After ‘What You’re Doing,’ my favorite song on Beatles For Sale is John Lennon’s ‘I’m a Loser.’ Lennon dressed up his famously low self esteem in a song about a failed relationship but really about his own insecurities.
Lennon was paying a lot of attention to Bob Dylan at the time, and this is the first of his songs that makes that influence clear (it would become more clear with ‘You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away’ on the band’s next album).
‘I’m a Loser’ is an odd blend of the Dylan-esque folk verses and a more typical pop chorus. Lennon’s vocals are deeper and grittier than usual, probably another nod to Dylan.
I was going to write that some of the lyrics seemed to echo Smokey Robinson’s ‘Tears of a Clown‘ but I just discovered that Smokey’s song was released three years after this one. So maybe the debt is owed the other way.
I’m a loser
And I’m not what I appear to be
Of all the love I have won or have lost
There is one love I should never have crossed
She was a girl in a million, my friend
I should have known she would win in the end
I’m a loser
And I lost someone who’s near to me
I’m a loser
And I’m not what I appear to be
Although I laugh and I act like a clown
Beneath this mask I am wearing a frown
My tears are falling like rain from the sky
Is it for her or myself that I cry
I’m a loser
And I lost someone who’s near to me
I’m a loser
And I’m not what I appear to be
What have I done to deserve such a fate
I realize I have left it too late
And so it’s true, pride comes before a fall
I’m telling you so that you won’t lose all
I’m a loser
And I lost someone who’s near to me
I’m a loser
And I’m not what I appear to be
Meet Me In Montauk 
This is not one of my favorite Lennon songs, maybe because the lyrics never struck me as all that interesting or sophisticated and the musical structure is a bit too country. Still, even a lesser Lennon song is better than what many other artists produce.