Losing My Edge

"Losing My Edge"
Single by LCD Soundsystem
from the album LCD Soundsystem
B-side	"Beat Connection (Extended Disco Dub)"
Released	2002
Format	12" CD digital download
Genre	Alternative dance
Length	7:53 (single version) 4:23 (video edit)
Label	DFA (US) Output (UK)
Writer(s)	James Murphy
Producer(s)	The DFA
LCD Soundsystem singles chronology
"Losing My Edge" (2002) "Give It Up" (2003)

"Losing My Edge" is the debut single by American band LCD Soundsystem. It was released as a 12-inch single on July 8, 2002, through DFA Records. It was later featured on the CD version of their eponymous debut studio album. "Losing My Edge" peaked at number 115 on the UK Singles Chart. It was also listed at number 13 on Pitchfork's Top 500 Songs of the 2000s list.^[1] In October 2011, NME placed it at number 40 on its "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years" list.^[2]

Background

In an interview with the music site "ireallylovemusic", James Murphy (the leader of the group) explained his inspiration for the song:

When I was DJing, playing Can, Liquid Liquid, ESG, all that kind of stuff, I became kind of cool for a moment, which was a total anomaly. And when I heard other DJs playing similar music I was like: 'Fuck! I'm out of a job! These are my records!' But it was like someone had crept into my brain and said all these words that I hate. Did I make the records? Did I fuck! So, I started becoming horrified by my own attitude. I had this moment of glory though. People would use me to DJ just to get them cool. They'd be like 'It's the cool rock disco guy' and this was really weird. And to be honest I was afraid that this new found coolness was going to go away and that's where 'Losing My Edge' comes from. It is about being horrified by my own silliness. And then it became a wider thing about people who grip onto other people's creations like they are their own. There is a lot of pathos in that character though because it's born out of inadequacy and love.

— James Murphy^[3]

In another interview, Murphy elaborated further on the birth and the release of the song:

So I started going to different types of things and meeting different people, and started throwing parties. And all of a sudden, I was kind of cool, I'd always just been a total... not even an outsider, just sort of a nobody, a sort of invisible, sad and kind of shy. And all of a sudden I was DJing, and felt cool, throwing parties. And then one night I went to go see a band, and somebody else was playing the records that I was playing. Nobody else was playing the records that I was playing, that was sort of my thing! And I got really mad, and I got really defensive. And I was like 'What the heck, that's mine! What the--who the hell is this? Some 22-year-old...', and I got really embarassed [sic?] by being like 'These aren't your records, you didn't write them, you just... play them, you just own them, you can't be proud of yourself for owning them' but I was mad at the same time because I was like 'I know that kid was at one of my parties...'. It was this really dense conflict that I couldn't resolve, and that's where 'Losing My Edge' came from. I didn't have a good answer. I was angry, but I was also pathetic for being angry. There wasn't really a right or wrong, you know? I was right and wrong, and this kid was right and wrong, and everybody there was right and wrong. It felt really dense, and really easy to write from. Easy to make something from.

So I made that song, and everybody thought it was terrible. I remember playing it to people, and they'd give you this face (makes a face of surprise and doubt), you know, when they don't want to say anything! And they'd ask me about technical stuff like 'Oh, what are the drums?' and I was like 'OK, you don't like this'. And Phil Mossman, who was the original LCD guitar player, was the only person that was like 'I love this, I really love this, it's very funny'. So we put it out, and the people from the label, my two partners Tim and Jonathan afterwards said 'We just thought you were making a big mistake, you're gonna look like an idiot, and we just feel bad for you'. It was the B-side to 'Beat Connection' until the last minute. I thought 'No, that should be the A-side, that should be the one I should sink or swim with.^[4]

Composition

"Losing My Edge" is an alternative dance song.^[5] It features a rhythm similar to "Change" by Killing Joke.^[6] The track mentions the following artists, genres and music venues: acid house, Can, Suicide, Captain Beefheart, Daft Punk, CBGB, Paradise Garage, Larry Levan, The Beach Boys, Modern Lovers, Niagara, Detroit techno, Yaz, and ends with "But have you seen my records?" and a list of the following: This Heat, Pere Ubu, Outsiders, Nation of Ulysses, Mars, Trojans, Black Dice (referred to as 'The Black Dice'), Todd Terry, the Germs, Section 25, Althea & Donna, Sexual Harassment, a-ha, Dorothy Ashby, PIL, The Fania All-Stars, The Bar-Kays, The Human League, The Normal, Lou Reed, Scott Walker, Monks, Niagara, Joy Division, Laurent Garnier, The Creation, Sun Ra, Scientists, Royal Trux, 10cc, Rammelzee, Eric B. and Rakim, The Index, Basic Channel, Soulsonic Force ("Just hit me!"), Juan Atkins, Manuel Göttsching, David Axelrod, Electric Prunes, Gil Scott-Heron, The Slits, Faust, Mantronix, Pharoah Sanders, The Fire Engines, Swans (referred to as 'The Swans'), Soft Cell (referred to as 'The Soft Cell') and The Sonics (repeated four times).^[7]

Track listing

• dfa 2123^[8]

Personnel

Personnel adapted from the liner notes of the single's Record Store Day 2012 release.^[9]

• Alex Epton – synthesizer
• James Murphy – vocals, bass, composing, drums, programming, synthesizer
• Bob Weston – mastering^{[lower-alpha 1]}
• Nancy Whang – vocals

Charts

Release history

Region	Label	Format	Catalogue no.
United States	DFA	12"	dfa 2123[8]
United Kingdom	Output		OPRDFA002[11]

References

Notes

Citations

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
• "North American Scum" at Discogs (list of releases)