November 14, 2020

Loser.

Professor Tushnet and Justice Alito got me looking for the Dylan songs containing the word "loser." There are 4 such songs, and the one the worked for that post was "The Times They Are A-Changin'." 

What are the other 3 "loser" songs? 
Then the Greek appears on the second floor 
In his bare feet with a rope around his neck 
While a loser in the gambling room lights up a candle 
Says, “Open up another deck” 
Say that he’s a loser ’cause he got no common sense 
Because he don’t increase his worth at someone else’s expense 
Because he’s not afraid of trying, ’cause he don’t look at you and smile 
’Cause he doesn’t tell you jokes or fairy tales, say he’s got no style
He's the property of Jesus...
Dr. Filth, he keeps his world 
Inside of a leather cup
But all his sexless patients 
They’re trying to blow it up 
Now his nurse, some local loser 
She’s in charge of the cyanide hole 
And she also keeps the cards that read 
“Have Mercy on His Soul”

21 comments:

Political Junkie said...

I am a loser baby, so why don't you kill me - Beck

Carol said...

I'm a LOSER/And I'm not what I appear to be

The Sage of Altadena said...

And every hand's a winner/And every hand's a loser. -- Kenny Rogers

Earnest Prole said...

Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.

Mr. O. Possum said...

Everybody's bragging and drinking that wine
I can tell the Queen of Diamonds by the way she shines
Come to daddy on an inside straight
Well I got no chance of losing this time

—Loser, Grateful Dead

dws said...

Baby better come back, maybe next week.

Amexpat said...

The loser in "Black Diamond Bay" is the most tragic.

As the island slowly sank
The loser finally broke the bank in the gambling room
The dealer said, “It’s too late now
You can take your money, but I don’t know how
You’ll spend it in the tomb”

Meade said...

It’s so hard for me now
But I’ll make it somehow
Though I know I’ll never be the same
Won’t you ever change your ways
It’s so hard to make love pay
When you’re on the losing end
And I feel that way a-gih-hih-hin

Meade said...

I know — Neil, not Bob. Close enough.

Meade said...

There’s a lone soldier on the cross,
smoke pourin’ out of a boxcar door
You didn’t know it, you didn’t think it could be done,
in the final end he won the wars

After losin’ every battle

Ambrose said...

You missed one:

But losers, cheaters
Six-time users
Hang around the theaters

PJ said...

Oh, the rich man, the poor man, the saint and the sinner
The wise man, the simpleton, the loser and the winner
We are all the same to Him
Stripped of our clothes and all the things we own
The day that we are born
We are all God's children
And they got no right to change us

And furthermore,

Ever since I was knee high,
I thought the city was paved with gold.
But I've seen so many losers
And down and out boozers
Who were tired of bein' bought and sold.

Guildofcannonballs said...

We got winners, we got losers
Chain smokers and boozers
And we got yuppies, we got bikers
We got thirsty hitchhikers
And the girls next door dress up like movie stars

Hmm, hmm, hmm I love this bar

[Verse 2]
We got cowboys, we got truckers
Broken-hearted fools and suckers
And we got hustlers, we got fighters
Early birds and all-nighters

- Toby Keith

Ann Althouse said...

.” You missed one:”

The "s” takes it out of the search, but I wish I'd noticed. Thanks.

khematite said...

From "Tarantula" (1971)--"betty had a loser":

. . . black bloody, itty bitty, blam de lam!
said he had a lambchop, blam de lam! had him in a stocking,
stuck artichokes in his ears, planted him in green beans &
stuck him on a compass blam de lam! last time i seed him,
blam de lam! he was standing in a window, blam de lam!
hundred floors up, blam de lam! with his prayers & his pig-
foot, blam de lam! black betty, black betty blam de lam!
betty had a loser blam de lam, i spied him on the ocean with a
long string of muslims - blam de lam! all going quack quack
. . . blam de lam! all going quack quack, blam!

daskol said...

Lamb chops are for losers. Winners eat chicken.

Leora said...

One of the things I like about Christians is that if they can't persuade you they offer to pray for you, not threaten to shut down your places of worship, your family and your work.

The Godfather said...

Thanks Ernest Prole for "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." I think Me and Bobby McGee may be the best country song ever written (Kris Kristofferson wrote it, and Roger Miller recorded the best version, even better than Janis Joplin, bymmv). The next line (in some versions, anyway) is "Freedom ain't worth nothing, but it's free."

Ambrose said...

@ann Did not mean a "gotcha" with Subterranean Homesick Blues. Enjoyed the post and then heard the words in my head. Missed the plural/singular distinction.

stevew said...

Dylan loser lyrics are fine, good even. Beck's "Loser" is best, Jethro Tull's "Locomotive Breath" loser reference is second.

Lurker21 said...

"I'm a loser" - Classic Beatles song. A lot simpler than a Dylan song, but far more famous.