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 Vanuatu and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Zapp show in Hamilton.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Madrid and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Beijing 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 arpeggiator 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 Jawbox to the techno kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Trumans Water. All the underground hits.
All Rakim tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Raincoats record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz 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 an oboe and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Divine Comedy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your spring reverb and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator 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?
Goldenarms,
Dorothy Ashby,
Faust,
Janne Schatter,
Boredoms,
Gichy Dan,
The Divine Comedy,
Soft Cell,
Matthew Bourne,
Crash Course in Science,
Mission of Burma,
Cecil Taylor,
John Foxx,
Adolescents,
Marvin Gaye,
Essential Logic,
Sugar Minott,
Kayak,
The Kinks,
Brand Nubian,
Ponytail,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
The Saints,
Kevin Saunderson,
Outsiders,
Surgeon,
Echospace,
Alton Ellis,
The Moody Blues,
Barbara Tucker,
The Walker Brothers,
Tomorrow,
Visage,
The Count Five,
The Pretty Things,
Bluetip,
Jandek,
A Flock of Seagulls,
JFA,
Nils Olav,
World's Most,
Quadrant,
Spoonie Gee,
Das Ding,
Wally Richardson,
Khruangbin,
The Smiths,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
David Axelrod,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
The Fortunes,
the Swans,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
Johnny Clarke,
Matthew Halsall,
Dual Sessions,
Los Fastidios,
Au Pairs,
Todd Terry, Todd Terry, Todd Terry, Todd Terry.
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.