Beck's 'Loser' at 30 and the golden age of slacker rock

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4.3 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2024

⏱️ 62 minutes

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Summary

Nothing on mainstream radio sounded like Beck's "Loser" when it dropped in 1994. Thirty years later, we explain why, look at its impact on the rise of slacker rock and how we still hear it today.

With KEXP's Cheryl Waters, NPR's Stephen Thompson and host Robin Hilton.

Beck tracks featured in this episode:
From 'Mellow Gold':
"Loser"
"Truck Driving Neighbor Downstairs (Yellow Sweat)"
"Beercan"
"Black Hole"
From 'Stereopathetic Soulmanure':
"Satan Gave Me A Taco"
"Rowboat"
From 'One Foot in the Grave':
"One Foot in the Grave"
Also featured:
Basehead: "Brand New Day" from 'Play with Toys'
Ween: "Push Th' Little Daisies" from 'Pure Guava'
King Missile: "Detachable Penis" from 'Happy Hour'
Pussy Galore: "Brick" from 'Sugars*** Sharp'
The Lemonheads: "Half The Time" from 'Lovey'
Guided By Voices: "#2 in the Model Home Series" from 'Vampire on Titus'
Sebadoh: "Soul and Fire" from 'Bubble & Scrape'
Pavement: "Cut Your Hair" from 'Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain'
Alex G: "Runner" from 'God Save the Animals'
Courtney Barnett: "History Eraser" from 'The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas'
Frankie Cosmos: "Apathy" from 'Vessel'
Beck: "F**** With My Head (Mountain Dew Rock)" from 'Mellow Gold'

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message come from SAP Concur, a leading brand for integrated travel expense and invoice management solutions.
0:08.5	With SAP Concur solutions, you'll be ready to take on whatever the market throws at you next. Learn more at concur.com.
0:16.8	A quick note before the show, this podcast contains explicit language.
0:21.2	Well dig out your case logic, CD binders, get your baggy worn out t-shirt and
0:26.7	rip jeans on, your trench coat with the oversized uh, sewn in.
0:34.0	And flop back in that nasty old recliner,
0:36.0	you and your roommate picked up
0:38.0	after someone left it on the street.
0:40.0	Because maybe the most inescapable song of 1994,
0:44.0	loser by Beck, it is 30 years old,
0:46.0	it was the opening track to the album Melogold
0:48.0	that came out on March 1st of 1994,
0:51.0	absolute watershed year for Beck.
0:53.8	But also for what I think you could call the Golden Age of Slacker Rock.
0:57.7	So on this episode of All Songs Consider, we're going to look back at 1994, why it was such
1:02.1	a pivotal year, what was so special about
1:04.2	it, its impact on popular music, and how we're still hearing that impact today.
1:08.4	In the time I'm two panties, I was a monkey,
1:12.1	butane in my veins, that a mouth to cut the chuggy with the plastic eyeballs.
1:16.0	Spray paint the vegetables, dog food skulls, with the beef cake panios.
1:21.0	Kill the headlights and put it in neutral.
1:23.0	Stok car flaming with a loser in the cruise control.
	...

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