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 Swaziland and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Big Star show in Memphis.
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 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 rhodes 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 Gong to the jazz 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 Blake Baxter. All the underground hits.
All Scientists tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every MDC record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Dorothy Ashby record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord 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?
Lou Reed,
June of 44,
The Red Krayola,
Neil Young & Crazy Horse,
Urselle,
Terrestrial Tones,
Marvin Gaye,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Lungfish,
Sexual Harrassment,
Barry Ungar,
The Victims,
Blake Baxter,
Icehouse,
A Certain Ratio,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Eric Copeland,
cv313,
AZ,
Technova,
Warren Ellis,
Excepter,
Liliput,
Skriet,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Procol Harum,
Cluster,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
X-101,
The United States of America,
Bootsy Collins,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Cameo,
The Mighty Diamonds,
The Slackers,
Toni Rubio,
Archie Shepp,
T. Rex,
Carl Craig,
Deadbeat,
Patti Smith,
Roxy Music,
Nico,
Anakelly,
James White and The Blacks,
Joe Smooth,
Aural Exciters,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Audionom,
Byron Stingily,
The Dave Clark Five,
Ornette Coleman,
Crime,
Glenn Branca,
Mark Hollis,
Hashim,
The Real Kids,
Dark Day,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Easy Going,
Thee Headcoats,
Stockholm Monsters,
Wire,
Soft Machine, Soft Machine, Soft Machine, Soft Machine.
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.