| "Good Goodbye" | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by Linkin Park featuring Pusha T and Stormzy from the album One More Light | |||||
| Released | April 13, 2017 | ||||
| Length | 3:31 | ||||
| Label | Warner • Machine Shop | ||||
| Writer | Mike Shinoda • Brad Delson • Jesse Shatkin • Pusha T • Stormzy | ||||
| Producer | Mike Shinoda • Brad Delson • Jesse Shatkin • Andrew Bolooki | ||||
| Linkin Park promotional singles chronology | |||||
| |||||
"Good Goodbye" is the second track off Linkin Park's seventh studio album One More Light. It was released as a promotional single on April 13, 2017, and features Pusha T and Stormzy.[1]
Background[]
The first time that Linkin Park and Pusha T collaborated was on the group's second remix album, RECHARGED. Just like in this song, Pusha T has his own verse in Vice's remix of "I'LL BE GONE."[2] While Stormzy didn't have a collaboration history with the band, Chester stated that he had been on their radar for quite some time.[3]
During the writing process, Mike had contemplated how the song would progress and eventually decided to reach out to Pusha T for collaboration purposes.[4] Stormzy dropped in after his and the band's manager met.[5]
The existence of "Good Goodbye" became known to the public after Joe posted a video on Instagram that featured a clip of Brad playing an acoustic guitar. The band's song board could be seen in the background.[6]
Style[]
Mike described "Good Goodbye" to be an outlier from One More Light. He explained that the song was very sarcastic in nature.[7]
Writing[]
Lyrics[]
Mike wrote the lyrics in mind to be about basketball. The lyrics are inspired by a moment in a Los Angeles Lakers game where the rival team fouls out and everyone proceeds to kick them out of the building singing "Hit the Road, Jack" by Ray Charles.[8]
The lyric "Enemies trying to read me / You're all looking highly illiterate" is a reference to basketball; the players read each other's body language. Mike said that the lyric was also about his relationship with other rappers. Since he writes about different material, the other rappers don't understand him, making them look "highly illiterate."[9]
The lyric "You've got a lot to discuss on the bus / Headed back where you're from" shows Mike tying in themes about basketball and relationships into one. This could be a reference to the rival team's bus, but it could also be a reference to a partner taking a bus back to where they came from, such as their parents' house.[10]
Music[]
"Good Goodbye" was created early in the album process. Mike and Jesse Shatkin wrote a majority of the track together in the span of a day. Mike originally had two verses and there was also a bridge featuring an electronic drop. After hearing the results, Mike thought that the song "didn't sound good" which lead to the idea of collaboration.[8]
Mike finished his verse first, then he sent it to Pusha T and Stormzy separately. Nobody could hear any other verse except for their own at the time of writing the song.[11]
Production[]
To achieve the sound of the bass in "Good Goodbye," Mike overdrove the internal compressor on his sampler software, giving off a smooth distortion and bringing out higher frequencies within the bass.[12]
Promotion[]
Lyric video[]
On the day of the song's release, a lyric video for "Good Goodbye" was uploaded onto the band's official YouTube channel.[13]
Music video[]
On May 5, 2017, the official music video was released. The video features Chester, Mike, Pusha T, Stormzy, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The video revolves around basketball, which ties in with the meaning of "Good Goodbye" perfectly.[14] The video was a change of pace for the band, as their music videos would usually take themselves seriously most of the time.[15]
Despite being a Lakers fan, Mike didn't meet Kareem on set since he wasn't there the day Kareem's parts were shot.[16]
Live[]
When performing the song live, Mike would rap his demo verse and leave out the guest verses instead.[4]
"Good Goodbye" was first performed on May 6, 2017,[17] and last performed on July 6, 2017, Chester's final performance with Linkin Park and as a whole.[18]
Mike would incorporate the song into his solo performances by doing a mashup with "Bleed It Out."[19]
Linkin Park[]
- Chester Bennington – lead vocals
- Mike Shinoda – engineer, keyboards, producer, programmer, lead vocals, backing vocals, writer
- Brad Delson – guitar, backing vocals, producer, writer
- Dave Farrell – bass guitar, backing vocals
- Joe Hahn – programmer, backing vocals
- Rob Bourdon – drums, backing vocals
References[]
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20170418033353/https://hiphop-n-more.com/2017/04/linkin-park-good-goodbye-pusha-t-stormzy-new-song
- ↑ https://www.complex.com/music/a/dharmic-x/linkin-park-ft-pusha-t-ill-be-gone-vice-remix
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20170419194742/https://www.gigwise.com/news/109611/exclusive-stormzy-linkin-park-&-pusha-t-to-collaborate-on-new-song
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vseF7NXgA6U
- ↑ https://www.loudersound.com/features/nine-things-we-learned-from-linkin-parks-intimate-unplugged-session
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkdALK1fEiI
- ↑ https://www.lpassociation.com/forum/threads/linkin-park-confirm-good-goodbye-music-video-is-coming-featuring-stormzy.42956/
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 https://www.allthingsloud.com/linkin-parks-mike-shinoda-if-youre-expecting-esp-guitars-then-this-album-is-not-for-you/
- ↑ https://genius.com/12133097
- ↑ https://genius.com/12133111
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB5lOsD0fXs
- ↑ https://www.waves.com/producing-linkin-park-one-more-light
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW44aPjOMvI
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phVQZrb2AdA
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YQM9AlXW5M
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ0KY9EiKa8
- ↑ https://lplive.net/shows/2017/20170506/
- ↑ https://lplive.net/shows/2017/20170706/
- ↑ https://lplive.net/shows/mikeshinoda18/20180512-1/