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 Austria and from Milan.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Feelies show in Haledon.
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 1968 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Stockholm and Spokane.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the arpeggiator sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart 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 Jesus and Mary Chain to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Reagan Youth. All the underground hits.
All The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Connie Case record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord 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?
Sound Behaviour,
Ice-T,
The Buckinghams,
The Barracudas,
Visage,
Fluxion,
The Standells,
Johnny Clarke,
Sun City Girls,
the Human League,
Roger Hodgson,
The Cure,
Jeru the Damaja,
Black Sheep,
Toni Rubio,
The Associates,
Boredoms,
The Gories,
Minor Threat,
Sister Nancy,
Ludus,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band,
Swell Maps,
AZ,
Simply Red,
Patti Smith,
The Toasters,
Albert Ayler,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
the Association,
Eyeless In Gaza,
the Soft Cell,
The Blackbyrds,
Heaven 17,
Robert Wyatt,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
The Evens,
LL Cool J,
Hasil Adkins,
The Saints,
Vladislav Delay,
Jawbox,
Tom Boy,
Joyce Sims,
Ossler,
Tubeway Army,
Spandau Ballet,
The Selecter,
Ornette Coleman,
The Pop Group,
Theoretical Girls,
Flamin' Groovies,
Joy Division,
Severed Heads,
Crispian St. Peters,
Deadbeat,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Nation of Ulysses,
Darondo,
The Trojans,
Los Fastidios,
Black Bananas,
A Certain Ratio, A Certain Ratio, A Certain Ratio, A Certain Ratio.
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.