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 Singapore and from Manila.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
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 1964 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Halifax and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bremen 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 1976 at the first Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
I was working on the snare 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 Audionom to the rock kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 The Human League. All the underground hits.
All The Gap Band tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Stetsasonic record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Music Machine record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
La Düsseldorf,
the Bar-Kays,
Wolf Eyes,
Scion,
Young Marble Giants,
John Coltrane,
Drive Like Jehu,
Kool Moe Dee,
Black Flag,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
D'Angelo,
Interpol,
Mary Jane Girls,
Connie Case,
the Soft Cell,
Ken Boothe,
The Pop Group,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
The Moody Blues,
Todd Rundgren,
Bauhaus,
Crispian St. Peters,
K-Klass,
David McCallum,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Surgeon,
Half Japanese,
Livin' Joy,
Wire,
The Tremeloes,
Kenny Larkin,
Ludus,
Sixth Finger,
The Walker Brothers,
The Smiths,
The Raincoats,
The Gap Band,
The Slackers,
AZ,
Saccharine Trust,
Jerry Gold Smith,
Fatback Band,
Bob Dylan,
Tres Demented,
Ossler,
Hardrive,
John Lydon,
Crooked Eye,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Arthur Verocai,
The Fall,
Cal Tjader,
Sight & Sound,
the Slits,
Scott Walker,
Eric B and Rakim,
The Pretty Things,
Massinfluence,
Amon Düül II, Amon Düül II, Amon Düül II, Amon Düül II.
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.