Fighting As I Fall {pRt 2}

Xero - Rhinestone

A lost track from Linkin Park's One More Light sessions.

The song was originally made with Songwriter Brian Howes alongside Mike Shinoda and possibly Brad Delson during the 2016 sessions that resulted in the OML album that came out the next year.

The song never made the cut for the album, and stayed hidden alongside all other OML demos until leaked by Brian Howes himself in early 2019 - at the time, the one and only OML demo to surface. The song had actually been seen before hand, however, on the BMI charts alongside another One More Light unreleased track called Ricochet, which Brian Howes also helped on. Brian Howes went on to explain that What Are You Worth was originally going to be a single with vocals by Chester Bennington, however due to his death, that idea was scrapped.

According to Mike Shinoda, "What Are You Worth was a song that we worked on for One More Light and I wasn't... I only get bummed out when people leak songs because when it's an unfinished and it's like somebody else just doing it for, I don't know. I feel like if I make a song with somebody and it doesn't work out, like they're welcome to do what they want with their part of it but don't do what you want with my part of it. I think that's rude, I think that's really not awesome..." Mike clearly was not happy about the song being released by Howes, and has stated no desire to rework or ever release the song officially.

~ Lyrics ~
Daylight / knowing I'm all alone
White lies / lining up on their own
You said you would stand on my side
Regret / it's too late to deny

All the back and forth and yes and no
All the right and wrong and high and low
And you set me up to let me down
But it all comes back around

What are you worth now?
What are you waiting for?
When every battlefield you run from generates a war?
What are you chasing?
What do you think you deserve?
Cause you will never have a thing unless you've got your word
What are you worth?

Last straw / as the sky turns to red
Free fall / while I fight to forget

All the back and forth and yes and no
All the right and wrong and high and low
And you set me up to let me down
But it all comes back around

What are you worth now?
What are you waiting for?
When every battlefield you run from generates a war?
What are you chasing?
What do you think you deserve?
Cause you will never have a thing unless you've got your word
What are you worth?
What are you worth?

All the back and forth and yes and no
All the right and wrong and high and low
And you set me up to let me down
But it all comes back around

What are you worth now?
What are you waiting for?
When every battlefield you run from generates a war?
What are you chasing?
What do you think you deserve?
Cause you will never have a thing unless you've got your word
What are you worth?
What are you worth?
What are you worth?
What are you worth?

Linkin Park - What Are You Worth? (2016 Demo)

Blanka (2008 Demo)

NOTE: This is Version 2 of an earlier recreation I did.
Listen on YouTube: https://youtu.be/v56BxOMIH-I
Download here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N0RpceRoJ7n0k9XfmJqaIejJIC3wvGbP/view?usp=drive_link

“Deftest” was an early Xero demo written by Mike Shinoda and Mark Wakefield around the same time as “Dialate”, before the band was formed. It was first mentioned by Mike on Twitch on October 15, 2020. He was questioned about it on October 20, to which he said, "LPLive is now trying to get locked on to Deftest as the new Pictureboard. Pictureboard is a pay off. Other demos, not so much. If you were to hear that, you would not be... I strongly suggest you don't start putting your attention on Deftest. That is not a thing to do. Pictureboard, you hear it, "Wow that's cool, I'm so glad we were so focused on that song." No I never said Pictureboard was a bad song. It has Chester on it. Deftest, Mark and I did like a four track cassette version of it and it sounds like s***. You guys don't want that, trust me. It's D-E-F-T-E-S-T by the way, not D-E-A-F, because Mark was a big fan of the Deftones. And we were just testing out ideas. So you can tell just right away, from the name itself, that it is not a grail. This is not an incredible f***ing thing. Trust me on this."

The full song remains unreleased to this day, but a snippet of the song was played by Dave Garrett (former bassist of Karma and Relative Degree, in which Relative Degree is the band that Mark Wakefield, Brad Delson, and Rob Bourdon were in before Xero was formed by Mark and Mike Shinoda, in which both Brad and Rob joined them thereafter) during his interview with LPLive.

This is what Dave said about “Deftest”: “I remember Mark bringing it back to me being like “Dude, I gotta gotta show you something” and I got to hear Dialate and Deftest for the first time and just like, you know, mind blown. It was freaking everything we ever would want. And back then it was definitely more separated when you think of the verse versus the chorus and what was rap versus rock. I think Linkin Park did a really good job of merging the two more. But man, it sounded… you know? Even though it was really raw. It was just like a little 4-track or whatever. I still listen to some of that stuff today and it just gives me the chills. That is the Deftest that I guess everybody’s been… I didn’t realize that had been a big deal.”

Text taken from Linkinpedia and Genius

Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.

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