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 Yemen and from Taipei.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 Houston and Beijing.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Johannesburg 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 sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Ice-T to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Walker Brothers. All the underground hits.
All Mo-Dettes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Neil Young record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime 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 güiro and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Manfred Mann's Earth Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a 808.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
H. Thieme,
Infiniti,
Juan Atkins,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Mars,
the Human League,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Knickerbockers,
The Victims,
the Slits,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Essential Logic,
MC5,
Eric B and Rakim,
Fat Boys,
Gabor Szabo,
Barrington Levy,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Urselle,
Zero Boys,
R.M.O.,
Y Pants,
Jesper Dahlbäck,
Q and Not U,
Nation of Ulysses,
Pantaleimon,
Tres Demented,
Simply Red,
X-Ray Spex,
Pylon,
Hardrive,
Jeru the Damaja,
Young Marble Giants,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Techniques,
Fela Kuti,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Henry Cow,
The Selecter,
MDC,
Rites of Spring,
Darondo,
Black Flag,
Dorothy Ashby,
Babytalk,
Reuben Wilson,
Joyce Sims,
Blancmange,
Main Source,
Pole,
Half Japanese,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Silicon Teens,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Flamin' Groovies,
Don Cherry,
Michelle Simonal,
Television Personalities,
Marcia Griffiths,
The Pop Group,
John Cale,
The Durutti Column,
Harmonia, Harmonia, Harmonia, Harmonia.
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.