Watch Beck And Chris Martin Sing “Loser” At Hammer Museum’s Gala In The Garden
Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
Coldplay frontman Chris Martin is 42 years old. So when Beck released his slawjawed qusi-rap anthem “Loser” in 1993, Martin was 16. And Martin was 17 when “Loser” went into wide release and conquered the world, reaching a peak of #15 on the singles chart in Martin’s native UK. So that means Chris Martin was exactly the right age to have long lunchroom conversations about what “slap a turkey neck and it’s hanging from a chicken wing” meant. He was (and is) seven years younger than Beck, just the right age to idolize the guy. And on Saturday night, Beck and Martin sang “Loser” together in Los Angeles.
This wasn’t the first time that Beck and Chris Martin have shared a stage. In 2015, the year when Beck won his infamous Album Of The Year Grammy, Martin sang backup for Beck when he performed “Heart Is A Drum” at the Grammys. And in 2016, Beck and Martin were two parts of an all-star cover band who played a bunch of songs at a fundraiser. (Beck seems to be playing a whole lot of all-star fundraisers lately.) But this almost certainly was the first time that Beck and Chris Martin sang “Loser” in a Los Angeles museum while backed up by a group of Indian raga musicians.
On Saturday night, as Rolling Stone reports, Beck performed at the Hammer Museum’s Gala In The Garden, an event that honored the director Jordan Peele and the artist Judy Chicago. Beck was the evening’s big surprise, and he performed with a group of musicians that included a seated, unobtrusive Chris Martin. Watch a fan-made video of these guys getting crazy with the Cheez Whiz below.
For final song of night, @beck and a seated Chris Martin (with five also sitting musicians) collab on Beck’s 1994 “Loser,” and lyric I really heard was “forces of evil in a bozo nightmare.” #HammerGala pic.twitter.com/GsjeGNuJUb
— Chris Gardner (@chrissgardner) October 14, 2019
Part 2/Standing ovation for @beck and Chris Martin after “Loser” performance https://t.co/xtzt2oq4tM pic.twitter.com/6RDkAlAZKn
— Chris Gardner (@chrissgardner) October 14, 2019
I’m disappointed that Chris Martin didn’t attempt any of the rap verses, even though I know full well that it would’ve been terrible if he’d tried.
