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 Portugal and from Halifax.
But I was there.
I was there in 1980.
I was there at the first Cybotron show in Detroit.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Houston and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the güiro 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 Flamin' Groovies to the grunge kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Camberwell Now. All the underground hits.
All The Pop Group tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pantytec 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 '70s.
I hear you're buying a chamberlin and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rosa Yemen record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
John Cale,
Rites of Spring,
Desert Stars,
the Swans,
The Offenders,
Faraquet,
Sparks,
Grandmaster Flash,
Rekid,
Darondo,
Marshall Jefferson,
The Move,
Lakeside,
Scion,
the Human League,
The Smoke,
The Litter,
Public Enemy,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
Schoolly D,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Aural Exciters,
Anthony Braxton,
The Barracudas,
Outsiders,
Hashim,
The New Christs,
E-Dancer,
Silicon Teens,
Sound Behaviour,
The Last Poets,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Reagan Youth,
Fad Gadget,
Tim Buckley,
Sex Pistols,
The Count Five,
Suicide,
The Detroit Cobras,
The Associates,
Radio Birdman,
Malaria!,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Lyres,
Niagra,
FM Einheit,
Yellowson,
Mad Mike,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
the Fania All-Stars,
kango's stein massive,
Cabaret Voltaire,
The Happenings,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Barry Ungar,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Scan 7,
The Vogues,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
The Names,
The Gap Band, The Gap Band, The Gap Band, The Gap Band.
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.