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 Yemen and from Delhi.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Throbbing Gristle show in London.
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 1961 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 The Associates to the punk 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 Bobby Sherman. All the underground hits.
All the Fania All-Stars tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Basic Channel record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 chamberlin and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Modern Lovers 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?
Sly & The Family Stone,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Crash Course in Science,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Fall,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
Scrapy,
Eric Copeland,
Man Eating Sloth,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Bill Near,
June of 44,
Andrew Hill,
Liliput,
Tres Demented,
The Gap Band,
The Last Poets,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Cowsills,
Rod Modell,
The Seeds,
Letta Mbulu,
Second Layer,
Sugar Minott,
The Dirtbombs,
the Soft Cell,
Little Man,
Skarface,
The Vogues,
Fluxion,
Dorothy Ashby,
the Human League,
The Searchers,
These Immortal Souls,
Duran Duran,
Aaron Thompson,
Godley & Creme,
Nick Fraelich,
The Black Dice,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Kerrie Biddell,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Jeru the Damaja,
Donny Hathaway,
Animal Collective,
Index,
10cc,
Johnny Clarke,
Roger Hodgson,
Silicon Teens,
New York Dolls,
Crooked Eye,
The Barracudas,
Intrusion,
Byron Stingily,
Basic Channel,
Scientists,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Panda Bear,
Talk Talk, Talk Talk, Talk Talk, Talk Talk.
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.