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 Vanuatu and from Lagos.
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 1968 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bremen and Cairo.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris 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 1977 at the first Zapp practice in a loft in Hamilton.
I was working on the organ 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 The Leaves to the rap kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
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 Oppenheimer Analysis. All the underground hits.
All The Fortunes tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Prince Buster record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal rap 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 snare and a 808 and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Sister Nancy record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your clarinet and bought a synthesizer.
I hear that you and your band have sold your synthesizer and bought a clarinet.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Faust,
ABBA,
Traffic Nightmare,
Quadrant,
The Modern Lovers,
Flipper,
The Angels of Light,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Minor Threat,
Eric Copeland,
Gang Starr,
Bush Tetras,
Rakim,
Easy Going,
Harmonia,
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme,
The Martian,
Subhumans,
Roxy Music,
The Monks,
Bootsy Collins,
New Order,
Tommy Roe,
Tubeway Army,
Arab on Radar,
The Fire Engines,
Bauhaus,
Can,
Dark Day,
Rufus Thomas,
Inner City,
Au Pairs,
Stetsasonic,
The Moody Blues,
The Vogues,
the Fania All-Stars,
Anakelly,
Tim Buckley,
The Toasters,
Suicide,
Nirvana,
Neu!,
John Holt,
Idris Muhammad,
Yellowson,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Derrick May,
In Retrospect,
Letta Mbulu,
Jacques Brel,
Arthur Verocai,
the Germs,
Jacob Miller,
Sex Pistols,
Q and Not U,
Outsiders,
Youth Brigade,
Max Romeo,
Marvin Gaye,
Man Parrish,
Nick Fraelich,
Hot Snakes,
Angry Samoans, Angry Samoans, Angry Samoans, Angry Samoans.
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.