What the hell are the defined songs of the geek geek hood?

In 1993 I spent the first half of the year in England, then returned home to sleep on friends couches in Brisbane. I got pnemonia in England, was unrecognisable to my Mother when I returned home lilly white and fat and ended the year getting a job in an ice cream store.

10000 Maniacs – These are Days

My first exposure to 10 000 Maniacs was while living in Nottingham, England. Every lunch hour on my break from working in the Newsagency I’d wander down to the Virgin Megastore in the square to listen to what was on offer. “These are Days” is the first song on the Unplugged album and it was one of those right moment times. The first line goes “these are days you’ll remember” which I thought was appropriate as I was living overseas as a young 18 year old. I actually got tears in my ears listening to the song thinking how it applied to my life. To this day I’m not sure if I remember the moment because I was welling up in the Virgin Megastore with cans on my ears or because the song was so brilliant. 10 000 maniacs are a little folk mixed with Simon and Garfunkel on this album but aren’t in that twee category so you can rest easy. I love the production on the album and it’s one of the very few live albums I enjoy.

Beck – I’m a Loser

Beck on Top of the Pops in 1993 meant a backing band of old men with long grey beards that jumped around. When I saw it I just stopped in my spot and stared at the tv. He was crazy, he had a new sound and lyrics that didn’t mean shit. Who else was rapping over a country slide guitar? For a long time I thought the lyrics were "Saw it on Donahue, I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me". I still like my version better. I don’t think I bought the Beck cd until I came back from overseas which was lucky because it was a special Australian Tour edition that came with the song Mexico, Totally Confused and Rowboat – which was later covered by Johnny Cash. When you hear the song Loser you think that Beck is going to be a novelty act – a one hit wonder, but when you listen to the rest of the album you knew that he had talent. It is annoying though as now when we are leaving the house I sometimes quote his "Truckdrivin Neighbours Downstairs" song – "Come on Motherf**ker get your clothes on, come on!" 

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