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 Guinea and from Manchester.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
I was working on the 808 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 Agitation Free to the punk 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 D'Angelo. All the underground hits.
All Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Tim Buckley record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a PIL record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
David Axelrod,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Archie Shepp,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
the Slits,
Half Japanese,
Swans,
Pole,
Guru Guru,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Knickerbockers,
the Soft Cell,
The Gories,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Agitation Free,
The Invisible,
Heaven 17,
The Doobie Brothers,
Marc Almond,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Searchers,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Rakim,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Fort Wilson Riot,
F. McDonald,
Flipper,
UT,
Joe Finger,
Excepter,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Malaria!,
The Detroit Cobras,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Crooked Eye,
The Monks,
Siglo XX,
Eve St. Jones,
The Techniques,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Country Teasers,
Public Enemy,
Mary Jane Girls,
Bush Tetras,
Erykah Badu,
Neu!,
Dead Boys,
Jesper Dahlback,
Delon & Dalcan,
Big Daddy Kane,
Gil Scott Heron,
These Immortal Souls,
Fela Kuti,
Chrome,
Niagra,
Magazine,
Stockholm Monsters,
Cal Tjader,
Pharoah Sanders,
Main Source,
Skaos,
Bill Wells, Bill Wells, Bill Wells, Bill Wells.
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.