If you wanted a new Limp Bizkit song to add to your Memorial Day cookout playlist, well, your prayer has been answered. Sort of… A rare, previously unreleased song by the nu-metal gods has surfaced online.
Over on YouTube, videos have been posted from the recently unearthed archives of the Netherlands’ Pinkpop festival, the world’s longest-running music festival. Among the footage is a song by Limp Bizkit titled “Strain,” but could also be titled “Breaking My Back,” per Lambgoat.
As the outlet points out, the song was never officially released, or even formally recorded, and was only played live a handful of times. Notably, this particular footage, which is the best version of the song, was captured on May 18, 1997, which predates Limp Bizkit’s debut album, Three Dollar Bill, Y’all.
Now, it certainly sounds a lot like the songs from Three Dollar Bill, Y’all, so I would presume that it was part of the initial batch of songs that LB considered for their first record. I’d also point out that portions of it are reminiscent of Incubus’ S.C.I.E.N.C.E. album from 1997, which is entirely inconsequential but interesting (to me at least).
Wes Borland Quit Limp Bizkit Before They Blew Up
The Pinkpop performance would have happened sometime following Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland’s return to the band after quitting for a short period of time in the ’90s. “Right before we got signed, I was like, ‘No, I don’t want to do this.’ And I went back to working at a coffee shop,” he shared in a recent interview on the Disrespectfully Podcast.
“They got different guitar players and sort of reformed the band,” Borland continued. “They got signed. I’m out. My brother—Scott Borland—was originally in Limp Bizkit too, on keyboards, and he was like, ‘If you’re not doing I’m not doing it.’ But, we were young and stupid, and just like, you know, knuckleheaded people not being adults.”
Eventually, Limp Bizkit went through some pretty terrible luck and begged Borland to come back. “I think finally they went to New York and were trying to record in New York with some people,” he recalled, “and I finally just went, ‘Yeah, I’ll come up to New York and we’ll try.’ And that’s when we started writing the first record.”
“It’s been wild, like wild,” Borland added. “When I think back, I don’t think about like the old days, but how many terrible, weird things happened to get us where we were.”
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