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 China and from Jakarta.
But I was there.
I was there in 1977.
I was there at the first Human League show in Sheffield.
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 1975.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Copenhagen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Hong Kong 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 theremin sounds with much patience.
I was there when Robert Palmer 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 Birthday Party to the grunge kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson. All the underground hits.
All Ultramagnetic MC's tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every T.S.O.L. record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a mellotron and a synthesizer and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Neon Judgement record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James White and The Blacks,
Pantytec,
Depeche Mode,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Patti Smith,
The Gories,
Circle Jerks,
X-101,
Max Romeo,
Infiniti,
Isaac Hayes,
Soft Machine,
Tim Buckley,
B.T. Express,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Mary Jane Girls,
Joe Smooth,
Monks,
The Red Krayola,
Throbbing Gristle,
Yellowson,
Byron Stingily,
Judy Mowatt,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
Brand Nubian,
H. Thieme,
Gabor Szabo,
Country Joe & The Fish,
The Walker Brothers,
The Fire Engines,
L. Decosne,
The Alarm Clocks,
Franke,
Goldenarms,
Grey Daturas,
Delon & Dalcan,
Echospace,
Curtis Mayfield,
Skriet,
Crispian St. Peters,
Lebanon Hanover,
Agent Orange,
Guru Guru,
Hasil Adkins,
Kaleidoscope,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
In Retrospect,
Basic Channel,
Harmonia,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Siglo XX,
Tomorrow,
Black Flag,
Faraquet,
Faust,
Freddie Wadling,
Alton Ellis,
Janne Schatter,
Kenny Larkin,
Yusef Lateef,
Fugazi,
Television, Television, Television, Television.
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.