LCD Soundsystem - "Losing My Edge"

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Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from France and from London.
But I was there.

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.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Sunday, 11 January 2004 01:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, and the guy mutters "What just happened?" after the last "You don't know what you really want."

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

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Sunday, 11 January 2004 01:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm sure it's probably mars rather than M/A/R/R/S. Otherwise Well done (if you worked this out) and a HUGE THANKS.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 11 January 2004 04:26 (twenty-two years ago)

...also no need to capitalise Daft Punk, i dont think.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 11 January 2004 04:34 (twenty-two years ago)

YOu know, it never occurred to me that he didn't actually mean the band Daft Punk!! But it makes sense, (chrono)logically. I assumed it was a meta-reference the disco punk thing, ie playing disco to punk kids

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Sunday, 11 January 2004 04:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not gonna kiss you, Mr. Snrub, but y'all done good.

"I'm losing myself"

― Barima (Barima), Sunday, 11 January 2004 13:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I think you're right. Daft Punk sure as hell never got big in America by being played at CBGB's. Do they even play that kind of music at CBGB's?? I wouldn't know, I've never been there.

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.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Sunday, 11 January 2004 17:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Plus theres an LCD track called (or known as) "Daft Punk Are Playing at My House" and he sure aint talkin about the frenchband.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 11 January 2004 17:14 (twenty-two years ago)

sorry
"Daft Punk IS Playing IN My House"

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 11 January 2004 17:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't get it. why would he use the name Daft Punk if he wasn't referring to the band?

― Elliot (Elliot), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:07 (twenty-two years ago)

it's gotta be the band!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I mean "playing daft punk to the rock kids"--why would that be unusual unless it was the band daft punk?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I know!

― Elliot (Elliot), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:09 (twenty-two years ago)

totally!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Is it a slow day up north there?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:14 (twenty-two years ago)

you have no idea, brah

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, take off, eh?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Plus theres an LCD track called (or known as) "Daft Punk Are Playing at My House"

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

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Sunday, 11 January 2004 18:39 (twenty-two years ago)

it's never been released but you can find it online - if you can't just let me know.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 11 January 2004 19:23 (twenty-two years ago)

it might be called Bitchfight.

― jed_ (jed), Sunday, 11 January 2004 19:32 (twenty-two years ago)

He's talking about the band Daft Punk.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Sunday, 11 January 2004 19:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Of course he's fucking talking about Daft Punk the band! Even if he wasn't he'd have to have never heard of them to include it as a lyric.

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

― Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 11 January 2004 19:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe he was talking about the Melody Maker review of the band Darlin' which called them 'daft punk' which led to the ex-members calling their new band that which etc.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 11 January 2004 19:58 (twenty-two years ago)

hahahhah

― Elliot (Elliot), Sunday, 11 January 2004 20:14 (twenty-two years ago)

this is a design company. pretty funny: http://www.associatesinscience.com/

― JaXoN (JasonD), Sunday, 11 January 2004 20:19 (twenty-two years ago)

jesus, that almost blew up my speakers. anyone else get a weird low sub-bass hum when they went to that site?

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Sunday, 11 January 2004 20:21 (twenty-two years ago)

wifey freaked out when it was on. told me to mute the computer or she'd mute my face

― JaXoN (JasonD), Sunday, 11 January 2004 20:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm sitting here with my pro studio monitors and computer running through a pro interface and everything, really clear and loud, and my teeth were shaking. And it stayed on even if you clicked on one of the videos. weird.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Sunday, 11 January 2004 20:30 (twenty-two years ago)

i think the last line is actually "we all know what you really want."
and he is referring to daft punk the band in the other song - it's a what-if kind of scenario about a kid who saved up enough $ to get them over to play his house party in the suburbs.

― lauren (laurenp), Sunday, 11 January 2004 21:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I was that guy. Or at least I can sympathise.

― Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 11 January 2004 21:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I heard you have a vinyl of every Niagra record on German import.

like this one here, on ebay right now!!

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

― the surface noise (electricsound), Friday, 16 January 2004 04:54 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

I've been reading William Empson, and the idea of 'daft punk' *not* meaning Daft Punk on 'Losing My Edge' is genius.

― NRQ, Thursday, 17 February 2005 09:55 (twenty-one years ago)

uh?

