Peak
10
Weeks
24
Score
3,302
Chart Year
1994
The video for "Loser" was directed by Beck's friend Steve Hanft. Hanft had worked for a week on storyboards for the video, then called a meeting with Beck's label, Bong Load Records, and requested a $300 shooting budget. The unprocessed 16 mm film footage was frozen for 6 months until Beck signed with Geffen Records. Geffen gave Hanft $14,000 to process, edit, and master the video, making the budget total $14,300. Filming for the video was done all across California, including in Rothrock's Humboldt County studio and backyard and at the Santa Monica graveyard.[12] The video is a mashup of various 16 mm film clips. Beck insisted they were "fucking around" when they made the video; he told Option in 1994, "We weren't making anything slick – it was deliberately crude. You know?"[42] Hanft, inspired by the Black Sabbath's 16 mm film promo "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" and also surrealist filmmakers Luis Buñuel and Maya Deren, included stop-motion animation footage of a moving coffin in the video. Two coffins were used, one which was a prop borrowed from a local drama school and the other which had been built by Beck and Hanft.[12] Clips and sounds sampled from Hanft's 1991 Cal Arts, MFA thesis film, "Kill the Moonlight", about a loser stock car racer, are also included in the video and song. The moment where Beck is wearing a storm trooper mask is often censored for copyright reasons. The work's only clip shot on video rather than film is the one depicting famous mountain dancer Jesco White wearing a white satin shirt and dancing on a picnic table. The clip was shot by director Julian Nitzberg and was added to the final cut on the last day of editing. "Loser" ranked sixth in the music video category in the 1994 Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll.[34] The music video for Beck's 2014 song "Heart Is a Drum" features characters from the "Loser" video, including the grim reaper, and another version of Beck in which he wears the white outfit from the "Loser" video. Also, two spacemen enter near the end of the "Heart Is a Drum" video as they ride away on the back of a pick up truck just as they do in the "Kill the Moonlight" film clip that was included in the "Loser" video.
The chorus of "Soy un perdedor" is Spanish for "I'm a loser." Beck grew up in a Latin section of Los Angeles and most of his schoolmates were of Mexican descent. "Loser" is one of the most bizarre songs ever to become a hit. A sample of the lyrics: Dog food stalls with the beefcake pantyhose Kill the headlights and put it in neutral Beck moved to New York at 18, then went back to Los Angeles a year or so later, in 1990. He started making up outlandish raps both to amuse his friends and to check the pulse of the crowds at his bar and coffeehouse gigs where most people wouldn't pay attention. He signed to the independent Bong Load Records in 1991, which connected him with Karl Stephenson, a producer who had done work with the Geto Boys. At Stephenson's house, they wrote and recorded "Loser" in a few hours; Beck hit on the title and chorus after doing some raps and exclaiming, "I'm the worst rapper in the world - I'm just a loser!" Bong Load didn't release the song until 1993, by which time Beck had released some singles, including one called "MTV Makes Me Wanna Smoke Crack." The song earned airplay on college radio and on some of the more adventurous alternative stations, including KNDD in Seattle, and the major labels came calling. Beck signed with Geffen Records in an unusual deal that let him issue his wares on indie labels as well, including Bong Load. It was far from the highest offer, but gave him the creative freedom he was after. Geffen put him on their alternative imprint, DGC, and released "Loser" in early 1994. With their promotional push, the song took off, climbing to #10 in the US in April. It ended up the biggest hit in Beck's highly eclectic discography. The sample of "I'm a driver, I'm a winner, Things are gonna change soon, I can feel it," comes from an independent film called Kill the Moonlight, directed by Beck's friend, Steve Hanft. Beck did some songs for the film, which wasn't released until 1994, a year after song was issued