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 Djibouti and from Halifax.
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 1962 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 1978 at the first Visage practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the sitar sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth to the grime kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 Rufus Thomas. All the underground hits.
All Lafayette Afro Rock Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Donny Hathaway record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Oppenheimer Analysis record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sällskapet,
The Blues Magoos,
Jacob Miller,
X-Ray Spex,
Curtis Mayfield,
Tropical Tobacco,
Janne Schatter,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
Rhythm & Sound,
The Fugs,
Sexual Harrassment,
The Fire Engines,
Rotary Connection,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
K-Klass,
Can,
Joe Finger,
Judy Mowatt,
Scion,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
Altered Images,
Pere Ubu,
Sight & Sound,
Suicide,
Grauzone,
Prince Buster,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Yusef Lateef,
Agent Orange,
Barry Ungar,
Jawbox,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Pagans,
Funkadelic,
Amon Düül II,
Sun Ra,
Fatback Band,
The Residents,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Blake Baxter,
The Saints,
The Monks,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Mars,
Brass Construction,
Junior Murvin,
Camron Feat. Memphis Bleek And Beenie Seigel,
The Names,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
The Litter,
Visage,
Black Flag,
Warren Ellis,
Das Ding,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Mary Jane Girls,
Juan Atkins,
Marine Girls,
The Wake,
Qualms, Qualms, Qualms, Qualms.
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.