― Alienus Quam Reproba (blueski), Thursday, 17 February 2005 10:29 (twenty-one years ago)

it's a case of empson's second variety of ambiguity, where the ambiguity is resolved eventually. playing 'daft punk' to rock kids at cbgbs in the context of the song could just mean playing the ramones in 1975. but it could also mean playing daft punk at some point in the late 90s. both things being epochal. the eventual resolution is, i guess, that we know that murphy intended the 'ambiguity', it's a case of 'clever wording, cheers'.

― NRQ, Thursday, 17 February 2005 10:34 (twenty-one years ago)

so not really 'genius' then? (sorry i just get so irked by the over-use of that term)

― Alienus Quam Reproba (blueski), Thursday, 17 February 2005 10:37 (twenty-one years ago)

no, it's not really genius. it's not even scenius.

― NRQ, Thursday, 17 February 2005 10:41 (twenty-one years ago)

What ambiguity

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 17 February 2005 11:51 (twenty-one years ago)

How would the Ramones be a "daft" variation on orthodox punk in '75

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 17 February 2005 11:55 (twenty-one years ago)

they were daft. and punk. not unorthodox. no-one said they were an unorthodox variation on punk. but they were dafter than television. and punk is a bit daft.

― NRQ, Thursday, 17 February 2005 12:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah it WOULD be pretty crazy to play a Ramones rec at CBGBs in 75

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 17 February 2005 12:16 (twenty-one years ago)

um, no-one said it was 'crazy' either. the lyrics are about being in on the ground floor of canonic musical scenes. not about being crazy, unorthodox, or daft. (you could say '1974' instead of 1975 i suppose, being pedantic.)

― NRQ, Thursday, 17 February 2005 12:22 (twenty-one years ago)

This song has one of my fav recent lyrics (actually fuck "one of", it's about the only one that's really got me at all, they're mostly not my thing), and it revolves around EXACTNESS. All the right references, an exact history of the narrator's experiences and credentials as a hipster. Ambiguity doesn't come into it. In fact, ambiguity contradicts its nature and fucks any worth it has. xpost Henry have you HEARD or READ the lyric?

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 17 February 2005 12:22 (twenty-one years ago)

"I was the first guy playing Daft Punk to the rock kids.
I played it at CBGBs.
Everybody thought I was crazy."

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 17 February 2005 12:23 (twenty-one years ago)

shit, this is true. i was finding the idea of thinking he didn't mean Daft Punk funny, as per comments upthread. anything can be ambiguous, of course, but i guess for me the ambiguity was pitched up by my image of cbgbs in the era of Daft Punk as a ridiculous punk-tourist trap as related by people who've visited (may be a false conception). this would make playing DP 'crazy' because the people who go are indeed dyed-in-the-wool rock fans (why would playing daft punk to regular rock fans seem crazy? it certainly wasn't considered crazy in england). but playing cbgbs (again according to my idea of what it is these days) would be very far from the edge in 1997-2002. the only time (again, in my mind) that cbgbs was hipster was in the 70s.

― NRQ, Thursday, 17 February 2005 12:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Well see yr image of the lyric seems like exactly what I took it to mean. Playing CBGBs in the late 90s isn't edgy, but going there and playing the new sounds of the electronica (yeah yuck) "takeover" to a bunch of punk fetishists would be, I think. As you more or less said. Also going by the rest of the song I think we can take it for granted the narrator was around for the venue in the 70s, right?

― Andrew Blood Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 17 February 2005 12:40 (twenty-one years ago)

it's the w'burg 'sympathy for the devil' ((C) everybode, 2002)

― NRQ, Thursday, 17 February 2005 12:42 (twenty-one years ago)

"I was the first guy playing Daft Punk to the rock kids.
I played it at CBGBs.
Everybody thought I was crazy."

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

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Thursday, 17 February 2005 13:28 (twenty-one years ago)

The song is obviously about TIME TRAVEL, duh.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 17 February 2005 18:10 (twenty-one years ago)

The melody is lifted from Killing Joke's "Change," by the way. FACT!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 18 February 2005 03:18 (twenty-one years ago)

What melody?

― Speedhump Bungle (noodle vague), Friday, 18 February 2005 03:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 110 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

what a brilliant song to debut your band with

― flappy bird, Saturday, 2 September 2017 05:57 (eight years ago)

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