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 Mongolia and from Mumbai.
But I was there.
I was there in 1979.
I was there at the first Josef K show in Edinburgh.
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 1961 to 1976.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Calgary.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school New York 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 guitar 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 It's A Beautiful Day to the grime 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 the Slits. All the underground hits.
All Tommy Roe tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Victims record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal techno hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '80s.
I hear you're buying a sitar and a mellotron and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Kool G Rap & DJ Polo record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitar and bought an arpeggiator.
I hear that you and your band have sold your arpeggiator and bought a guitar.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Brick,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
Rites of Spring,
Saccharine Trust,
New York Dolls,
The Monochrome Set,
Funkadelic,
Moebius,
Gerry Rafferty,
Simply Red,
the Bar-Kays,
Deepchord,
Marc Almond,
Index,
The Gories,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks,
the Germs,
Cheater Slicks,
The Walker Brothers,
Dawn Penn,
The Residents,
Hot Snakes,
Half Japanese,
Derrick Morgan,
Dead Boys,
The Last Poets,
James Chance & The Contortions,
The Fortunes,
The Fall,
Lalo Schifrin,
DNA,
Gian Franco Pienzio,
The Slits,
The Saints,
Echospace,
Throbbing Gristle,
The Victims,
X-Ray Spex,
Pharoah Sanders,
Quantec,
Von Mondo,
Man Parrish,
The Red Krayola,
Jerry's Kids,
Major Organ And The Adding Machine,
Sandy B,
Gang Gang Dance,
Patti Smith,
Aswad,
Bobby Hutcherson,
Dual Sessions,
The Happenings,
Ituana,
Laurel Aitken,
The United States of America,
Tom Boy,
This Heat,
Minutemen,
Mary Jane Girls, Mary Jane Girls, Mary Jane Girls, Mary Jane Girls.
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.