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 Togo and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1973.
I was there at the first Television show in New York.
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 1965 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Manchester and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Cairo 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 1983 at the first Lewis practice in a loft in Vancouver.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Patti Smith to the punk 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 Pussy Galore. All the underground hits.
All Gian Franco Pienzio tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dorothy Ashby 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 '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Slits record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a spring reverb.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a theremin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Electric Prunes,
Agent Orange,
Fugazi,
The Buckinghams,
Sun City Girls,
Urselle,
Justin Hinds & The Dominoes,
Mad Mike,
DJ Style,
Audionom,
Minnie Riperton,
Byron Stingily,
Roger Hodgson,
Rotary Connection,
Alice Coltrane,
Easy Going,
Brass Construction,
Reuben Wilson,
Warren Ellis,
The Smoke,
Maurizio,
Kerrie Biddell,
Aloha Tigers,
ABC,
The Red Krayola,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Leaves,
Barrington Levy,
Spandau Ballet,
Davy DMX,
Los Fastidios,
Susan Cadogan,
The Five Americans,
The Gories,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Pierre Henry,
Malaria!,
Lou Christie,
Excepter,
Motorama,
R.M.O.,
Desert Stars,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Kinks,
Kurtis Blow,
Babytalk,
Interpol,
T. Rex,
Sun Ra,
The Cowsills,
Absolute Body Control,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Joe Smooth,
Moby Grape,
The Cosmic Jokers,
the Fania All-Stars,
Whodini,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
EPMD,
Public Enemy,
Wire,
The Music Machine,
The Monks, The Monks, The Monks, The Monks.
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.