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 Pakistan and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1962 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Stockholm.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the mellotron 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 Marshall Jefferson to the electroclash kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Flipper. All the underground hits.
All Camouflage tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Toasters 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 snare and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a DNA record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Skarface,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Bootsy Collins,
CMW,
Tomorrow,
the Bar-Kays,
Delon & Dalcan,
Groovy Waters,
Ultravox,
Soul II Soul,
Marc Almond,
X-102,
The Leaves,
The Sonics,
Roger Hodgson,
Angry Samoans,
Nick Fraelich,
The Black Dice,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Matthew Halsall,
Stiv Bators,
Public Image Ltd.,
Technova,
Ash Ra Tempel,
Q and Not U,
Fugazi,
KRS-One,
The Raincoats,
John Foxx,
Robert Görl,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Con Funk Shun,
Sparks,
Johnny Clarke,
Sunsets and Hearts,
48th St. Collective,
The Music Machine,
Hardrive,
June Days,
Saccharine Trust,
Depeche Mode,
Pulsallama,
Pylon,
The Electric Prunes,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Little Man,
The Detroit Cobras,
Marvin Gaye,
Scion,
Sexual Harrassment,
Joey Negro,
Motorama,
Q65,
Television,
the Sonics,
Fat Boys,
Radio Birdman,
Nico,
T.S.O.L.,
Cluster,
Donny Hathaway, Donny Hathaway, Donny Hathaway, Donny Hathaway.
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.