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 Equatorial Guinea and from Shanghai.
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 1964 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 chamberlin 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 Cure to the funk 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 Yazoo. All the underground hits.
All Half Japanese tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every X-101 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Jawbox record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Joey Negro,
Average White Band,
D'Angelo,
Robert Wyatt,
Y Pants,
KRS-One,
Amazonics,
Kas Product,
Royal Trux,
Alice Coltrane,
June of 44,
The Electric Prunes,
cv313,
The Blackbyrds,
Jeff Lynne,
Lakeside,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Mr. Review,
Icehouse,
Bobby Byrd,
Rapeman,
Babytalk,
The Last Poets,
X-102,
Crispian St. Peters,
Sarah Menescal,
Bronski Beat,
Duran Duran,
Dorothy Ashby,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Detroit Cobras,
John Lydon,
Lower 48,
Sandy B,
Brick,
The Dead C,
Camouflage,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
The Walker Brothers,
Drive Like Jehu,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
The J.B.'s,
Gerry Rafferty,
The Raincoats,
Second Layer,
Accadde A,
The Barracudas,
Ronan,
The Misunderstood,
Public Image Ltd.,
The Moleskins,
Peter and Kerry,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Loose Ends,
Yaz,
Deepchord,
Outsiders,
E-Dancer,
Unrelated Segments,
Maurizio,
Blancmange, Blancmange, Blancmange, Blancmange.
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.