"But have you seen my records?"... The LCD Soundsystem 'Losing My Edge' POLL

rtx

for some reason, I have never heard this song

still lol @ the Eric B and RakEEm pronounce.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON1eRJtoOrg

Um, isn't that how you pronounce it? It's like that Nike thread again.

xpost

Rakim himself pronounces it, on his records as RAH-KIM.

stray comma

yeah i usually defer to the way Rakim pronounces it, but i'm kinda weird.

Pere Ubu going for the split vote.

Fair enough then. I think it's normally pronounced that way though -

Origin and Meaning of the Name Rakim

Gender:
Boy

Origin:
American English

Meaning:
N/A

Pronunciation:
(rah KEEM)

BUT PLEASE NOTE I am merely pointing out it is not crazy to think it's pronounced that way! Yeah if he says it RAHKIM obv that is right etc.

I should really know this seeing as I am a fan and all.

This goes against every anti-violence principle I believe in, but somehow I just really enjoy watching him get the crap slapped out of him in that video.

The Black Dice-ah!

Gil! Scott! Heron!

Yeah, Gil, just for the delivery. Also, I was listening to his Watergate raps this afternoon so I'm feeling very pro-Gil. Good jokes.

This Heat just over Swans

I hadn't noticed Dorothy Ashby was mentioned, so I voted for her.

section 25, natch

I found this helpful cause I hadn't heard a couple of the namedrops: http://qmass.wordpress.com/2007/08/24/lcd-soundsystems-losing-my-edge-annotated/

The Rakim thing always bugged me, particularly if you ever actually listened to anything Rakim ever did.

You missed Manuel Göttsching (of "E2 E4" fame), who should go in between Juan Atkins and David Axelrod.

Because of this song, for a brief time, I thought I was mispronouncing Rakim when I actually wasn't.

How exactly were the bands chosen whose names appear in this song? I know music by about 20 of those bands.. I had no clue that there's apparently a critically revered group called Sexual Harrassment..

Also ILM tends to ruin this song for me because it gets mentioned so often, which is a shame since it's probably his 2nd best song after "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House."

Sun Ra just over Ubu

Is it true this are the lyrics to the song? I've only heard the version on the video above and it's missing half the lyrics:

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.

To all the kids in Tokyo and Berlin.
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 CBGB's.
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, Mars, 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,

Joy Division, Lower 48, the Association, Sun Ra,
Scientists, Royal Trux, 10cc,

Eric B. and Rakim, Index, Basic Channel, Soulsonic Force ("just hit me"!), Juan Atkins, 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. (x15)

yea man those are the lyrics

- the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics.

I played this for some record collector pals once and one of the more rockisty said something along the lines of "yeah this is pretty funny but it's more of a techno hipster thing, he's not referencing like, the sonics" right before "THE SONICS....THE SONICS...THE SONICS." A+, James Murphy.

The combination of namechecks makes me think of Optimo.

missed laurent garnier, forget where he says it but he does.

"the Human League, the Normal, Lou Reed, Scott Walker, Monks, Niagra"

it's in this part, in the background he kind of yells "Laurent Garnier" underneath all the others.

not sure why this is important but maybe it was in return for some positive "feedback" from garnier.

is Mars the same as MARRS?

lol "Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines"

like a merseybeat band from hell or something

"yeah this is pretty funny but it's more of a techno hipster thing, he's not referencing like, the sonics"

^who did these guys think The Germs and Swans were?

MORE of a

is Mars the same as MARRS?

I don't think so, I'd guess it's the group who appear on 'No New York' comp.

never noticed him saying althea and donna before

^who did these guys think The Germs and Swans were?

a) I'm paraphrasing and b) I don't think he was paying microscopic attention

I just want to say that my "I WAS THERE" moment was one of the few conversations I ever had with James was us talking about how music was changing while at Passerby and he tells me that he's working on a song about how there's all these new bands of young kids coming up like Black Dice and the Rapture who have been so much more easily exposed to so much cool stuff at a young age and how cool that is, and how his song is a sort of jokey come-back claiming how much cooler he is because "he was there...".

