Bobby Bare – The Winner

About The Song

“The Winner” is a darkly comedic country narrative by Bobby Bare, released in January 1976 as a single from his album The Winner and Other Losers on RCA Victor. Written by Shel Silverstein, it peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart and hit No. 24 in Canada, a fan favorite for its vivid storytelling. The 5:13 track follows a cocky narrator challenging “Tiger Man McCool,” a barroom brawler, only to learn through McCool’s scars—missing teeth, a steel jaw, a broken back—that “winning” means surviving brutal losses. Lines like “My nose been broke so often I might lose it if I sneeze” land with gallows humor, per Genius. Bare told Rolling Stone in 2013, “Shel’s words painted a picture so clear I could smell the beer and blood. I just had to sing it.” SHEA Magazine likens it to Johnny Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue,” calling it a “hilarious gem” that saves your soul with its wit.

Recorded on February 28, 1973, at RCA Studio B in Nashville, the song was produced by Bare himself, with Silverstein’s influence shaping its theatrical delivery. The uncredited band, likely Nashville A-Team players, includes twangy guitar and sparse percussion, letting Bare’s conversational baritone shine, per Discogs. First cut for 1973’s Bobby Bare Sings Lullabys, Legends and Lies, it was re-recorded for the 1976 album, which hit No. 18 on the Billboard Country Albums chart. AllMusic praises its “short-form storytelling brilliance,” with Silverstein’s lyrics weaving a barfight saga that’s both absurd and profound. The G-C-D chord progression and “I guess that makes me the winner” refrain, per AZLyrics, give it a singalong grit. SecondHandSongs notes its first release was Bare’s, though a 1973 recording surfaced later.

Bare, born April 7, 1935, in Ironton, Ohio, was a country maverick, blending folk, pop, and humor into hits like “Detroit City” (No. 6 Country, 1963). By 1976, he was riding a wave of quirky RCA singles like “Marie Laveau” (No. 1, 1974), and “The Winner” fit his knack for offbeat tales. He performed it live at the Grand Ole Opry in 1976 and later in 2013 after his Country Music Hall of Fame induction, with clips on YouTube showing his sly grin. Covers include Kris Kristofferson’s raw 1979 take and Matt Raynor’s 2010 version, per SecondHandSongs. The song appeared in no major films but thrives on Spotify and Smule, where fans call it “a barroom epic.”

No controversies dog the track—it’s pure Silverstein mischief, skewering macho pride. Bare reflected in a 2017 NPR interview, “It’s about losing less than the other guy, and that’s life, ain’t it?” The song’s legacy endures, a testament to Bare’s storytelling and Silverstein’s razor-sharp pen, still making listeners laugh and wince.

Video

Lyric

The hulk of a man with a beer in his hand, he looked like a drunk old fool
And I knew if I hit him right, why, I could knock him off of that stool
But everybody they said watch out, hey, that’s the Tiger Man McCool
He’s had the whole lotta fights and he’s always come out winner
Yeah, he’s a winner

But I had myself about five too many and I walked up tall and proud
I faced his back and I faced the fact that he had never stooped or bowed
I said, Tiger Man you’re a pussycat and a hush fell on the crowd
I said, let’s you and me go outside and see who’s the winner

Well, he gripped the bar with one big hairy hand then he braced against the wall
He slowly looked up from his beer, my God that man was tall
He said, boy, I see you’re a scrapper so just before you fall
I’m gonna tell you just a little ‘bout what it means to be a winner

He said, now you see these bright white smilin’ teeth, you know they ain’t my own
Mine rolled away like Chicklets down the street in San Antone
But I left that person cursin’, nursin’ seven broken bones
And he only broke three of mine, that makes me the winner

He said, now behind this grin I got a steel pin that holds my jaw in place
A trophy of my most successful motorcycle race
And each morning when I wake and touch this scar across my face
It reminds me of all I got by bein’ a winner

Now this broken back was the dyin’ act of a handsome Harry Clay
That sticky Cincinnati night I stole his wife away
But that woman she gets uglier and she gets meaner every day
But I got her, boy, that’s what makes me a winner

He said, you gotta speak loud when you challenge me, son, ‘cause it’s hard for me to hear
With this twisted neck and these migraine pains and this big ole cauliflower ear
And if it wasn’t for this glass eye of mine, why, I’d shed a happy tear
To think of all that you gonna get by bein’ a winner

I got arthritic elbows, boy, I got dislocated knees
From pickin’ fights with thunderstorms and chargin’ into trees
And my nose been broke so often I might lose it if I sneeze
And son, you say you still wanna be a winner?

Now you remind me a lotta my younger days, with your knuckles a-clenchin’ white
But boy, I’m gonna sit right here and sip this beer all night
And if there’s somethin’ that you gotta gain to prove by winnin’ some silly fight
Well, okay, I quit, I lose, you’re the winner

So I stumbled from that barroom, not so tall and not so proud
And behind me I still hear the hoots of laughter of the crowd
But my eyes still see and my nose still works and my teeth’re still in my mouth
And you know, I guess that makes me the winner