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 Fiji and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1960 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mexico City and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 snare sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Swell Maps to the grime kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Al Stewart. All the underground hits.
All Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Rosa Yemen record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Dead Boys record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Hoover,
The Standells,
Amon Düül,
Camouflage,
Bobby Sherman,
Spoonie Gee,
Anthony Braxton,
Avey Tare,
Matthew Halsall,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Velvet Underground,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
the Bar-Kays,
Monolake,
Animal Collective,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Todd Rundgren,
Graham Central Station,
Absolute Body Control,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Mo-Dettes,
Harry Pussy,
the Germs,
T.S.O.L.,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
China Crisis,
Sixth Finger,
Harmonia,
The Mojo Men,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Scott Walker,
Model 500,
The Walker Brothers,
The Beau Brummels,
X-102,
Sarah Menescal,
Blake Baxter,
Japan,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Janne Schatter,
John Holt,
R.M.O.,
Fatback Band,
Jeru the Damaja,
Thompson Twins,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Colin Newman,
FM Einheit,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Loose Ends,
The Kinks,
Rosa Yemen,
Underground Resistance,
Dual Sessions,
Sex Pistols,
Beasts of Bourbon,
The Five Americans,
Slave,
Surgeon,
Fluxion, Fluxion, Fluxion, Fluxion.
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.