"Soy un perdedor"

Listening to my iPod today a song came on that I hadn't heard in a long time. I remember the first time that I heard it. It was 1994, and my friend Doug and I were on our way back from one of our many trips to the Electronics Boutique store in the Pyramid mall in Ithaca, spending money that we didn't have on video games that we didn't need. This song came on the radio. It was unlike anything I had ever heard up to that point. The lyrics were completely odd with some Spanish sprinkled throughout just for good measure. After the song, the DJ announced the name BECK. I immediately went home and, nope, no Google, this is 1994, and wrote down the name on a pad of paper (trying to remember if we even had yellow Post-Its) so I would remember it when I went to the mall on our next trip. No downloads, no iTunes, no YouTube...Jesus, how did I survive back then? Anyway, weeks later I ended up picking up Beck's single, "Loser." I listened to it until it stopped working. I was searching for the video again and I found some interesting information about the song: ''Loser" was first released in March 1993 as a 12" vinyl single on Bong Load, with only 500 copies pressed. Beck felt that "Loser" was mediocre, and only agreed to its release at Rothrock's insistence. "It unexpectedly received radio airplay, starting in Los Angeles. The song then spread to Seattle.By the time stations in New York were requesting copies of "Loser", Bong Load had already run out. The lyrics are mesmerizing, the guitar is classic, and Beck raps like no other. All hell, enough rambling! Below are the lyrics and the video. Oh, one more thing, I'm a sucker for opening lines to songs. It sets the tone for whehter or not you make a connection to them. The opening lyrics to this song just may be my favorite of all time.

*interesting fact: The sample of "I'm a driver. I'm a winner. Things are gonna change soon, I can feel it." is from the film Kill the Moonlight. Beck is on the soundtrack, and the director Steve Hanft is an old friend of Beck's. He in turn directed the video for "Loser."

"Loser"
In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey
Butane in my veins and I’m out to cut the junkie
With the plastic eyeballs, spray-paint the vegetables
Dog food stalls with the beefcake pantyhose
Kill the headlights and put it in neutral
Stock car flamin’ with a loser and the cruise control
Baby’s in reno with the vitamin d
Got a couple of couches, sleep on the love-seat
Someone came sayin’ I’m insane to complain
About a shotgun wedding and a stain on my shirt
Don’t believe everything that you breathe
You get a parking violation and a maggot on your sleeve
So shave your face with some mace in the dark
Savin’ all your food stamps and burnin’ down the trailer park

Yo. cut it.

Soy un perdedor
I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me?

(double barrel buckshot)
Soy un perdedor
I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me?

Forces of evil on a bozo nightmare
Ban all the music with a phony gas chamber
’cuz one’s got a weasel and the other’s got a flag
One’s on the pole, shove the other in a bag
With the rerun shows and the cocaine nose-job
The daytime crap of the folksinger slob
He hung himself with a guitar string
A slab of turkey-neck and it’s hangin’ from a pigeon wing
You can’t write if you can’t relate
Trade the cash for the beef for the body for the hate
And my time is a piece of wax fallin’ on a termite
who's chokin’ on the splinters

Soy un perdedor
I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me?
(get crazy with the cheese whiz)
Soy un perdedor
I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me?
(drive-by body-pierce)
(yo bring it on down)
Soooooyy....

?em llik uoy t'nod yhw os ,ybab resol a m'I rodedreP nu yos
[It's the Chorus backwards]

(I’m a driver, I’m a winner; things are gonna change I can feel it)

Soy un perdedor
I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me?
(I can’t believe you)
Soy un perdedor
I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me?
(Nlehh...)
Soy un perdedor
I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me?
(Sprechen Sie Deutsch hier, Baby!)
Soy un perdedor
I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me?
(know what I’m sayin’? )