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 Cape Verde and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1980.
I was there at the first Cybotron show in Detroit.
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 1965 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Winnipeg 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 rhodes sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 B.T. Express to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Pet Shop Boys. All the underground hits.
All John Holt tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Stetsasonic record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Juan Atkins record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lakeside,
Jacques Brel,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Tommy Roe,
June of 44,
The Standells,
Average White Band,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
The Evens,
Ultra Naté,
Niagra,
Q and Not U,
Glenn Branca,
Avey Tare,
The Last Poets,
Lou Christie,
Eric B and Rakim,
The Vogues,
Sixth Finger,
Television Personalities,
Banda Bassotti,
The Zeros,
Dorothy Ashby,
Bill Near,
Moss Icon,
R.M.O.,
La Düsseldorf,
Marcia Griffiths,
John Holt,
The Music Machine,
Letta Mbulu,
The Smoke,
Freddie Wadling,
Sam Rivers,
Donald Byrd,
In Retrospect,
Fear,
Barry Ungar,
The Five Americans,
The Knickerbockers,
Marvin Gaye,
The Slits,
Don Cherry,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Girls At Our Best!,
Dennis Brown,
Shoche,
D'Angelo,
The Selecter,
Kurtis Blow,
The Seeds,
Sonic Youth,
Amazonics,
Accadde A,
The Buckinghams,
Faraquet,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Alton Ellis,
The Fortunes,
Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents, Adolescents.
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.