What I've Done

Template:Single "What I've Done" is the sixth track off of Linkin Park's third studio album, Minutes To Midnight. The song was released as the album's lead single on April 2, 2007. The song was used as the main theme for 2007 action film, Transformers. The live version of "What I've Done" from Road To Revolution: Live At Milton Keynes was nominated for "Best Hard Rock Performance" at the 52nd Grammy Awards.

Background

"What I've Done" was the last song finished for the album, as revealed by the booklet for Minutes To Midnight, which read "One of the last songs finished for the album, the lyrics for this song were intended to work on many levels, including freedom, art, and death metaphors." The limited edition booklet expanded on that, stating "At the end of over one year in the studio, the band felt that the album was finished. After initial listening, however, they were devastated to hear from friends that the album felt like it was missing a piece—one more song. The band was horrified. Many of the songs on the record had taken months to write, so throwing a new one together that could stand up to the rest was unlikely. To complicate matters, any further writing meant they might miss deadlines that had been set up for album release and touring. In spite of risks, the band decided to take this challenge of character. A little over a week later, the record was officially ready for release with the addition of “What I’ve Done.”"

The April 2007 issue of a French magazine published a track by track of Minutes To Midnight on which Rob said, "Joe did the first demo of this song, wrote the music, and Mike and Chester wrote the lyrics. This was the last song recorded for the album. The record was finished at Rick's studio in Laurel Canyon, but we felt like there was something missing, the very glue that binds the whole album together. We got together at NRG studio (where we recorded "Hybrid Theory" and "Meteora"), easily composed this song and recorded it in just 2 days."

Mike said, "It was the last song we did, and a challenge to doing a song like this... we spent a long time on the other songs, and we decided we needed one more to round out the album and to sum up everything we put into this record musically. And that's a real challenge, to say "Everything you've done right, in the last year, every song that's taken 3, 6, 9 months to write... do another one in like 2 weeks." It was a stressful, pressure thing. I feel like the guys stepped up and it came together in about a week and a half."

The original demo was created in Mike Shinoda's home studio, as he explained, "I usually record demos in my house and historically I’ve done demos for 10 years. We cut my vocals on many, many songs and Chester’s vocals on many, many songs at my house. It’s one room and I’ve got basically a small drum kit, a ton of keyboards, a few guitars and basses and a microphone. The drum sample you hear at the beginning of “What I’ve Done” was done in that room; Chester’s vocals for “New Divide,” “What I’ve Done” and a couple of songs from One More Light were done in that room. All my vocals forever, I demoed them there and some of them ended up being keepers."

Part of the drums on the final track were played by Mike himself as he explained, "Piece of LP trivia - that drum beat in the intro, and it goes below all of the verses, that's me playing drums. This is Rob playing over the top of a loop. So as far as back as 2007, I was already trying to play drums."

Chester Bennington described the song as a summation of the whole mentality of Minutes To Midnight in an interview with MTV, stating "Joe [Hahn] came up to Mike and I and asked us to take the whole idea of Minutes to Midnight and apply that to how the band has changed. So, in a way, it’s us saying goodbye to how we used to be. The lyrics in the first verse are ’In this farewell, there is no blood, there is no alibi,’ and right away, you’ll notice that the band sounds different: The drums are much more raw, the guitars are more raw and the vocals aren’t tripled. It’s just us out there … and that’s how Rick wanted it. Basically he told us, ’If it sounds like it could’ve been on the first two records, then we’re not going to work on it.’" Mike Shinoda backed up this statement in an interview with Kerrang!, where the band did a track-by-track analysis of the album. "On the other albums, Brad and I started every song together [separately]. But this was the only song that we wrote together and was the last one we finished. We wanted a song that encapsulated the feel of the whole record and I think this is that song. You're going to get something different out of every time you listen to it."

