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 Kenya and from Accra.
But I was there.
I was there in 1976.
I was there at the first Soft Boys show in Cambridge.
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 1970.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Bologna and Johannesburg.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Woodstock 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 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 Harry Pussy to the rock kids.
I played it at the Astoria.
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 Kenny Larkin. All the underground hits.
All Janne Schatter tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every 10cc record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal crunk hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '80s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a theremin and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a güiro.
I hear that you and your band have sold your güiro and bought a mellotron.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Black Sheep,
The Gladiators,
The Human League,
the Germs,
Crime,
Sunsets and Hearts,
Zapp,
Grandmaster Flash,
Hoover,
Carl Craig,
Vainqueur,
John Holt,
Unrelated Segments,
Matthew Halsall,
Lonnie Liston Smith,
Electric Light Orchestra,
The Litter,
EPMD,
Lou Christie,
Malaria!,
Patti Smith,
Lucky Dragons,
Charles Mingus,
Bob Dylan,
John Cale,
Pharoah Sanders,
The Move,
James White and The Blacks,
KRS-One,
Notorious BIG live in Amsterdam,
The Fortunes,
The Remains,
Skarface,
Black Moon,
Glenn Branca,
Bang on a Can All-Stars,
The United States of America,
Chrome,
Roxette,
the Swans,
The Slackers,
Robert Hood,
Pole,
Freddie Wadling,
Moss Icon,
Anakelly,
Frankie Knuckles,
Soft Machine,
Sun Ra Arkestra,
The Doobie Brothers,
Heavy D & The Boyz,
Kenny Larkin,
Amon Düül II,
The Standells,
Khruangbin,
Ralphi Rosario,
Ultravox,
The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band,
Radio Birdman,
Liaisons Dangereuses,
Joensuu 1685,
Vladislav Delay,
Sonny Sharrock, Sonny Sharrock, Sonny Sharrock, Sonny Sharrock.
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.