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 Angola and from Manila.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Second Layer show in South London.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Edmonton and Woodstock.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the 808 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 Robert Hood to the crunk 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 Mary Jane Girls. All the underground hits.
All Super Lover Cee & Casanova Rud tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lungfish record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco 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 chamberlin and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Fela Kuti record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a rhodes.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Eric B and Rakim,
the Swans,
Albert Ayler,
Delon & Dalcan,
Lungfish,
B.T. Express,
the Human League,
The Martian,
Eurythmics,
Public Image Ltd.,
Subhumans,
Gastr Del Sol,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
Harpers Bizarre,
Sex Pistols,
Delta 5,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
CMW,
The Electric Prunes,
Bauhaus,
The Detroit Cobras,
Quantec,
Rekid,
The Misunderstood,
X-101,
Kenny Larkin,
The Techniques,
Public Enemy,
Rosa Yemen,
Scientists,
China Crisis,
Sister Nancy,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Eve St. Jones,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
The Busters,
Bizarre Inc.,
T.S.O.L.,
Connie Case,
the Bar-Kays,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
the Association,
Tomorrow,
Vladislav Delay,
Pharoah Sanders,
Roxette,
Jimmy McGriff,
Howard Jones,
Al Stewart,
Pere Ubu,
The Gap Band,
The Buckinghams,
The Zeros,
Lyres,
Guru Guru,
Lee Hazlewood,
Stereo Dub,
Radio Birdman,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Wasted Youth,
Robert Wyatt,
Aswad,
Massinfluence, Massinfluence, Massinfluence, Massinfluence.
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.