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 Armenia and from Seoul.
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 1965 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Jakarta and Stockholm.
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 1967 at the first Rodriguez practice in a loft in Detroit.
I was working on the spring reverb 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 Gong to the jazz kids.
I played it at the Spitz.
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 Eden Ahbez. All the underground hits.
All Rotary Connection tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Unwound record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal funk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a chamberlin and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Shadows of Knight record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a linndrum.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a güiro.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Sunsets and Hearts,
The Golliwogs,
Unwound,
Grandmaster Flash,
Soul Sonic Force,
Scratch Acid,
Gang Starr,
Japan,
The Men They Couldn't Hang,
Wolf Eyes,
Slick Rick,
Nirvana,
Tomorrow,
June of 44,
John Holt,
Minny Pops,
the Bar-Kays,
The Gladiators,
The Gun Club,
Gang of Four,
Ten City,
Hot Snakes,
Lee Hazlewood,
ABC,
Lyres,
The Cure,
This Heat,
Desert Stars,
Jacob Miller,
Monolake,
New York Dolls,
The Invisible,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Dennis Brown,
Pierre Henry,
The Associates,
Alphaville,
Vladislav Delay,
Dark Day,
Marc Almond,
The Buckinghams,
Chrome,
Erykah Badu,
Barbara Tucker,
Sugar Minott,
Matthew Halsall,
The Selecter,
Lightning Bolt,
Dave Gahan,
The Standells,
Can,
Freddie Wadling,
Soulsonic Force,
Mad Mike,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Black Flag,
Underground Resistance,
Sly & The Family Stone,
the Swans,
Flash Fearless, Flash Fearless, Flash Fearless, Flash Fearless.
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.