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 Vietnam and from Edmonton.
But I was there.
I was there in .
I was there at the first Suicide 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 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Paris and Shanghai.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Manila 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 snare 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 Negative Approach to the funk 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 Popol Vuh. All the underground hits.
All Marine Girls tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Fad Gadget 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 '70s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying an arpeggiator and a marimba and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Funky Four + One record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your chamberlin and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a chamberlin.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Connie Case,
Scrapy,
Vainqueur,
the Swans,
Underground Resistance,
the Slits,
Dawn Penn,
Reagan Youth,
Alphaville,
R.M.O.,
Rod Modell,
the Bar-Kays,
Yaz,
Gastr Del Sol,
Ralphi Rosario,
Lyres,
Amon Düül,
Hardrive,
Bobby Byrd,
Charles Mingus,
Delon & Dalcan,
Pagans,
Henry Cow,
Don Cherry,
Surgeon,
Oneida,
Siglo XX,
Urselle,
Pharoah Sanders,
James Chance & The Contortions,
Bootsy Collins,
The Selecter,
Index,
ABBA,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Tears for Fears,
Procol Harum,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Amon Düül II,
Das Ding,
The Fuzztones,
The Sound,
Nick Fraelich,
The Slits,
Scion,
Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines,
48th St. Collective,
Faust,
MC5,
Rosa Yemen,
The Angels of Light,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Newcleus,
Suicide,
Moss Icon,
Cabaret Voltaire,
Harpers Bizarre,
Ultra Naté,
The Knickerbockers,
Ultravox, Ultravox, Ultravox, Ultravox.
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.