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 Chile and from Bologna.
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 1968 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Lagos.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school London 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 1973 at the first Television practice in a loft in New York.
I was working on the clarinet 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 Grey Daturas to the punk kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Jandek. All the underground hits.
All Blake Baxter tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Tears for Fears 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 '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a güiro and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Basic Channel record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a sitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your sitar and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Scott Walker,
Slick Rick,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Kenny Larkin,
Yaz,
Young Marble Giants,
Black Bananas,
The United States of America,
Eyeless In Gaza,
The Music Machine,
Johnny Osbourne,
Underground Resistance,
The Mighty Diamonds,
Barry Ungar,
EPMD,
the Fania All-Stars,
Arthur Verocai,
Laurel Aitken,
Derrick Morgan,
Lou Reed,
The Gap Band,
Unwound,
The Flesh Eaters,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
China Crisis,
Echospace,
Desert Stars,
Country Teasers,
the Swans,
The Dave Clark Five,
the Bar-Kays,
The Detroit Cobras,
Dorothy Ashby,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
It's A Beautiful Day,
cv313,
Ultra Naté,
the Sonics,
Radio Birdman,
Loose Ends,
Banda Bassotti,
Amon Düül,
Crispian St. Peters,
The Jesus and Mary Chain,
World's Most,
Brothers Johnson,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Chrome,
Anthony Braxton,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
Rites of Spring,
Darondo,
Marc Almond,
Brick,
Albert Ayler,
Gregory Isaacs,
Lakeside,
Minutemen,
Gerry Rafferty,
The Peanut Butter Conspiracy,
The Human League, The Human League, The Human League, The Human League.
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.