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 Botswana and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Mistral show in Amsterdam.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lagos and Edmonton.
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 Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
I was working on the linndrum sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Donny Hathaway to the dance kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 Monolake. All the underground hits.
All Siouxsie and the Banshees tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Mark Hollis 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sun City Girls record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Qualms,
Unwound,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
The Kinks,
Eddi Front,
Q and Not U,
Average White Band,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Boredoms,
Bronski Beat,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Heaven 17,
R.M.O.,
Ornette Coleman,
MDC,
Schoolly D,
The Walker Brothers,
Tubeway Army,
Radiohead,
The Moleskins,
Young Marble Giants,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Slackers,
Scan 7,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Gong,
Alice Coltrane,
It's A Beautiful Day,
Blancmange,
Mary Jane Girls,
The Gories,
Piero Umiliani,
Japan,
the Human League,
John Lydon,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Wolf Eyes,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
A Certain Ratio,
Jesper Dahlback,
Patti Smith,
Todd Rundgren,
Accadde A,
Stetsasonic,
Das Ding,
Mars,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
X-102,
H. Thieme,
Monks,
John Foxx,
Minor Threat,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Pantytec,
Jeff Mills,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Adolescents,
Oneida,
Deadbeat,
The Slits,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Ash Ra Tempel, Ash Ra Tempel, Ash Ra Tempel, Ash Ra Tempel.
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.