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 Mozambique and from Manchester.
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 1961 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the harpsichord 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 A Flock of Seagulls to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Spandau Ballet. All the underground hits.
All Black Pus tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Faraquet 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Glenn Branca record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Janne Schatter,
Brass Construction,
Chris Corsano,
Faraquet,
Dawn Penn,
Sister Nancy,
The Doors,
The Dead C,
Spoonie Gee,
The Modern Lovers,
Steve Hackett,
The Angels of Light,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
The Alarm Clocks,
Surgeon,
Duran Duran,
Depeche Mode,
Dorothy Ashby,
Quantec,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Tropical Tobacco,
The Fugs,
Flipper,
Quando Quango,
Ice-T,
The Dave Clark Five,
Hot Snakes,
Gang of Four,
Section 25,
The Smiths,
Animal Collective,
Roger Hodgson,
Tubeway Army,
Shoche,
Sam Rivers,
Sexual Harrassment,
Freddie Wadling,
Ludus,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Matthew Bourne,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Blake Baxter,
Sparks,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Don Cherry,
X-102,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Swell Maps,
Rapeman,
The Knickerbockers,
Crispian St. Peters,
Mandrill,
Malaria!,
Eddi Front,
Josef K,
James White and The Blacks,
Althea and Donna,
Idris Muhammad,
Moby Grape,
Pylon,
The Skatalites,
Technova,
Arab on Radar, Arab on Radar, Arab on Radar, Arab on Radar.
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.