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 Ukraine and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Selda show in Istanbul.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Manila.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Sexual Harrassment to the grime kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Stetsasonic. All the underground hits.
All Richard Hell and the Voidoids tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every MC5 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Birthday Party record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Hasil Adkins,
Mad Mike,
Gil Scott Heron,
Traffic Nightmare,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Skarface,
Arthur Verocai,
the Germs,
Model 500,
The Remains,
Ponytail,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Buckinghams,
Bad Manners,
Angry Samoans,
The Sonics,
Average White Band,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Laurel Aitken,
Throbbing Gristle,
Public Enemy,
the Human League,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Outsiders,
Graham Central Station,
Oblivians,
Crime,
The Move,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Lou Reed,
The Mojo Men,
Warren Ellis,
The Knickerbockers,
The Fire Engines,
Nils Olav,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Drexciya,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Rosa Yemen,
Quadrant,
the Bar-Kays,
The Angels of Light,
Shuggie Otis,
Desert Stars,
The Monks,
Skaos,
Arab on Radar,
Pagans,
H. Thieme,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Mission of Burma,
Nation of Ulysses,
Panda Bear,
La Düsseldorf,
The Dave Clark Five,
the Fania All-Stars,
Das Ding,
Ultravox,
In Retrospect,
Blake Baxter, Blake Baxter, Blake Baxter, Blake Baxter.
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.