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 Ghana and from Delhi.
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 1963 to 1977.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Milan and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Bologna 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 harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Pole to the disco kids.
I played it at the Roxy.
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 Quantec. All the underground hits.
All Radiohead tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Graham Central Station 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a spring reverb and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ultravox record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Groovy Waters,
Black Moon,
Sparks,
Mantronix,
Crash Course in Science,
The Birthday Party,
Ash Ra Tempel,
The Searchers,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Electric Prunes,
Susan Cadogan,
Lakeside,
Drexciya,
The Five Americans,
Camberwell Now,
Leonard Cohen,
In Retrospect,
The Star Department,
Morten Harket,
Curtis Mayfield,
Massinfluence,
Section 25,
These Immortal Souls,
Minor Threat,
Mad Mike,
Stiv Bators,
The Busters,
Von Mondo,
Eve St. Jones,
Bizarre Inc.,
Girls At Our Best!,
Be Bop Deluxe,
Dark Day,
Graham Central Station,
Don Cherry,
Grandmaster Flash,
Radiohead,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Main Source,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Warren Ellis,
John Coltrane,
The Tremeloes,
Tubeway Army,
Procol Harum,
Qualms,
Rotary Connection,
Y Pants,
Index,
Eurythmics,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Franke,
Frankie Knuckles,
Mr. Review,
Jacques Brel,
Black Flag,
The Golliwogs,
Johnny Osbourne,
The Happenings,
Minny Pops, Minny Pops, Minny Pops, Minny Pops.
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.