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 Ukraine and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1971.
I was there at the first Neu! show in Düsseldorf.
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 1966 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Beijing and Glasgow.
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 1984 at the first Arcadia practice in a loft in London.
I was working on the güiro 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 Birthday Party to the jazz kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
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 The Index. All the underground hits.
All Rahsaan Roland Kirk tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Bobby Byrd 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 '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a harpsichord and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Barracudas record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Lindisfarne,
Rekid,
The Techniques,
Piero Umiliani,
The Leaves,
The Alarm Clocks,
Deadbeat,
Amon Düül II,
Oppenheimer Analysis,
Michelle Simonal,
Drexciya,
A Flock of Seagulls,
The Offenders,
Flipper,
Brand Nubian,
The Fugs,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Nation of Ulysses,
Crispian St. Peters,
Parry Music,
Bang On A Can,
Suicide,
Camouflage,
Rufus Thomas,
Icehouse,
Echospace,
Model 500,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Altered Images,
Quando Quango,
Joe Smooth,
Organ,
Scan 7,
Dark Day,
Ornette Coleman,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
David Bowie,
Yusef Lateef,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Joe Finger,
Todd Rundgren,
Ice-T,
L. Decosne,
DeepChord presents Echospace,
Whodini,
Rowland S Howard / Lydia Lunch,
Sex Pistols,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
The Cramps,
T. Rex,
Throbbing Gristle,
Make Up,
Spoonie Gee,
Donny Hathaway,
Dorothy Ashby,
Alphaville,
Eurythmics,
Groovy Waters,
Tears for Fears, Tears for Fears, Tears for Fears, Tears for Fears.
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.