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 Sierra Leone and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mexico City 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 1987 at the first Nirvana practice in a loft in Seattle.
I was working on the theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Organ to the electroclash 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 Adolescents. All the underground hits.
All Angels of Light & Akron/Family tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Johnny Osbourne record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 marimba and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Amazonics record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Byron Stingily,
Harmonia,
Harpers Bizarre,
Stockholm Monsters,
The Fugs,
Television Personalities,
Dorothy Ashby,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Sugar Minott,
Altered Images,
David Axelrod,
The New Christs,
Gerry Rafferty,
Roxy Music,
Unrelated Segments,
Al Stewart,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Popol Vuh,
The Dirtbombs,
Black Moon,
Bauhaus,
Warren Ellis,
Marine Girls,
Bill Near,
Organ,
Neil Young,
Deepchord,
Mad Mike,
Ralphi Rosario,
Danielle Patucci,
Aloha Tigers,
The Skatalites,
Ituana,
Gichy Dan,
Franke,
Ultimate Spinach,
Tomorrow,
Bobby Womack,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Jacques Brel,
Oneida,
Fugazi,
Lou Reed,
The Index,
The Shadows of Knight,
Barrington Levy,
Aural Exciters,
The Red Krayola,
The Slits,
Sarah Menescal,
Freddie Wadling,
Pierre Henry,
Dark Day,
The Kinks,
The Slackers,
Ronnie Foster,
Donny Hathaway,
Monks,
The Happenings,
The American Breed,
Roger Hodgson,
Fear, Fear, Fear, Fear.
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.