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 Italy and from Glasgow.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965.
I was there at the first Beefheart show in Lancaster.
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 1967 to 1972.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Sao Paulo and Halifax.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Copenhagen 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 1971 at the first Neu! practice in a loft in Düsseldorf.
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 Siglo XX to the rock kids.
I played it at the Crocodile.
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 Johnny Osbourne. All the underground hits.
All James White and The Blacks tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Matthew Bourne record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal disco hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '90s.
I hear you're buying a clarinet and a spring reverb and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Residents record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought a mellotron.
I hear that you and your band have sold your mellotron and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
James Chance & The Contortions,
T.S.O.L.,
Barbara Tucker,
Soul II Soul,
Q65,
The Slits,
Bill Near,
The Royal Family And The Poor,
The Residents,
Panda Bear,
Amon Düül,
Ajijia Myrayebe,
Heaven 17,
Bill Wells,
The Moleskins,
Funky Four + One,
The Gories,
The Pop Group,
Lightning Bolt,
Q and Not U,
Girls At Our Best!,
Lou Reed,
Louis and Bebe Barron,
Swell Maps,
Radio Birdman,
David McCallum,
Harry Pussy,
The Gap Band,
Grauzone,
The Skatalites,
One Last Wish,
The Golliwogs,
David Bowie,
Theoretical Girls,
The Walker Brothers,
Bad Manners,
Johnny Osbourne,
Desert Stars,
The Standells,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Chris & Cosey,
Essential Logic,
Intrusion,
Judy Mowatt,
Wasted Youth,
Warren Ellis,
Depeche Mode,
Albert Ayler,
Pere Ubu,
Audionom,
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks,
Bobby Sherman,
Althea and Donna,
Reuben Wilson,
Minutemen,
The Angels of Light,
Sex Pistols,
Neu!,
The Blackbyrds,
Don Cherry,
New Age Steppers,
Henry Cow,
Alphaville,
Pantaleimon, Pantaleimon, Pantaleimon, Pantaleimon.
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.