with the sample. Hanft directed the video for "Loser." The music video is as disjointed as the lyric, with a stop-motion coffin, graveyard aerobics, and shirtless acoustic guitarist. At the beginning of the video, Beck is wearing a Star Wars Stormtrooper helmet that had to be blurred out for legal reasons. Beck was known to respond to request for "Loser" at concerts by putting on the helmet, playing the song from cassette on a boombox, and dancing around the stage. Beck had utter disdain for MTV (did we mention he recorded a song called "MTV Makes Me Wanna Smoke Crack"), but they loved him, putting the video in hot rotation. The media narrative of this song was that it's an anti-establishment slacker anthem emblematic of Generation X ennui. Beck fielded questions on the topic at most interviews. He told The Guardian in 1996: "That sort of slacker idea, or the goofy hip-hop guy, I just think it's silly, it's not me. It's like a cartoon. I'm never going to come up with a synopsis, a shorthand version of myself that somebody can just glance at and say, 'That's it.'" This song was climbing the charts when Kurt Cobain died from suicide on April 5, 1994. Nirvana's label, Sub Pop, sold T-shirts emblazoned with the word "LOSER" a few years before this song was released. Both the song and the label used the word in a self-deprecating, anti-corporate fashion, but Beck never associated with the grunge scene. The drum riff is sampled from Johnny Jenkins' 1970 cover of "I Walk on Guilded Splinters," originally by Dr. John. Fans who bought the Mellow Gold album or went to a Beck concert were often surprised to hear that "Loser" is a musical outlier in his catalog, which at the time was filled with a strange mixture of folk, punk and blues. Beck made no effort to appease these fans, but always played the song, sometimes changing the lyrics for his own amusement. This is mentioned in the 2017 novel Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and his son Owen King. Jared, the main character's son, references the song after being beat up by three guys. "I am a loser," he thought. "That Beck song, it must have been written with me in mind." "Weird Al" Yankovic wanted to record a parody of the track titled "Schmoozer." Beck regrets denying him permission. "I think it would have been an amazing video," he told Audible Original's Words + Music. "I'm actually really sad it didn't happen."
In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey Butane in my veins so 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 keeps sayin' I'm insane to complain About a shotgun wedding and a stain on my shirt Don't believe everything that you read 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? The forces of evil in a Bozo nightmare Ban all the music with a phony gas chamber 'Cause one's got a weasel and the other's got a flag One's on the pole, shove the other in the bag With the rerun shows and the cocaine nose job The daytime crap with the folksinger slop He hung himself with a guitar string A slab of turkey neck and it's hangin' from a pigeon wing Gotta get right 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 That's chokin' on the splinters Soy un perdedor I'm a loser baby so why don't you kill me? (Get crazy with the Cheeze 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) Soy (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? Soy un perdedor I'm a loser baby so why don't you kill me? (Sprechen sie Deutsch, baby?) Soy un perdedor I'm a loser baby so why don't you kill me? (Know what I'm sayin'?)
| Week | Chart Date | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jan 29, 1994 | 75 | 51 |
| 2 | Feb 5, 1994 | 58 | 68 |
| 3 | Feb 12, 1994 | 52 | 74 |
| 4 | Feb 19, 1994 | 51 | 75 |
| 5 | Feb 26, 1994 | 43 | 83 |
| 6 | Mar 5, 1994 | 37 | 89 |
| 7 | Mar 12, 1994 | 39 | 87 |
| 8 | Mar 19, 1994 | 48 | 78 |
| 9 | Mar 26, 1994 | 54 | 72 |
| 10 | Apr 2, 1994 | 51 | 75 |
| 11 | Apr 9, 1994 | 17 | 109 |
| 12 | Apr 16, 1994 | 14 | 112 |
| 13 | Apr 23, 1994 | 11 | 115 |
| 14 | Apr 30, 1994 | 10 | 116 |
| 15 | May 7, 1994 | 12 | 114 |
| 16 | May 14, 1994 | 12 | 114 |
| 17 | May 21, 1994 | 12 | 114 |
| 18 | May 28, 1994 | 19 | 107 |
| 19 | Jun 4, 1994 | 21 | 105 |
| 20 | Jun 11, 1994 | 23 | 103 |