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 Serbia and from Sao Paulo.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
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 1969 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Winnipeg and Glasgow.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lille 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the güiro sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson to the punk 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 Blancmange. All the underground hits.
All the Slits tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every MC5 record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal grime hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a linndrum and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pylon record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a marimba.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
X-Ray Spex,
Bobby Sherman,
Don Cherry,
Idris Muhammad,
Soul II Soul,
Gong,
The Happenings,
Gang Green,
The Human League,
Dawn Penn,
Cymande,
The Fortunes,
Judy Mowatt,
Art Ensemble Of Chicago,
Faraquet,
T.S.O.L.,
Lou Christie,
H. Thieme,
The Toasters,
Minor Threat,
Unrelated Segments,
The Monks,
Cluster,
Dennis Brown,
Byron Stingily,
The Music Machine,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
Todd Terry,
Dorothy Ashby,
Ultra Naté,
Sarah Menescal,
Rosa Yemen,
The Mummies,
New Order,
One Last Wish,
a-ha,
The Gories,
Excepter,
Nirvana,
Tim Buckley,
Flipper,
Simply Red,
Godley & Creme,
Johnny Clarke,
Robert Görl,
Animal Collective,
Scrapy,
Khruangbin,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Sam Rivers,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Circle Jerks,
Nik Kershaw,
Lindisfarne,
Suicide,
Symarip,
Laurel Aitken,
Babytalk,
The Count Five,
Funky Four + One,
The Smiths, The Smiths, The Smiths, The Smiths.
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.