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 Switzerland and from Accra.
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 1962 to 1973.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tehran and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 1971 at the first Big Star practice in a loft in Memphis.
I was working on the linndrum 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 the Swans to the disco kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Cal Tjader. All the underground hits.
All Mission of Burma tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Fire Engines record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '70s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying an organ and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Rosa Yemen record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a spring reverb.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Youth Brigade,
Byron Stingily,
Hoover,
Heaven 17,
the Swans,
Nas,
Dual Sessions,
EPMD,
Letta Mbulu,
The Happenings,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
MC5,
Angry Samoans,
The Slits,
the Germs,
Moss Icon,
Matthew Halsall,
Jerry's Kids,
the Human League,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Swell Maps,
The Fire Engines,
Crooked Eye,
Zero Boys,
Lindisfarne,
The Five Americans,
London Community Gospel Choir,
Tim Buckley,
Stetsasonic,
Eric Dolphy,
Crash Course in Science,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Tomorrow,
Derrick Morgan,
Henry Cow,
The Count Five,
Crispy Ambulance,
The Blues Magoos,
Loose Ends,
Second Layer,
The Human League,
Parry Music,
10cc,
The Dirtbombs,
Roy Ayers,
Intrusion,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Wasted Youth,
Pagans,
Liliput,
Gregory Isaacs,
Black Moon,
Section 25,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Royal Trux,
Cameo,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Marshall Jefferson,
Moebius,
Andrew Hill,
Electric Light Orchestra,
the Slits, the Slits, the Slits, the Slits.
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.