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 Taiwan and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1960 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Salvador and Tokyo.
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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the guitar 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 The Gun Club to the rap kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Harpers Bizarre. All the underground hits.
All The Gladiators tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every L. Decosne record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a sitar and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Freddie Wadling record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Jeff Mills,
Ralphi Rosario,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Fifty Foot Hose,
Sun City Girls,
Bluetip,
Television,
Von Mondo,
The Divine Comedy,
Rosa Yemen,
John Holt,
Dorothy Ashby,
Absolute Body Control,
Camouflage,
The Modern Lovers,
Quando Quango,
Joyce Sims,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
The Vogues,
Bizarre Inc.,
Mary Jane Girls,
Susan Cadogan,
Pulsallama,
The Slits,
Soft Machine,
Isaac Hayes,
John Cale,
JFA,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Pierre Henry,
Piero Umiliani,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Angry Samoans,
the Soft Cell,
Babytalk,
Public Image Ltd.,
The Fall,
Severed Heads,
Surgeon,
Visage,
Talk Talk,
Sam Rivers,
The Trojans,
Delta 5,
the Bar-Kays,
Black Sheep,
Brothers Johnson,
Kurtis Blow,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
The Kinks,
Niagra,
Gregory Isaacs,
Pharoah Sanders,
Nick Fraelich,
Simply Red,
Robert Wyatt,
Lalo Schifrin,
Neil Young,
Man Eating Sloth,
In Retrospect,
Moebius,
Can, Can, Can, Can.
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.