LCD Soundsystem - "Losing My Edge"

It is kind of the the ultimate track in terms of Song as Music Criticism -- very funny references, and one that only serious music geeks could understand (not many know what would be great about seeing Can in Cologne in 1968).

I also got completely tied in knots trying to describe it as retro/not retro and old/not old, I'd have another go at categorising it but frankly, its not a pretty sight.

Oh OK then. Anyone remember 'Malcolm X No Sell Out'?

This past weekend, I put together a mix CD w/ three of the DFA singles (though I used "Beat Connection" instead of "Losing My Edge"), plus "Too Many Creeps," "Future Shock (Dance Your Pants Off)," "Do the Du," "Yopparai," "Tell You (Today)," etc. The people I've given it to seem to like it a lot...

I thought that Marcello's comments were marvellous (seriously much better than mine - go read them instead).

Arrow Sanders?? = Pharoah Sanders

Two mysteries solved!

Is this the guy from Six Finger Satellite?

I had a real moment with Losing My Edge, my friend had gone to park his car on Saturday and I was in the bar waiting for him to come back and it came on. I hadn't heard it before and I knew it had to be it, it was long enough that my friend got back and was able to be impressed aswell. Fantastic. And I have no frame of reference with the Fall or Talking Heads or anyone but nonetheless, fantastic. (I did think it was a bit like Alex Gopher)

!!! Ronan what on earth are you talking about? Certainly none of the Alex Gopher I've heard.

Boy, the last few Six Finger Satellite records still sound great/annoying.

Most of the D&B breaks used after the genre ditched the "Jungle" term/techniques were from "The Incredible Bongo Band's" version of "Apache" (not that this question was literal...)

"To get a good idea of the LCD's sound one must imagine Daft Punk, Chic and the Talking Heads in the back room of a seedy NYC dive engaged in an anything-goes sexathon circa 1978."

"Beat Connection" is excellent.

I'm being serious.

If I told you what the blanks are, the song becomes personal self-fulfilling prophecy, doncha know!! "It took me YEARS to find out what he's saying, you think I'ma tell you, twerpy internet seeker?"

I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the Internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1962 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.

voice one: To all the kids in Tokyo and Berlin.
voice two: I'm losing my edge to the art-school Brooklynites in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered eighties.

But I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge, but I was there.
I was there.
But I was there.

I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1974 at the first Suicide practices in a loft in New York City.
I was working on the organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way, you'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing Daft Punk to the rock kids.
I played it at CBGBs.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.

I used to work in the record store.
I had everything before anyone.
I was there in the Paradise Garage DJ booth with Larry Levan.
I was there in Jamaica during the great sound clashes.
I woke up naked on the beach in Ibiza in 1988.

But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.

I'm losing my edge.

I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody. Every great song by the Beach Boys. All the underground hits. All the Modern Lovers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Niagra record on German import. I heard that you have a white label of every seminal Detroit techno hit - 1985, '86, '87. I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.

I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your computer out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yaz record.

I hear that you and your band have sold your guitars and bought turntables.
I hear that you and your band have sold your turntables and bought guitars.

I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.

But have you seen my records? This Heat, Pere Ubu, Outsiders, Nation of Ulysses, M|A|R|R|S, The Trojans, The Black Dice, Todd Terry, the Germs, Section 25, Althea and Donna, Sexual Harrassment, a-ha, Pere Ubu, Dorothy Ashby, PIL, the Fania All-Stars, the Bar-Kays, the Human League, the Normal, Lou Reed, Scott Walker, Monks, Niagra,

voice one: Joy Division, Lower 48, the Association, Sun Ra, [unintelligible]
voice two: Scientists, Royal Trux, 10cc,

Eric B. and Rakim, Index, Basic Channel, Soulsonic Force ("just hit me"!), Juan Atkins, [unintelligible], David Axelrod, Electric Prunes, Gil! Scott! Heron!, the Slits, Faust, Mantronix, Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines, the Swans, the Soft Cell, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics.

You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.

Now, if somebody could just fill in the [unintelligible]s...

"I'm losing myself"

Same with the M|A|R|R|S/Mars deal. It's definitely the latter, because a lot of the other bands he mentions (Pere Ubu, PIL, Lou Reed) are post-punky, not house.

And WHY have I never heard of it before now!?!?!??!

Isn't Laurent Garnier in the lyric to Losing My Edge somewhere?

like this one here, on ebay right now!!

http://people.freenet.de/dustyouoff/Niagarafront.JPG

Bloody hell! When you write it down like that, it's almost like Wesley Willis lyrics.

