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OK, I'm high and all that, but it occurred to me today what Beck's song "Loser" is about...
Loser by Beck In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey (In an era of shitty music I was different) Butane in my veins and I?m out to cut the junkie (I was intoxicated and explosive and fighting the junkie in myself) With the plastic eyeballs, spray-paint the vegetables (I had vacant eyes, would do anything to get high) Dog food stalls with the beefcake pantyhose (lost in cheap food and undesirable women) Kill the headlights and put it in neutral (I?ve got to try to stop myself, hide, disengage from destroying myself) Stock car flamin? with a loser and the cruise control (my life is on fire, I?m a loser being taken somewhere by other forces) Baby?s in Reno with the vitamin d (my girl is gone, she?s got milk or is taking pregnancy vitamins or something) Got a couple of couches, sleep on the love-seat (I?m destitute and alone, dreaming of love) Someone came sayin? I?m insane to complain (friends don?t see why I?m unhappy) About a shotgun wedding and a stain on my shirt (my girl is pregnant, I?m engaged, and my clothes are dirty) Don?t believe everything that you breathe (getting high is delusional) You get a parking violation and a maggot on your sleeve (but if you stop moving/growing, you get caught and you rot) So shave your face with some mace in the dark (so stay hidden and maintain/punish yourself painfully) Savin? all your food stamps and burnin? down the trailer park (hope for a better life and dream of destroying your failure) Yo. cut it. (it?s all gotta stop) Soy un perdedor I?m a loser baby, so why don?t you kill me? (why do you want to marry a loser like me? kill me instead) Double barrel buckshot (shotgun wedding) Soy un perdedor I?m a loser baby, so why don?t you kill me? Forces of evil on a bozo nightmare (the crappy music scene is surrounding me, making me a clown in bad dream) Ban all the music with a phony gas chamber (they've killed real music in a concert hall, staged like a fake execution) ?cuz one?s got a weasel and the other?s got a flag (one force of evil has an easy excuse, the other is a sellout) One?s on the pole, shove the other in a bag (the sellout is displayed on the pole, the excuse maker is invisible) With the rerun shows and the cocaine nose-job (I?m watching music video re-runs featuring strung out fakes and losers) The daytime crap of the folksinger slob (a high-profile musician let himself go soft musically) He hung himself with a guitar string (he killed his soul by playing shitty music) A slab of turkey-neck and it?s hangin? from a pigeon wing (his guitar is the neck of a turkey, he plays like a pigeon) You can?t write if you can?t relate (the crappy musician has nothing to write about because his life is easy) Trade the cash for the beef for the body for the hate (he sold out for food, sex, and bias against real art) And my time is a piece of wax fallin? on a termite (my candle keeps burning and I?m getting older, I'm a slowly burning pest) who's chokin? on the splinters (who can?t eat what he?s supposed to eat) Soy un perdedor I?m a loser baby, so why don?t you kill me? Get crazy with the Cheese Whiz (? probably nonsense) Soy un perdedor I?m a loser baby, so why don?t you kill me? Drive-by body-pierce (so many easy ways to mutilate/distract myself from failure) (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 (sarcastic hope) Soy un perdedor I?m a loser baby, so why don?t you kill me? I can?t believe you (baby, your words of encouragement sound false to me) Soy un perdedor I?m a loser baby, so why don?t you kill me? Soy un perdedor I?m a loser baby, so why don?t you kill me? Sprechen Die Deutsch hier, Baby! (do you understand what I?m saying, baby?) Soy un perdedor I?m a loser baby, so why don?t you kill me? Know what I?m sayin?? EDIT: formatting **UPDATE:** Whoa, I didn't expect anybody to read this post. On further reflection: * I think I was totally off on the whole shotgun wedding/pregnancy idea. It seemed to hang together at the time but not anymore. Sunshine or dick are pretty good interpretations, both of which suggest he's been dumped or cheated on. * The spray-painting vegetables thing could be interpreted a million ways, but it suggests getting high to me for reasons you'll just have to guess at. I didn't know dog food was slang for heroin, but if so that completely fits. * The lyrics are a little too structured for me to believe that they were extemporaneous. The verses are too distinctly thematic and (especially after the first refrain) he really seems to be intentionally making a point about bad musicians. It's possible that he just made it all up off the top of his head, but it is more likely that he tried to write something meaningful but now thinks it sucks and just blows it off in interviews. A lot of artists don't discuss their lyrics for personal reasons, and many successful ones secretly worry that they really suck a lot more often than people notice. * "Cut it" is sung, not spoken, so I doubt it was an attempt to stop the take. * I huffed a bunch of Cheese Whiz and it didn't make this song any clearer. I did, however, let the devil cut my hair. more