written by Beck and Carl Stephenson

produced by Beck, Carl Stephenson and Tom Rothrock

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I’m making this page July 9th, 2021, the day after the 51st birthday

of Beck David Hansen (nee Campbell). Please forgive me for being

unable to do it yesterday, and Happy 24-Hour-Belated Birthday, B!!

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Beck was born and raised in L.A., a high school dropout after feeling less than safe in school, starving and homeless upon moving to New York to join the legion of fledgling artists. He slaved through minimum wage jobs, but made his way to the clubs and coffee shops to perform gigs. In the early ’90s, he moved back to Los Angeles and studied rap, practicing his own rapping and starting to write, fusing the vocal hip-hop style with his brand of semi-folksy rock. Beck signed with indie record label Sonic Enemy, with the ’93 album Golden Feelings. That same month, he independently released “Loser” as a single in a very limited edition (500x).

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Within the next year, Beck secured a deal with the Uni record label that made Nirvana famous, Geffen spin-off DGC (David Geffen Company) Records. Now under major distribution, Beck put out Mellow Gold in the late winter/early spring of ’94. He didn’t care much for “Loser” at first, writing it as a stream-of-consciousness nonsense stoner rap, and a reflection of his feelings about his (in)ability to rap anyway. Furthermore, he felt “Loser” was lukewarm, and didn’t want to release it. But co-producer Tom Rothrock insisted, and to surprise, upon receiving an unanticipated helping of airplay, the song raced up to charts and took #1 on the US alternative list.

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Beck has since become revered for his charismatic style, good looks, deep hunky voice and ability to blend and transcend musical genres, releasing a couple of genre-disparate records each decade, performing as successfully since, and maintaining a recording career spanning almost thirty years now.

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A chorus is laid down backwards under the bridge, which is why I’ve written the chorus lyrics backwards in between the bridge lines below. I’ll also include the sample of the song backwards below. If you listen closely you can hear the normal forwards chorus in there.

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Have notes to add? Let me know!

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YT:

full version

music video​

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Beck’s official website