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 Syria and from Stockholm.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lyon and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 1980 at the first Cybotron practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the 808 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 The Names to the techno kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Tom Boy. All the underground hits.
All Thompson Twins tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Camouflage record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 guitar and an oboe and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Lightning Bolt record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Skatalites,
James White and The Blacks,
Wasted Youth,
La Düsseldorf,
John Foxx,
Freddie Wadling,
Gang of Four,
Nico,
Radiohead,
the Soft Cell,
Popol Vuh,
New Order,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Grandmaster Flash,
cv313,
The Cowsills,
Yaz,
Tommy Roe,
Gichy Dan,
Robert Hood,
Beasts of Bourbon,
Darondo,
Yazoo,
Carl Craig,
Joe Smooth,
Wings,
Howard Jones,
Mission of Burma,
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Flipper,
Neil Young,
The Velvet Underground,
Surgeon,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Idris Muhammad,
The Standells,
The United States of America,
Glambeats Corp.,
John Coltrane,
AZ,
The Doors,
the Association,
Dorothy Ashby,
The Shadows of Knight,
Warsaw,
Quadrant,
Fad Gadget,
Swell Maps,
Throbbing Gristle,
The Moody Blues,
Mark Hollis,
Röyhkä ja Rättö ja Lehtisalo,
Amazonics,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Minutemen,
Monolake,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Lou Reed,
Tropical Tobacco,
Barry Ungar,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Oblivians, Oblivians, Oblivians, Oblivians.
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.