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"Figure.09"
Song by Linkin Park
from the album Meteora
Working title:Figure.09 / Plaster II / Plaster 2
Recorded:2002
Length:03:17
Time signature:4/4
Tempo:98
Key:C# Minor
Live debut:July 4, 2003
Last performed:September 11, 2004
Writer:Linkin Park
Producer:Don Gilmore, Linkin Park
Label:Warner Bros.
Meteora tracklist
  1. Foreword
  2. Don't Stay
  3. Somewhere I Belong
  4. Lying From You
  5. Hit The Floor
  6. Easier To Run
  7. Faint
  8. Figure.09
  9. Breaking The Habit
  10. From The Inside
  11. Nobody's Listening
  12. Session
  13. Numb

"Figure.09" is the eighth track on Linkin Park's sophomore album Meteora. The song is mainly known by Linkin Park fans for its powerful live performances during the Meteora touring cycle, especially its extended outro featured in 2004.

Background

In March 2003, Mike Shinoda did a track-by-track of Meteora for ShoutWeb. About "Figure.09", he said, ""Figure .09" is another song that will be a lot of fun to play live. It's a really loud song. The first sound you hear sounds like little conga drums or something. It's actually Joe tapping on his turntables with a distortion pedal. So the distortion creates this drum type sound when he hits his needle and his vinyl. So he made this little beat just tapping on his records, which is really interesting. I think it's stuff like that that shows where Joe's going. He's doing some really creative things with his turntables. He's not limiting himself to just scratching and rubbing them back and forth and playing samples. He did some interesting stuff."[1][2]

On the Meteora booklet, the band wrote, "This song originally had rapping in the verses, then was rewritten with singing verses during the process at NRG, the singing parts remained until the recording was finished. Then, while mixing the album, Brad, Mike, Chester and Don swapped the rap verses back in, deciding that the rapping made the song more interesting. the rest of the band didn't hear the final version of the song until the album was complete."[3]

The band says the title as "Figure Nine", as evidenced by how they introduced it live in 2003 and 2004.[4]

Demos

An early demo version of "Figure.09" with different lyrics and no vocals during the verses was released on the LP Underground 9.0: Demos CD on November 23, 2009. The bridge of this version reuses the kids voices from Mike's original demo of "Marco Polo" by Styles Of Beyond, but the sample is a little longer and played backwards.

Another demo version of "Figure.09" with alternative rap verses can be heard during The Making Of Meteora and the LPTV episode "The Studio II".[5] When questioned why the lyrics were changed, Mike said, "I don't know why. If you're asking why we've changed the words to that track, the reason is always that we thought the new word, like we tried to beat and if we chose this new version is because we thought that the new version is better as a group."[6]

When asked about the song's title in October 2020, Mike said, "That is a demo title. You know how this song is called "Stinky Machine"? That's the same idea. I called the demo "Figure.09" and we couldn't think of a better name. Like, "let's call it this or that", nothing beat "Figure.09." "Figure.09" was cooler and weirder. Same with "Faint", by the way. Especially at that time, we were playing around with doing more abstract names or random weird names. "Figure.09" was something I was just looking at in a book. Do you know what I mean? You'll see that a lot in art books, like, the words reference certain images. It was literally just something I just saw when I was making the song, it was in something that I was looking at. It was just in the room."[7]

In April 2023, Linkin Park released a second demo of "Figure.09" on Meteora 20 with the name "Plaster 2." This title references the "One Step Closer" demo name of "Plaster", referring to the intro riff in the song. However, on the Meteora song board from NRG Studios, photos of two separate demos titled "Figure.09" and "Plaster II" are shown, which may indicate Linkin Park combined these demos to result in the final "Figure.09." This hypothesis might explain why the first "Figure.09" demo released from 2009 does not have the intro riff that the band likely called "Plaster II."

Brad Delson did a track-by-track commentary of the Lost Demos disc for the "Super Deluxe Box Set" book. About "Plaster 2", he wrote, "Yes. Don't remember "Plaster 1," and know there is no way it holds a candle to "Plaster 2." Hahahaha. This should be called "Figure.08" Oh, this bridge is coming! This song definitely echoes the bounce of "One Step Closer." Love the bookend outro."[8]

Versions

Note: Only the date of the very first release of each version is listed.

Studio

Title Album Length Recorded Released Notes
Figure.09 Meteora 3:17 2002 March 25, 2003
Figure.09 (Demo 2002) LP Underground 9.0: Demos

Meteora (20th Anniversary Edition)

3:23 2002 November 23, 2009
  • Different instrumental.
  • No vocals during verses.
  • Different lyrics during chorus and bridge.
Plaster 2 (Figure.09 Demo) Meteora (20th Anniversary Edition)

Lost Demos

2:57 2002 April 7, 2023
  • No vocals during chorus and bridge.
  • Mike Shinoda vocals only.
  • Different lyrics during verses.
Figure.09 Meteora - Instrumentals 3:14 2002
  • Official instrumental version.

