In the early 1990s Beck Hansen and co-writer Carl Stephenson spent a few hours recording a song called “Loser,” which fledgling label Bong Load Custom Records pressed 500 copies of.

Beck announced plans to re-record early hits “Loser” and “Where It’s At” for an unspecified project at SXSW, where he sat down for a keynote Q&A with New Yorker writer Amanda Petrusich.

When “Loser” began to catch fire in Los Angeles in 1993, Beck was caught off-guard. “I thought it was a fluke thing that was gonna go away, so I just decided to have fun with it,” he said.

The new version of “Loser” can be previewed over on Billboard. Beck’s full episode of Words + Music, which also includes an update of “Where It’s At,” will be released on Audible tomorrow.

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 ...