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 Saudi Arabia 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 1961 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Glasgow and Madrid.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 organ 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 Lightning Bolt to the rock 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 Zero Boys. All the underground hits.
All Average White Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Tom Boy 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Patti Smith record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Toasters,
Eric Copeland,
Freddie Wadling,
Barrington Levy,
The Monks,
Kas Product,
Lebanon Hanover,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
Bad Manners,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Cecil Taylor,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Count Five,
Crime,
Grandmaster Flash,
The Divine Comedy,
Black Pus,
Ken Boothe,
Echospace,
Leonard Cohen,
Liliput,
Skriet,
Young Marble Giants,
Ronnie Foster,
The Gories,
La Düsseldorf,
Robert Wyatt,
Joey Negro,
Cybotron,
the Germs,
Black Sheep,
Rhythm & Sound,
The Golliwogs,
The Zeros,
Dead Boys,
Wally Richardson,
Television,
Avey Tare,
Infiniti,
Public Enemy,
Kaleidoscope,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Crooked Eye,
The Dave Clark Five,
John Coltrane,
Cymande,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Alice Coltrane,
Al Stewart,
Gastr Del Sol,
Mo-Dettes,
Monks,
Spandau Ballet,
T.S.O.L.,
Severed Heads,
The Cowsills,
Eyeless In Gaza,
Organ,
FM Einheit,
The Sound, The Sound, The Sound, The Sound.
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.