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 Woodstock.
But I was there.
I was there in 2001.
I was there at the first Tiga show in Montreal.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manila and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Taipei 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Bob Dylan to the dance kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Wasted Youth. All the underground hits.
All Lightning Bolt tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Model 500 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Shadows of Knight record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Robert Wyatt,
Pylon,
X-102,
The Neon Judgement,
Tropical Tobacco,
Swans,
Maleditus Sound,
Circle Jerks,
Cheater Slicks,
Hardrive,
PIL,
Henry Cow,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Stereo Dub,
Deepchord,
The Alarm Clocks,
Josef K,
Country Teasers,
Hot Snakes,
The Dave Clark Five,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Outsiders,
The Associates,
James White and The Blacks,
The Star Department,
Ituana,
Morten Harket,
the Sonics,
Severed Heads,
Fad Gadget,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Animal Collective,
The Fugs,
Charles Mingus,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Gories,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Kevin Saunderson,
cv313,
Pantaleimon,
Guru Guru,
The Martian,
Cecil Taylor,
Simply Red,
Brand Nubian,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Fear,
The Mummies,
Ten City,
Groovy Waters,
Loose Ends,
Colin Newman,
Das Ding,
Negative Approach,
Hoover,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Durutti Column,
the Soft Cell,
New Age Steppers,
The Human League,
In Retrospect,
Magazine, Magazine, Magazine, Magazine.
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.