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 Tanzania and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1960 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Philadelphia and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Donald Fagen 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 Glenn Branca to the grunge kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Rapeman. All the underground hits.
All Harpers Bizarre tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every PIL record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sonic Youth record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Q and Not U,
Marine Girls,
Infiniti,
Newcleus,
Silicon Teens,
the Slits,
New York Dolls,
Half Japanese,
Second Layer,
Sun Ra,
Leonard Cohen,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Sugar Minott,
The Doors,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Big Daddy Kane,
Au Pairs,
Television,
The United States of America,
The Trojans,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
A Certain Ratio,
Tres Demented,
Andrew Hill,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
Model 500,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
JFA,
Yaz,
The Grass Roots,
Popol Vuh,
Kerrie Biddell,
The Buckinghams,
Scientists,
The Count Five,
The Black Dice,
Black Pus,
The Angels of Light,
Bootsy Collins,
The Real Kids,
The Dave Clark Five,
Rites of Spring,
Kevin Saunderson,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Brass Construction,
Television Personalities,
Black Sheep,
Morten Harket,
Harpers Bizarre,
Hardrive,
The Associates,
Lalo Schifrin,
Gil Scott Heron,
Thompson Twins,
Wolf Eyes,
Jandek,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
8 Eyed Spy,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Nation of Ulysses,
La Düsseldorf,
The Flesh Eaters,
Camberwell Now, Camberwell Now, Camberwell Now, Camberwell Now.
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.