I was also there at the party behind Passerby in the gallery when they had the jamaican soundsystem set up and Outhud performed and Rub-n-Tug DJ'd and played the white label of Losing My Edge and Beat Connection. I don't know if it was the first time anybody had played it, but nobody I was with recognized it.

i think googling the lyrics of this song is how i found ILX for the first time. and then my life was ruined forever.

voted pharoah, but close behind were sexual harrassment, this heat & david axelrod. might've voted Manuel Göttsching if he were there.

I vote Fania All-Stars.

The whole point of this exercise is to vote for someone that no one else votes for, right?

black dice since they are about my most listened to

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 say "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime." to people in daily life all the time. no one has ever gotten the reference, which is fine. i like my private jokes.

way to keep it private

shh don't tell the internet

all of the millions of folks reading this thread

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"I had no clue that there's apparently a critically revered group called Sexual Harrassment..

― billstevejim"

are they critically revered? i know they made dope electro records that you've definitely heard if you've ever heard a competent electro deejay, but i doubt critics are in love with them.

i'm IN LOVE with them

i'm not a critic though

i was just watching these guys on the youtubes yesterday, for real

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA3RhUhRTkM

COOL
senior high!

voted Althea & Donna just because

no pop no style

all strictly roots

one of the only ones I don't recognise is Niagra. i presume it ain't Niagara from Destroy All Monsters. is it this one?
http://www.freakemporium.com/archive/release/NICD001/releasepage.html

Tell me about Niagra. And Dorothy Ashby.

xpost

Dororthy Ashby is the other jazz harpist lady. she did some records on Cadet with Richard Evans.

yeah i guess that's the right niagra since he mentions having it on german import

Bands I have only just begun to appreciate post-Losing My Edge that I had no idea were namechecked in it: 10cc, Section 25

So, that's weirding me out a little. Like, 10cc weren't at all a hipster namecheck band in 2002, but now they might be...

Who are Lower 48? I have a CD by a band of that name (there must be a few) but it is surely not that one seeing as mine is some 2000s British post-hardcore thing on the same label as 65daysofstatic.

yeah, I was trying to figure this out the other day. Also thank you to this thread for making me bump Something's Going On in my soul

For a while Sexual Harrassment were better known for the non-electro punkish If I Gave You A Party then the more electro I Need a Freak.

I always assumed the "rakeem" might have been intentional to show how the narrator of the story is really just running off a list of things that he really doesn't know all that much about.

I prolly listen to the Germs the most on this list, followed by Eric B and Rakim and then Faust

You missed Manuel Göttsching (of "E2 E4" fame), who should go in between Juan Atkins and David Axelrod.

That's what I get for copying and pasting from a lyrics site. Too much effort to transcribe on my own. Sorry!

funny i always imagined it was this Niagara but i guess the german thing makes more sense

The German Niagara was krautrock/prog type band known for their funky funky breaks.

...which could often be found in James Murphy's DJ crate.

this is the cover. (nsfw) http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/niagara_f2

oh yeah there's a real krautrock disco narrative there. Keith Forsey drumming for Amon Duul II, then Niagara, then working with Moroder for years. Donna Summer, Sparks etc etc

iirc keith was also the model for the niagra cover that jaxon linked to

I've just tracked down the second LP, S.U.B.

http://rapidshare.com/files/22338678/ni-sub.zip

(v out of print, mods)

Much jazzier than I was expecting, but great so far...

How does this one compare to the other LPs?

Scott Walker just over Nation of Ulysses.

i'm voting NOU

i have never been into, nor know that much about, 90s hardcore, but i love that band so much

also it's the one that LCDS seems to have drawn the least from

you should listen to Eric B and RakEEM then?

is Mars the same as MARRS?

dude get no new york NOW.

I gotta go with Mars, I guess, but then I also wish I could pick so many others (like the slits, pere ubun basic channel,...)

Don't know if the DL link is still live, but here's a Mars album: http://www.swanfungus.com/2009/06/mars-78.html

Tough call between GSH, Juan Atkins, and Pharoah Sanders. But I went with Pharoah. When he hits me, he hits me hard.

shoulda chosen ike then

most out of place: a-ha?

You don't want that copy of Mars 78. I think the Foetus tweaks were done because they didn't have good source tapes or something, but in any case, they found a whole new/different set of tapes including these awesome binaural recordings and Mark Cunningham released it himself and licensed out the vinyl, it's called Mars LP I think and has either a shiny blue or gold cover. That's the one you want.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

hmmm shoulda voted for scientists