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 Kyrgyzstan and from Lagos.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Shanghai and Edmonton.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Sao Paulo 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 marimba 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 Red Lorry Yellow Lorry to the rap kids.
I played it at Cafe Wha.
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 Drive Like Jehu. All the underground hits.
All Alison Limerick tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Count Five record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 synthesizer and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Electric Light Orchestra record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
the Slits,
The Slackers,
Connie Case,
Man Parrish,
Vladislav Delay,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Bootsy Collins,
Monolake,
Eric Dolphy,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
James White and The Blacks,
Television,
Malaria!,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Theoretical Girls,
Black Moon,
Letta Mbulu,
The Raincoats,
Sister Nancy,
Scientists,
Lakeside,
Motorama,
Ossler,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Derrick Morgan,
The Durutti Column,
Underground Resistance,
Albert Ayler,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
New York Dolls,
Yaz,
Barrington Levy,
Desert Stars,
the Normal,
Dorothy Ashby,
Kerri Chandler,
Archie Shepp,
Eve St. Jones,
Mark Hollis,
Zapp,
Mars,
Lalann,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Sexual Harrassment,
Scott Walker,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Agent Orange,
Jeff Mills,
Gang of Four,
Bauhaus,
Byron Stingily,
Joyce Sims,
Janne Schatter,
Parry Music,
Radiopuhelimet,
Matthew Bourne,
Al Stewart,
Sparks,
World's Most,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Pet Shop Boys,
Blancmange, Blancmange, Blancmange, Blancmange.
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.