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 Qatar and from Beijing.
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 1965 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Accra.
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 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 Donald Fagen 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 Basic Channel to the electroclash 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 MDC. All the underground hits.
All The Motions tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Funky Four + One 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 clarinet and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a James White and The Blacks record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Wire,
a-ha,
Anakelly,
Davy DMX,
KRS-One,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Scott Walker,
Jacob Miller,
Nation of Ulysses,
Stiv Bators,
Matthew Bourne,
One Last Wish,
LL Cool J,
Derrick Morgan,
Donald Byrd,
The Litter,
Minnie Riperton,
Glenn Branca,
Lalann,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Scrapy,
Bobby Byrd,
The Move,
Technova,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
The Barracudas,
Japan,
Camouflage,
Barclay James Harvest,
Bad Manners,
Lyres,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
Barrington Levy,
Gang of Four,
Sly & The Family Stone,
Blossom Toes,
Section 25,
Pussy Galore,
Niagra,
Kerrie Biddell,
Hasil Adkins,
David Axelrod,
Drive Like Jehu,
Joe Finger,
Half Japanese,
JFA,
Young Marble Giants,
DNA,
The Moleskins,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Prince Buster,
Dual Sessions,
Grauzone,
Yellowson,
Model 500,
Wasted Youth,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Harmonia,
The Real Kids,
The Durutti Column,
F. McDonald,
PIL,
Brick, Brick, Brick, Brick.
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.