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 Trinidad & Tobago and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1960 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Delhi.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 1970 at the first Onyeabor practice in a loft in Enugu.
I was working on the chamberlin 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 Goldenarms to the dance 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 The Wake. All the underground hits.
All Albert Ayler tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Judy Mowatt record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grunge hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an oboe and a rhodes and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lebanon Hanover record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Brothers Johnson,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Skaos,
Steve Hackett,
EPMD,
Pagans,
Lyres,
Kaleidoscope,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Rites of Spring,
The Five Americans,
Symarip,
Theoretical Girls,
Faust,
Anthony Braxton,
Soft Cell,
Accadde A,
Rapeman,
Chris & Cosey,
48th St. Collective,
The Toasters,
The Velvet Underground,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Q and Not U,
MC5,
Half Japanese,
The Music Machine,
Television,
Suburban Knight,
Fugazi,
Gichy Dan,
Das Ding,
Sparks,
La Düsseldorf,
The United States of America,
Procol Harum,
Angels of Light & Akron/Family,
Soulsonic Force,
Royal Trux,
The Residents,
Ralphi Rosario,
Lower 48,
The Seeds,
The Divine Comedy,
The Gun Club,
This Heat,
Iggy Pop,
Hardrive,
Soul II Soul,
Matthew Bourne,
The Last Poets,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Adolescents,
Gabor Szabo,
Silicon Teens,
Boogie Down Productions,
The Skatalites,
Yazoo,
Grauzone, Grauzone, Grauzone, Grauzone.
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.