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 Iraq and from Lyon.
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 1967 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in New York and Bremen.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Mumbai 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 1962 at the first Guess Who practice in a loft in Winnipeg.
I was working on the harpsichord sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie 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 Electric Prunes to the electroclash kids.
I played it at Trash.
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 Avey Tare. All the underground hits.
All Essential Logic tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Lyres record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Pere Ubu record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your 808 and bought an oboe.
I hear that you and your band have sold your oboe and bought a 808.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Half Japanese,
the Sonics,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Negative Approach,
Little Man,
In Retrospect,
Brothers Johnson,
Lizzy Mercier Descloux,
The Skatalites,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Monolake,
Gregory Isaacs,
Echospace,
Gang Green,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
JFA,
N.O.R.E. Featuring Pharrell,
The Toasters,
Nas,
The Associates,
Letta Mbulu,
Brick,
Roxette,
Warsaw,
Tropical Tobacco,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
The Chocolate Watch Band,
Technova,
Audionom,
Bootsy's Rubber Band,
Liliput,
Brass Construction,
Glambeats Corp.,
Wolf Eyes,
Dorothy Ashby,
Joe Smooth,
Livin' Joy,
Cal Tjader,
Infiniti,
Sex Pistols,
Marmalade,
Slave,
Albert Ayler,
The United States of America,
The Walker Brothers,
Avey Tare,
Bobby Sherman,
Black Sheep,
John Holt,
The Alarm Clocks,
FM Einheit,
Ralphi Rosario,
the Bar-Kays,
Nation of Ulysses,
Alphaville,
Blake Baxter,
Jeru the Damaja,
Neu!,
Bizarre Inc.,
K-Klass,
The Motions,
Rhythm & Sound,
Barclay James Harvest,
Massinfluence, Massinfluence, Massinfluence, Massinfluence.
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.