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 Lithuania and from Hong Kong.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Wire show in Watford.
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 1967 to 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Seoul.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Lyon 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 Captain Beefheart 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 Drive Like Jehu to the crunk kids.
I played it at the Hacienda.
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 OOIOO. All the underground hits.
All Rod Modell tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Dead Boys record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rock 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 clarinet and a theremin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sly & The Family Stone record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a marimba.
I hear that you and your band have sold your marimba and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Moby Grape,
Interpol,
Warren Ellis,
Sister Nancy,
Black Flag,
Neil Young,
Oblivians,
Hot Snakes,
Pylon,
Television Personalities,
Alphaville,
48th St. Collective,
Intrusion,
Metal Thangz,
Wire,
The Gladiators,
La Düsseldorf,
Gabor Szabo,
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five,
Vainqueur,
Audionom,
Bad Manners,
Can,
Y Pants,
Tres Demented,
Todd Rundgren,
Steve Hackett,
Echo & the Bunnymen,
The Barracudas,
Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx,
Cybotron,
The Alarm Clocks,
Suicide,
Au Pairs,
Bob Dylan,
Matthew Halsall,
Robert Wyatt,
Frankie Knuckles,
Ultimate Spinach,
Duran Duran,
H. Thieme,
Skarface,
Drexciya,
Urselle,
Nils Olav,
Franke,
The Five Americans,
The Smoke,
The Cramps,
Joensuu 1685,
Al Stewart,
The Monks,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Swell Maps,
Terrestrial Tones,
Pharoah Sanders,
Man Eating Sloth,
Davy DMX,
Blake Baxter,
The Golliwogs,
Rhythim Is Rhythim,
Country Joe & The Fish,
Erasure,
Shoche, Shoche, Shoche, Shoche.
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.