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 Laos 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 1962 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Tokyo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 The Shadows of Knight to the rock 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 Bad Manners. All the underground hits.
All Warsaw tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Knickerbockers record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge 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 a linndrum and a harpsichord and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a AZ record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Patti Smith,
Mo-Dettes,
Ohio Players,
Young Marble Giants,
UT,
Derrick Morgan,
The Walker Brothers,
Livin' Joy,
Erasure,
Roger Hodgson,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Jeff Mills,
Lou Christie,
Bootsy Collins,
Fela Kuti,
Byron Stingily,
Echospace,
Kas Product,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Robert Görl,
PIL,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Howard Jones,
The Fortunes,
Laurel Aitken,
E-Dancer,
Rapeman,
Sparks,
Scratch Acid,
Youth Brigade,
The Red Krayola,
Faraquet,
China Crisis,
Aaron Thompson,
Deepchord,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Goldenarms,
Pole,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Sex Pistols,
The Smiths,
the Human League,
Spoonie Gee,
Stockholm Monsters,
Man Parrish,
Marc Almond,
The Moody Blues,
Ornette Coleman,
Ludus,
Gang Gang Dance,
Radiohead,
FM Einheit,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Urselle,
The Zeros,
Jimmy McGriff,
The Durutti Column,
Nils Olav,
Drive Like Jehu,
Altered Images,
Stiv Bators, Stiv Bators, Stiv Bators, Stiv Bators.
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.