A Place for My Head

"A Place for My Head" is a song by Linkin Park, ninth track from their debut album Hybrid Theory. It was also remixed for their first remix album Reanimation and titled "Plc.4 Mie Hæd". Its working title was known as "Esaul", which contains three early demos: one that's the same name from the Hybrid Theory 2-track sampler, another version with slightly altered lyrics from the 9-track sampler Hybrid Theory Demos, and "Esaul (A Place for My Head Demo)", which remained unreleased until November 2011, with another pair of slightly altered lyrics from their eleventh LPU compilation album LP Underground 11.

Critical response

Sputnikmusic stated that "A Place for My Head" was a highlight of Hybrid Theory."^[2] However, NME states that emo-crunchers such as "A Place for My Head" are 'pointlessly jazzed up with tokenistic scratching."^[3] Mentioning the remixed version, "Plc.4 Mie Hæd," The Rolling Stone says that certain remixed off of Reanimation "make a lame song even worse (Zion I's "Place for My Head")"^[4]

Live performance

It was a staple from its original performance all the way through 2004, when it was dropped from the sets. It was brought back in 2008, and then again for one show in Paris on October 25, 2010, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Hybrid Theory. It is being played in Set B of the Living Things World Tour. Even though the song was dropped from the sets, "A Place for My Head" has been mashed up with both "Points of Authority" (during the outro) and "Bleed It Out" (during the bridge).

During the 2003–2004 period of the song, it was usually played as the second to last song, only before "One Step Closer".

There are several differences in the song when played live: Brad Delson occasionally extends the guitar riff intro, and in most recent concerts, also Joe Hahn and Rob Bourdon play an extended intro. During the bridge, Chester Bennington will sometimes change one of the "You try to take the best of me" lines into "You will never get the best of me" and, at the end of the song, Bennington will commonly scream "motherfucker!". In 2013 in Melbourne, Linkin Park gave the crowd a chance to choose between two songs they wanted the band to play; the choice was either "In the End" or "A Place for My Head"; this was the first time the band had ever given the crowd the chance to do this, but eventually "A Place for My Head" won. This was the first time since 2000 that the true studio version was played and was the first time since 2001 that "In the End" was taken out of the set list, in 2015 they played the song at the "rock in rome" concert in italy because It was the favorite song of a fan that died that year.

References