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 Mongolia and from Hong Kong.
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 1968 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Spokane and Manchester.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Stockholm 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 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the 808 sounds with much patience.
I was there when Lou Reed 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 Blancmange to the funk 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 Bill Near. All the underground hits.
All Rapeman tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Ultravox record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Shadows of Knight record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a chamberlin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought a sitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lou Reed,
Roxette,
Ten City,
Sexual Harrassment,
Subhumans,
Simply Red,
Urselle,
Blake Baxter,
Faust,
The Star Department,
MC5,
Roy Ayers,
Jeru the Damaja,
Fat Boys,
Rotary Connection,
New Order,
Sex Pistols,
Shoche,
Pere Ubu,
Fela Kuti,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
The Doobie Brothers,
Eve St. Jones,
Unrelated Segments,
Hashim,
Rod Modell,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Y Pants,
The Gap Band,
Bad Manners,
The Flesh Eaters,
Bootsy Collins,
The Motions,
Alton Ellis,
Schoolly D,
the Normal,
F. McDonald,
Sun City Girls,
Outsiders,
Sun Ra,
Kool Moe Dee,
The Vogues,
La Düsseldorf,
The Martian,
Mark Hollis,
Rhythm & Sound,
the Fania All-Stars,
Joy Division,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Camouflage,
The Blues Magoos,
K-Klass,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Wally Richardson,
Blancmange,
Cheater Slicks,
E-Dancer,
Byron Stingily,
Minny Pops,
Bauhaus,
Lalann, Lalann, Lalann, Lalann.
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.