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 Shanghai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1966 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Tehran.
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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Scott Walker to the rock kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Zero Boys. All the underground hits.
All Motorama tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Iggy Pop record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a LL Cool J record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jandek,
Smog,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Oneida,
Todd Terry,
Model 500,
Lalann,
Camberwell Now,
Steve Hackett,
Suicide,
Buzzcocks,
Section 25,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Eurythmics,
The Durutti Column,
The Motions,
AZ,
Dark Day,
Ponytail,
The Wake,
Nation of Ulysses,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Ronnie Foster,
Reagan Youth,
The Raincoats,
The Dave Clark Five,
Marmalade,
Sight & Sound,
Barclay James Harvest,
Rotary Connection,
Joe Finger,
Idris Muhammad,
These Immortal Souls,
Echospace,
Sugar Minott,
John Holt,
Tubeway Army,
Bad Manners,
Harpers Bizarre,
Neil Young,
Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud,
New York Dolls,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Robert Hood,
Fad Gadget,
Adolescents,
LL Cool J,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Underground Resistance,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Barbara Tucker,
The Modern Lovers,
Iggy Pop,
The American Breed,
Anthony Braxton,
the Human League,
Arcadia,
Harmonia,
Khruangbin,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Blossom Toes,
Young Marble Giants, Young Marble Giants, Young Marble Giants, Young Marble Giants.
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.