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 Israel and from Mexico City.
But I was there.
I was there in 1987.
I was there at the first Nirvana show in Seattle.
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 1964 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Accra.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Erykah Badu to the punk 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 Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines. All the underground hits.
All Ronan tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Heaven 17 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Negative Approach record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Dennis Brown,
Patti Smith,
Depeche Mode,
Bill Wells,
The Pretty Things,
Glenn Branca,
Stereo Dub,
Lou Christie,
EPMD,
kango's stein massive,
The Monks,
Wire,
The Raincoats,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Black Dice,
Oneida,
Black Pus,
Babytalk,
the Swans,
Suicide,
Soft Cell,
Bobby Sherman,
Peter & Gordon,
Black Sheep,
Man Parrish,
Public Enemy,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Dirtbombs,
In Retrospect,
Magma,
Supertramp,
Throbbing Gristle,
Davy DMX,
Pantaleimon,
The Misunderstood,
Groovy Waters,
The Sisters of Mercy,
DJ Style,
Monks,
The Tremeloes,
Minutemen,
Severed Heads,
Reagan Youth,
48th St. Collective,
Ponytail,
Henry Cow,
The Toasters,
Intrusion,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Organ,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Mo-Dettes,
Faust,
Amon Düül II,
Boogie Down Productions,
James White and The Blacks,
Franke,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Can,
Angry Samoans,
Sam Rivers,
Soulsonic Force, Soulsonic Force, Soulsonic Force, Soulsonic Force.
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.