Lyr Req: Born Loser

Subject: Lyr Add: HARD LOVIN' LOSER (Richard Fariña)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 May 98 - 06:36 PM

Well, Laura, There's one in the "Rise Up Singing" songbook called "Hard Lovin' Loser," written in 1966 by Richard Fariña and made popular by Judy Collins. I can post that one for you if that's the one you want.

He's the kind of guy puts on a motorcycle jacket
and he weighs about a hundred and five.
He's the kind of surfer got a hodaddy haircut
and you wonder how he'll ever survive
He's the kind of frogman using 20 pounds of counterweights
and sinking in the sea like a stone
He's the kind of soldier got no sense of direction
and they send him in the jungle alone
But when the frost's on the pumpkin and the little girls are jumpin'
He's a hard-lovin' son-of-a-gun
He's got 'em waiting downstairs just to sample his affairs
And they call him a spoonful of fun.

He's the kind of person going riding on a skateboard
and his mind's ragin' out of control
He's the kind of person goes to drive a Maserati
puts the key inside the wrong little hole
He's the kind of ski-bum tearing wild down the mountain
hits a patch where there ain't any snow
He's the kind of cowboy got a hot trigger finger
shoots his boot 'cause he's drawing kind of slow
But when he comes in for bowling, he's an expert at rolling
Sets the pins up and lays them right down
He's got them taking off their heels, and they like the way he feels
And they call him a carnival clown

Well, he's got a parachute and screaming like Geronimo
and makes a little hole in the ground
He's the kind of logger when the man hollers "Timber!"
has to stop and look around for the sound
He's the kind of artist rents a groovy little attic
and discovers that he can't grow a beard
He's a human cannonball, comes in for a landing
and he wonders where the net disappeared
But when he takes off his shoes, it won't come as news
That they're lining up in threes and in twos
He's got them pounding on the floor, got them begging for some more
and they call him whatever they choose.

I tend to identify with this song in my Walter Mitty moments. The Richard & Mimi Fariña recording is so-so, but the Judy Collins recording is about the sexiest song she ever recorded - or at least it was, in my adolescent mind at the time....
Hey, I typed the whole thing! Well, it's a heck of a lot more interesting than the report I'm supposed to be typing. Guess I'd better stop daydreaming about Judy Collins and get back to work.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Born Loser
From: Laura N.
Date: 13 May 98 - 10:45 AM

I am looking for lyrics to a song called "The Born Loser" -- it is quoted in bits and pieces in a Robert Heinlein novel "Time Enough For Love". The song is about a guy who is always coming up short and leaving his overcoat at the pawnshop or hitting his sister up for cash. Anyone heard of the song?