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 Taiwan and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 2001.
I was there at the first Tiga show in Montreal.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Bobby Byrd to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 New Age Steppers. All the underground hits.
All Lafayette Afro Rock Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Slave 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 '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a guitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Patti Smith,
Girls At Our Best!,
The American Breed,
Dead Boys,
The Blackbyrds,
David Bowie,
Livin' Joy,
Eli Mardock,
The Toasters,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Kurtis Blow,
Lebanon Hanover,
Hasil Adkins,
Blake Baxter,
Con Funk Shun,
Bob Dylan,
The Cure,
Mandrill,
The Standells,
Basic Channel,
Johnny Clarke,
Infiniti,
Scratch Acid,
John Foxx,
ABC,
Tommy Roe,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Alison Limerick,
David McCallum,
JFA,
Barclay James Harvest,
Nation of Ulysses,
Aural Exciters,
OOIOO,
Angry Samoans,
Minor Threat,
Rod Modell,
Judy Mowatt,
Bronski Beat,
Zapp,
Boz Scaggs,
Gong,
Carl Craig,
Howard Jones,
Motorama,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Moody Blues,
Cybotron,
Matthew Halsall,
Sparks,
The Kinks,
the Germs,
Drive Like Jehu,
The Fuzztones,
This Heat,
The Smiths,
Bobby Womack,
The Divine Comedy,
The Misunderstood,
James White and The Blacks,
Joe Smooth, Joe Smooth, Joe Smooth, Joe Smooth.
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.