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 Qatar and from Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1960 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the organ 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 Vaughan Mason & Crew to the disco kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Chocolate Watch Band. All the underground hits.
All Steve Hackett tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Black Moon record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a marimba and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Public Enemy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jacob Miller,
Thompson Twins,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Mojo Men,
The Raincoats,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Scratch Acid,
The Dave Clark Five,
The Walker Brothers,
The Selecter,
10cc,
K-Klass,
Boz Scaggs,
Spandau Ballet,
OOIOO,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Joensuu 1685,
The Human League,
Gong,
Harry Pussy,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Aaron Thompson,
Jacques Brel,
Ohio Players,
Gil Scott Heron,
Donald Byrd,
Suburban Knight,
Max Romeo,
Quando Quango,
Joyce Sims,
The Monks,
Rotary Connection,
Von Mondo,
Steve Hackett,
Babytalk,
The Real Kids,
The Durutti Column,
Tears for Fears,
Neu!,
Cal Tjader,
This Heat,
Hardrive,
Los Fastidios,
Derrick May,
Chrome,
Barry Ungar,
Rod Modell,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Brothers Johnson,
La Düsseldorf,
Harmonia,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Drexciya,
the Normal,
Deakin,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Tommy Roe,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Al Stewart,
Q65,
Alphaville,
Icehouse, Icehouse, Icehouse, Icehouse.
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.