{"id":499187,"date":"2026-06-18T14:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T14:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/499187\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T14:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T14:31:10","slug":"right-at-the-same-time-radiohead-came-out-with-a-song-called-creep-to-me-it-felt-like-its-moment-had-already-passed-beck-says-that-he-was-a-little-embarrassed-by-his-debut-hit-which-ha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/499187\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cRight at the same time Radiohead came out with a song called Creep. To me, it felt like its moment had already passed”: Beck says that he was “a little embarrassed” by his debut hit, which had \u201cthe most simple slide guitar riff you could possibly play\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Released in 1993, Beck\u2019s Loser<\/a> ended up being the \u2018slacker anthem\u2019 that Gen-X had been casually waiting for. But, perhaps appropriately, its creation was a long, drawn-out process that drew on failure, self-doubt, and a stubborn streak that ultimately paid dividends.<\/p>\n

Beck has now been telling the story of \u201cthe first real song I\u2019d ever recorded\u201d to Mix With The Masters<\/a>, and he says that it starts in or around 1991.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI was playing at a coffee shop club called Jabberjaw, which was one of the main spots to play in Los Angeles at the time,\u201d he begins. \u201cAnd it was the kind of place where you’d see Nirvana<\/a> or you’d see the Melvins. Everybody who came through town played at the Jabberjaw.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Beck, though, wasn\u2019t having a huge amount of success. \u201cI was mostly playing acoustic guitar solo without a band. And the audience pretty much cleared out and would go outside and smoke. And so, out of desperation, I started stomping my foot for a beat, freestyling, like a rap song.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watching Beck play was Tom Rothrock, who would end up being one of Loser\u2019s producers.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt got, like, small applause, and this tall, skinny guy with long hair and a goatee comes up and he says, \u2018Hey, I like your rapping,\u2019\u201d says Beck. \u201cAnd I don’t think I’d ever done that before. So I said, \u2018Thank you. Yeah, yeah, I’m a rapper.\u2019 And he said that he knew this kid who made beats. I said, \u2018What kind of stuff does he do?\u2019 He says \u2018He works with this band called the Geto Boys.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Formed in Houston, the Geto Boys were a US hip-hop group, and the \u2018kid\u2019 in question was Carl Stephenson. Rothrock introduced Beck to Stephenson, and the two agreed to meet at Stephenson\u2019s home studio, with Beck pondering the concept of what would eventually become Loser.<\/p>\n

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Behind the Track\uff5c’Loser\u2019 by Beck – YouTube
\n\"Behind<\/p>\n

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\u201cI had this idea in my head for years: What would it sound like with a delta blues slide guitar over a hip-hop rhythm?\u201d he says. \u201cSo, here I was at this guy’s apartment. He starts making some beats and I pull out my guitar with my slide and I start jamming to it and it sounds pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beck says that he tried a few riffs, some more complicated than others, but settled on one of the more basic ones. A very basic one, in fact: \u201cJust the most simple slide riff you could possibly play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enter a classic \u201890s sampler \u2013 the Ensoniq ASR-10. \u201cI don’t think we had a bass. So, he got a bass sound on the ASR-10.\u201d<\/p>\n

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We then hear Loser\u2019s familiar bassline, but Beck wasn\u2019t too sure about it. \u201cI remember the part he came up with I thought was so happy. And I was trying to make the song kind of be heavy,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

This was the first time that he and Stephenson had actually met, though, so Beck held his tongue. What\u2019s more, he soon warmed to it. \u201cI think it\u2019s great because it adds a buoyancy and it’s a nice juxtaposition with the slide guitar,\u201d he says now.<\/p>\n

I was at this guy’s apartment. He starts making some beats and I pull out my guitar with my slide and I start jamming to it and it sounds pretty good.<\/p>\n

Stephenson had only one other instrument in his room \u2013 a sitar \u2013 and Beck had spotted it as soon as he arrived.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had been fascinated by Indian music,\u201d he recalls. \u201cYou know, obviously, I grew up with Beatles<\/a> records [that] had all the psychedelia. I had never seen one in person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inevitably, a sitar part was added, played by Stephenson. \u201cHe started to play it and he basically plays the same melody as the bassline,\u201d says Beck.<\/p>\n

When it came to writing the Lyrics, Beck remembers that he was inspired by Public Enemy\u2019s Chuck D. \u201cHe was taking a lot of disparate imagery and using it to create a bigger emotion, a bigger picture. I wanted the lyrics to have that feeling where it’s just this stream of images that create a world.\u201d<\/p>\n

After recording his vocals, though, our would-be rapper realised that he wasn\u2019t quite on the same level as the hip-hop legend. \u201cWhen I heard that back, it did not sound like Chuck D,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was pretty nerdy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than feeling crushed, Beck decided to embrace the geekiness and added the \u201csoy un perdedor\u201d line \u2013 Spanish for \u2018I\u2019m a loser\u2019 \u2013 and the song was completed.<\/p>\n

And then\u2026 nothing happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn’t hear anything for a long time,\u201d says Beck. \u201cI forgot about it. Never saw Carl again. It must have been nine months or a year or something go by. Tom said, \u2018Hey, that song we did with Carl, that loser song, it’s kind of cool. I think we should do something with that.\u2019 And I said, \u2018Yeah, OK.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

By this point, Beck was back working in a video rental store thinking that his music career wasn\u2019t going to happen, but the song started to attract the attention of some people in the business who were intrigued by it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sat in these rooms and they looked at me. I was probably like 21 or 22. They said, \u2018This is interesting. It’s got potential but I don’t think it’ll work. We’d have to redo it. We have to make it more production. You probably have to get a haircut.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Beck wasn\u2019t keen, though, and, rather than agree to their requests (\u201cI just couldn\u2019t be bothered\u201d), decided to keep the song as it was \u2013 and in storage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe song ended up languishing for several years because of that,\u201d he says. \u201cIt sat for another year and finally, two years later, we decided we’re going to put it out ourselves. Tom Rothrock had started a label called Bong Load, and they were going to print 500 copies on vinyl.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beck still wasn\u2019t sure about it, though, as he felt like the cultural zeitgeist may have moved on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember at the time I was a little embarrassed \u2018cos I felt like this idea of Loser was sort of played out. Right at the same time Radiohead<\/a> came out with a song called Creep. There was a Sub Pop Records t-shirt that said Loser on it. To me, it felt like its moment had already passed. It was going to be considered kind of corny at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beck – Loser (Official Music Video) – YouTube
\n\"Beck<\/p>\n

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Obviously, he was wrong: Loser became a hit and kickstarted Beck\u2019s career. And, looking back, the star thinks that its long gestation period might have been to its benefit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think actually, in fact, the song sitting around for a few years before being released, it came out at the exact perfect time,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I hope it inspires some people to go out and make some weird things. You don’t need to wait for permission. You can just go ahead and do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subscribers can watch the full Loser track breakdown series on the Mix With The Masters<\/a> website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Released in 1993, Beck\u2019s Loser ended up being the \u2018slacker anthem\u2019 that Gen-X had been casually waiting for.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-499187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}