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 Armenia and from Beijing.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1969 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Spokane 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the synthesizer 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 Alphaville to the grunge 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 Selector Dub Narcotic. All the underground hits.
All Ash Ra Tempel tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bootsy's Rubber Band record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sixth Finger record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Human League,
The Birthday Party,
Cal Tjader,
The Selecter,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Maurizio,
The Doobie Brothers,
the Sonics,
Grey Daturas,
Lightning Bolt,
Junior Murvin,
Altered Images,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Brick,
Soft Cell,
Mars,
Dual Sessions,
Yazoo,
Japan,
James White and The Blacks,
The Knickerbockers,
Derrick May,
Crispy Ambulance,
Bobby Womack,
Icehouse,
Radiohead,
Scratch Acid,
Magma,
Swell Maps,
Pole,
Tommy Roe,
The Gories,
Terry Callier,
Matthew Halsall,
Colin Newman,
Scion,
Juan Atkins,
Graham Central Station,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Todd Rundgren,
Sister Nancy,
Albert Ayler,
Barclay James Harvest,
U.S. Maple,
Supertramp,
Arthur Verocai,
The Residents,
Essential Logic,
Smog,
John Holt,
The Real Kids,
Goldenarms,
R.M.O.,
K-Klass,
Banda Bassotti,
cv313,
Zero Boys,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Yaz, Yaz, Yaz, Yaz.
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.