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 Ivory Coast and from Winnipeg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1978.
I was there at the first Visage 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 1961 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Cairo and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Portland 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 Chic practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the spring reverb sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Matthew Halsall to the punk 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 Kurtis Blow. All the underground hits.
All The Dirtbombs tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Swell Maps record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Babytalk record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought an oboe.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Japan,
Spoonie Gee,
Donald Byrd,
Funkadelic,
The Moody Blues,
Unwound,
John Holt,
Barclay James Harvest,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Von Mondo,
Fad Gadget,
Brass Construction,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Groovy Waters,
Model 500,
Brick,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Theoretical Girls,
X-102,
Marine Girls,
Charles Mingus,
Susan Cadogan,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Gladiators,
The Dead C,
Liliput,
Nation of Ulysses,
Visage,
Amon Düül II,
Jandek,
Radiopuhelimet,
Unrelated Segments,
Joey Negro,
Loose Ends,
Alice Coltrane,
Mary Jane Girls,
Eden Ahbez,
Sixth Finger,
Jerry's Kids,
Judy Mowatt,
Symarip,
The Young Rascals,
Heaven 17,
Infiniti,
Yellowson,
MC5,
Minny Pops,
The Zeros,
the Swans,
Young Marble Giants,
Animal Collective,
Josef K,
Derrick Morgan,
Radiohead,
the Association,
Alison Limerick,
Max Romeo,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Golliwogs,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Mission of Burma,
Franke,
Quantec, Quantec, Quantec, Quantec.
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.