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 Spokane.
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 1964 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Edmonton 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 snare 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 Johnny Clarke to the grime kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Pharoah Sanders. All the underground hits.
All Erasure tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Whodini record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a rhodes and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Angels of Light & Akron/Family record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Neu!,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Stooges,
Aswad,
Joe Smooth,
Groovy Waters,
DJ Style,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Half Japanese,
ABBA,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Sound,
Oblivians,
The Litter,
The Zeros,
Jawbox,
The Barracudas,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Section 25,
Deepchord,
Can,
Sun Ra,
Khruangbin,
Rosa Yemen,
Radio Birdman,
Cymande,
The Pretty Things,
Steve Hackett,
Swell Maps,
Barbara Tucker,
Dave Gahan,
Leonard Cohen,
Bobby Sherman,
Minny Pops,
Danielle Patucci,
The Human League,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Bill Near,
Sixth Finger,
Au Pairs,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
The United States of America,
Maleditus Sound,
Marmalade,
The Last Poets,
Model 500,
Quantec,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Fall,
Ronnie Foster,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Suicide,
Ken Boothe,
Cal Tjader,
June Days,
B.T. Express,
the Association,
Lungfish,
Make Up,
The Alarm Clocks,
Morten Harket,
The Red Krayola,
Negative Approach, Negative Approach, Negative Approach, Negative Approach.
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.