Say what you might about it otherwise, but Losing My Edge is without doubt one of the more entertaining songs ever recorded. Not that it has any relation to the album at all for me.

James: "Losing My Edge" came from a different place actually. That's them, I remember Vito [Roccoforte, from the Rapture] and Matt mentioning that to me recently, about how "Losing My Edge" came from "Do The Du", but it didn't at all. "Losing My Edge" came from a beat out of a cassette deck with a keyboard built in. That's what the du-du-dunk-ka-dunk thing for the whole thing.

The drums came from "Change" by Killing Joke. Like the turnarounds. It's like, I'm a drummer and the things you play when you warm up, I sit down and play "Little Miss Lover" by Jimi Hendrix, it's one of the beats I play. And my friend sits down and plays a different beat. The "Change" turnarounds are just one of the things I've always loved to play. Sorta like Gang Of Four's "Anthrax". But "Do The Du", I heard it about the time I met the Rapture, and was just freaking out. I love how skinny the guitars are. I think it's pretty amazing. The song was on my little MiniDisc of things I wanted people who were gonna play with me to listen to, before I ever made the band.

http://pitchforkmedia.com/features/weekly/05-05-09-jukebox-james-murphy.shtml

I'll add that for YEARS, I disliked "Losing My Edge", until I finally heard it on the LCD Soundsystem 2-CD I got earlier this year. As it turns out, when I first heard it, John In The Morning on KEXP had played ONLY THE FIRST HALF! The best part of the song is the build-up and climax in the second-half. What the fuck was up with John that morning?

It would be cool to have James just scream "CHANGE!" every now and then, just to admit it, though. :)

WHOA

Heeey! I resent that!

just saying

thank you mr. murphy, if it is indeed you

Tell Nancy hubbahubba from me.

"juan atkins, MANUEL GöTTSCHING, david axelrod"

I can't BELIEVE I didn't catch that.

also, anyone seen these?

ihttp://www.dfarecords.com/radiomixes/tracklisting.gif

yowsa...

Great song, good video.

remember how awesome it was when this song first came out

Indeed.

i remember people freaking out about "Yeah" liveblogging it as they listened for the first time. good times.

so jaded now. so damn jaded.

all downhill after this

yeah was a pretty awesome moment too

heh wow good times.

lol i posted good times w/o even seeing mizzy's post XD

still have much love for this. and 'beat connection' for that matter.

i was gonna say

s1ocki were you a bigger fan of this or 'house of jealous lovers'

it's crazy cuz i was just reminiscin bout dis da otha day - all like lmao ilm sure did love this stuff, wasnt that crazy huh

s1ocki were you a bigger fan of this or 'house of jealous lovers'

― euskaltel husker du (haitch), Wednesday, July 22, 2009 10:12 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

good q i think they were about equal in my mind? danced more to hojl

I made a thread about this song on the NZBRD:

TRAINSPOTTING

i think i first heard hojl, this and beat connection all on the same day, was a big "oh man, this label!!" moment

reemmber when jess was like BOARD OF bum bum JEALOUS WRITERS bum bum, that made me laff

ok--mars is the ny group, from no new york, etc.
and it's "you all know what you really want"
just saying

― gigglesmcj, Monday, June 27, 2005 9:12 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink[

Was this really James Murphy (or some other DFA guy)?

I think the DFA bands have gotten better and better.

"Someone Great" > "Losing My Edge"
"W.A.Y.U.H." > "House of Jealous Lovers"
"Happy House" >>>>>>>>>>> "By the Time I Get to Venus"

"Happy House" >>>>>>>>>>> all recorded music

xpost makes me : )

Mr. Snrub is is right, but the older records have the power of so much nostalgia behind them (already!)

pulled out the HOJL 12" the other day and played the morgan geist remix (which i dunno why, but i'd never listened to before) and it's pretty hot.

No way is "WAYUH" better than "House of Jealous Lovers"

i remember people freaking out about "Yeah" liveblogging it as they listened for the first time. good times.

That's one of my favorite days ever on ILM.

No way is "WAYUH" better than "House of Jealous Lovers"

― Rostam Batmang (The Reverend), Thursday, July 23, 2009 9:46 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

qft

yeah this song is great

it is, but I have no desire to listen to it anymore

Still listen to those DFA Compilation #1 and #2 collections a few times a year. Really great all around - LCD, Black Dice, Juan Maclean, Delia and Gavin/Black Leotard Front, the Rapture, Liquid Liquid, etc.

Isn't a little early to be having DFA nostalgia guys?

man, you guys remember Siltbreeze and lo-fi? Remember when everyone was twittering about Condo Fucks? I love the early 09s!