Brad Delson described the song as a bridge between the old and new sound of Linkin Park. "There are definitely elements to the record that you can identify as Linkin Park, probably the best of which would be our first single, ‘What I’ve Done.’ It’s really in a sense a bridge from where we were to kind of where this record wound up. But each one of the songs that made the album was recorded in a totally different environment, has a totally unique sound, and beyond just the style of the songs we really focused through and through on the content of this record—the lyrics, the melodies. We didn’t work on the style of many of the songs in terms of the arrangements or polishing the context until we knew that the basic ideas in each case were really, really strong."

"What I've Done" was the first in a series of Linkin Park songs used in the Transformers film franchise. Brad Delson explained how the collaboration came about, "It was an interesting fact, because when we were thinking about putting a song of ours in the Transformers film, the director Michael Bay came with his team in this hotel and showed a little of the film with our music. We talked and ended up building a relationship between Linkin Park's music and the films. The song hadn't been released yet, just a little preview. It was kind of behind the scenes."

During the promotion of Minutes To Midnight, Linkin Park used three different instrumental pieces as background music for their site. One of those instrumentals, known as "Minutes To Midnight Clip 1" was revealed by Mike Shinoda to have been a slow, dark improvisation on "What I've Done" in a Linkin Park message board post in 2009. He said, "This link is actually real...but they're not demos. These are songs I made for linkinpark.com when we released Minutes To Midnight. The first one is actually a really slow, dark improvisation on "What I've Done!" Someone should tell the people on youtube (in the comments or something...link to this post)."

An alternative version of "What I've Done" can be heard playing in the background during the Making Of What I've Done. In this version, Mike sings an extra "na" in the end of the song.

Remix

"What I've Done" received two official remixes, both of which were done by Mike Shinoda and both are very similar. The first, dubbed the "Distorted Remix", was released on the "Bleed It Out" single and on the tour edition of Minutes To Midnight. The second, simply titled the "M. Shinoda Remix", was released on LP Underground X: Demos. The latter is the same as the "Distorted Remix", except for the bridge being shortened and the guitar cutting out at the end of quieter part of the track that leads into the final chorus.

Tracklist

CD Single

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	What I've Done	Linkin Park	3:29
2	Faint (Live)	Linkin Park	2:46
3	From The Inside (Live)	Linkin Park	3:31

Vinyl Single

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	What I've Done	Linkin Park	3:29
2	Faint (Live)	Linkin Park	2:46

Music Video

Music Video

The music video for "What I've Done" was directed by Joe Hahn and uses stock footage pertaining to world events along with a performance from the band shot at El Mirage, a dry lake bed in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino, California.

During a Fort Minor Militia chat on April 5, 2007, Mike Shinoda explained why the band decided to shoot the video in an Californian desert: "we filmed the video for what i've done in el mirage because the desert scene related the lyrics and because it fit in with the themes of the video (the stock footage)"

Later in the chat, he also talked about the meaning behind the video: "most of the things on the minutes midnight album work in layers of meaning. there's no single correct theme for anything, i think. but there are themes that i know are there...for example the video like the album title, is about death and rebirth. you could apply that concept a part of your life, a relationship, even our band...but the video works on a level that's aware of the world and our power build or destroy it."

Video Credits

Artist Name: Linkin Park
Song Name: What I've Done
Director: Joe Hahn
Production Company: Radical Media
Producers: Bill Boyd
Video Commissioner: Devin Sarno
Record Label: Warner Bros. Records
Production Design: Zach Mathews, Production Designer

Australian Alternative Video

An alternate video for the song was released in Australia and follows a woman (played by Emma Mullings) trying to expose a government conspiracy. It was commissioned by WB Australia with no involvement from the band and was originally released on minutestomidnight.com.au, which was the official Australian website for the new album at the time. The video was filmed by Inspire Films Australia whose personnel was Peter Kirk (director), Kambui "Zig" Parker (producer) and Raphael LaMotta Heatley (editor).

