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 Nigeria and from Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage show in London.
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 1968 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 arpeggiator 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 Tom Boy to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Section 25. All the underground hits.
All Rotary Connection tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Gichy Dan 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Animal Collective record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Hardrive,
Black Sheep,
Chris & Cosey,
Zero Boys,
Intrusion,
Surgeon,
JFA,
Lyres,
Aural Exciters,
Q65,
Johnny Clarke,
Terry Callier,
the Association,
The Invisible,
the Human League,
Bang On A Can,
Franke,
Connie Case,
Big Daddy Kane,
Girls At Our Best!,
Crooked Eye,
Au Pairs,
Pulsallama,
Brand Nubian,
DJ Style,
Rapeman,
The Misunderstood,
Jandek,
The Kinks,
Motorama,
Bobby Womack,
the Soft Cell,
10cc,
The Neon Judgement,
Sixth Finger,
Mary Jane Girls,
Nico,
Boogie Down Productions,
Second Layer,
Sun Ra,
Man Parrish,
Nirvana,
Crispian St. Peters,
T.S.O.L.,
The Stooges,
Ponytail,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Crispy Ambulance,
Dennis Brown,
The Young Rascals,
Eve St. Jones,
48th St. Collective,
The Evens,
R.M.O.,
Yusef Lateef,
Charles Mingus,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Tremeloes,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Crash Course in Science,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
the Germs,
The Cure, The Cure, The Cure, The Cure.
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.