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 Mexico and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1983.
I was there at the first Lewis show in Vancouver.
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 1964 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Mumbai and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Shanghai 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 1975 at the first Ubu practice in a loft in Cleveland.
I was working on the chamberlin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Tom Verlaine 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 Pulsallama to the disco kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 The Remains. All the underground hits.
All Procol Harum tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Unrelated Segments 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 spring reverb and a snare and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Bobby Womack record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
The Sound,
Masters at Work,
the Germs,
Barbara Tucker,
The Count Five,
Suicide,
Gregory Isaacs,
Chris & Cosey,
The J.B.'s,
Minor Threat,
Panda Bear,
Essential Logic,
Crispy Ambulance,
Crispian St. Peters,
Donald Byrd,
Amon Düül,
the Fania All-Stars,
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282,
Scratch Acid,
Archie Shepp,
Fear,
Scrapy,
David Axelrod,
Boredoms,
Matthew Bourne,
PIL,
Clear Light,
a-ha,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Bizarre Inc.,
Bronski Beat,
The Stooges,
The Cosmic Jokers,
Bobbi Humphrey,
June of 44,
The Velvet Underground,
Dorothy Ashby,
These Immortal Souls,
Crime,
Gang Starr,
Khruangbin,
Surgeon,
Magazine,
Camouflage,
Selector Dub Narcotic,
The United States of America,
Rites of Spring,
the Slits,
Bobby Byrd,
Robert Görl,
Grauzone,
The Invisible,
Marvin Gaye,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Anthony Braxton,
Icehouse,
Section 25,
Pulsallama,
The Sonics,
X-Ray Spex,
Drive Like Jehu,
Gang Green,
Interpol, Interpol, Interpol, Interpol.
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.