And the winner is...

On the Fresh Drive radio show this afternoon, Catherine chose "Loser" by Beck as her song of the week. I clearly remembered this tune from Beck's "Mellow Gold" album, in my song collection, but had not listened to it in a while.

When I got home, I decided to listen to the song again, from my collection which are now converted to MP3's and stored on my computer. It got me thinking about why anybody would write about being a loser, or confess to being one. It seems just such a strange thing to do. Even if I were at the lowest point in my life, and considered myself to be a loser, I don't believe I would admit as much.

Intrigued, I performed a quick filter on the word "Loser" in my collection, and it brought up a few songs with the same title, so it sent me searching for songs with the same title by other artists. Amazingly, I found dozens of songs listed with the title "Loser," from different genres and each with it's own peculiar meaning. Here is just a sample of the artists I managed to find, but there are literally hundreds with the word "loser" in the title:

• Beck
• Motorhead
• Smokie
• 3 Doors Down
• Iggy Pop
• N.E.R.D.
• Kamikaze
• Lady Saw (never heard of them before)
• Randy Newman
• The Crox (never heard of them before)
• Slapshot (never heard of them before)
• Ayreon
• Anal C..t (I don't even want to spell it out)
• The Bosshouse (never heard of them before)
• Trapeze
• Dave Alvin (never heard of him before)
• Richard Cheese (seems to be a cover of Beck)
• Grateful Dead
• The Order
• Dangerous Toys (never heard of them before)
• Paddingtons (never heard of them before)
• Plasticines
• Dolores O' Riordan (of The Cranberries)
• Cracker
• Nosliw (never heard of them before)
• Smile Empty Soul (never heard of them before)
• Saving Jane
• Angel Witch (never heard of them before)
• Skew Sisken (never heard of them before)
• The Bad Bloods (never heard of them before)
• Bamboula (never heard of them before)
• Jimmy Bowskill
• Soren Berlev (never heard of him/her before)
• The Nadas (never heard of them before)

Of those I am familiar with, the winning "Loser" is 3 Doors Down. Make of the lyrics what you will:

Breathe in right away,

Nothing seems to fill this place

I need this every time,

Take your lies get off my case

Someday I will find a love

That flows through me like this

This will fall away, this will fall away

You’re getting closer to pushing me

Off of life’s little edge

Cause I’m a loser

And sooner or later

You know I’ll be dead

You’re getting closer,

You’re holding the rope,

I'm taking the fall

Cause I’m a loser,

I’m a loser, yeah

This is getting old,

I can’t break these chains that I hold

My body’s growing cold,

There’s nothin left of this mind

Or my soul

Addiction needs a pacifier,

The buzz of this poison is taking me higher...