Lies Greed Misery

Album: Living Things (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • Speaking with Abcdane.net, Chester Bennington said that this in-your-face number, "just came out of nowhere." "Mike (Shinoda) told me to scream anything, just let out my anger and I did just that," he explained. "Before we realized it, we had a song on our hands. In the beginning it seemed too pop, like a tune you could dance to. We had to take out the party vibe and add a darker 'I'm enjoying your destruction' element to it."
  • Regarding the track's meaning, Bennington said in the same Abcdane interview: "I think this song represents the kind of emotions that arise from standing up to a bully, or when a tyrant is taken down and the people are celebrating around his grave. Like I said, it's a really dark song, but it also has a weird 'pizza party' kind of feel to it. Maybe the combination of crazy style and symphony has something to do with that. You're at a party outdoors, drinking margaritas, hanging with tanned people, maybe swimming... then you play this song. I mean, it is a party song after all.

    But that's not all, you start screaming out loud," he continued. "I hope you choke on your lies, swallow up your pride, suffer all alone in your misery. And well.. it's a terrible thing to say to someone. This song is incredibly complicated, mentally unstable maybe, but brilliant at the same time."
  • The song premiered on BBC Radio 1 on May 24, 2012 after Shinoda gave permission to Linkin Park Association to leak the song to the Internet.

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