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 Grenada and from Tehran.
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 1964 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Milan.
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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Nile Rodgers 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 Wake to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Bill Near. All the underground hits.
All Nick Fraelich tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a 808 and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bobbi Humphrey record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a snare.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Mo-Dettes,
Mantronix,
Ultimate Spinach,
Ralphi Rosario,
Cluster,
The Doobie Brothers,
Leonard Cohen,
Nik Kershaw,
David Axelrod,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Barrington Levy,
Radiohead,
The Pretty Things,
Rakim,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Susan Cadogan,
Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft,
The Associates,
Warsaw,
Japan,
Jacques Brel,
Brothers Johnson,
OOIOO,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
The Cure,
The Last Poets,
Tommy Roe,
Brass Construction,
Minny Pops,
Organ,
Don Cherry,
Tubeway Army,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Lebanon Hanover,
Carl Craig,
Kas Product,
Pet Shop Boys,
Judy Mowatt,
Harmonia,
Eddi Front,
Scientists,
Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane,
Rites of Spring,
This Heat,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Gastr Del Sol,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Chrome,
Babytalk,
Morten Harket,
Deakin,
Audionom,
James White and The Blacks,
Robert Wyatt,
Joey Negro,
Piero Umiliani,
The Dead C,
Sixth Finger,
The Zeros,
Scratch Acid,
Television Personalities, Television Personalities, Television Personalities, Television Personalities.
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.