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 Taiwan and from Johannesburg.
But I was there.
I was there in 1975.
I was there at the first Ubu show in Cleveland.
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 1969 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Lille and Mexico City.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Jakarta 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 1976 at the first Feelies practice in a loft in Haledon.
I was working on the guitar 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 F. McDonald to the dance kids.
I played it at the 40 Watt.
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 Letta Mbulu. All the underground hits.
All Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Half Japanese record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance 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 guitar and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Gian Franco Pienzio record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a snare.
I hear that you and your band have sold your snare and bought a harpsichord.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Reuben Wilson,
Cecil Taylor,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Ultramagnetic MC's,
Oneida,
Mandrill,
Mad Mike,
Yellowson,
Marmalade,
Tears for Fears,
Flash Fearless,
New Order,
Tubeway Army,
John Coltrane,
The Last Poets,
Camouflage,
Lyres,
Idris Muhammad,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Qualms,
Hoover,
The Slits,
Bronski Beat,
Das Ding,
Lee Hazlewood,
Hasil Adkins,
Interpol,
Boogie Down Productions,
Altered Images,
Godley & Creme,
Lightning Bolt,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
Ice-T,
Tom Boy,
Skaos,
K-Klass,
The Human League,
Agitation Free,
Shoche,
Roxette,
Harmonia,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Subhumans,
Archie Shepp,
Fort Wilson Riot,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Whodini,
Byron Stingily,
the Human League,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
The Fugs,
Slick Rick,
Absolute Body Control,
Jeff Mills,
Mary Jane Girls,
Malaria!,
ABBA,
Aaron Thompson,
John Lydon,
Kool G Rap & DJ Polo,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Suicide,
Black Flag,
the Normal, the Normal, the Normal, the Normal.
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.