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 Trinidad & Tobago and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Chic show in New York.
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 1963 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Philadelphia.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Glasgow 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 clarinet sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 John Holt to the punk kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Fort Wilson Riot. All the underground hits.
All Gastr Del Sol tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Motions record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal punk 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 güiro and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Gun Club record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
China Crisis,
Buzzcocks,
Public Enemy,
Isaac Hayes,
MDC,
Johnny Clarke,
Bobby Byrd,
Shuggie Otis,
The Skatalites,
Chris Corsano,
June of 44,
Curtis Mayfield,
ABC,
Stockholm Monsters,
Blake Baxter,
The Real Kids,
Barbara Tucker,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Harry Pussy,
Eurythmics,
Todd Rundgren,
Rahsaan Roland Kirk,
Fatback Band,
the Normal,
The Mummies,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Newcleus,
Eve St. Jones,
Young Marble Giants,
Kayak,
Ten City,
Kurtis Blow,
Black Moon,
Suburban Knight,
the Fania All-Stars,
Jeff Lynne,
Ornette Coleman,
Marshall Jefferson,
La Düsseldorf,
Harmonia,
Piero Umiliani,
The Doors,
Dawn Penn,
Joy Division,
Laurel Aitken,
Warsaw,
Malaria!,
Bronski Beat,
The Standells,
The Neon Judgement,
Unwound,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Niagra,
Angry Samoans,
Pylon,
Q and Not U,
ABBA,
Soft Cell,
The Slackers,
Pantytec,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
The Monochrome Set, The Monochrome Set, The Monochrome Set, The Monochrome Set.
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.