7 years is a long time

i think the real argument should be that since DFA isn't "hot omg meme" label anymore, people have been ignoring the good stuff they've been putting out: Shocking Pinks, Syclops, et al

but we weren't arguing we were just like hay this was a good song

it is a good song.

rip my innocence

Syclops

Love this record.

Syclopzzzzzzz

whiney is so cranky sometimes

I'm losing my edge to the tweeters who can tweet 1,500 records a year.
I'm losing my edge.

I was there when Bat For Lashes got an 8 and then drowned shortly thereafter. We all know.

I used to write for Idolator.
I posted everything before anyone.
I was there at the River Room in Harlem for the Merriweather Post Pavillion listening session.
I was there at Brooklyn's Masonic Temple when Dan Deacon debuted his 15-piece live band.
I woke up naked in a warehouse in Brooklyn in 2008.

this was v iconic but house of jealous lovers was really amazing mixed in with all the shit that people might have called electro or whatever before the name became tainted, it was so physical. no rock record will ever have that impact again.

the good stuff they've been putting out: Shocking Pinks, Syclops, et al

ugh, worst things they've put out

otm like a buffalo nickel

But I was there! I was transcribing the lyrics to this song before anybody else did!

before house of jealous lovers and before electroclash most people used the term electro to describe actual electro-funk i.e. Cybotron and Bam as well as the post techno electro revivalists like DMX Krew, Jedi Knights, Le Car, Drexcyia etc.

yeah no of course dan, but you know what I mean by using it to mean that stuff too, I dunno, like in that interzone where people were playing hojl and lots of other dfa stuff and then stuff like black strobe etc mixed together...there wasn't really a name for it I guess. I really loved that period of time.

now it's like a sort of maxed out version of that sound is the biggest thing on the planet.

haha snrub

i think the real argument should be that since DFA isn't "hot omg meme" label anymore, people have been ignoring the good stuff they've been putting out: Shocking Pinks, Syclops, et al

― hipster brünoff (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, July 24, 2009 9:30 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the real argument should be: kill youre damn saelf

This is ten years old. 10 years old. A decade. I feel a bit like Jeremy Piven. 10 WHOLE YEARS.

quite shocked re whineys declaration of love for the shocking pinks album up there.
never made it to the end of that album before i hit the eject button.

Song about feeling old succeeds in making you feel old.

I was young when it came out! I was one of them-there 'internet seekers'! With a playlist of every good song, by every good band, ever! I'm probably the same age now as Murphy was when it was recorded.

Wikipedia tells me that Murphy is 9 years older than me, so that was a pretty good guess.

personal crisis starts hear. i remember dancing to this at my first Glastonbury (I was there!)

starts hear?

ha yeah i can never get that Piven "TEN (horn honk!) YEARS!" thing out of my head when a decade's gone by.

always preferred the B side but then that's a classic indie tossbag thing that 'the kids' on the actual song might say.

Was just talking about this with a friend last night, but I misremembered this as having come out 2003. Now I feel older than I already did.

"Memmmmmmmmmories..."

http://stereogum.com/1087342/losing-my-edge-turns-10/top-stories/

Almost a tween.

Nice article, although everyone I know pronounces it I-beetha or Ib-eetha - is it different in the States?

most ppl I know say Ih-bee-zah unless they've actually been there

"I once wrote an entire paragraph about how people pronounce 'Ibiza' without researching it"

that is a very good article. i especially like the quotes from james murphy discussing how the song was born of his own fears about the declining social value of music knowledge in an era of "internet seekers" who can track down obscure information relatively easily. the song is definitely a landmark.

The Ibeza/Ibetha paragraph had me shaking my head, I haven't heard eye-bee-za since my teenaged brother proclaimed he was 'into trance' and bought a FSoL CD

Remix of a (loose) cover of a Fear song that seems to owe something to LCD:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycR3K1IIf9U

(which is on the Maceo Plex DJ Kicks)

/the good stuff they've been putting out: Shocking Pinks, Syclops, et al/

ugh, worst things they've put out

wait what?

shocking pinks def in my bottom 5 dfa.

Syclops is fucking fantastic, esp the new record

I noticed that on LCD's first song ("Losing My Edge") and final(?) song ("Home"), the bassline shares the same rhythmic pattern... i.e., that of Killing Joke's "Change".

Intentional or not?

Intentional I think. LCD Soundsystem always seemed like a band that had a terminal "mission" if that makes sense. When they showed up they already had a strong sense of themselves as a project or idea.

yeah i'd definitely figure it for intentional.

Pow Pow is the last song they recorded iirc, which also makes sense irt Losing My Edge being their first song.

bump

what a brilliant song to debut your band with