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 Tunisia and from Delhi.
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 1969 to 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Salvador.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Philadelphia 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 1976 at the first Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
I was working on the oboe sounds with much patience.
I was there when Holger Czukay 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 Hashim to the grunge 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 Youth Brigade. All the underground hits.
All Skriet tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a linndrum and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Ken Boothe 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?
June of 44,
The Raincoats,
Au Pairs,
Gary Puckett & The Union Gap,
the Slits,
Eden Ahbez,
Yusef Lateef,
The Monochrome Set,
Avey Tare,
Sparks,
China Crisis,
Marmalade,
Rod Modell,
The Detroit Cobras,
Excepter,
The Doors,
Hashim,
In Retrospect,
Agent Orange,
Pylon,
Wings,
Yazoo,
Scott Walker,
Tomorrow,
Bill Wells,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
The Saints,
Fad Gadget,
Warren Ellis,
Marcia Griffiths,
Young Marble Giants,
The Music Machine,
The Count Five,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Soul Sonic Force,
Banda Bassotti,
The Shadows of Knight,
Patti Smith,
Stetsasonic,
Ornette Coleman,
JFA,
Joyce Sims,
Sällskapet,
Wasted Youth,
Donald Byrd,
H. Thieme,
Thee Headcoats,
Minnie Riperton,
Television,
The Toasters,
Joy Division,
Country Teasers,
Visage,
Shoche,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Curtis Mayfield,
Chris Corsano,
John Cale,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Gong, Gong, Gong, Gong.
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.