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 Brazil and from New York.
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 1965 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Toronto and Houston.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Madrid 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 oboe 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 Judy Mowatt 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 Pussy Galore. All the underground hits.
All Dorothy Ashby tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every U.S. Maple record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a snare and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Standells record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought a clarinet.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Motorama,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Colin Newman,
Lou Reed & John Cale,
The Zeros,
The Slits,
Quadrant,
Roxy Music,
Lightning Bolt,
Pharoah Sanders,
Sixth Finger,
Lalann,
Flash Fearless,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Absolute Body Control,
Brass Construction,
The Litter,
Jerry's Kids,
Wasted Youth,
Jeff Lynne,
Mary Jane Girls,
Youth Brigade,
Jesper Dahlback,
Sly & The Family Stone,
China Crisis,
Traffic Nightmare,
The Pretty Things,
Tropical Tobacco,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
The Standells,
The Young Rascals,
Swans,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Arab on Radar,
Unwound,
A Flock of Seagulls,
Groovy Waters,
Ossler,
DNA,
Gastr Del Sol,
The Seeds,
Delta 5,
the Bar-Kays,
Harpers Bizarre,
Scrapy,
Talk Talk,
Sparks,
Crispy Ambulance,
Camouflage,
Todd Terry,
Mad Mike,
Panda Bear,
Kaleidoscope,
Monks,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Patti Smith,
Popol Vuh,
Spandau Ballet,
Magazine,
The Pop Group,
Gang Green,
Drive Like Jehu, Drive Like Jehu, Drive Like Jehu, Drive Like Jehu.
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.