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 St Lucia and from Lagos.
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 1966 to 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Halifax.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Delhi 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 Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the clarinet 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 the Slits to the jazz 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 Arcadia. All the underground hits.
All cv313 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Swans 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Amazonics record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bill Wells,
The Remains,
Y Pants,
T.S.O.L.,
The Flesh Eaters,
The Shadows of Knight,
The Offenders,
Bob Dylan,
Stiv Bators,
Kurtis Blow,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Swell Maps,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Shuggie Otis,
Model 500,
Nico,
DJ Sneak,
Ituana,
The Happenings,
Crime,
Andrew Hill,
Patti Smith,
Funkadelic,
Blake Baxter,
Moby Grape,
Joe Smooth,
Tubeway Army,
Althea and Donna,
Amon Düül,
James White and The Blacks,
Brick,
David Axelrod,
Nation of Ulysses,
Matthew Bourne,
The Smiths,
The Durutti Column,
Boz Scaggs,
The Dead C,
Public Image Ltd.,
Pierre Henry,
Boredoms,
Stetsasonic,
Pussy Galore,
Gerry Rafferty,
Bobby Hutcherson,
The Real Kids,
Leonard Cohen,
LL Cool J,
Suicide,
Connie Case,
Interpol,
Pagans,
Little Man,
China Crisis,
Loose Ends,
Hoover,
Jacob Miller,
Funky Four + One,
Tomorrow,
Yaz,
The Sound,
OOIOO, OOIOO, OOIOO, OOIOO.
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.