Loser (Ayreon song)
Encyclopedia
"Loser" is the fifth single by Ayreon
Ayreon
Ayreon is a project by Dutch composer and musician Arjen Anthony Lucassen.Ayreon's musical style derives mostly from heavy metal and progressive rock, but combines them with genres like folk, classical and electronica...

, released on July 26, 2004, from their album The Human Equation
The Human Equation
The Human Equation is the sixth album by Arjen Anthony Lucassen, released under the name Ayreon. It was released on May 25, 2004. As with other Ayreon albums, it features guest appearances from several musicians previously unrelated to the project, including James LaBrie of Dream Theater, Mikael...

. Although it is released under Ayreon's name, the version of the song was made by Star One
Star One
Star One is a Dutch progressive metal supergroup/side-project of Arjen Anthony Lucassen of Ayreon fame. Unlike Ayreon, the band did not follow one storyline; instead, each song was a different story with a sci-fi concept, most of the tracks based on existing movies and series.-Origins and first...

. This version of “Day Sixteen: Loser” is very different from the album version. On this version, Peter Vink is playing the bass and Joost van den Broek
Joost van den Broek
Joost van den Broek was a keyboardist in the metal band After Forever. On the album After Forever, Joost had the opportunity to collaborate on the composition and production of the album alongside other band members. Van den Broek will appear on the Sinbreed album When Worlds Collide...

 is playing the keyboards. Along with some details, some extra vocals by Devin Townsend
Devin Townsend
Devin Garret Townsend is a Canadian musician and record producer. He was the founder, songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist in extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad from 1994 to 2007 and has had an extensive career as a solo artist....

 were included, but the most notable difference is the substitution of the Hammond
Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...

 solo of Ken Hensley
Ken Hensley
Kenneth William David Hensley is a keyboard player , guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer best known for his work with Uriah Heep during the 1970s....

 by a duel between Arjen and Joost.

Music

The song follows the plot of the main story of the album. For more information of it, see the plot at the article of the album.
The sixteenth day is marked with a rather strange event: Father, Me's nemesis, comes to visit Me. Calling him "Loser", and belittling him as always, it is later revealed that the Father is the true loser, having had several failed marriages and with lawsuits against him by each of those wives, while half of the many neglected children he has with them are in jail. Rage reawakens and refuses Father's words, reflecting upon the intensity of Me's hatred towards him. ("You're killing it from afar, go tell it in a bar/You're killing it from afar my father!")

Music video

A music video was shot for the song. It features live footage of Star One
Star One
Star One is a Dutch progressive metal supergroup/side-project of Arjen Anthony Lucassen of Ayreon fame. Unlike Ayreon, the band did not follow one storyline; instead, each song was a different story with a sci-fi concept, most of the tracks based on existing movies and series.-Origins and first...

 performing the song, plus images of the band in the middle of some fields and also Mike Baker
Mike Baker (Singer)
Mike Baker was the lead vocalist for the American progressive metal band Shadow Gallery.-Biography:...

 singing his part on the song.

Track listing

  1. Loser - 3:31
  2. How You Gonna See Me Now (Alice Cooper
    Alice Cooper
    Alice Cooper is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades...

     cover, with Mike Baker) - 3:52
  3. Castle Hall (Acoustic version, with Irene Jansen) - 4:07
  4. Into the Black Hole (Acoustic version, with Irene Jansen) - 4:22

Personnel

  • Arjen Lucassen - All electric
    Electric guitar
    An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

    , acoustic
    Acoustic guitar
    An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...

     and bass
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

     guitars, mandolin
    Mandolin
    A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...

    , lap steel guitar
    Lap steel guitar
    The lap steel guitar is a type of steel guitar, an instrument derived from and similar to the guitar. The player changes pitch by pressing a metal or glass bar against the strings instead of by pressing strings against the fingerboard....

    , keyboards
    Electronic keyboard
    An electronic keyboard is an electronic or digital keyboard instrument.The major components of a typical modern electronic keyboard are:...

    , synthesisers.
  • Ed Warby
    Ed Warby
    Edward R. Warby was born and raised in Rotterdam and is best known as the drummer for Gorefest and Ayreon.He also appeared in the band Agressor in 1982 and joined the Eindhoven-based prog-outfit Elegy in 1987...

     (Gorefest
    Gorefest
    Gorefest was a Dutch band from the Zeeland region of the Netherlands which was founded in 1988 as a death metal outfit by De Koeyer, Harthoorn, van Schaik and Hoogendoorn.-History:...

    ) - drums
    Drum kit
    A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

  • Mike Baker
    Mike Baker (Singer)
    Mike Baker was the lead vocalist for the American progressive metal band Shadow Gallery.-Biography:...

     (Shadow Gallery
    Shadow Gallery
    Shadow Gallery is an American progressive metal band formed in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, United States, during the early 1980s, originally under the name Sorcerer. After changing their name to Shadow Gallery and recording a short 8-track demo, the band was signed to Magna Carta Records in 1991...

    ) - vocals
    Singing
    Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

  • Devin Townsend
    Devin Townsend
    Devin Garret Townsend is a Canadian musician and record producer. He was the founder, songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist in extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad from 1994 to 2007 and has had an extensive career as a solo artist....

     (Devin Townsend Band, Strapping Young Lad
    Strapping Young Lad
    Strapping Young Lad was a Canadian extreme metal band formed by Devin Townsend in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1994. The band started as a one-man studio project; Townsend played most of the instruments on the 1995 debut album, Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing...

    ) - Vocals
  • Irene Jansen - Vocals
  • Gary Wehrkamp
    Gary Wehrkamp
    Gary Wehrkamp is an American musician, songwriter and producer. He is most notably a member of the American progressive rock band Shadow Gallery.-Personal life:...

     (Shadow Gallery
    Shadow Gallery
    Shadow Gallery is an American progressive metal band formed in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, United States, during the early 1980s, originally under the name Sorcerer. After changing their name to Shadow Gallery and recording a short 8-track demo, the band was signed to Magna Carta Records in 1991...

    ) - backing vocals
    Backing vocalist
    A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...

  • Peter Vink - Bass (Loser)
  • Joost van den Broek
    Joost van den Broek
    Joost van den Broek was a keyboardist in the metal band After Forever. On the album After Forever, Joost had the opportunity to collaborate on the composition and production of the album alongside other band members. Van den Broek will appear on the Sinbreed album When Worlds Collide...

     (After Forever
    After Forever
    After Forever was a Dutch symphonic metal band with strong progressive metal influences. The band relied on the use of both soprano vocals and death grunts. In February 2009, it was announced that After Forever had disbanded.-Biography:...

    ) - Keyboards (Loser and Castle Hall)
  • Robert Baba - Electric violin
    Electric violin
    An electric violin is a violin equipped with an electronic output of its sound. The term most properly refers to an instrument purposely made to be electrified with built-in pickups, usually with a solid body...

     (Loser)
  • Jeroen Goossens - Didgeridoo
    Didgeridoo
    The didgeridoo is a wind instrument developed by Indigenous Australians of northern Australia around 1,500 years ago and still in widespread usage today both in Australia and around the world. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet or "drone pipe"...

     (Loser)
  • John McManus - Flute
    Flute
    The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

    (Loser)

External links

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