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 Uzbekistan and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1966 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and London.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1971 at the first Selda practice in a loft in Istanbul.
I was working on the harpsichord 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 Scrapy to the techno 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 Underground Resistance. All the underground hits.
All Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Pussy Galore record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Thompson Twins record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Five Americans,
Terry Callier,
Soft Cell,
Boogie Down Productions,
the Slits,
Public Image Ltd.,
Idris Muhammad,
Minutemen,
Depeche Mode,
The Index,
Blake Baxter,
X-101,
The Tremeloes,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Country Teasers,
Make Up,
Roy Ayers,
Skarface,
Bluetip,
The Selecter,
Amon Düül II,
Gabor Szabo,
Jerry's Kids,
Oblivians,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
The Names,
Dave Gahan,
Marvin Gaye,
Ronnie Foster,
The Fugs,
Piero Umiliani,
Popol Vuh,
Marc Almond,
Terrestrial Tones,
Joyce Sims,
The Motions,
Bronski Beat,
Drexciya,
Max Romeo,
The Electric Prunes,
Robert Wyatt,
John Lydon,
Underground Resistance,
Wire,
Swell Maps,
Maleditus Sound,
KRS-One,
Howard Jones,
Aswad,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
The Skatalites,
Crime,
The Searchers,
Ornette Coleman,
Freddie Wadling,
New Order,
This Heat,
Sun City Girls,
The Victims,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Pet Shop Boys,
Alice Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Alice Coltrane, Alice Coltrane.
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.