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 Uganda and from Shanghai.
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 1967 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Electric Light Orchestra to the electroclash kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Boogie Down Productions. All the underground hits.
All Country Joe & The Fish tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Scott Walker record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 güiro and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sister Nancy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Flamin' Groovies,
Pet Shop Boys,
Subhumans,
The Kinks,
Yellowson,
The Fugs,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Slits,
Pylon,
Amazonics,
48th St. Collective,
Ice-T,
The Blackbyrds,
In Retrospect,
Dave Gahan,
Wally Richardson,
Joyce Sims,
Patti Smith,
Saccharine Trust,
Sam Rivers,
June Days,
Ultimate Spinach,
Eli Mardock,
Lou Christie,
John Cale,
Jeff Mills,
The Seeds,
The Black Dice,
Magma,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Lyres,
Bluetip,
Tropical Tobacco,
Lucky Dragons,
Malaria!,
X-102,
Peter & Gordon,
Junior Murvin,
Yusef Lateef,
Ronnie Foster,
The Move,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Banda Bassotti,
Marc Almond,
Sight & Sound,
Hardrive,
The Five Americans,
Supertramp,
Freddie Wadling,
Terrestrial Tones,
The Birthday Party,
Cecil Taylor,
Sixth Finger,
ABBA,
Kerrie Biddell,
Index,
Joensuu 1685,
Shoche,
Barrington Levy,
Robert Wyatt,
Easy Going,
Moby Grape, Moby Grape, Moby Grape, Moby Grape.
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.