Versions

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

Studio

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
What I've Done	Minutes To Midnight Transformers: The Album Iridescent	3:25	2006-2007	May 14, 2007
What I've Done	What I've Done	3:28	2006-2007	April 2, 2007	Lacks the transition from "Shadow Of The Day".
		2:03	2007	2007	Slow, dark improvisation on "What I've Done" by Mike Shinoda. Used as linkinpark.com background music during the promotion for the album Minutes To Midnight along with two other instrumental pieces. Known as "Minutes To Midnight Clip 1".
What I've Done		0:30	2007	2007	Instrumental loop of the intro. Used as linkinpark.com background music during the promotion of the single. Released on iTunes as a ringtone.
Bang Three (What I've Done Original Demo)	LP Underground Eleven	3:30		November 15, 2011	Instrumental demo.
What I've Done	Minutes To Midnight Instrumentals Radio Publishing Instrumentals CD	3:32	2006-2007		The CD dates from May 24, 2007. Official instrumental version.

Remix

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
What I've Done (Distorted Remix)	Bleed It Out Minutes To Midnight (Tour Edition)	3:48	2007	August 17, 2007	Remix by Mike Shinoda.
What I've Done (M.Shinoda Remix)	LP Underground X: Demos	3:40	2007	November 17, 2010	Remix by Mike Shinoda. Shorter bridge. The guitar cuts out at the end of the quiet section that leads into the last chorus.

Live

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
What I've Done (Live)	What I've Done (Live)	3:26	March, 2007	May 10, 2007	AT&T Blue Room Performance. Audio released on the "What I've Done (Live)" single. Only available in the German iTunes store.
What I've Done (Live)	Minutes To Midnight (iTunes Deluxe Version)	3:29	March, 2007	May 14, 2007	Best Buy Music Performance. Different vocal EQ mixed to make Chester raspier when compared to the video. Joe's scratch mistake before the guitar kicks in was edited out. Bonus track on the initial iTunes release.
What I've Done	Minutes To Midnight (MVI Disc)	3:23	March, 2007	May 14, 2007	Third Encore Performance. Downloadable video on the Minutes To Midnight MVI disc.
What I've Done (Live At AOL Sessions)	Minutes To Midnight	3:25	March 14, 2007	May 14, 2007	AOL Sessions Performance. Downloadable MP3 on the BestBuy edition.
What I've Done (Live At Soundcheck)	Minutes To Midnight (Wal-Mart Edition)	3:22	March, 2007	May 14, 2007	Wal-Mart Soundcheck Performance. Downloadable MP3.
What I've Done (Live)	Minutes To Midnight (Circuit City Edition)	3:24	March, 2007	May 14, 2007	Circuit City Performance.
What I've Done	LP Underground 7.0	3:21	August 26, 2007	December 5, 2007	Recorded live at the New England Dodge Music Center in Hartford, CT on August 26, 2007.
What I've Done (29/01/08 LP Live London 2)	Minutes To Midnight (EU Tour Edition)	7:27	January 29, 2008	December 12, 2007	Downloadable MP3. Download codes expired on December 17, 2008.
What I've Done	Road To Revolution: Live At Milton Keynes	5:01	June 29, 2008	November 21, 2008	Filmed at the National Bowl, Milton Keynes June 29, 2008.
What I've Done (Live In Madrid)	A Thousand Suns: Puerta De Alcalá	3:32	November 07, 2010	January 25, 2011
What I've Done	Live In Madrid	3:32	November 07, 2010	April 1, 2011	A Thousand Suns+ DVD. Includes bonus MP3 of the show.
What I've Done	Live In Red Square	3:37	June 23, 2011	July 21, 2011	Released as a prize for the "Iridescent" "Super-Fun Trading Fun-Cards" game. After all six cards were collected, the person could enter the codes of each card at linkinpark.com to get a free download of the full show.
What I've Done (Live)	Burn It Down Living Things (AU Tour Edition)	4:04	July 04, 2011	May 18, 2012	From iTunes Live: London Festival 2011.
What I've Done (Live From New York, 2008)	Minutes To Midnight - Live Around The World	4:58	February 21, 2008	June 12, 2012
What I've Done	Live At Admiralspalast Berlin, Germany		June 05, 2012	March 29, 2013	DVD only. Living Things+ bonus DVD.
What I've Done	Live In Monterrey		September 12, 2012	June 13, 2014	DVD only. The Hunting Party bonus DVD. Live show filmed at Arena Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico on September 12, 2012.
What I've Done	One More Light Live	4:33	June 27, 2017	December 15, 2017

