Listen to Fred Durst’s Isolated Vocals From Limp Bizkit’s Cover of ‘Faith’
Limp Bizkit’s debut album, 1997’s Three Dollar Bill, Y’all, marks its 24th anniversary on Thursday (July 1). For fans looking to commemorate the occasion, there’s perhaps no better way to get inside the effort’s creation than by listening to some of frontman Fred Durst’s isolated vocals from the recording sessions.
In particular, his vocal from the band’s breakthrough cover of George Michael’s “Faith,” the song collected as the album’s final promotional single in 1998, gives an illuminating insight into the track’s dynamics when removed from the sonics that usually surround it.
Hear the soloed mix near the bottom of this page.
The instrument-less version of the tune, like other isolated vocal takes floating around the internet, isn’t an official release but merely the product of a music fan who’s handy with reductive audio mixing. Many other Limp Bizkit songs have received the same treatment online — the isolated “Faith” vocal shared below was posted by YouTube channel MetalMassacre in February.
Over the years, isolated vocal takes from Slipknot’s “Duality,” Pantera’s “Walk,” Ghost’s “Cirice,” Judas Priest’s “Painkiller,” Slayer’s “Raining Blood,” Linkin Park’s “One More Light” and more have also cropped up.
Three Dollar Bill, Y’all was produced by heavy music aficionado Ross Robinson and recorded at the now-shuttered Indigo Ranch in Malibu, Calif. Its opening single was the original track “Counterfeit.” Three more radio singles followed, including the amped-up version of the 1987 George Michael hit that captured the attention of rock and metal fans far and wide.
More recently, Limp Bizkit have gotten a jumpstart on post-2020 touring with a stretch of U.S. dates alongside Spiritbox starting later this month. In June, Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland gave an interview where he explained how he and Durst got over their “tumultuous” relationship. He also revealed that the band has around 35 songs recorded instrumentally for their long-promised sixth studio album, what was referred to in the past as Stampede of the Disco Elephants.