| "Wisdom, Justice, And Love" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Song by Linkin Park | |
| from the album A Thousand Suns | |
| Recorded: | 2008 - 2010 |
| Length: | 01:38 |
| Time signature: | 5/4 |
| Tempo: | 83.5 |
| Key: | A Minor |
| Samples: | Martin Luther King Jr. - Beyond Vietnam -- A Time To Break Silence |
| Live debut: | October 7, 2010 |
| Last performed: | September 25, 2011 |
| Writer: | Linkin Park |
| Producer: | Mike Shinoda, Rick Rubin |
| Label: | Warner Bros. |
| A Thousand Suns tracklist | |
Background
"Wisdom, Justice, And Love" features parts of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Beyond Vietnam" speech, his first anti-war speech in which he drew comparisons between the Vietnam War and African-American civil rights, delivered on April 4, 1967, above piano chords. King's voice slowly becomes more and more robotic, as if to symbolize society is becoming less and less empathetic. The speeches resonate differently today as they did then, but they were used in the songs because they still have relevance today.[1] The ending of "Wisdom, Justice, And Love" transitioned directly into "Iridescent".
Versions
Note: Only the date of the very first release of each version is listed.
Studio
| Title | Album | Length | Recorded | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wisdom, Justice, And Love | A Thousand Suns | 1:38 | 2008-2010 | September 8, 2010 |
|
| Wisdom, Justice, And Love | A Thousand Suns Instrumentals | 1:38 | 2008-2010 |
|
Live
| Title | Album | Length | Recorded | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wisdom, Justice, And Love | Live In Red Square | 1:41 | June 23, 2011 | July 21, 2011 |
|
Live
Linkin Park
"Wisdom, Justice, And Love" got its live debut at the Buenos Aires show on the A Thousand Suns South American Tour. The song was always played after "Waiting For The End" in 2010, except for the final three shows of the Australian tour in Melbourne, Homebush, and Bruce, where the song wasn't played at all. The song moved around a bit more during the 2011 North American Tour. It was played after "Waiting For The End" in sets A-1 and B-11, opened the encore in Sets C-5 and C-6, and wasn't played at all in Set B-13. Also, starting with the Atlanta show, "Wisdom, Justice, And Love" was omitted from DSPs due to copyright issues with the MLK Jr. family. "Wisdom, Justice, And Love" didn't move much on the European and Asian tours, opening the encore in Set A, following "Waiting For The End" in sets B, D, E, and the one-off Singapore setlist, and following "In The End" in the one-off Moscow setlist. After the A Thousand Suns tour ended, the song was dropped and hasn't been played in full since.
While the full song hasn't been played since the end of the A Thousand Suns tour, parts of the song returned during the The Hunting Party cycle in the new live version of "Castle Of Glass", with the very beginning part of the speech being played during the bridge starting with the second show in Brazil in 2014.
Mike Shinoda
While Mike was touring in support of his solo album Post Traumatic, "Wisdom, Justice, And Love" was added to the set in Moscow. It was played as a piano instrumental at this show, with the full song with the speech debuting in Toronto. It was then used fairly frequently as an encore opener, paired with "Iridescent". At certain shows, Mike would rap the first verse of "Hands Held High" over the piano part of the song and, in San Francisco, Mike rapped the second verse of "Hands Held High" before playing the piano version of "In The End", the first time it was ever played separate from "Iridescent".
Variations
Last Updated: July 10, 2019
| Type | Description | First Played | Last Played |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alternative | Piano Instrumental | September 1, 2018 | September 4, 2019 |
| Alternate | w/ 'Hands Held High' Verse 1 | October 13, 2018 | November 5, 2018 |
| Alternative | w/ 'Hands Held High' Verse 2 | November 6, 2018 | November 6, 2018 |
Personnel
Lyrics
Martin Luther King, Jr.:
"I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight
Because my conscience leaves me no other choice.
A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war,
This way of settling differences is not just.
This business of burning human beings with napalm,
Of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows,
Of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane,
Of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged,
Cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love
Cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love
Cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love
Cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love
Cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love
Cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love