Live

"What I've Done" has been a staple song in Linkin Park's setlists since it's initial debut on the Minutes To Midnight touring cycle. The song debuted on the promotional tour for the album at the end of the main set, with the album transition intro preceding it. On the Minutes To Midnight European Tour, the song was initially moved up to the closing song in the main set before "Bleed It Out" traded positions with it, moving "What I've Done" into the encore. On Projekt Revolution, the band introduced rotating setlists, where "What I've Done" was featured at the end of the main set in Set A and Set B, and in the encore of Set C. In the "hybrid" set, or Set D, "What I've Done" was moved down into a mid-set position, after "Shadow Of The Day". This change translated into performances of Set B for the remainder of the year. In 2008, the band debuted another three sets, with the song gaining a new extended intro entitled the AMBO Intro - in Set R and Set S, the song with its intro opened the first encore, whereas in Set T, the song and its intro opened the show for the first time. The AMBO Intro was scrapped for the initial drafts of the second batch of setlists for 2008: the song, with its album transition intro, was performed at the end of the main set in Set X and Set Z, and opened the show in Set Y with a piano intro by Mike. On Projekt Revolution, the Street Drum Corps began to join the band for the song, with the AMBO Intro returning in all sets. In the new versions of the sets, "What I've Done" opened the first encore in Set X, opened the show in Set Y, and closed the first encore in Set Z. The song was dropped on the first show of the tour in Mansfield, Massachusetts due to time constraints - the only time on the cycle where the song was not performed. In 2009, "What I've Done" was performed mid-set, but the AMBO Intro was still performed.

"What I've Done" was used as the closing song for the first few shows of the A Thousand Suns touring cycle in New York and South America, before "Bleed It Out" returned as the closing song. "What I've Done" was featured as the second-to-last song in the encore for nearly every show of the A Thousand Suns European Tour until the second night in London, England, where the song was third in the set after an opening of "Fallout" and "The Catalyst". This position was held for one more show, when the band played the same opening sequence in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The band introduced two sets on the A Thousand Suns Australian tour, with the song still featured second-to-last in Set A-1. In Set B-1 and Set B-9, the song was featured near the beginning of the show. In 2011, the song experienced much the same fate. In Set A, the song was featured second-to-last in the encore. In Set B and Set C, the song was performed earlier in the set. During the band's summer touring, the song was performed early in the set in Set A, Set B, and Set C, and second-to-last position in the encore in Set D and Set E.

On the Living Things touring cycle, "What I've Done" was performed mid-set in the festival setlist and near the end of the main set in the headlining setlist on the European promotional tour. On the Honda Civic Tour, the song was featured at the end of the main set in Set A and Set B, and initially in the second-to-last spot in Set C before being moved down to the mid-set. Starting in Mexico City, Mexico, Mike began periodically extending the outro of the song and conducting a sing-a-long with the crowd. The band shortened the song at their performance at the iHeartRadio Festival, cutting the first chorus and second verse of it. The song's position was maintained in 2013. At the beginning of 2014, the band performed the song with Mike Einziger from Incubus at the Concert For The Philippines. At the band's honoring at the UCLA Evening Of Environmental Excellence, the song was performed as part of a piano medley, along with "Leave Out All The Rest" and "Shadow Of The Day".

