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 Venezuela and from Toronto.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1966 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Copenhagen.
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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the sitar 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 Yusef Lateef to the rap 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 The Wake. All the underground hits.
All Pylon tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Agitation Free record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a clarinet and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lafayette Afro Rock Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Judy Mowatt,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
The Trojans,
Cal Tjader,
Theoretical Girls,
Brick,
Tropical Tobacco,
Nico,
These Immortal Souls,
Jeru the Damaja,
The Doors,
Ultravox,
The Fugs,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Kool Moe Dee,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Crooked Eye,
Susan Cadogan,
The Star Department,
The Sound,
Crime,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Bill Near,
H. Thieme,
Saccharine Trust,
The Skatalites,
Jerry Gold Smith,
World's Most,
Gang Green,
Y Pants,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Johnny Osbourne,
Smog,
Blancmange,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Pulsallama,
Outsiders,
The Modern Lovers,
X-102,
Matthew Bourne,
The Doobie Brothers,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Whodini,
Hashim,
Matthew Halsall,
Alice Coltrane,
Isaac Hayes,
OOIOO,
Tres Demented,
Lee Hazlewood,
Alison Limerick,
X-Ray Spex,
Dawn Penn,
Avey Tare,
Sonic Youth,
Quadrant,
Hoover,
The United States of America,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Derrick May,
B.T. Express, B.T. Express, B.T. Express, B.T. Express.
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.