corinthians".
References