I was introduced to Beck’s music in 1994 by a wack southerner named Aaron via a promo EP he’d scored entitled: “Loser.”
The soon-to-be-famous title track had yet to gain the rotation that would propel its author to stardom and the opinions of most who heard it at the time were that it was a goofy knock-off that would fade as quickly as it had arrived.
Aaron was not so sure.
Me? I was charmed by the delightfully off-kilter, psuedo grunge-rap-folk sound but also assumed that the accompanying record, like so much of what I consider musically genius, would gain a meager cult status and have a limited shelf life.
Oh, how wrong we doubters were.
Now that Beck has gone from kooky goof to serious artist to … well, he’s getting kind of dull, if you ask me, it is fun to listen back to these earlier, rootsier tracks.
While “One Foot In The Grave” remains my favorite album, Beck’s Loser EP still features some of my favorite moments in his career:
Alcohol
Beck – Loser
Alcohol leaving me dry
Now it is time for pie
Taking them as they come
Alcohol please give me some
If I stay in the same place
The animals will lick my face
Soak in the dawn of day
Rolling my body away
Alcohol leaving me high
Now it is time for pie
Taking them as they come
Alcohol please give me some
© Beck
So, in true lemming fashion, I went to Last.fm to check it out. They feature it on his “Golden Leftovers” album. Nice, also enjoyed “Fume” that they feature from that album. Thanks again for the direction
I need to pick up “Golden Lefotvers” as it (supposedly) features alternate versions of what I already have on the “Loser” EP – and I am nothing if not a helpless, raving completeist.
“Fume” by the way, was the first Beck track that grabbed me by the lapels and screamed a whiskey-breathed “HEY!” into my heart’s face. It was featured on my “Severed Finger Paintings” comp, back in the day.
I swear, I need to recompile that on cd one of these days …