Infinitely Losing My Edge
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 Serbia and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1968 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto kids in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered nineties.
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 1980 at the first Cybotron practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Idris Muhammad to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
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 Fania All-Stars. All the underground hits.
All The Misunderstood tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
La Düsseldorf,
The Electric Prunes,
Althea and Donna,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Pretty Things,
Aloha Tigers,
Royal Trux,
Parry Music,
the Sonics,
Sexual Harrassment,
Smog,
The Grass Roots,
Niagra,
It's A Beautiful Day,
The Fire Engines,
Pussy Galore,
The Selecter,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Freddie Wadling,
Crispian St. Peters,
Sandy B,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Bobbi Humphrey,
The Neon Judgement,
Young Marble Giants,
Derrick May,
The Evens,
Lebanon Hanover,
Dark Day,
Ultravox,
Pantytec,
Man Eating Sloth,
Boogie Down Productions,
Suicide,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Main Source,
Nation of Ulysses,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
The Standells,
Theoretical Girls,
Todd Rundgren,
The Cowsills,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Stooges,
Quadrant,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Zeros,
Japan,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Happenings,
Spandau Ballet,
Soul Sonic Force,
Zapp,
Cheater Slicks,
Hardrive,
Prince Buster,
Little Man,
Tubeway Army,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Joy Division,
Bluetip,
Magazine,
Jandek, Jandek, Jandek, Jandek.
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.