Pictureboard

"Pictureboard" was a song written when Linkin Park was still called Xero and had Mark Wakefield on vocals. It was re-recorded with Chester Bennington after he joined the band. The song has never been released in any form and was played live just once when Linkin Park changed their name from Hybrid Theory, likely at either the two shows in West Hollywood, CA in June and July 2000.

Background

The song was first mentioned by Mike Shinoda during a private LP Underground chat in 2005 for an LPU winner and ten of their friends: "a place for my head used to be called esaul and there was a song called pictureboard which we actually played on stage one time probably 5 years ago with linkin park. we played it after we changed our name. i think that was the only time we played a xero song that wasn't on hybrid theory after we changed our name."

Since then, many fans have been asking the band through the years to release the song. Information was leaked that the song was intended to be released on the LP Underground 9.0: Demos CD but was removed at the last minute and replaced with "Across The Line". The song even has an entry in the BMI database. The fact that Chester is on the BMI entry means that the version that was registered was recorded with Chester.

During an LPU chat on November 19, 2011, Mike revealed the reason: "Pictureboard has samples in it. Can’t give to LPU." In the 2015 LPAssociation podcast, Mike reiterated that it can't be released due to samples in the song, and stated "It's not worth it, man. You guys think it's like this imaginary holy grail of a song. It's really not that great." When asked if the song was worked into something else, he said, "It did not. It got played back then and then there's a sample in it so we didn't play it anymore so we didn't want to deal with it anymore. So that's the story on that. I don't know if it was played as an intro to another song. Not a record, I'll tell you that much."

The song remains unreleased.

Versions

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

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
Pictureboard					Chester Bennington on vocals. Removed from LP Underground 9.0: Demos at the last minute in favour of "Across The Line". Contains an unknown sample. Unreleased due to copyright reasons.

Live

It is unknown when the full song was performed, but it is confirmed that the song was at least performed once live: likely at one of the two shows in West Hollywood, California in June 2000.

From LPLive's 2001 touring summary article, Astat said about the "Be Yourself" interlude, "This little interlude is one of the most mysterious things in Linkin Park's live concert folklore. It was randomly played by Brad, Rob, and Phoenix at the June 2nd, 2001 Rock Im Park show in Germany, in what sounded sort of like an improv jam, but it also seemed like the three of them knew their parts a little TOO well, so it's long been suspected that this is part of an unreleased early Linkin Park demo, possibly the long-fabled "Pictureboard" track. The title "Be Yourself" was given to this piece by fans, due to Chester repeatedly singing that phrase over the ending of it (it's been erroneously called "In Yourself" for years). This interlude was subsequently played again at two more shows on June 3rd and June 8th, only to disappear as suddenly as it appeared! No further information about this piece has surfaced over the years."

A setlist was obtained on eBay in May 2016 for the band's show at the Q101 Jamborree, a few weeks before the show at Rock im Park where the song debuted. On the setlist, a mysterious "MELLOW Interlude" appeared before "Pushing Me Away". Previously, that interlude had not been listed on any setlists (meaning it was different from the "LEE Interlude", "SHORT Interlude", and "FALLING DOWN Interlude" which the band had been playing during that time), and it's speculated that the "MELLOW Interlude" may be "Be Yourself". This isn't confirmed, but it stands as a possibility.

As part of the promotion for the 20th anniversary edition of Hybrid Theory, Linkin Park finally confirmed that "Be Yourself" is indeed part of "Pictureboard".