From the article:
Bob Seger knew all about disappointment, after years of struggling to find a wider audience. Beautiful Loser, released in April 1975, unfolded as a rumination on those feelings.
The title track, a microcosm of hopelessness, speaks to all of it: "The original concept came from Leonard Cohen's line, 'He's reaching for the sky just to surrender,'" Seger told Rolling Stone in 1976. "You know, people who set their goals so low that they'll never be disappointed."
Seger's hard-charging brand of heartland rock had already attracted a locally fervent audience in Michigan, pushing his debut to No. 66 in 1968. But the next six studio projects never got any higher than No. 171. (Seger's most recent release, 1974's Seven, hadn't charted at all.) His life in music was at a crossroads, and Seger had clearly begun to worry about letting up, and about giving in.
As that worry took root, he struggled to move forward with the title track. A key voice of reason got things back on track. "I wrote five different 'Beautiful Loser's before I settled on one for the record," Seger told Rolling Stone. "There was a ballad, a blues – I couldn't find the right tone. So, I played it for Glenn Frey, an old friend, to get some advice. He was the first person to ever hear it. And he loved it, so I stuck with the song until it all got pieced together."
