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 Spain and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 1966 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Bremen.
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 1976 at the first Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Ponytail to the crunk 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 CMW. All the underground hits.
All Harpers Bizarre tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every John Cale record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
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 Avey Tare record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Mad Mike,
Robert Wyatt,
Ornette Coleman,
Brass Construction,
Cal Tjader,
The Angels of Light,
Pharoah Sanders,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
T.S.O.L.,
The Names,
Lyres,
Cecil Taylor,
Buzzcocks,
The Vogues,
The Divine Comedy,
The Walker Brothers,
Qualms,
Althea and Donna,
Tubeway Army,
Khruangbin,
Symarip,
World's Most,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
The Last Poets,
Bobby Womack,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
DNA,
Aloha Tigers,
Minor Threat,
Mark Hollis,
UT,
Pierre Henry,
Unwound,
Yellowson,
Minnie Riperton,
Gang Green,
Roxette,
Frankie Knuckles,
Al Stewart,
PIL,
Motorama,
Joe Finger,
Marine Girls,
Piero Umiliani,
The Standells,
Hasil Adkins,
Vainqueur,
Gabor Szabo,
The Techniques,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Eric Copeland,
Johnny Clarke,
Heaven 17,
The Electric Prunes,
Mandrill,
Average White Band,
Gichy Dan,
The Associates,
Sound Behaviour,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Mo-Dettes,
Joy Division, Joy Division, Joy Division, Joy Division.
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.