The song saw the least movement of The Hunting Party touring cycle. The song featured a shortened intro, transitioning from the ending of "Until It's Gone", and a new extended guitar solo bridge. For the entirety of 2014, the song was played as the second-to-last song in the setlist, barring one performance: at the band's surprise appearance on the Warped Tour, the band was joined by Ryan Key from Yellowcard to perform the song, which was third-to-last, before "A Place For My Head" and "Bleed It Out". At the band's last performance on The Hunting Party European Tour (the second night in London, England), Brad's guitar technician, Benjamin Chandler, came out after the song concluded and performed a guitar solo. The song did not see much movement in 2015, though the song has some interesting changes at the end of the cycle. The song was performed with a short piano cover of the "Halloween" theme by Mike Myers before the song at the band's show at the Monster Mash. The song was dropped due to time constraints at the show at BlizzCon, and was finally performed with Adrian Young of No Doubt at Relief Live at the end of the touring cycle.

Although the band eventually went with an extended ticking intro for the song in 2014, the first draft of the set had a fan-made dubstep remix (likely as a placeholder) of "What I've Done" as an intro, transitioning out of the Vice remix of "I'll Be Gone".

Before the touring for One More Light began, Mike and Chester did a series of promotional shows in Europe leading up to their performance of "Heavy" at the ECHO Awards in Berlin, Germany on April 6. At some of these performances, they performed a new piano version of "What I've Done" similar to the one played during the medley in 2014. This version lacks the bridge, where the guitar solo would normally be. The full version of the song returned when the full band began touring, a new intro being added to the track, while the extended guitar solo bridge remained. Mike would vary when he began playing the piano intro of the song during the intro. At the Hollywood Bowl tribute show, all of Blink-182 performed the song with the band. This performance had the 2017 Intro but not the extended guitar solo.

Variations

Last Updated: August 25, 2018

Type	Description	First Played	Last Played
Intro	Album Transition Intro	April 28, 2007	October 7, 2012
Intro	Album Transition Intro Tease	June 17, 2008	June 17, 2008
Intro	AMBO Intro	January 16, 2008	August 22, 2009
Intro	MS Piano Intro	June 7, 2008	June 27, 2008
Intro	Improv. Piano Intro	June 10, 2008	August 19, 2013
Intro	Street Drum Corps Intro: Train/Tailpipe	July 18, 2008	August 24, 2008
Intro	Short Piano Intro	October 26, 2010	October 26, 2010
Intro	Long Album Transition Intro	January 22, 2011	January 22, 2011
Intro	Short Ticking Intro	May 24, 2014	November 14, 2015
Intro	2017 Intro	May 6, 2017	October 27, 2017
Intro	2017 Intro w/ Piano Improv.	June 17, 2017	June 17, 2017
Bridge	Ext. Guitar Solo Bridge	May 24, 2014	July 6, 2017
Outro	Sing-a-long Outro	August 1, 2007	June 20, 2017
Outro	Improv. Keyboard Outro	January 27, 2008	January 27, 2008
Outro	Keyboard Outro	January 22, 2011	January 22, 2011
Outro	Guitar Solo Outro (performed by Benjamin Chandler)	November 24, 2014	November 24, 2014
Alternative	Shortened (No First Verse or Second Chorus)	September 22, 2012	September 22, 2012
Alternative	Piano Version (Piano/Vocals Only)	March 24, 2017	March 27, 2017

Live Guests

Last Updated: December 26, 2015

• Adrian Young (No Doubt)
• Benjamin Chandler (replacing Brad Delson)
• Blink-182
• Mike Einziger (Incubus)
• Ryan Key (Yellowcard)
• Street Drum Corps
• Warren Willis (replacing Joe Hahn)

Awards and Nominations

Studio Version

Year	Award	Category	Status
2007	MTV Video Music Awards	Best Editing in a Video	Nominated
2007	MTV Video Music Awards	Best Director	Nominated
2007	mtvU Woodie Awards	Viral Woodie	Nominated
2007	Kerrang! Awards	Best Video	Nominated
2007	Planeta Awards	The Megaplaneta of the Year	Nominated
2007	Planeta Awards	Rock Song of the Year	Nominated
2007	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Rock Track	Nominated
2008	MTV Video Music Awards Japan	Best Rock Video	Nominated
2008	MTV Video Music Awards Japan	Best Video from a Film	Nominated
2008	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Song from a Soundtrack: Transformers: The Album	Nominated

