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 Brazil and from Houston.
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 1979.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Taipei.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Toronto 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 synthesizer sounds with much patience.
I was there when Michael McDonald 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 Letta Mbulu to the dance 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 Yazoo. All the underground hits.
All La Düsseldorf tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Los Fastidios record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal dance hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Glenn Branca record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your rhodes and bought a theremin.
I hear that you and your band have sold your theremin and bought a rhodes.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Roxy Music,
Dawn Penn,
Bizarre Inc.,
The Offenders,
Larry & the Blue Notes,
The New Christs,
Surgeon,
Ultimate Spinach,
The Birthday Party,
Gang Gang Dance,
Crooked Eye,
Metal Thangz,
Man Eating Sloth,
Echospace,
Young Marble Giants,
Charles Mingus,
Morten Harket,
The Names,
Letta Mbulu,
Richard Hell and the Voidoids,
Babytalk,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Jeff Mills,
Procol Harum,
Scott Walker + Sunn O))),
Nirvana,
Marvin Gaye,
Lee Hazlewood,
Arthur Verocai,
Maleditus Sound,
Rites of Spring,
the Sonics,
Lucky Dragons,
Carl Craig,
The Dead C,
Chris Corsano,
Idris Muhammad,
Q65,
Bobby Womack,
London Community Gospel Choir,
The Alarm Clocks,
Pantaleimon,
Lafayette Afro Rock Band,
Strawberry Alarm Clock,
L. Decosne,
Inner City,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Grandmaster Flash,
Lou Christie,
Eric Dolphy,
Saccharine Trust,
The Velvet Underground,
Technova,
Marmalade,
The Golliwogs,
Spoonie Gee,
Mantronix,
Patti Smith,
The Buckinghams,
The Smoke,
The Doobie Brothers,
Gabor Szabo,
Man Parrish,
Pere Ubu, Pere Ubu, Pere Ubu, Pere Ubu.
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.