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 Costa Rica and from Manila.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez show in Detroit.
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 1963 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Portland.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Yellowson 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 Malaria!. All the underground hits.
All Lightning Bolt tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Scrapy record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rites of Spring record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Yellowson,
Albert Ayler,
Cecil Taylor,
Ken Boothe,
Joyce Sims,
Ohio Players,
Trumans Water,
The Last Poets,
The Move,
Suburban Knight,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Litter,
Audionom,
Maleditus Sound,
Newcleus,
Don Cherry,
Marcia Griffiths,
Radiopuhelimet,
Ossler,
Spandau Ballet,
Hoover,
Von Mondo,
The Dead C,
Oneida,
The Birthday Party,
Lebanon Hanover,
Idris Muhammad,
the Human League,
Alton Ellis,
Bootsy Collins,
Lightning Bolt,
The Seeds,
Cymande,
Infiniti,
Freddie Wadling,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Grauzone,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Scratch Acid,
The Alarm Clocks,
Nils Olav,
Jeru the Damaja,
The Residents,
Groovy Waters,
Boogie Down Productions,
Patti Smith,
Unwound,
E-Dancer,
Essential Logic,
Rakim,
H. Thieme,
The Trojans,
Girls At Our Best!,
Faust,
The Count Five,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Hot Snakes,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
In Retrospect, In Retrospect, In Retrospect, In Retrospect.
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.