A rare and unreleased track from Limp Bizkit‘s early days has been back in the public eye lately, thanks to the emergence of a plethora of past live sets newly being shared by the ‘Pinkpop‘ festival. That long-running fest, which is held annually in Landgraaf, NET, recently opened up their live performance archives, sharing professionally shot 90s performances from the likes of Rage Against The Machine, Deftones, Faith No More, and of course, Limp Bizkit, among many others.
Limp Bizkit‘s featured performance was filmed on May 18th of 1997, and nestled four songs into that set is a largely unknown Bizkit track. Referred to as “Breaking My Back” or “Strain“, depending on who you ask, the song was written ahead of the release of the nü-metal kingpins’ 1997 debut album “Three Dollar Bill, Y’all“, as evidenced by it being performed ahead of that album’s July 01st release date. However, for whatever reason, it doesn’t appear to have ever been properly recorded, or at the very least ever officially released.
The band are known to have performed that song live four times in 1997 before retiring it, with footage of two of those airings having made it out online. The shelved cut has begun reaching new ears just recently however thanks to the ‘Pinkpop‘ festival’s past footage newly becoming readily accessible.
Sadly, if the track ever did get recorded, one would think this newfound interest in it won’t see it surface anytime soon. At the moment, the band’s ringleader Fred Durst is locked in a $200 million dollar legal battle against Universal Music Group, who have assumed control of the Limp Bizkit‘s 90s and early 2000s output.
