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 Tajikistan and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Portland and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the arpeggiator 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 Nas to the punk 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 Minnie Riperton. All the underground hits.
All Section 25 tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Albert Ayler record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Zapp record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Bill Near,
The Smiths,
Loose Ends,
The Happenings,
DJ Sneak,
Don Cherry,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Little Man,
Skriet,
The Skatalites,
Simply Red,
Stetsasonic,
Eden Ahbez,
Livin' Joy,
Rod Modell,
John Holt,
Heaven 17,
Icehouse,
The Electric Prunes,
Negative Approach,
Barclay James Harvest,
The Blackbyrds,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Henry Cow,
Bad Manners,
Warren Ellis,
Harpers Bizarre,
The Martian,
X-Ray Spex,
Andrew Hill,
The Smoke,
The Angels of Light,
Roxette,
Schoolly D,
Banda Bassotti,
Brothers Johnson,
Section 25,
Panda Bear,
Derrick May,
Model 500,
The Velvet Underground,
Girls At Our Best!,
Ultimate Spinach,
T.S.O.L.,
Todd Terry,
Parry Music,
Gang of Four,
Royal Trux,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Crime,
Intrusion,
Japan,
the Swans,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Rekid,
Rosa Yemen,
The Buckinghams,
Carl Craig,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Durutti Column,
Oblivians, Oblivians, Oblivians, Oblivians.
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.