Live

Title Album Length Recorded Released Notes
Figure.09 LP Underground 3.0 3:48 August 02, 2003

August 03, 2003

November 17, 2003
  • Live From Summer Sanitarium.
Figure.09 Live In Texas August 02, 2003

August 03, 2003

November 18, 2003
  • DVD only.
  • Recorded live August 2nd 2003 at Reliant Stadium in Houston, TX and August 3rd 2003 at Texas Stadium in Irving, TX on the Summer Sanitarium Tour.
Figure 9 - Projekt Revolution Tour 2004 LP Underground 4.0 3:13 August 13, 2004

September 01, 2004

November 22, 2004
  • Enhanced live video.
Figure.09 (Live In Texas) Meteora (20th Anniversary Edition) 3:51 August 02, 2003

August 03, 2003

April 7, 2023
  • Edited differently from the 2003 release.
  • Live In Texas.
Figure.09 Meteora (20th Anniversary Edition) 5:32 July 12, 2003 April 7, 2023
Figure.09 Meteora (20th Anniversary Edition) 3:50 October 29, 2003 April 7, 2023
Figure.09 Meteora (20th Anniversary Edition) 4:48 August 30, 2004 April 7, 2023

Live

The first confirmed performance of "Figure.09" was at the first show of the Summer Sanitarium tour, though it is likely it was performed at the warm-up show directly before. "Figure.09" was played throughout the rest of this tour, the 2003 European Tour, and the 2003 Australia and Asia tour after "From The Inside" before it was dropped starting with the Smoke Out performance. The song returned at the first show of Projekt Revolution 2004, and was played through the end of 2004. "Figure.09" was played after "Somewhere I Belong", and featured a new, transition outro that led into "From The Inside". The most common lyrics that Chester screamed on that outro were "blood, anger, suffering / love, hate, fear."

After the Meteora cycle ended, "Figure.09" was dropped and hasn't been played since.

Variations

Last Updated: October 12, 2015

Type Description First Played Last Played
Outro Blood, Anger, Suffering Outro Transition July 23, 2004 September 11, 2004

Personnel

Linkin Park

  • Chester Bennington: vocals
  • Rob Bourdon: drums
  • Brad Delson: guitar
  • Joseph Hahn: records, sampling
  • Phoenix: bass
  • Mike Shinoda: emcee, vocals, sampling

Production

  • Don Gilmore: producer
  • Andy Wallace: mixer

Lyrics

Album Version

Nothing ever stops all these thoughts
And the pain attached to them
Sometimes I wonder why this is happening
It's like nothing I can do will distract me when
I think of how I shot myself in the back again
‘Cause from the infinite words I could say / I
Put all the pain you gave to me on display / but didn't
Realize / instead of setting it free / I
Took what I hated and made it a part of me

It never goes away
It never goes away
 
And now
You've become a part of me
You'll always be right here
You've become a part of me
You'll always be my fear
I can't separate myself from what I've done
Giving up a part of me
I've let myself become you
Hearing your name / The memories come back again
I remember when it started happening
I'd see you in every thought I had and then
The thoughts slowly found words attached to them
And I knew as they escaped away I was
Committing myself to them / And every day I
Regret saying those things / 'cause now I see / that I
Took what I hated and made it a part of me

It never goes away
It never goes away

And now
You've become a part of me
You'll always be right here
You've become a part of me
You'll always be my fear
I can't separate myself from what I've done
Giving up a part of me
I've let myself become you
 
It never goes away
It never goes away
It never goes away
It never goes away
Get away from
Me
Gimme my space back / You gotta just
Go
Everything comes down to memories of
You
I've kept it in but now I'm letting you
Know
I've let you go
So, get away from
Me
Gimme my space back / You gotta just
Go
Everything comes down to memories of
You
I've kept it in but now I'm letting you
Know
I've let you go
 
And now
You've become a part of me
You'll always be right here
You've become a part of me
You'll always be my fear
I can't separate myself from what I've done
Giving up a part of me
I've let myself become you
I've let myself become you
I've let myself become lost inside these
Thoughts of you
Giving up a part of me
I've let myself become you

LP Underground 9.0 Demo

All these things I could not say,
Made me so much more afraid.
Just too scared of what I'd find,
to look behind, to look behind.

All these things I could not say,
made me so much more afraid.
Just too scared of what I'd find,
to look behind, to look behind.

If you go, there's no turning back.
If you go, there's no turning back.
If you go, there's no turning back.
there's no turning back!

No, no, no, no, no, no...
NOOOOO!
NO TURNING BACK!
NOOOOO!
NO TURNING BACK!
NOOOOO!
NO TURNING BACK!
NOOOOO!
NO TURNING BACK!

All these things I could not say,
made me so much more afraid.
Just too scared of what I'd find,
to look behind.

All of these things I could not say,
made me so much more afraid.
Just too scared of what I'd find,
to look behind, CAN'T LOOK BEHIND!

Plaster 2

The light kicks in and the night begins
Goes back to the way that it was before
I give everything that I can give in
But still you look at me like I owe you more
So I take what's mine, 'til it all is gone
Thinking of all the ways that you do me wrong
And as the lights stay out and the night goes on
I force things to fit where they don't belong

Even in the times when I backed away
I still found everything coming back to you
But I never believed all the things that you say
Until I found out that I was saying them too
So I tried to undo what I thought was gone
Trying to take it back how I did you wrong
And as the lights stay out and the night goes on
I pretend that I fit where I don't belong

In Other Media

  • "Figure.09" is featured in the 2003 film S.W.A.T..

External Links

References