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 Eritrea and from Lille.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1969 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and New York.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 theremin 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 The Music Machine to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Charles Mingus. All the underground hits.
All Sound Behaviour tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every the Fania All-Stars record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pere Ubu record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Red Krayola,
Gichy Dan,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
the Slits,
Heaven 17,
Fort Wilson Riot,
The Cure,
UT,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Lindisfarne,
Yazoo,
Jacques Brel,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Mad Mike,
Beasts of Bourbon,
June of 44,
Eric Dolphy,
Lee Hazlewood,
Bob Dylan,
Country Joe & The Fish,
10cc,
The Invisible,
Excepter,
John Foxx,
The Sonics,
Gang of Four,
Saccharine Trust,
Letta Mbulu,
Quantec,
Pantaleimon,
Sarah Menescal,
New Age Steppers,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Black Dice,
Radiohead,
The Doors,
AZ,
Jeff Lynne,
Animal Collective,
Crispy Ambulance,
Yusef Lateef,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Flipper,
Al Stewart,
JFA,
Eli Mardock,
the Human League,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Rufus Thomas,
Crash Course in Science,
Ultravox,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Darondo,
Ice-T,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Gang Starr,
Gil Scott Heron,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Schoolly D,
Sparks,
Silicon Teens,
The Leaves, The Leaves, The Leaves, The Leaves.
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.