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 Vanuatu and from Bologna.
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 1968 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 Soft Boys practice in a loft in Cambridge.
I was working on the guitar 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 Arab on Radar to the crunk 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 Donald Byrd. All the underground hits.
All Average White Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Juan Atkins record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gabor Szabo record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Ponytail,
Patti Smith,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Rakim,
The Modern Lovers,
Unrelated Segments,
Toni Rubio,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Angels of Light,
The Doobie Brothers,
Jerry's Kids,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Chris & Cosey,
Prince Buster,
Blake Baxter,
Vainqueur,
Tim Buckley,
Connie Case,
Joy Division,
Fear,
Nation of Ulysses,
Intrusion,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Crime,
Moss Icon,
Gang Starr,
Anakelly,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Agent Orange,
Juan Atkins,
X-101,
R.M.O.,
Lower 48,
Youth Brigade,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
The Wake,
Mantronix,
Echospace,
Los Fastidios,
Eli Mardock,
Glambeats Corp.,
Robert Görl,
The Index,
The Gladiators,
Flipper,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Main Source,
Livin' Joy,
La Düsseldorf,
Soulsonic Force,
Sixth Finger,
The Searchers,
Hardrive,
Flamin' Groovies,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Rites of Spring,
The Raincoats,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Andrew Hill,
Eurythmics,
Kings Of Tomorrow,
Ludus, Ludus, Ludus, Ludus.
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.