Live At Milton Keynes

Year	Award	Category	Status
2010	Grammy Awards	Best Hard Rock Performance	Nominated

Personnel

• Chester Bennington
• Mike Shinoda
• Brad Delson
• Dave "Phoenix" Farrell
• Joseph Hahn
• Rob Bourdon

Track 1

• Produced by Rick Rubin and Mike Shinoda
• Mixed by Neal Avron
• Worldwide Representation: Rob McDermott for Mad Mac Entertainment
• Management Team: Ryan DeMarti and Trish Evangelista
• From The Warner Bros. / Machine Shop Recordings Album Minutes To Midnight
• Art Direction: Frank Maddocks
• Photograph: James Minchin III

Track 2

• Recorded Live In Japan
• Mixed by Ethan Mates

Track 3

• Recorded Live In Japan
• Mixed by Ethan Mates

Lyrics

Album Version

In this farewell
There's no blood
There's no alibi
Cause I've drawn regret
From the truth
Of a thousand lies
So let mercy come
And wash away

What I've done
I'll face myself
To cross out what I've become
Erase myself
And let go of what I've done

Put to rest
What you thought of me
While I clean this slate
With the hands
Of uncertainty
So let mercy come
And wash away

What I've done
I'll face myself
To cross out what I've become
Erase myself
And let go of what I've done

For what I've done
I start again
And whatever pain may come
Today this ends
I'm forgiving what I've done

I'll face myself
To cross out what I've become
Erase myself
And let go of what I've done
 
Na na na
Na na na
Na na na
What I've done
 
Na na na
Na na na
Na na na
Forgiving what I've done
 
Na na na
Na na na
Na na na
Na na

Gallery

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  Digital Single

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  Amazon Single

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  Single CD

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  Cardboard Sleeve Single CD

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  Japanese Promo CD

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  Vinyl Side A

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  Vinyl Side B

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  Vinyl Concept Side A

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  Vinyl Concept Side B

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  DVD artwork

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  Transformers: The Album

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  Transformers (Music From And Inspired By)

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  Transformers (Music From The Motion Picture)

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  Biggest: 18 Hits In One Super Value Album

In Other Media

• "What I've Done" is featured in the 2007 film Transformers and was included in its soundtrack album.
• "What I've Done" is featured in the 2008 videogame Guitar Hero World Tour.
• "What I've Done" was released in 2011 as part of a DLC for the 2010 videogame Rock Band 3.
• "What I've Done" was released in 2015 as part of a DLC for the 2013 videogame Rocksmith 2014.

Cover Versions

American singer Marié Digby uploaded to her YouTube channel a video of herself playing piano and singing Linkin Park's "What Ive Done" on June 25, 2007. Later that year, a professionally recorded acoustic version of the song was released on her Start Here EP. A video of herself covering "Waiting For The End" was uploaded to her YouTube channel a video on October 10, 2010.

Ukrainian musician Denis Stoff, known for being Make Me Famous and Asking Alexandria's frontman, recorded a cover of "What I've Done" which was uploaded to his YouTube channel in 2015. Asking Alexandria also performed the song acoustically at the Hard Rock Cafe in Detroit during 101 WRIF's Riff Rock Girl Finals Party in May 2016.

On July 30, 2016, "What I've Done" was performed by 130 musicians as part of the second Rocknmob that took place at the Gorky Park in Moscow, Russia. The performance draw the attention of Linkin Park, who shared the video on Facebook.

External Links

• What I've Done (Music Video): LPTV | WBR | WMG | MTV | VK
• What I've Done (Australian Version): The Inspire Agency | Emma Mullings
• What I've Done (Moscow 2011): LPTV
• What I've Done (Rio+Social 2012): The Live Room
• LOATR/SOTD/WID (UCLA Evening of Environmental Excellence 2014): UCLA IoES