"Beautiful Loser" genre: Folk Rock
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	Turns a humorous account of disastrous soccer match between Yugoslavia and Macedonia into a metaphor for peace and reconciliation.
	CD: Shadows of Belgrade   Label: self released (pm productions) in Hong Kong Credits: written, arranged, performed and recorded by Paul Meredith. Production assistance in HK from Simon Hui.
	Story Behind the Song The match took place in September 1999, and I was working on a project in Kumanovo, northeast of Skopje just near the Serbian border in Macedonia. This match was all the staff, Serb, Albanian, whatever, could talk about that day. I thought it was funny how again it seems in so many parts of the world soccer is at least something an entire nation can get excited about without massive injuries (except maybe in Britain...). Everyone listened to the match on the radio while trying to work, and when I heard that the Belgrade team scored THIRTEEN SECONDS INTO THE MATCH I just couldn't believe it. But everyone got over the shock and took the loss well, and somehow, I thought I glimpsed the game for what it really was -- just something to get excited about, nothing more. I wished more things in life could be that way, instead of leading to cycles of death and destruction that are so hard to break -- such as exist in the Balkans. So I wrote this song to tease my pals, and to turn the experience into something kinda fun. Here it is. Lyrics BEAUTIFUL LOSER Oh the sun it was shinin' on Independence Day Nobody here be workin' -- we got a game to play For world recognition, national pride If we can beat the Belgrade boys today, tomorrow we can show our face outside So put down that newspaper, light yourself a smoke Skopje Macedonia ain't gonna be no joke no more Now do I hear you sayin' it's just a football game? Baby shut your mouth and pray for the boys, Macedonia never be the same Yeah if we could just beat old Yugoslavia we finally get some respect And all that bad old history this game gonna correct Well the crowd was goin' crazy -- there weren't no turnin' back Now here's what's so amazing -- it's a Macedonian heart attack It's like God was lookin' down thirteen seconds after the gun Saw the score tied zero to zero, said I'm gonna make it zero to one And while I'm up in my skybox here here's what I'm gonna do Let another minute pass then I'll make it Yugoslavia zero to two The Skopje sky went dark -- the crowd got kinda quiet You might think they lost their spark, you might think they'd start a riot But here's the funny thing, here's why I wrote this song Everybody laughin' at themselves, laughin' all day long Because for 13 seconds, baby the score was tied For 13 beautiful seconds we all felt beautiful inside Yeah for 13 seconds, the world was a beautiful place Macedonia, Beautiful Loser -- beautiful disgrace c) Paul Meredith, 2000

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