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 Nigeria and from London.
But I was there.
I was there in 1967.
I was there at the first Rodriguez show in Detroit.
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 1960 to 1971.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Delhi and Bologna.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Milan 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 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 Groovy Waters to the grime 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 Los Fastidios. All the underground hits.
All Pantytec tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Max Romeo record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal electroclash 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 synthesizer and a güiro and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Manfred Mann's Earth Band record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a harpsichord.
I hear that you and your band have sold your harpsichord and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Young Marble Giants,
John Lydon,
Siouxsie and the Banshees,
Kango’s Stein Massive,
Loose Ends,
Excepter,
The Dave Clark Five,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
Smog,
The Golliwogs,
Girls At Our Best!,
Ronan,
Zero Boys,
The Velvet Underground,
Aloha Tigers,
The Black Dice,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
The Smoke,
Minnie Riperton,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Metal Thangz,
Whodini,
The Modern Lovers,
Ultravox,
Au Pairs,
Drive Like Jehu,
Moby Grape,
The Offenders,
Harmonia,
Grauzone,
Cabaret Voltaire,
De La Soul & Jungle Brothers,
Alison Limerick,
Rekid,
Essential Logic,
Aswad,
Television Personalities,
Vaughan Mason & Crew,
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
Bobby Sherman,
Ornette Coleman,
Nils Olav,
Andrew Ashong & Theo Parrish,
Altered Images,
Matthew Halsall,
Y Pants,
UT,
Ultimate Spinach,
AZ,
Bobbi Humphrey,
Deepchord,
Oneida,
Neil Young,
X-101,
Cluster,
The Red Krayola,
Spoonie Gee,
The United States of America,
Country Teasers,
Dark Day,
Panda Bear, Panda Bear, Panda Bear, Panda Bear.
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.